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2021 Minor League Thread

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I think Bimbo has even alluded to pitching development being ahead of hitting development. Really, who have the Indians developed hitting wise? Think it is about to improve with Freeman, Rocchio and Valera but we have had a lot of swing and misses.

Ramirez - best example of developing
Lindor - drafted high but improved (was thought more glove than power)
Brantley - Milwaukee
Straw/Rosario/Gimenez/Reyes -- trades
Choo/Gomes - Trades
Perez - defense only
Chisenhall - Was suppose to be a lot better
Kipnis -- was nice for a few years anyways
Bradley -- we will see if he can adjust

You can look at the draft list and see how many 1st rounders have made it -- Naylor (still can - been pushed up the ladder and struggled), Holmes, Benson, Zimmer, Frazier (more injury than anything), Naquin, Mills, Crowe, Aubrey, Smith, Hartley, Peoples, Miller .... so out of 15 top draft picks of position players (back to 1995), only Lindor (who fell into our laps - BPA) and Chisenhall were decent everyday players.

Naquin has been a solid player when healthy, but we haven't really hit well on position players high in the draft...

Though that being stated, I feel like the last few drafts we have been drafting positions players a little differently... We have focused more on contact/hitting tool than straight up potential and I feel like it's worked wonders... Look at the crop of hitters added to our 40 man roster... I don't see a ton of issues with them at least being average MLB hitters
 
Speaking of Noel, @BimboColesHair mentioned he had something to tell us a couple weeks back regarding him. Did you do that and I missed it or, can you tell us now? If not, no problemo
 
As we go into a freeze status with transactions (only AAA Rule 5), I thought I would expand who may end up where in our rosters for next year ... just a quick look to show how loaded the farm is this year (not just pitching)

Infield (mostly 2nd, SS and 3rd - but shows how weak 1st is)

MLB – Bradley, Rosario, Gimenez, Ramirez, Chang

From a 2nd half standpoint, Clement, Miller and Chang all improved somewhat. Yet, Chang improved the most, and hit .271 / .856 post All Star game. That should give him first shot at utility job again, if not contend at first (esp against lefties). I really do think that Bradley is going to be given a 2 month tryout and see if he can adjust to pitchers adjustments. He had a 954 ops his first month but dropped to 610 post all-star. If Chang, Jones or Naylor can push him off 1st, he is vulnerable. He hit 1 HR every 11 AB pre-All-Star but only 1 HR every 23 AB after. Gimenez should be able to stick for the beginning till Arias or Rocchio start to breathe down his neck. He is another one with a great August hitting .279/.789. Rosario is Rosario. Teases you with his star potential at times, frustrates you at other times. He is a solid hitter who improved 2nd half with a phenomenal August only to regress a bit in Sept.

AAA – Jones, Freeman, Rocchio, Arias, Miller, Clement

Jones took some heat last year from us fans, yet his hitting did trend up. He hit .280/.833 in September in 110 PAs. I do believe he dropped in rankings, more so as others just hit better than he did at younger ages (thus surpassed him). Arias hit .284/.802 for season at age 21 vs 23 for Jones and also trended up (.325/.947 in Sept). Freeman will never hit for much power but is consistent in BA over the years as .300+ hitter. Rocchio has only played 44 games in AA but hit at age 20 .293/.865. I can see him being pushed to AAA early in season (if not immediately) but may start AA due to Miller/Clement if both are on the roster still.

AA –Nova, Tena, Fermin, Noel, Valdez (Rocchio)

How can you hold Tena or Noel back after last year and AFL? Fermin would be better served on another team. He can become a good utility guy but right now it’s a numbers game and is one of the prospects that hit worse as year progressed. Nova had a bad year hitting. However, hidden in the numbers was a .294/.946 in July, even though August was .164 BA before being promoted to AA which at age 21 is on younger side (so FO sees something). Valdez may never amount to much due to his bat and will be pressed a bit trying to hard as others come up behind him.

A+ -- Rodriquez, Martinez, Bracho, Delgado, Cairo, Pries

It is easy to try to overlook Bracho after a bad year. However, only he and Valera were the younger position players invited to Lake County alternate site in 2020. In looking at year-to-year numbers, Rodriquez can look like a bust prospect already with .236 average. However, he has been pushed for his age and in August and Sept, he .277/.715. Not, the best but still 19 in low A ball, so will get a bump to high A (or can stay in Lynch due to numbers). He also had 8 walks to 13 strikeouts in September. I am giving hitters a break last year as pitchers had the advantage till around mid-season. Martinez though started off strong with .300/.900 type numbers in May and June and then was more like .200/.600 for rest of season. But, again for a 19 year old, you will have streaks and trying to do too much. Cairo was another who had a decent 2nd half with .268/.853 in Lake County after his promotion. Delgado will be given one more chance. The one I overlooked was Pries … was promoted twice last year after hitting .471/.320 and then .267 in LC. Who to bump down though?

A – Frias, Tolentino, Sanquintin, Pastrano

Where Lake County will be a few prospects trying to regain their status like Bracho and Delgado, the rookie league last year had good numbers (maybe due to air). Frias .322/.940, Tolentino was .301/.858 before being promoted. Sanquintin hit well in June and July (.290/.875 range) before totally collapsing in August. Pastrano struggled. But, both are highly regarded.

Rookie – Fox, Tucker, Lara, Genao, Alduey

This will be another loaded group. Tucker could be promoted early but has only played a few games so far.

