Cleveland Sports Forum

Chase Tenderfoot is, according to some recent story, in Goodyear but it was very unclear if he's doing more than rehabbing the right foot. I see no stats for him getting into any Arizona League games.

Offenses went wild yesterday throughout the system.

Columbus one of two Guardian teams to score 16.
Biggest star was spring training star Angel Martinez with 2 homers, a double a single and lifted his avg to 333 OPS 987; in limited play his boxscore line 4 4 4 4
The other 4 Clipper homers by:
Noel numbers 16 and 17; Tena number 12; Brito number 10
Tena totaled 3 hits with a double and ingle 298 830 Red Hot June
Brito single and 252 814
Valera 2 singles 239 756
Florial 1st AAA hit, a single; 059 419 [lots of walks]
Noel's RBI total was5 and 56 for the season Leads the league in both Homers and RBI
Will Dion has been settling in; 4 1/3 innings, 1 run 6 strikeouts; ERA was about 9, now 6.09
Nick Mikolajchak 1 2/3 no hits 1 walk 3 K 1.32

Akron scored 7 but lost 8-7. After I said nice things about Davenport he of course had his first bad game of the season. 5 runs on 10 hits in 5 2/3
Lenny Torres a shutout inning with a walk and a hit 1.09 ERA
CJ Kayfus keeps at it: single, 2nd AA homer and 2 walks. Outhitting Kwan he's at 405; OPS 1216 for Akron
Joe Lampe with a double and 2 ingles. He's up to 273 with a very good June but his OPS is still a not too impressive 756 but that is second on the team.

8-4 win by Lake County
Following a great start, Parker Messick was fair. 3 runs on 11 hits in 6 innings, 5 strikeouts
Very interesting 2nd year catcher Cooper Ingle with 2 doubles [15 for the year] single walk 329 909
Alex Mooney 2nd year 3B 9th homer and single 300 848
2024 Breakout Player Angel Genoa with double and 2 singles; now at 304 804 after his promotion a few weeks ago.
SS Jose Devers 2 doubles; he was already in the top 20 or 30; 254 680

16 runs also by the Hillcats in Low A
Chourio breaks a mild slump with double two singles 4 rbi a walk
Velazquez avg has dropped to 26 but his OPS is 846 with a plenty of power and walks; 1 single and 2 walks yesterday
2b Knapczyk 2 singles and a steal
Highest rated pitcher on the top 10, Alex Clemmey with a somewhat typical mix of good and bad: 2 1/3 2 1 1 4 3
3b Juan Benjamin 3 singles and a steal

Baseball America reports:

More than 25% of players ranked in the Baseball America Top 100 are currently injured.

That includes DeLauter of course. Not sure if they've bounced Espino off the list after his multiple setbacks.

CJ Kayfus launched two 3 run homers for Akron.
His AA average is 392. For the season combined he's hitting 351 with an OPS of 1068. 55 RBI in 55 games. 11 homeruns, 3 triples, 15 doubles.

meanwhile at akron, Gavin Williams went 5 innings allowed 1 run, 4 strikeouts, no wals.
Kahlil Watson with homer #10

about 1/2 way through the minor league season, I imagine the Guardians' "team all stars" from all four levels. There are plenty of position players having very good seasons. I'd come up with something like:

1. Jaison Chourio CF 282/399/413/812 20 steals 43 walks age 19 at Lynchburg
2. Jose Tena SS/2B/3B 297/345/490/835 14 homers 54 rbi 9 steals age 23 at Columbus
3. CJ Kayfus 1B 351/453/615/1.068 11 homers 55 rbi age 22, 2 months in Lake County, one month in Akron
4. Johnkennsy Noel LF 296/362/573/935 17 homers 58 rbi age 22 Columbus
5. Johnathan Rodriguez RF 307/400/535 12 homers age 24 at Columbus
6. Cooper Inlge C 331/422/506 /928 16 doubles 25 walks age 22 Lake County
7. Juan Brito 2b/3B/DH 240/368/408 /776 10 homers 50 walks age 22 at Columbus
8. Alex Mooney 3B/SS/DH 292/349/473/822 9 homers 24 steals 21 at Lake County
9. Angle Genao SS/3B/2B 328/353/521/894 19 doubles 7 homers 16 steals age 20 2 months in Lynchburg 1 month in Lake County
That leaves out Ralphy Velazquez 269/390/463/853 15 doubles 8 homers 42 walks age 19 in Lynchburg
and Kyle Manzardo only because he only played 33 games in Columbus before and after promotion 293/377/602/979 11 doubles and 9 homers age 23

But in trying to pick organizational pitching 1/2 stars there's very little to be excited about

