Cleveland Sports Forum

Arizona postponed Friday, no games on the weekend. Back to business on Monday:

Frazier 0-5 2 K.
Another of non-prospect relievers who is working in Scottsdale: Grant Sides 26 year old never been to AAA with a line that could have turned out a lot worse: 1/3 inning 1 hit, a homer, and 3 walks, but next pitcher rescued him, so his AZL ERA is merely 27.00, not the 108.00 it could have turned into.

So I'll start by looking at the 2011 draft which has rather bizarre results:

No. 1 pick is the most successful Tribe choices since the Belle-Thome-Ramirez era. 2011 top pick is the best inflieder we've drafted since Lou Boudreau: Francisco Lindor.
Then the next few were really big busts including 2nd pick Dillon Howard who took 1.8M and was gone in a couple years never played full season ball.

But rounds 14-23 were a great haul: Cody Anderson in Round 14; Armstrong in Round 18; Cody Allen a steal in Round 23.
The best not-yet-to-make the majors prospects are Round 16 Ryan Merritt, who's been on the 40 man roster the past 12 months; and fellow LH Shawn Morimando who might be worth protecting this year after another solid year in AA, but his command remains questionable; and round 10's Jeff Johnson a reliever who was OK as Akron's closer and seems a long but possible shot for the 40 man roster.

2012 is a very very unimpressive haul.

They started with a Tribe standby: a reliable college player, in this case Tyler Naquin, who has developed as far as AAA and looks like a passable big leaguer but does not compare with the ceiling of Zimmer or Frazier,
And that's about it. Once again the next few picks have been remarkably unsuccessful: 2nd rounder RHP Mitch Brown is good some years and bad others and has a long way to go; 3rd and 4th RHP Kieran Lovegrove and OF D'vone McClure have been awful and have not graduated to full season teams.
The best of the rest are Joey Wendle, traded for Brandon Moss, and who has a chance to make it as the A's 2B in 2016; and Nellie Rodriguez 15th round 1B whose big bat succeeded in Carolina League but felt flat in Eastern League this year. He has a shot to succeed. 10th rounder Josh Martin is another RH reliever who looked pretty good in Akron this year,

But a draft year like this one is basically a big waste of money.

2013 should turn out to be a good year but of course too early to know for sure.

Frazier was No. 1 pick and he moved up a few notches in ratings with his fine 2nd half in 2015. No. 4 Kyle Crockett is already an established big leaguer, although not filling a major role. Plutko in Round 11 could be a solid big league starter; up to AAA next season.
As usual the 2nd man picked, RHP Dace Kime, is looking pretty bad. A couple other young starters have promise: Sean Brady and Casey Shane.

Frazier may be a big star. Plutko could be a good big leaguer. This may wind up a very good year.

I guess 2011 was an aberration with all those over-slot picks in the lower rounds. Don't see that again since; there was a similar season a few years previously when some guys like Zach Putnam [solid reliever for WhiteSox] and Bryce Stowell [gone] were signed for way over slot.

As we get to 2014 we obviously don't know how these guys are going to turn out but there are certainly a couple really good debuts: Zimmer who will be in the top 20 or so prospects in all baseball heading into 2016; and Bobby Bradley who has a great power bat and fields his position like a little leaguer.

2nd rounder Justus Sheffield is just a kid but has already outperformed all the other 2nd rounders cited above. Good fastball. Mediocre command. Lots of time for him to develop into a stud, or a dud.
Mike Papi was pretty bad in Lynchburg; Greg Allen has promise as a CF, but doesn't have the across the board skills of Zimmer or Frazier.
HS Pitchers Sam Hentges and Grant Hockin have promise although the latter missed the entire 2015 campaign.

Could turn out to be a great year. If Zimmer alone comes through getting a solid 5 tool OF rates as a successful draft.

And this year is the year of the High School Pitcher. Brady Aiken was only the No. 2 pick in the 2014 draft when he didn't sign. Triston McKenzie looked very good in very few innings and at 6-5 160 pounds is the epitome of the pitcher who has the possibility of growing bigger and stronger and throwing harder. LH Justin Hillman has lots of talent and debuted well.

That's probably it. They followed with the classic oversupply of 2nd basemen: Tyler Krieger who was injured and did not play; Mark Mathias who has a decent bat

Other possible gems are 5th rounder another high school RHP, Jonas Wyatt; and 20th round SS Luke Wakamatsu.

Look time before this corps can be judged. But the high risks could yield a lot more reward than the more conservative 2012 draft or many in the years before.

