sportscoach
RD's Guardians PR Man!
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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