2021 Minor League Thread

[CDAV45]

If Miller can handle 1B he just takes the Yu Chang role for now and gets a perfect audition for the 2B spot in 2022 or late in the year if they chose to deal Hernandez.

No team in baseball would use Miller's bat on the short end of a platoon while a hapless hitter like Bauers gets the majority of AB. No, Miller does not just take Chang's role. He'll stay in Columbus and get consistent AB before they do that.

 

[BimboColesHair]

Figure I’ll give a quick rundown after all of my assignments finish this year.

Been in Virginia this week. Go back home to go to Lake County next week on Tuesday.

Lynchburg one will be fun because there are a lot of non-top prospect position players here that I think end the year being considered a top prospect. Seeing these guys in game action instead of environment controlled games has been a lot of fun, especially since a lot of these guys had never been past the AZL or DSL.

 

[Mcreek]

If Owen takes over at secondbase if and when Hernandez is traded, where does this leave Freeman? Is Owen more of a super utility guy?

 

[CATS44]

I'm not worried about next year right now, because we have a mess in Cleveland.

Miller...and I'm not saying he is any kind of sure thing...also provides something we need now, if he is good enough.

OBP

We don't need more home runs. We don't need more XBHs. We rank well in both. We need more guys on base. We rank next to last in both BA and OBP.

He is the only prospect we have in AAA who can provide that.

As for playing first every day, he can't learn a new position well enough to man it in MLB, unless he plays it every day.

You would think by now that every Tribe fan would be sick of watching players try to learn to play a new position, while getting part time on the job training. We are doing it to some extent with Amed, Naylor, Luplow Chang, and now Harold.

The results have been disastrous.

 

[AZ_]

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I'm not worried about next year right now, because we have a mess in Cleveland.

Miller...and I'm not saying he is any kind of sure thing...also provides something we need now, if he is good enough.

OBP

We don't need more home runs. We don't need more XBHs. We rank well in both. We need more guys on base. We rank next to last in both BA and OBP.

He is the only prospect we have in AAA who can provide that.

As for playing first every day, he can't learn a new position well enough to man it in MLB, unless he plays it every day.

You would think by now that every Tribe fan would be sick of watching players try to learn to play a new position, while getting part time on the job training. We are doing it to some extent with Amed, Naylor, Luplow Chang, and now Harold.

The results have been disastrous.

Moving from a more difficult infield position (SS, 2B) to a less demanding one (1B) should not be too hard. You see veterans doing it after they get older and lose their range, like Pete Rose, Rod Carew, and Miggy Cabrera, who played over 3,200 innings at third base.

Tito said he saw Nolan Jones playing some first base and he looked really good. These guys already know how to field ground balls.

It seems to me it's very significant that they have Miller playing some first base in Columbus. One, they want to get his bat into the Indians' lineup ASAP. Two, they can't play him at second or third for obvious reasons and apparently he's not a major league shortstop. Three, Chang and Bauers are hitting something like .125 between them and Bradley is 1-for-16 with 7 K's.

They could stay with Naylor at first but that puts Harold Ramirez in center and I don't think they want him there any longer than necessary. I think they would rather move Naylor back to right field and Luplow to center. Miller is 7-for-15 at Columbus. As soon as they think he's comfortable at first base we may see them make that move.

It could also depend on if Harold keeps hitting and if Luplow continues to hit .175. I would not be surprised to see Gamel get another shot. Amed Rosario hits lefties extremely well. They could platoon Amed and Gamel in center and Naylor and Luplow in right. Miller would play first base and Harold would be the odd man out. Gimenez plays short every day and they make him bunt against lefties and shorten his swing against righties. He tries to hit home runs too much.

 

[MadThinker88]

I believe it will be helpful to visually see were different players have played their 1st 4 games in the minors this season. I broke this down by game order.

AAA
Arias: SS - SS - 2B - SS
Bradley: 1B - 1B - 1B - DH
Clement: 2B - DH - SS - 3B
Jones: 3B - 3B - DH - RF
Miller: DH - 2B - 3B - 1B

Mercado: CF - RF - CF - LF
Zimmer: RF - CF - RF - CF
DJohnson: N/A - N/A - N/A - N/A

I have no ideas if this is a planned rotation that will continue or the result of injuries/ call-ups to CLE. Similar movement is happening at the other milb levels.

AA
Ty Freeman: SS - SS - NA - SS
J Fermin: 3B - NA - SS - 3B
M Gonzalez: NA - 3B - 3B - DH
R. Palacios: 2B - 2B - DH - 2B

High A
A Bracho: NA - DH - NA - 2B
R Delgado: 2B - 3B - 1B - 3B
B Rocchio: SS - 2B - 3B - SS
J Tena: 3B - SS - SS - NA

 

[BimboColesHair]

They aren’t exactly being secretive with what they want to do with Miller. They want him to be their Ben Zobrist. That comp was made by the organization in the Spring. An every day bat that can play any position on the field but pitcher and catcher. I call it Tito’s wet dream.

