Cleveland Sports Forum

scoreless in the second, which is not a surprise considering the quality of the pitchers but I do hope our offense can create some way to score

The regular season may be over, but the future is forever.

NY PA top 20 posted today. Luis Oviedo is rated No. 3 and the top pitching prospect. In fact, BA rated him the top pitcher among all short season A leaguesl


Luis Oviedo

Mahoning Valley (Indians) RHP

Notes:
Age: 19. B-T: R-R. Ht: 6-4. Wt: 230. Signed: Venezuela, 2015.



Oviedo received $375,000 from the Indians in 2015 and dominated the NYPL this season. The skinny righthander struck out 61 batters in just 48 innings.
Power and upside is what makes Oviedo’s profile exciting for Cleveland. Oviedo throws four pitches, including a swing-and-miss fastball that can reach the mid-90s with sink. He has good feel for his offspeed pitches with an athletic, repeatable delivery that creates quality command.

Listed at 6-foot-4, Oviedo throws from a three-quarter arm slot and maintains a competitive composure on the mound. Oviedo’s complete dominance of the New York-Penn league earned him a promotion to low Class A Lake County near the end of the season. His season ended with a stint on the disabled list due to back problems.

2018 Stats
4-2, 1.88 ERA 48 IP, 34 H, 10 BB, 61 SO

Statistically Tyler Freeman dominated the league and he hit a ton of doubles. He rated a solid No. 10 in this large league. "Plus strikezone management" doesn't me that he draws walks, but I guess means he doesn't swing at bad pitches.

Tyler Freeman

Mahoning Valley (Indians) SS

Notes:
Age: 19. B-T: R-R. Ht: 6-0. Wt: 170. Drafted: HS—Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., 2017 (2s).

Freeman has posted two excellent seasons thus far since being drafted 71st overall last year, including a 2018 campaign when he posted the highest batting average (.352) in the New York-Penn League. Although home run power isn’t there yet, Freeman recorded 35 extra-base hits and posted a gaudy .511 slugging percentage with Mahoning Valley this season.

Freeman runs well and takes advantage of his contact-hitting ability, and managers around the league have noticed his quick hands and plus athleticism at shortstop, which will allow him to stay up the middle in the future. Freeman’s plus strike-zone management and athleticism create a bright future for the middle infielder. While his power may not develop into much more, his understanding of the game and contact-oriented bat will drive his value.



2018 Stats
.352/.405/.511 270 AB, 2 HR, 38 RBI, 8 BB, 22 SO, 14 SB

Just for fun, I checked the stats for the 10 years ago Scrappers. The only player with an OPS over 800 was 21 year old 2nd baseman Cord Phelps who hit 312/374/456.
Close behind was 19-year old SS Lonnie Chisenhall 290/355/438

Best looking pitcher 10 years ago in Niles I guess was Eric Berger LH who had a 2.12 ERA and 1.03 WHIP.
Zach Putnam got only 9 innings of work in that his first season; he's the only pitcher who's made it to the big leagues from that roster

BA in answer to my Oviedo question:

Elliot (Youngstown OH): So as Indians fans mourn a terrible brief playoff run, it's a good day to look to the future. I guess it's still years before Oviedo reaches the majors but what's your guess on where he would slot into a rotation led by Bauer and Clevinger and Bieber and McKenzie? I guess he has too many good pitches to think of as a much-needed closer!

Justin Coleman: Cheer up! Oviedo is very good, but still very far away. Tough to guess, but he has quality upside and the body is built for innings. As you know, his slot would depend upon the other members of the rotation.

And he left before a chance to comment on Freeman or my queries on Nick Sandlin and Richie Palacios.

Arizona Fall League starts up

CLE AFL Marabell, Connor RF 5 1 3 2 .600 2B (1)

Not really a prospect. He's 24 and just debuted in AAA this summer and not very successfully. 25th round draft pick who did fine in Akron this summer; 296/341/481. In Columbus 214/233/350. This was his first summer with double figure home run totals. Has never been rated among our top 30 prospects. Seems like a nice organizational player filling the small shoes of Bryson Myles or Jordan Smith. Hits lots of doubles.

Game 2:

Marabell 5 0 2 0 .500
Chang 4 0 1 0 .250 2K

jared Robinson 2 2 1 0 0 2 0.00 his own error led to the run
Rob Kaminsky 1 2 1 1 0 2 9.00 he also made a throwing error, just like our major league pitchers

Thursday in Arizona:

CLE AFL Chang, Yu 3B 5 0 1 0 .222
CLE AFL Siri, Dalbert 1.0 2 3 3 1 0

milb names Jones and Morgan as the Indians' top position player and pitcher of 2018. Jones is obvious. Morgan had a fine first half not a very good second half. McKenzie is obviously a better prospect but missed half the year. Oviedo is too but played on a short season team. Hentges is a better prospect too but didn't have overwhelmingly good stats. They all have far better fast balls than Morgan. Civale would rate ahead of him too as well as Hankins and Torres from last summer's draft and probably some of the hard throwing relievers.

Cannot locate the story that was on the milb site yesterday. They noted that Morgan's out pitch is his fine changeup which works great against young minor leaguers but cannot be the basis of a major league repertory.

I hate boxing guys in.

Sure, we’d all prefer flame throwers but there is a ton of guys whose best pitch was a change up that had great success in the majors. Tom Glavine quickly comes to mind. Tim Lincecum in more recent memory.

Hell, even some relievers. Trevor Hoffman had over 600 saves with a change up as his best pitch.

