Unfortunately Sizemore is probably done already. By the time Naquin gets here, if he gets here, in a few years, he'll be replacing the replacement of the replacement of the replacement for Sizemore.

Crowe rehabbing (we've used that phrase a few times before) in Akron. Steven Wright and his knuckleball for the Aeros tonight.

Hurray! Tim Fedroff is finally permitted to return to Columbus. Anothe tweener, he's not going to be the Tribe solution in LF but he deserves the promotion, hitting steadily over 300 for Akron and even managed 4 homers. He's not a CF and doesn't have enought power for a corner. Heard that before. But considering the lack of LF talent in Cleveland, he ought get a chance to prove himself in AAA.
Kluber on the mound. He's had a much better 2012 than 2011 except for 2 recent starts with a combined 6 innings and 12 runs. But he's bounced back OK. Overall 68 K in 57 IP although the rate has dropped closer to 1:1 recently.

I would like to see Carlos Moncrief step up to Akron to fill the gap Fedroff left. Carlos is an actual RF. Good arm (former pitcher). Good power. Good speed. Poor average. Too many whiffs. Michael Goodnight going for Carolina tonight. He's not doing anything to establish himself as a prospect. 4.80 for the season 38K/28 BB in 58 innings.

Lindor in a 6-41 slide with one double no walks and 9 K. Luigi Rodriguez is 7-38 with 2 doubles, 1 walk and 15 K. They're both very young for Class A. But since they are among very few positon player prospects it would be nice to see one of them hitting well.

Meanwhile Tony Wolters who is barely older and is in High A has had a very good six weeks. Since May 1 Tony has gone 36 for 126 (283 avg) with 8 doubles, three triples a homer 12 walks, 23 K (SLG=421, OBP=348). Tony turns 20 on Saturday.

Shawn Morimando starting for Lake County tonight.

Wow! The kid hasn't even signed a contract and Joe has him in centerfield in a year and a half. Next stop....Hall of Fame

Seagull,

Go back a few posts. 2014 was his predicted ETA from Bleacher Report.

joez wrote:

Anyone that writes an article about this guy replacing Sizemore is just writing a lazy article.

I have to think that Sizemore's best days are far behind him. In two years, I can see Naquin taking over for Sizemore.

You missed the point as usual. The Indians are not drafting this guy to take Sizemore's place unless he can play next year. Lazy reporting just like most of your posts. Captain Obvious !

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Captains lose 4-3 in 11. Jeff Johnson with his 4th blown save. Lindor perfect at the plate: single, 3 walks, hit by a pitch, 2 steals. LRod triples and 2 singles.

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Carolina 12-1 winners. RonnieRod 3 hits, up to 263; Tony Wolters triple; 4 hits by the forgotten Delvi Cid, he’s over 270 but in single digits in steals. Newly minted catcher Tyler Cannon with single, double homer 5 rbi. Goodnight for Goodnight, 6 innings, 1 run on 2 hits, 1 walk.

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Knuckleballer Steven Wright allows 1 run on 2 hits in 7 innings, walks 5. Aeros win 2-1. Perennial Aero Bryan Price finishes with 2 innings, fans 2. Chen 2 hits, Juan Diaz 2 including his 4th homer. Chen meanwhile has only 1 while hitting 317 and 17 doubles.

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Only 1 earned run off Kluber (3 total) in 6 innings despite 11 hits and 3 walks. Cody Allen with 2 shutout innings, fans 4, celebrates the first anniversary of his drafting in 2011 by the Tribe.

After Diaz spent some time in the bigs and all the post game food,it is probably a let down for the bus to stop at Wendys after the game to eat.

2012 Indians Draft: Several signings expected this weekend

Dylan Baker
By Tony Lastoria
June 8, 2012
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This is a short update on the signing status of some of the Indians' 2012 Draft picks. I will continue to post updates to the site on signings as I get them. Note that I provided a list of signing updates on many players in yesterday's update.

Please note that any signing is not official until the Cleveland Indians release a statement saying so.

5th round pick right-handed pitcher Dylan Baker out of Western Nevada Community College will be signed. He is expected to sign for somewhere around $200K, which is right around the $236K bonus slotted for his slot in the draft. No decision has been made yet on whether he will go to Mahoning Valley or Arizona.

6th round pick infielder Joe Wendle out of West Chester College has been signed, but there is no word yet on where he will be assigned.

9th round pick right-handed pitcher Jacob Lee out of Arkansas State will sign his contract today. He will be assigned to Mahoning Valley.

15th round pick catcher Nelson Rodriguez will be a summer follow, so no signing will happen immediately. If he does sign it would probably be closer to the end of the month or near the deadline, and any potential signing is up in the air.

18th round pick right-handed pitcher Louis Head out of Texas State is expected to sign in the next few days and will pitch out of the bullpen either at Mahoning Valley or Arizona.

Overheard:

20th round pick right-handed pitcher Nick Pasquale out of Diablo Valley College is trying to decide whether to sign or go to North Carolina State. He is currently pitching for the La Crosse Loggers in the Northwoods League and said this to the La Crosse Tribune: “I honestly have no idea [what I will do]. Cleveland’s probably going to push me to sign quick. I wish I could do both.”

2012 Indians Draft: Q&A with John Mirabelli (Pt. 1)

June 8, 2012

Note: This piece would normally be a premium article but is being provided as a non-premium article today so fans can see everything Mirabelli has to say and also get a taste of the information provided in the premium pieces on the site.

With the 2012 MLB Draft now over, the process has moved from selecting players to now negotiating with them and signing them over the next five weeks before the July 13th deadline. Very soon it will also mean getting ready for the 2013 Draft.

