Cleveland Sports Forum

Indians Prospective @indiansPro
#Indians (SS) prospect 20yr old Willi Castro who was added to the 40-man roster this fall led the organization in hits w/ 136 in 2017. Here is Castro's spray chart.

Why is Castro on the 40 man roster again? No reason for it unless it was written into his contract.

Because he has enough years under his belt to have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft and he's way too good a prospect to risk losing. Some bad team could spare a spot on the 25 man roster for a utility infielder as their 25th man with a very solid future

MILB.com is ranking organizations by positions;

16. Cleveland Indians

The Indians do not have a lot of pitching depth in the Minors, but they do have Triston McKenzie. MLB.com's No. 24 overall prospect -- and ninth-ranked right-hander -- ranked second in the Minors with 186 strikeouts while issuing 45 free passes over 143 innings for Class A Advanced Lynchburg. And most of that happened before he turned 20 in August. The 2015 competitive balance pick earned a trip to the All-Star Futures Game as he continues to add speed to his fastball. Joining McKenzie on the Hillcats staff that led the Carolina League with a 3.21 ERA were Shane Bieber and Aaron Civale, both of whom were selected in the 2016 Draft. The pair combined for 303 punchouts and 24 walks -- an impressive 12.63 K/BB.


I keep hoping we devote most of a draft to pitching, didn't do it last year, We didnt' take a pitcher until the 7th round. Our top 10 round picks were
7: Kirk McCarthy 5-10 college Lefty
8: Eli Morgan 5-10 college Righty
9: James Karinchak 6-3 college Righty with talent but injury issues

Those 3 pitchers noted above will be why Hillbilly drools over the Akron rotation. On the other hand, won't be much to watch on the mound in Lynchburg and Eastlake.

LH Sam Hentges rated our #18 by BA will be with the Captains.
LH Brady Aiken generously ranked #28 will be working for the Hillcats.
RH Eli Morgan with a great change up ranked #29, BA thinks will skip directly to Lynchburg

No other starting pitchers rank among our top 30 prospects. The best of the rest include lefties Sean Brady who bounced back nicely at the end of 2017 and will probably start at Lynchburg, Juan Hillman who had a terrible year but could move up to Lynchburg anyway like Aiken, and Kirk McCarty the above-noted first 2017 pitcher drafted. Right-handed starters will include Grant Hockin, behind Hentges in his recovery, but probably ready for Lake County, Zach Plesac, after a good debut, probably in Lake County. Karinchak could start there too but they may want him back in short season ball. Perhaps Rob Kaminsky will be able to pitch this season; his 2017 featured a Dylan Baker type stat line with 1 game worked.

Players are eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft who are not on their major league organization's 40-man roster and:
were 18 or younger on the June 5 preceding their signing and this is the fifth Rule 5 draft upcoming; or
were 19 or older on the June 5 preceding their signing and this is the fourth Rule 5 draft upcoming.

So if he's 20 now, how old was Castro when they signed him 14? 15? Is this one of those phony birth certificate jobs?

By Jim Callis MLB.com @JimCallisMLB


Nice interview with Nolan Jones. I like his understanding of his defensive challenges.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- As part of MLB Pipeline's visit to all 30 Spring Training camps, we'll sit down with prospects and get to know them a little better. At Indians camp, it was No. 4 prospect Nolan Jones.

One of the best high school hitters available in the 2016 Draft, Jones dropped to the Indians in the second round amid signability concerns and landed first-round money ($2.25 million). A third baseman, he followed a so-so pro debut with a strong performance in 2017, batting .317/.430/.482 and leading the short-season New York-Penn League in on-base percentage, OPS (.912), extra-base hits (25) and walks (43) at age 19.

MLB Pipeline: What was your Draft experience like? Were you surprised not to go in the first round despite being one of the best high school bats in your class?

Jones: I heard a lot of things and tried not to focus on any of that. It was very overwhelming to see all the scouts there to see me play, so I just took the approach that they like your natural ability so you don't have to try to impress them. I didn't really have any expectations before the Draft. I heard a lot of things, but I didn't believe any of it because anything could happen. I talked to the Indians a decent amount, but I talked to a couple of teams a little more.

MLB Pipeline: You come from a hockey background too, and your brother Peyton is a goalie at Penn State. How seriously did you consider a hockey career? Do you miss it?

Jones: I played until my junior year in high school and I believe I did have some options. I had a lot of talent in hockey as well, but I also had some concussion problems, so it's all worked out fine. I was a center. I miss it a lot. I love the competitive factor. In baseball, you have to accept failure and learn from mistakes. In hockey, if you make a mistake it can end up in your net. I think hockey has a played a huge role in me as a baseball player from the competitive aspect. You have to be mentally tough and physically tough.

MLB Pipeline: What was your biggest adjustment to pro ball?

