2021 Minor League Thread

[CATS44]

Here we go again.

If we trade Jose for multiple MLB ready prospects, which of our present MLB prospects do we let go in the Rule Five?

 

[sportscoach]

Here we go again.

If we trade Jose for multiple MLB ready prospects, which of our present MLB prospects do we let go in the Rule Five?

I dont think we are going to trade JRam yet, I think we are going to trade for a complimentary piece for this team.

I actually feel a rental/2 season veteran SP and an OF/1B (with twoish seasons left) will be the minimum targets... If we can get an All-Star without trading certain untouchable guys in my mind, we will likely do it!

 

[Gson]

We don't let go of the MLB prospects.. We let go the prospects who clearly have much less chance of ever being a major leaguer.. The number of those are more than adequate to cover the worrisomeness of the coming "crunch".. The truth is.. there is a realization that the next Ka'ai and Willie and Cam and Jose and others are not ML'ers.. or won't be with the Indians.. That time is at hand.. The Indians, like every other organization holds out hope that guys drafted and developing within the system reach the acme of their ability at the ML Level is not 100 $.. The Indians keep the top guys and keep them growing while the bottom gets set adrift..

In short.. the "crunch" while valid has a remedy.. amputate..

Here we go again.

If we trade Jose for multiple MLB ready prospects, which of our present MLB prospects do we let go in the Rule Five?

 

[sportscoach]

We don't let go of the MLB prospects.. We let go the prospects who clearly have much less chance of ever being a major leaguer.. The number of those are more than adequate to cover the worrisomeness of the coming "crunch".. The truth is.. there is a realization that the next Ka'ai and Willie and Cam and Jose and others are not ML'ers.. or won't be with the Indians.. That time is at hand.. The Indians, like every other organization holds out hope that guys drafted and developing within the system reach the acme of their ability at the ML Level is not 100 $.. The Indians keep the top guys and keep them growing while the bottom gets set adrift..

In short.. the "crunch" while valid has a remedy.. amputate..

Not all prospects pan out, but we got a lot who will get big league looks at some point and we cannot keep them all. Better to trade a few into one player than get nothing at all back for them... It isn't OOTP where you can just swap them for non-rule 5 prospects since that's what I always do every single year in the game. We will make a few trades before next November because of it. Who we get... That will be the question.

 

[Gson]

Not all prospects pan out, but we got a lot who will get big league looks at some point and we cannot keep them all. Better to trade a few into one player than get nothing at all back for them... It isn't OOTP where you can just swap them for non-rule 5 prospects since that's what I always do every single year in the game. We will make a few trades before next November because of it. Who we get... That will be the question.

Hmmmm... & we don't want to keep them all... better to set them adrift before they destabilize the rest of the string coming behind them..

Who we get for those guys sent away or cut adrift.. amount to not much.. these guys are worth it !..

 

[CATS44]

The most valued commodity in MLB today is prospects, even though everybody understands that the failure rate for even the upper crust is 70%.

Those 'less likely' prospects we have...and you are free to choose them...have a lot of trade value, if we trade them before they rot on the vine, like we did with Zimmer, Chang, Bradley, etc.

The list of our prospects eligible for the next rule five has been posted several times. They all have trade value...as has been more than adequately illustrated by the trades that have been made throughout baseball in the past year. And some want to just give them away?

Almost every poster blithely thinks that the next tsunami is full of kids that will instantly become impact players...whether its Jones, Miller, Arias, or Freeman.

Meanwhile, we are watching a team full of youngsters who were rated just as highly...in some cases higher...than those we have coming.

Naylor, Amed, Bauers, Allen, Quantrill, Hedges, TMac, and Gimenez were all rated highly...not to mention Frazier and Mejia.

And we are still waiting, while several of them have already been dismissed out of hand by some of posters on here.

Our five best position players over the last decade have been Santana, Kipnis, Brantley, Lindor, and Jose. Add those to all the other highly rated prospects we have had in that time, including Chiz, Laporta, Marte,Zimmer, Frazier, and Mejia.

Out of all of them, and others I have forgotten, only three made an instant impact. .. Santana, Kip, and Lindor. The rest either took at least three years or never made it at all.

And yet, the majority of us want to do one of three things...either trade our most productive players for more prospects with the same likelihood of failure, hold on to all our prospects for dear life, or bring a bunch of them up right now with the expectation...even the insistence...that they will be immediately better than what we have now.

But...

Statistically speaking...and its a huge sample size...the best move the FO could make is to trade several of our better prospects for proven young MLB vets...which would also relieve the coming roster crunch.

 

[Kevalier]

First base may be the position for Jones since none of Naylor, Bauer’s or Bradley look like the answer

Why are you giving up on Josh Naylor already?

 

[TxBuckeye]

Why are you giving up on Josh Naylor already?

Because you get a week to prove yourself to this fan base

 

[Lee]

First base may be the position for Jones since none of Naylor, Bauer’s or Bradley look like the answer

Thats a weird thing to say with Naylor actually looking good hitting right now.

If you mean he is better used in the outfield right now, then i can understand.

 

[Mcreek]

Why are you giving up on Josh Naylor already?

Maybe because in 140 abs he has zero homers , a slugging % of 300 while playing a position requiring power

 

[Mcreek]

Thats a weird thing to say with Naylor actually looking good hitting right now.