To start with there are few pitchers on the top 30 prospect list. I'll use the mlb list here:
No. 5 Daniel Espino who hasn't pitched in 2 years
No. 8 Alex Clemmey big 18 year old was put in over his ahead in full season ball; still a serious prospect but only 5.76 ERA 1.65 WHIP in Lynchburg
No. 10 Joey Cantillo 24 year old in Columbus, has returned from injury to pitch 13 innings walk 12 ERA 5.54
No. 13 Jackson Humphries 19 year old 5.29 ERA in 34 innings in Lynchburg 1.59 WHIP
Best of the bunch: No. 21 Parker Messick just promoted from Lake C to Akron age 23 LH 3.57 1.28 WHIP 80K 68 IP
No. 24 Andrew Walters reliever 23 year old 20 innings 38 strikeouts in Akron; but in Colmbus 10 walks 4 homers in 8 1/3 innings
no. 25 Will Dion 24 year old LH 6.09 ERA in Columbus, which actually has been coming down lately
No. 27 Franco Aleman reliver 23 year old in Columbus 3.39 ERA 24 strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings, but on the Injured list for the last month plus

No one there who is nearly ready to join the big league rotation. Perhaps Cantillo could with lots more work and more command.

That leaves Tugboat Wilkinson as the best of the first half; 21 year old lefty has moved from Lynchburg to Lake County
combined 1.97 ERA 0.86 WHIP 99K in 59 1/3 innings
Others in an all star would have to be the mostly unheralded

Aaron Davenport at Akron 23 year old RH 2.26 ERA 1.09 WHIP 60K in 71 2/3 only 2 homers [19 allowed last season]
Austin Peterson at lake County 24 year old RH 2.44 0.84 WHIP 87K in 85IP Only 6 walks
Ryan Webb Akron age 25 LH 3.09 1.33 68K 70 IP
Tommy Mace Akron age 25 RH 2.92 1.13 59K 77IP
Doug Nizhazy Akron age 24 LH 3,17 1,03 49K in 48 1/3, Great first month; then hurt; only mediocre in returm

With all that background, I'd expect draft picks to be largely pitchers

Parker Messick with a 5 innings rain shortened complete game shutout in his AA debut. 4 hits 1 walk 4 strikeouts

Columbus pitching is terrible but hitting is top notch. Clippers win 9-7
Will Dion 4 innings 2 runs. ERA drops to 5.98
Tena 2 singles. steal Bring him up
Manzardo single and 2 walks.
Noel HR 18
Utility IF Christian Cairo 3 singles 2 walks 2 rbi. 2 steals

Captains pummeled 10-3.
One good line on the mound: Jay Driver 1 1 0 0 0 2 ERA 0.42
Genao 0-4
Monney 1-3 walk caught stealing

Lynchburg wins 7-5 in 10
Power-challenged Tommy Hawke's 1st homer, and double 4 rbi
Velazquez and Chourio both 0-4

$2M OF Robert Arias has12 steals in first 11 games in the DR. Also 2 doubles and 2 triples in 40 AB And more walks [6] than strikeouts [3]

ARTICLEMINORS
Jhonkensy Noel, James Wood Headline 10 Statcast Standouts (June 24th)

Every Monday morning we’ll highlight several players who stood out to us based on their underlying Statcast metrics. These are not full scouting reports, but can often serve as good early indicators of prospects who might be ready to break out, or are demonstrating MLB-ready skills.

Last week, we broke out some new charts that allowed us to dive deep into a bevy of interesting hitters, headlined by Jace Jung. This week we’ll talk about:

An ascendant Guardians slugger who doesn’t fit the mold
The best prospect in baseball?
An interesting sidearming lefty
Some Double-A data!
Another look at a 6-foot-8 Tigers Pitcher
Drake! Baseball edition.
A player we dropped from the Top 100
A different Guardians prospect who fits the mold
An Astros prospect with almost twice as many walks as strikeouts
A 6-foot-6 Phillies lefty, with back-to-back 10-strikeout starts

am copying the link here, so perhaps you can review the stats in detial.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... june-24th/

But here's the text about Noel and "the other Guardian"

This is the second time Noel graces this list. Given his scintillating June numbers, he warrants a deep dive and the headlining spot.
Noel gets to his power thanks to a powerful 6-foot-3, 250-pound frame with a massive lower half that allows him to absolutely crush baseballs.
Noel is an extremely aggressive hitter, but he also makes a fair bit of contact. Let’s begin by looking at how he approaches four-seam fastballs. He saw 286 four-seamers through Saturday’s games.
Noel clearly has a swing geared to make contact low in the zone. He has zero swings and misses over the plate, bottom third and below. However, we can clearly see his aggression is all over the place without a clear plan of attack. He also appears to have a clear hole in his swing against four-seam fastballs up in the zone, which will likely be exploited when he gets the call to the majors.
Against breaking pitches, we see he’s both able to punish in-zone misses, as well as make contact against pitches just below the zone. A disciplined hitter will have bigger boxes in the zone than out of the zone…but Noel will just swing at everything.

So what makes Noel such an intriguing power bat, one that breaks the archetype of hitter that the Guardians supposedly covet? Let’s first take a look at Noel’s 2023 breakdown, so we can see where he has improved year over year.
Against breaking pitches, we see he’s both able to punish in-zone misses, as well as make contact against pitches just below the zone. A disciplined hitter will have bigger boxes in the zone than out of the zone…but Noel will just swing at everything.