Frazier homered again in Arizona and singled and batted in 3.
Yandy Diaz debuts going 0-4
Todd Hankins walks 3 times.
None of the awful pitchers got a chance to shine

BA "Draft Report Cards" are issued and our haul is not rated among the Top 5, but that's not a surprise since our top players are so young and their ascent so uncertain, especially Aiken who sat out with TJ surgery. In the various "best" categories, we rated one notice: Luke Wakamatsu as the 2nd best "last round pick"

Write up on the Tribe says: "The Indians were able to land Brady Aiken, one of the class' biggest wild cards for a mid-first round pick. Following him up with Triston McKenzie and Juan Hillman gives the Indians three high-ceiling high school ars, but the Indians also added polished college position players led by Mark Mathias"

BESTS:
Pure Hitter: Mathias; Ka'ai Tom. "Both have chance have 60 hit tools" [out of 60; 60 means major league regular]
Power Hitter: 1b Anthony Miller has 60-65 raw power; C Daniel Salters has raw power but swing more oriented to line drives
Fastest Runner: of Todd Isaacs, although stole only 5 in 34 games.
Defensive Player: ss Wakamatsu is very polished for a high school draftee; has an above avg arm and excellent hands.
Fastball: Aiken pre-injury had a low-to-mid 90s fastball that will touch 97 that he could locate on both sides of the plate.
Jonas Wyatt sits at 92 mph and touches 96 with projection to add more later
Secondary Pitch: McKenzie flashes a plus curve with tight rotation and depth; Hillman plus changeup had plenty of deception and good late action.
Pro Debut: Tom and Mathias with virtually identical numbers [282 or 283/374 or 382/403 or 408]
Athlete: Isaacs and SS Tyler Krieger who was hurt and dnp
Intriguing Background: Aitken; Salters grew up in Kenya and Tanzania and took of baseball as a teenager
Late Round Pick: Wakamatsu top 10 round talent expected to attend Rice; hit better than they expected. RHP Matt Esparza 90-92 mph fastball and potentially plus cuverball.

While most baseball fans are, I guess, looking forward eagerly to the World Series, I'm eagerly awaiting the Indians' adjustments to the 40 man roster Check Indians.com regularly but nothing has happened yet.

Need to make room for at least Naquin and Clevinger; probably Ramsay. Perhaps AA relievers Martin and Johnson. I'd opt for Ronnie Rodriguez, good bat IF utility possibility.
Parts to spare include: Adam Moore; Michael Martinez; Jerry Sands; perhaps Tony Wolters who hasn't made any progress in his 2 years in AA and/or Zach Walters who regressed in his return to AAA. Michael Choice who spent about a month in our organization. A few contracts expire which remove Floyd and Aviles. Option on Raburn.

Walters, Sands and Choice are all RH bats with power possibility but little established success. I imagine some of them will be retained but certainly not all.

Clint Frazier might not stick as a leadoff hitter, but he's certainly thriving in the role this fall for the Scottsdale Scorpions.

The Indians' No. 2 prospect (No. 35 overall) continued his strong start in the Fall League on Friday, going 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored as Scottsdale trounced Peoria, 10-1. Frazier has now hit safely in five of six games as the Scorpions' leadoff hitter, and he's batting .375 with two home runs and seven RBIs in that span.

Frazier struggled during the first half of the season at Class A Advanced Lynchburg in the Carolina League, batting just .248/.334/.395 with seven home runs in 67 games. But as was the case during his 2014 campaign, the 21-year-old outfielder made up for the rough start with a monster second half, posting an impressive .325/.422/.539 batting line with nine home runs, 31 extra-base hits and 37 RBI over his final 66 contests.

Frazier believes his turnaround after the All-Star break was tied to his improved approach and plate discipline.

"It was a few simple adjustments," he said. "I started to work on my approach and my timing -- which wasn't a hard adjustment to make -- and it led to me having a successful second half. It's no surprise that when those two are on I'm going to see the ball well and give myself the best chance to hit."

After striking out 72 times against 27 walks during the first half, the 2013 first-round Draft pick (No. 5 overall) coaxed 41 walks and fanned just 53 times following the All-Star break. Overall, Frazier batted .285/.377/.465 with a career-best 16 home runs, 36 doubles, 72 RBI and 88 runs scored. He also swiped 15 bags in 22 attempts.

Now, in the Arizona Fall League, Frazier is trying to build upon what made him successful during the second half.

"I'm just trying to stay to the big part of the field, working the ball back up the middle and to right-center," he said. "I don't want to be too pull-happy right now, so I'm just taking what I'm given at the plate and trying to run with it."

"The guys out here all have amazing really good offspeed pitches and fastballs, so I need to make sure my timing is on as well."

Frazier spent most of the season batting either second or third in the order for the Hillcats. In the 15 games in which he led off, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound outfielder batted just .217 with a .262 on-base percentage.

However, Frazier has excelled this fall in his role as the Scorpions' leadoff hitter.

"I'm embracing it right now, but I'm really just happy to be in the lineup," he said. "There's a lot of talented guys on our team, so it's an honor just to have [manager Matt Quatraro] put me in the lineup every single day and believe in me in that leadoff spot."

Indians No. 28 prospect Yandy Diaz also had a big game for Scottsdale, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored and a pair of RBIs, and 24-year-old outfielder Todd Hankins went 2-for-4 to raise his Fall League batting average to .412 through five games. Tigers prospect Dominic Ficociello hit a triple and tallied three RBIs as part of a 2-for-4 effort.