If you mean he is better used in the outfield right now, then i can understand.

As an outfielder he is pretty poor defensively . Naylor should be in AAA because he isn’t Producing anything offensively

 

[CATS44]

Naylor is hitting doubles. He leads the team in doubles. He is fourth in XBH.

Over the last week his hard hit balls are finally beginning to drop in. Over the last week his OPS is .868.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

The most valued commodity in MLB today is prospects, even though everybody understands that the failure rate for even the upper crust is 70%.

Those 'less likely' prospects we have...and you are free to choose them...have a lot of trade value, if we trade them before they rot on the vine, like we did with Zimmer, Chang, Bradley, etc.

The list of our prospects eligible for the next rule five has been posted several times. They all have trade value...as has been more than adequately illustrated by the trades that have been made throughout baseball in the past year. And some want to just give them away?

Almost every poster blithely thinks that the next tsunami is full of kids that will instantly become impact players...whether its Jones, Miller, Arias, or Freeman.

Meanwhile, we are watching a team full of youngsters who were rated just as highly...in some cases higher...than those we have coming.

Naylor, Amed, Bauers, Allen, Quantrill, Hedges, TMac, and Gimenez were all rated highly...not to mention Frazier and Mejia.

And we are still waiting, while several of them have already been dismissed out of hand by some of posters on here.

Our five best position players over the last decade have been Santana, Kipnis, Brantley, Lindor, and Jose. Add those to all the other highly rated prospects we have had in that time, including Chiz, Laporta, Marte,Zimmer, Frazier, and Mejia.

Out of all of them, and others I have forgotten, only three made an instant impact. .. Santana, Kip, and Lindor. The rest either took at least three years or never made it at all.

And yet, the majority of us want to do one of three things...either trade our most productive players for more prospects with the same likelihood of failure, hold on to all our prospects for dear life, or bring a bunch of them up right now with the expectation...even the insistence...that they will be immediately better than what we have now.

But...

Statistically speaking...and its a huge sample size...the best move the FO could make is to trade several of our better prospects for proven young MLB vets...which would also relieve the coming roster crunch.

They have already been trading for proven young MLB vets; Reyes, Bauers, Quantrill, A. Rosario, Gimenez, Naylor. All of these guys had major league experience when we traded for them. The difference is we traded stars on short contracts for these guys. Now you want us to trade top prospects for more guys like this.

My issue is that most of these guys may never be more than average major league players while some of the prospects could hit big. Where would we have been had we traded Santana, Kipnis, Brantley, Lindor, Jose, Bieber, Clevinger, Carrasco, Bauer, and Kluber when they were in AA/AAA for guys like Bauers and Quantrill? I think we would have a full roster of average players.

The next big move is to trade Jose after the 2022 season for the best package we can get for him. In the meantime enjoy him while you can. That, and try like hell to extend control of Bieber for a year or two.

For this franchise success is all about great drafting and great player development - taking a 4th round pick and turning him into a CY winner at age 24. Next task is taking a 6'6" lump of clay named Sam Hentges and turning him into Sam McDowell (only without the booze). Or would you rather trade him right now for another Jake Bauers or Amed Rosario?

Tommy John won two games in 17 starts for the Indians at age 20-21. At 21 they traded him for Rocky Colavito. John went on to win 286 games after leaving Cleveland. Colavito, who was 31, played 2.5 seasons for the Indians. OK, I know Rocky doesn't fit your "young MLB veteran" profile, but I'm just trying to illustrate the chance you take when you trade a top prospect for immediate major league help.

 

[sportscoach]

They have already been trading for proven young MLB vets; Reyes, Bauers, Quantrill, A. Rosario, Gimenez, Naylor. All of these guys had major league experience when we traded for them. The difference is we traded stars on short contracts for these guys. Now you want us to trade top prospects for more guys like this.

My issue is that most of these guys may never be more than average major league players while some of the prospects could hit big. Where would we have been had we traded Santana, Kipnis, Brantley, Lindor, Jose, Bieber, Clevinger, Carrasco, Bauer, and Kluber when they were in AA/AAA for guys like Bauers and Quantrill? I think we would have a full roster of average players.

The next big move is to trade Jose after the 2022 season for the best package we can get for him. In the meantime enjoy him while you can. That, and try like hell to extend control of Bieber for a year or two.

For this franchise success is all about great drafting and great player development - taking a 4th round pick and turning him into a CY winner at age 24. Next task is taking a 6'6" lump of clay named Sam Hentges and turning him into Sam McDowell (only without the booze). Or would you rather trade him right now for another Jake Bauers or Amed Rosario?

Wham it's not like Cats want to trade prospects... We have so many becoming rule 5 eligible next season, that we could lose 5-6 prospects pretty easily in next seasons rule 5 draft. Cats wants to make sure we don't let that many just get taken like Santander was is all. We also do need another veteran or two for this season honestly if we are still in the running for the playoffs come trade deadline time.

 

[Martyinnewyork]

We have a glut of prospects who need to be rostered or lost to Rule 5 next year. We can’t protect them all. It makes zero sense to keep them this year and then watch 3 or 4 go for no return in the next Rule 5. We have to do one or two “prospects for controllable vets” trades. Get two bats or a bat and a pitcher.