Jones: For me, the most difficult adjustment was the pitching. Coming from the Northeast, I didn't see the hardest-throwing high school pitchers every day. I had to adjust so I was on time and that affected my swing path because I was rushing. I simplified my swing, and I started to be on time.

MLB Pipeline: What do you think led to your improvement from 2016 to 2017?

Jones: I wanted to be the guy up there hitting home runs. I think I started playing better when my attitude went from trying to hit home runs to trying to hit the ball hard. That helped me lay off pitches that weren't in the zone. When I was trying to hit home runs, I was chasing pitches.

MLB Pipeline: How has the transition gone from playing shortstop in high school to third base in pro ball?

Jones: It's been harder than I thought it was going to be. At shortstop, I was always attacking the ball, coming toward the ball and using my momentum toward first base to make throws easier. At third base, I have to go back on balls at times, go to the side. Now there are a lot of times where I'm not throwing with my feet set. It's something I had to adjust to. I'm trying to have rhythm with my feet and my hands. When I can smooth that up and make those off-balance throws, it will really boost my game to the next level.

couldn't copy the other Jim Callis story on our farm system. It's here:

https://www.mlb.com/indians/news/indian ... -268043462

Bottom line, he notes we're short on pitchers among our top prospects and that Mejia is one of a heck of a hitter, so they'll find some spot for him

Indians RHP prospect Julian Merryweather will undergo Tommy John surgery on Friday.

The operation will be performed by Dr. Keith Meister. Surgery became inevitable when Merryweather sprained the UCL in his right elbow early in camp. He'll be out for the duration of 2018 and perhaps longer. MLB.com ranks the right-hander as Cleveland's No. 16 prospect.

IndiansProspective @indiansPro
Hearing #Indians will be bringing as many as 28 Internationaly signed players to extended spring training this year. This makes sense since they added a 2nd Arizona Rookie League team for the 2018 season.

Pirates returned Rule 5 Draft pick RHP Jordan Milbrath to the Indians.

Pittsburgh selected Milbrath eighth overall in last December's Rule 5 Draft but couldn't find a spot for him on the major league roster. The 26-year-old right-hander has been assigned to Triple-A Columbus.
Source: Tribe Insider on TwitterMar 27 - 4:09 PM



Indians claimed LHP Jack Leathersich off waivers from the Pirates; optioned him to Triple-A Columbus.

Leathersich yielded six runs on five hits and six walks over 4 2/3 innings this spring in the Grapefruit League. The 27-year-old left-hander will function as organizational relief depth for Cleveland leading into the 2018 season.

forgot that Milbrath had been taken; I couldn't imagine him making a major league roster Maybe he was selected in the minor league phase?

Minor league posted rosters are still totally irrelevant for the Class A teams and pretty useless for Akron and less so Columbus.
Clipppers don't show Maggi and Barnes who hung around with the big team in the spring; or Bradley or Chang who still show with the Ducks; but I'm expecting both in Columbus. Adam Rosales, UTIL IF veteran is on the Clippers roster, where'd he come from?
Akron has no catchers on its roster, wouldn't be surprised if Murphy gets bumped down there to work with our pitching stars McKenzie, Bieber and Civale.

Akron will have all our top pitchers and other than Willi Castro a pretty weak bunch of position players, although Ka'ai Tom and maybe Longo will be in the outfield now that Jordan Smith and Bryson Myles have finally departed to the Independent Leagues. I guess Paulino returns.
Columbus will field an unusually young AAA lineup with first-timers at that level Allen, Mejia, Bradley I assume, Chang I assume and Haase. Papi tried and failed there last year and will return, Nellie one of the few remaining Rodriguezes improved slowly over his AAA debut season. Stamets made his AAA debut last year too, so the only minor league vet as a regular will be Richie Shaffer, and he's not one of those 30+ year old AAAA types.
Pitching in Columbus won't be much -- Morimando, Plutko return after poor debuts; Merritt's on DL and is out of options, Merryweather out for the season. Here come the old guys led by Steven Fife. Maybe Michael Peoples, DJ Brown, not much.

Posted 3 minor matter articles in the just baseball folder by mistake if anyone is interested

Yep I found them there and then returned to here, to post further:


Johnnathan Rodriguez mentioned by Sickels as a breakout candidate this year or next reminded me I guess we're still making our breakout choices? Tough competition is absent with Joe sitting out until Winter Ball returns. I could vote for J.Rod this year; Baseball America suggests Austin Wade as their breakout choice, CF who should be playing in Lake County. Since I pay for that subscription I'll see if I can my money's worth and choose Wade as my position player.

As for pitchers, I am not wild about many. I think last year I picked Hillman, hoping he'd bounce back; I could try him again but I think I'll take a flyer on Grant Hockin following in Sam Hentges' tentative footsteps taken last year to regain his original solid status returning from surgery.

There you are and I feel sorry for Austin and Grant for cursing their success.
I take on all comers.