On the mound, Scottsdale starter Antonio Romero -- also a product of the Indians' farm system -- allowed a solo home run in the first inning but settled in after that, scattering three hits over four innings to record the win. The 24-year-old right-hander struck out four and did not issue a walk in his Arizona Fall League debut.

The Scorpions' bullpen held Peoria in check for the rest of the game, as five relievers combined to allow three hits (and zero walks) while striking out nine batters over the final five frames.

He's still at it:


October 26th, 2015




SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - All Clint Frazier does is hit. [ACTUALLY THAT'S NOT TRUE, since he also runs and catches and throws]

The Indians' No. 2 prospect caught fire late in the year for Class A Advanced Lynchburg and has continued to do so in the early stages of the Arizona Fall League.

Frazier, via a 3-for-5 performance, led the Scottsdale Scorpions to a 10-3 victory over the Salt River Rafters on Monday afternoon.

"I was seeing the ball pretty well today," Frazier said. "I tried to be aggressive early in the count. [D-backs prospect Yoan] Lopez has some pretty good stuff, stuff he can definitely put you away with if you get deep in the count and I went up there just trying to jump him early."

The victory, which featured a trio of first-inning runs, was the perfect bounce-back performance for the Scorpions, who tallied 15 hits in Saturday's contest, but scored just one run as 16 runners were left on base.

"I think it's huge for us right now," Frazier said. "Obviously getting the hits wasn't the problem for us the other night, it was getting the runs in. We have a really good offensive team and a really good pitching team as well. They're going to go out and take care of business and today we bounced back and scored a lot of runs."

On Monday, the team registered 13 hits and left just seven runners on base.
Frazier hit .285 in 133 games during the regular season, but really came on late in the season as he hit .325 in the second half.

The center fielder made a slight adjustment at the plate, which led to the strong second half and has carried over to success in the Fall League thus far. Frazier has hits in seven of eight games in the AFL and has notched multihit games in each of his last three contests. Monday's performance was also his third three-hit game in the young season.

"It started with my timing, my timing was off in Lynchburg the first half," Frazier said. "I messed around with a timing mechanism and had to reevaluate what I had to do the second half and build an approach along with that. I'm trying to stay up the middle, to the big part of the field and make sure that I'm on time every single time to the plate."

Frazier was certainly on time in his first three at-bats as he roped a trio of line-drive singles. And once he got to first, the former first-round selection didn't stay there for long.

Frazier stole a pair of bases -- his first two of the Fall -- and scored three runs. "I was just trying to be aggressive," Frazier said.

Salt River put up a trio of runs against Giants No. 12 prospect Adalberto Mejia in the fifth, but that was all they could muster. Mejia threw four-plus innings, and gave up three runs on four hits.

"He's nasty," Frazier said. "He throws hard as a lefty, he's big, he's got really good off-speed stuff, and he commands his pitches. For him to go out there and only give up a few runs with how many guys they had on base is not bad. He's going to be a very good pitcher for a long time."

Frazier stats for the fall: 33-7-14-7 424/486/657 2 homers, one triple 2 steals 1 caught stealing. 4 walks. Not all good: 11 of his 19 outs are strikeouts.

Indians prospect Clint Frazier tearing up Arizona Fall League
By John Sickels on Oct 27, 2015, 1:00p 8


Clint Frazier - Lianna Holub
 TWEET (6) SHARE (4) PIN
The 2015 Arizona Fall League continues. One of the hottest hitters currently is Cleveland Indians outfielder Clint Frazier, hitting .424/.486/.667 through 10 games for the Scottsdale Scorpions. William Boor at MinorLeagueBaseball.com pointed this out yesterday along with some interesting quotes from Frazier himself.

"It started with my timing, my timing was off in Lynchburg the first half," Frazier said. "I messed around with a timing mechanism and had to reevaluate what I had to do the second half and build an approach along with that. I'm trying to stay up the middle, to the big part of the field and make sure that I'm on time every single time to the plate."

It should be noted that Carolina League sources were very impressed with Frazier's work ethic and dedication to improving all aspects of his play over the summer. He had a terrific second half and it looks like the result of real adjustments, not just a random fluke. My take is that Frazier will continue to play excellently in 2016 in Double-A and could even see the majors late in the season.

could even see the majors late in the season.

So does it maybe make sense to NOT deal any of the young pitching depth for an OF and wait, not very long, for Zimmer and Frazier to join Lindor and Brantley and Kipnis to take us to the promised land?

1. Kipnis 2b LH
2. Lindor ss LH/RH
3. Brantley lf LH
4. Santana 1b, yeah not all that great cleanup hitter but there's a lot of good hitters following LH/RH
5. Zimmer rf LH
6. Gomes c RH
7. Frazier cf LH
8. rotating DH among Raburn? Aguilar? Almonte? Ramirez and a starter with the day off in the field RH/LH
9. Urshela 3b RH

excellent defense at Short and Third and Catcher and no worse than above average-excellent in LH, CF and RF.
Speed hitting 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th