My opinion, they need to option Chang down for a legit defensive CFer and go all in on the Nolan Jones in a corner OF spot experiment, which has been the expectation for this season since he reported in Arizona.

 

[sportscoach]

They aren’t exactly being secretive with what they want to do with Miller. They want him to be their Ben Zobrist. That comp was made by the organization in the Srping. An every day bat that can play any position on the field but pitcher and catcher. I call it Tito’s wet dream.

My opinion, they need to option Chang down for a legit defensive CFer and go all in on the Nolan Jones in a corner OF spot experiment, which has been the expectation for this season since he reported in Arizona.

So essentially Chang down, Mercado/A defensive CF up, Amed to super utility?

Personally I think we should have traded Amed when we got him. I know we wanted a bat and he still has upside, but I think we could be better off without him especially when he should have been put in the OF from day one and let Gimenez get way more SS at bats with at the time Chang getting some reps there.

I personally feel like Miller could make the biggest impact at 1B this season if we don't acquire someone to replace Bauers (who has likely until June to get it turned around).

 

[thestatman]

Moving from a more difficult infield position (SS, 2B) to a less demanding one (1B) should not be too hard. You see veterans doing it after they get older and lose their range, like Pete Rose, Rod Carew, and Miggy Cabrera, who played over 3,200 innings at third base.

Tito said he saw Nolan Jones playing some first base and he looked really good. These guys already know how to field ground balls.

It seems to me it's very significant that they have Miller playing some first base in Columbus. One, they want to get his bat into the Indians' lineup ASAP. Two, they can't play him at second or third for obvious reasons and apparently he's not a major league shortstop. Three, Chang and Bauers are hitting something like .125 between them and Bradley is 1-for-16 with 7 K's.

They could stay with Naylor at first but that puts Harold Ramirez in center and I don't think they want him there any longer than necessary. I think they would rather move Naylor back to right field and Luplow to center. Miller is 7-for-15 at Columbus. As soon as they think he's comfortable at first base we may see them make that move.

It could also depend on if Harold keeps hitting and if Luplow continues to hit .175. I would not be surprised to see Gamel get another shot. Amed Rosario hits lefties extremely well. They could platoon Amed and Gamel in center and Naylor and Luplow in right. Miller would play first base and Harold would be the odd man out. Gimenez plays short every day and they make him bunt against lefties and shorten his swing against righties. He tries to hit home runs too much.

Along those same lines of thinking....the Yankees All Star second baseman and batting champ was moved to first base due to need. This is why I agree with Cats and you that Miller at first makes sense to me. I see no reason why, if called up and performs well, he could play 75% of the games or so and get plenty of at bats to stay sharp. In the game tonight he came up with the bases loaded and 2 outs in a 3-3 game and then unloaded them with a double. No one knows for sure how he will do if/when called up, but damn, itching to find out.

 

[dkbldev]

Wolf sitting 95 touching 97 with good breaking stuff.

Him and Espino won’t be long for low A. They’re going to K a shit ton of hitters at this level.

Do you see these 2 as our top pitching prospects going forward?
Who would you put as your current top 3?

 

[KluberSociety]

I don't see any reason to rush Miller up now off a hot start driven by BABIP (22 PA, 2 BB, 7 K's, .692 BABIP).

Let things play out, see who the most promising players are in AAA over an extended period and then make necessary moves. Most of these players haven't done regular baseball since 2019. Miller was at AA in 2019 last time he played regular season games.

By the time it takes to make a proper decision, the minor league position player hierarchy may be different.

 

[sportscoach]

I don't see any reason to rush Miller up now off a hot start driven by BABIP (22 PA, 2 BB, 7 K's, .692 BABIP).

Let things play out, see who the most promising players are in AAA over an extended period and then make necessary moves. Most of these players haven't done regular baseball since 2019. Miller was at AA in 2019 last time he played regular season games.

By the time it takes to make a proper decision, the minor league position player hierarchy may be different.

Honestly we are pretty much going to keep the roster the same until about June then we will start to make changes...

 

[CATS44]

They aren’t exactly being secretive with what they want to do with Miller. They want him to be their Ben Zobrist. That comp was made by the organization in the Spring. An every day bat that can play any position on the field but pitcher and catcher. I call it Tito’s wet dream.

My opinion, they need to option Chang down for a legit defensive CFer and go all in on the Nolan Jones in a corner OF spot experiment, which has been the expectation for this season since he reported in Arizona.

Zobrist/Casey Blake has been my wet dream for years.

Imagine if we had Casey Blake today.

Decide where to play Naylor, put Blake in the other spot, and call it a day.

 

[xmasbuck]

Zobrist/Casey Blake has been my wet dream for years.

Imagine if we had Casey Blake today.

Decide where to play Naylor, put Blake in the other spot, and call it a day.

TMI