So what makes Noel such an intriguing power bat, one that breaks the archetype of hitter that the Guardians supposedly covet? Let’s first take a look at Noel’s 2023 breakdown, so we can see where he has improved year over year.
We see a host of positive changes, so let’s go through each piece:

Chase rates are the same year to year, which is likely who Noel is as a hitter
Chase contact up significantly (about 6%) and up against all pitch types
Overall contact up slightly, likely still held down by the chase rates
Zone contact slightly improved, still below MLB average, even against Triple-A pitching
Zone swing% is up dramatically, around 7%, and is the key driver to his success this season
Launch angles are up, average exit velocities are up and top-end exit velos are up, leading to significantly higher quality of contact.
I think Noel could use some more time at Triple-A to work on fixing his swing. He looks like the type of hitter that will need a season or two of major league plate appearances to figure things out, and will either boom or bust once he gets there.

Angel Martinez, 2B/SS, Guardians

Martinez was recently promoted to the majors, so let’s dive in and see why.
Martinez is a switch-hitter, and the story is much the same from both sides of the plate. He doesn’t chase, makes an incredible amount of contact, but it’s a clear hit-over-power profile. I expect pitchers will simply challenge him in the zone with fastballs, given his inability to impact the ball. However, supreme contact and plate discipline skills can often carry a profile. This is the archetypal Guardians hitter. It’s not a surprise that he got the call before his much more powerful teammate Noel.
[the above link includes a start on his swing history, too]

10 Breakout MLB Pitching Prospects So Far In 2024


top of their list is:

Matt Wilkinson, LHP, Guardians
Is Wilkinson really underrated or undervalued considering he is already a social media sensation in a small corner of the baseball world? ‘Tugboat’ put up video game numbers while taking the Carolina League by storm over his first eight starts of the season. He struck out 48% of batters faced while walking just 6.1% en route to a stellar 1.12 ERA and 1.53 xFIP. Cleveland promoted Wilkinson to High-A Lake County in late May and he has performed well in four starts.

To date, Wilkinson’s 1.78 xFIP leads all non-complex league qualified pitchers this season. His profile is unusual. Wilkinson mixes three pitches in a four-seam fastball, sweepy slider and a changeup. His fastball sits 89-90 mph with lots of armside run from a very low release height due to his low three-quarters slot and above-average extension. Wilkinson uses his slider most frequently. It’s a 78-79 mph sweeper with around 10-12 inches of horizontal break. His changeup is a good chase pitch, although he struggles to command it.

All of Wilkinson’s pitches generate swinging strikes at rates of 18% or higher and his release heights are fairly tight, lending credence to the idea he has deceptive tunneling traits. His lack of premium stuff makes him a tough read.

Which boils down to: We'll see what develops

7. C.J. Kayfus, 1B, Guardians

Team: Double-A Akron (Eastern)
Age: 22
Why He’s Here: .389/.476/.944 (7-for-18), 4 R, 1 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 8 RBIs, 2 BB, 5 SO, 0-for-0 SB

The Scoop: Signed for $700,000 out of Miami in the third round of last July’s draft, Kayfus is without a doubt some of the best money the Guardians have spent in years. After hitting .338/.437/.578 for High-A Lake County, Kayfus has hardly slowed down over 16 games with Double-A Akron. Kayfus is up to 11 home runs on the season and is hitting .385/.500/.712 since his promotion to Akron. He is a hit-over-power first baseman, but he’s showing a knack for finding the sweet spot on a consistent basis getting the most out of his contact. (GP)

13. Joe Lampe, OF, Guardians
Team: Double-A Akron (Eastern)
Age: 23

Why He’s Here: .474/.474/.632 (9-for-19), 2 R, 3 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 0 RBIs, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0-for-1 SB

The Scoop: Lampe’s game is predicated on contact and speed. He had the bat-to-ball skills on full display last week. Lampe recorded hits in all five games including multi-hit efforts on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. An easy plus-plus runner, Lampe was noticeably quiet on the basepaths this week, as he was caught on his only steal attempt. Lampe doesn’t possess the ability to really impact the ball with consistency but he takes good at-bats and consistently puts pressure on opposing fielders. (GP)

15. Jhonkensy Noel, 1B, Guardians
Team: Triple-A Columbus (International)
Age: 22

Why He’s Here: .308/.357/.731 (8-for-26 4 R, 2 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR,8 RBIs, 1, BB,4 SO, 1 SB, 0 CS

The Scoop: Eli-Ben Porat did an excellent job of breaking down Noel’s improvements in this week’s Statcast Standouts piece. Noel can destroy fastballs at the bottom of the zone and he’s not helpless against breaking balls. But he’s still over-aggressive and can be eaten up by quality fastballs at the top of the zone. There’s a lot of improvements this year in Noel’s game. Now he just needs to continue to make further steady improvement, as there is still work to be done. He’s a 22-year-old repeating Triple-A, so time is somewhat on his side. (JC)

We have a surplus of Plus firstbasemen, all of a sudden.