I could have added a few 1b people like Brooks, Engleman, Bartlett, and Naranjo (even Marcos Gonzalez). Brooks is adequate and will probably get one more year. Engleman is one probably not protected in AAA Rule 5. Bartlett and Naranjo will have another year or two to see if they develop. And, others like Marcos who were once thought of highly but only hit above .232 in 1 month (july - .318 but only 7 games). This just shows how much the power is missing at 1st other than Noel and why he won’t slide over to 3rd when we have soo many others. Even Jones, should start thinking 1B/RF and allow Arias and others to slide over to 3rd when Ramirez needs replacing (for retirement or trade).

And before anyone says anything, I have Palacios in OF this year due to the wealth of talent in MIF prospects that it is an easy switch to make versus competing with Freeman.
 
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Just as a reminder, GuardiansPro has already done the starting staff .... even listing 6-8 starters per level. And, this was from just after season, so no Myers and Logan Sr was listed as AAA even though he has no options. I am interested in our relievers as many of these pitchers will be funneled through there at some point. I also wonder if this shows the FO strategy of MIL in Latin signings and P in mlb draft ... where things even out over time. If that is where value is, I can see it ... even though I complained about too much pitching in the draft. Still would like some power 1B or RF/LF in our system other than Valera and Noel ....


FAKLDMzXoAgDZi5
 
Just as a reminder, GuardiansPro has already done the starting staff .... even listing 6-8 starters per level. And, this was from just after season, so no Myers and Logan Sr was listed as AAA even though he has no options. I am interested in our relievers as many of these pitchers will be funneled through there at some point. I also wonder if this shows the FO strategy of MIL in Latin signings and P in mlb draft ... where things even out over time. If that is where value is, I can see it ... even though I complained about too much pitching in the draft. Still would like some power 1B or RF/LF in our system other than Valera and Noel ....


FAKLDMzXoAgDZi5
Just a point of reference: the speculative listing above was made in late Sept 2021.
The listing of Logan S Allen (out of options but being in AAA) raised a number of eyebrows/ questions when this was 1st posted.
Also notice the lack of Tobias Myers anywhere.
 
Just a point of reference: the speculative listing above was made in late Sept 2021.
The listing of Logan S Allen (out of options but being in AAA) raised a number of eyebrows/ questions when this was 1st posted.
Also notice the lack of Tobias Myers anywhere.

I wonder if we will try to get Hillman back as well?

Well put Myers in place of Logan S Allen and that setups the AAA team...
 
As Hillman was a free agent on Nov 7th, I doubt he is coming back after a month. Why would he want to be stuck behind soo many people? As a reliever, he isn't a great Loogy. He had good lefty/righty split in 2019 but not 2021 (reversed) and just okay in 2018. And, it is not like he is a strike out pitcher, more missing bats -- high BA against. Thus, if he wants to start and be a AAAA pitcher lite, it's not here.

I didn't really want to try to project relievers but look at who we have ... (they really only need 6-7 relievers if you when they have 6 starters per level as starters from GuardianPro). And, yes, I did note that the projected starters chart was from right after season so Myers wasn't listed and Allen would be out of options.

I also wonder, as the schedule is similar to last year (6 games Tues - Sun with Monday travel), then it fits right into 6 starters as well.

AAA relievers - not much from last year ... but on top of Santos, Garza and Young (if not relievers in ML) ... you have Draper, Krauth, Mota, Tully ... (don't know if Krauth will be protected in AAA phase) none of them will be the next star reliever ... but we also sign 1 or 2 more NRI to fill out our staff

but more interesting arms are at AA last year
Mikolajchak, Pinto, Clemmer, Miedink, Marman, Ponticelli, Royalty .... Enright, Lingos, Alvarez, Mock

From A+ last year
Ramirez, Ockar, Janczak, Gallagher, Coulter, Turner, Herrin, Burgos

From A last year
Kelly , Misiaszek, Wisely, Munoz ... and a whole lot of arms from the draft

We will lose some of these pitchers as the AAA phase potential list includes (can't protect everyone)
SP (9) – Scott, Tully, McCarty, Royalty, Lingos, Cantillo, McCarthy, Burgos, Turner, A Young

RP (13) - Garza, Santos, Broom, Pinto, Mota, Krauth, Miednik, Pontecelli, Clemmer, Alvarez, Gallagher, Herrin, Ramirez

Yet, other than maybe 5-10 people like Ramirez (who may not be eligible per Bimbo), I think most of our future relievers (outside Case, Kar and Sandlin) will come from converted starters like (Hentges).
 
Hillman just had Tommy John in October.

Don't think anyone is going to sign him just yet.

Thanks for the update!

I wonder if we can get a two year minor league deal setup for him then? I mean would be the best case scenario for him...
 
No I did not.

I will get to that in a week or so. Good lockout info to have I guess.
I do not know if this is related to the news Bimbo had or not but,
Re: J Noel
I was hearing on a podcast today that if left unprotected, Noel would have definitely been selected during the MLB portion of the Rule 5 draft.
Multiple teams had interest in him...
 
I do not know if this is related to the news Bimbo had or not but,
Re: J Noel
I was hearing on a podcast today that if left unprotected, Noel would have definitely been selected during the MLB portion of the Rule 5 draft.
Multiple teams had interest in him...

No that’s not what I was going to talk about.

But I do know of 1 team that would have certainly taken him. In the NL. Not the Pirates.
 
No that’s not what I was going to talk about.

But I do know of 1 team that would have certainly taken him. In the NL. Not the Pirates.
I look forward to what you are able to share & when you are able to share it...
 

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