Like I said, everyone would prefer the great fastball but if you don’t have one you can still have success as long as you have great control.

what troubles me is that Morgan really tailed off a lot the last couple months. He'll need a decent fastball to set up the change; I read that Glavine was at 93 or so when he first reached the majors and upper 80-s with marvelous control later.

Here's a detailed scouting report on Morgan written July 14, just about when his season went south.

After striking out 58 hitters in 35 IP in his first taste of pro ball, Eli Morgan became a guy that I quickly took notice of. The 2017 8th round pick out of Gonzaga has continued to dominate A-ball hitters into 2018. Despite the gaudy numbers, Morgan lacks the one number that excites industry writers. Fastball velocity. Morgan’s fastball sits 88-90 and he can touch 94. The lack of fastball velo will mean that very few in the industry will even mention him much less highlight the attributes that will lead Morgan to the big leagues.

Wait a sec? Big leagues? Aren’t you jumping the gun? This guy is in A-ball! I can read the comments now. It seems that people would rather salivate over Michael Kopech’s 100 mph while he walks 6 per 9. Or maybe they want to rank Albert Abreu in the top 5 of a loaded Yankees top 30 because he throws 98, despite generating 1-2 swing and misses on his fastball per game. I get it. I really do. I like both those guys for now and I understand that when guys like Kopech and Abreu “figure it out” their stuff has the chance to be special.

However, I also really like guys that get the absolute best out of the stuff they have and no prospect encapsulates that quite like Eli Morgan. Listed at 5’10″ 190 lbs, Morgan has a small frame with minimal to no body projection left. He will get stronger but he is what he is. Undersized.
Morgan throws three pitches. Fastball (FB), slider (SL), and a change-up (CH). His mechanics are pretty clean and he has great feel for his off-speed. His arm action is short and fast. Morgan excels at maintaining arm speed throwing the SL and CH which adds to his deception and allows his FB to play up. Speaking of the FB, Morgan generated 5 swing and miss strikes on his FB in a 3 inning start. He elevates the 4-seamer with 2 strikes and will change eye level while working both corners.

The CH sits 77-79 and is firm. He throws it with confidence and it is his best pitch. The CH generated 3 swing and misses and no hard contact. His SL sits 79-81 and is the weakest of his 3 pitches. It warrants mentioning that I saw Morgan’s worst start of his career. He lasted only 3 IP allowing 6 hits and 4 ER. Most of the damage came off the SL and with 2 strikes. It lacked bite and tilt and while the arm action was good, the Mudcat hitters were able to keep their hands back and bloop him to death. Of the 6 hits allowed, only 3 were hard, but two of those bloops were well-placed doubles. So it’s possible that the SL is better based on his numbers but he could not put any hitters away with it last night.

Morgan also will mess with hitters timing. His first inning was stellar. He struck out the side – all 3 swinging – while mixing in a slide step/quick pitch that gave hitters problems. Once guys were on his base, he abandoned the quick pitch

One thing that I did not see was weak contact early in the count. Of his 9 outs, 6 were by strikeout and 3 were on flyballs. Of those 9 hitters, only 2 saw less than 3 pitches. Despite the ugly game numbers, there is a lot to like with Morgan. His feel for pitching, command, and three-pitch mix give him a ceiling of SP4/5 and a floor of middle RP with a FV 45.

FB 45/45
SL 40/50
CH 70/70
Command 55/55

Indians dominate the Arizona League prospect list starting with No. 1





Brayan Rocchio

AZL Indians SS

Notes:
Age: 17. B-T: B-R. Ht: 5-10. Wt: 150. Signed: Venezuela, 2017.



Rocchio’s reputation for advanced instincts and game awareness preceded his early July arrival in the Arizona League. His intelligence and feel earned him the nickname “The Professor.”

A quick, compact hitter with plus speed, good hands, feel for the barrel and a balanced approach from both sides of the plate, Rocchio earned at least plus grades as a hitter from talent evaluators. He also showed more power in the bat than expected for his size, so he should add more power as his body matures and strengthens.

His current average range and average arm play up because of advanced instincts and solid actions on the field. “He’s a step ahead of the game mentally,” Indians manager Jerry Owens said. “He always finds himself in the right spot. That’s something you don’t see in a kid his age … he’s always trying to do something more which tells me that he’s not satisfied where he’s at.”

2018 Stats
.343/.389/.448
143 AB, 1 HR, 17 RBI, 10 BB, 17 SO, 14 SB

No. 2 was ours too but we traded him already along with Capel for Mercado who better turn out to be good or this could be like the long ago deal of Pedro Guerrero when he was about the same age


2

Jhon Torres

AZL Indians OF

Notes:
Age: 18. B-T: R-R. Ht: 6-4. Wt: 199.
Signed: Colombia, 2016.

Arizona League scouts regarded Torres as one of the most improved players from early in the spring to the mid-season of the Arizona League, at which point the 18-year-old outfielder from Colombia was included as one of two minor league players traded to St. Louis in the deal for big league outfielder Oscar Mercado. His prospect stock continued that trajectory with a very strong performance for the Cardinals’ Gulf Coast League team.

A prototypical, power-hitting right fielder with good makeup, Torres projects to have above-average power and a plus arm while his bat speed and strength allow him to have all-fields power. He should be able to add even more strength to his athletic, live body. The biggest key to Torres’ in-season improvement was that he controlled the zone better and started making better contact, although he struggled with breaking balls from righthanders.

2018 Stats
.273/.351/.424
99 AB, 4 HR, 16 RBI, 11 BB, 24 SO