I had a chance yesterday to sit down and have a long talk with Indians Vice President of Scouting John Mirabelli about a wide range of topics in relation to the draft. We talked about everything from the strategy the Indians implored with the draft, to how they planned for the new changes to the CBA, and much more. The conversation was lengthy, so today I have posted part one that focuses mostly on the Indians' draft, and tomorrow I will post part two which focuses a lot on the new CBA and other things.

Q: We are early in the process as you have to sign guys, but how do you feel about your draft?

John Mirabelli (JM): I think considering how it was a very thin, weak talent pool, I thought we did pretty well. We got more upside than I anticipated us getting. I am not saying that they are going to be Major Leaguers as there are no guarantees, but I think we came away with more ceiling than I thought we would going into it.

Q: You selected Texas A&M outfielder Tyler Naquin with your first pick. What did you like about him that made you guys select him with your first pick?

JM: We just like his overall skillset. When you look at how the Major League game is played, what it takes to win a Major League game, and just being a multi-dimensional player, he does a lot of those things now. He runs, he throws, he fields, and he hits. I think there is maybe a little bit of development needed on the power side with the bat, but he gets on base. He just does a lot of things at a very high level where we think he can be a very productive Major league player.

Q: Naquin was ranked lower by a lot of the national draft sites going into the draft where it looked like an overdraft. What did you guys see different in him that others did not?

JM: That is the beauty of the draft. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; that’s how scouting is. I know that we scouted him very thoroughly and our process was very detailed. We had a lot of other guys in the mix. There was not a lot of separation in the group of college position players, so at the end of the day we had to make a choice. Some of the other kids that it came down to were actually rated higher by the national media, but at the end of the day we have to go with our evaluations and that is what we did.

Q: A lot has been said about how this draft in general was weak and a big drop off from last year’s draft. Is this correct?

JM: Oh yes, they are much different drafts. In my 22 years of scouting when you start stacking up all the drafts and what all the players have done, I think it is a pretty good guess that this year will have the fewest amount of Major League production. It was a weak draft all the way around. There will be some surprises and some guys that exceed expectations. I don’t think it has been a secret that the professional game has really done a terrific job of signing the high profile high school guys the last few years, and that was really evident in the pool of college position players. A lot of things came into the equation, but in a draft that was a weak draft overall with the picks we had, I really think we made the most of them.

Q: How long do you think it will be before the draft talent pool improves? Is next year’s draft looking better?

JM: It is very hard to tell, but [next year] is going to be very similar on the college side. I think you are going to see that over the next two drafts, and it will all depend on the high school development in the next 11 months. Right now our scouts tell me it is a very similar looking draft.

Q: Looking at your 40 selections, you drafted one left-handed pitcher, and that pitcher was a late round pick and is not a certainty to sign. Do you recall ever going through a draft without drafting and signing one single left-handed pitcher?

JM: I can’t remember that in my 22 years of being involved in the draft. When I looked up at that board, after a couple of the high profile guys like Fried and Heaney, it was a thin crop. Looking at the left-handed pitchers and where we had them rated, we knew going into the draft that could be a potential outcome. We decided we were not going to overdraft a left-handed pitcher just to say we got a left-handed pitcher. That was one of the unique portions of this draft that I have ever seen, just the lack of left-handed pitching.

Q: While you only drafted one left-handed pitcher, you did draft 19 right-handed pitchers which was almost half of your draft. With so many right-handed pitchers taken, I'd say it is fair to say this was the strength of the draft, yes?

JM: There were some athletic outfielders and a decent amount of those guys to choose from, but I think that the high school and college right-handed pitching was where the strength was.

Q: Looking at your picks there were also no true corner infielders selected. Is this a case where you will be moving some players drafted as shortstops or catchers to those positions?

JM: First basemen usually end up coming from a lot of other positions. Unless the guy is a real beast and profiles as a real middle of the order first baseman coming into the draft, we really just let that kind of take its place. [Nelson Rodriguez] does [profile at first base]. We think he can be a first base bat. We will have to see how things go with him over the summer but he could be an upside offensive first baseman.

Q: In addition to the right-handed pitchers, you took a lot of center fielders and shortstops. Your focus in previous drafts has been to take a lot of athletes up the middle, so was this a focus again this year?

JM: I think so. [A lot of it had to do with] the pool of talent, so I think it is always a pretty good bet if you can stay in the middle of the diamond. We think these guys can hit. They are not just one dimensional guys that can play defense. I think that if you build a Major League team where the guys in the middle of the diamond can give you offense you have a chance to be pretty good. I think we work off of that and then we go from there. If they are good enough offensively they can evolve into corner type players.

Q: Naquin was ranked lower by a lot of the national draft sites going into the draft where it looked like an overdraft. What did you guys see different in him that others did not?

JM: That is the beauty of the draft. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; that’s how scouting is.

WoW! I thought we had some sound logic behind our drafting techniques but that reason is the best one yet.

9-1 Clipper win. Tim Fedroff happy to be in AAA, slaps 3 singles; Goedart double and hoemr; Phelps homer and 2 walks; Carrera homer. Chris Seddon 7 2/3 1 run 7 K 1 BB. Matt Langwell 1 1/3 no hits 1 walk 2 K.

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Lots of late inning scoring in 8-7 Aero win. Espino went 6 good innings, 2 runs. Landis 1 scoreless. Stowell 1 inning, 2 runs, 3 hits, a walk, 2 K. Weglarz homer #5 and double. Chen double #18 and walk.

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Mudcats won, too, 6-1. Danny Salazar still on a pitch count, 3 innings, 1 run, 5 hits, 4K. Hot and cold Kyle Blair is hot, 5 scoreless, 3 hits, 3 walks, 2K. Sturdevant rehab 1 scoreless. [He's back pitching, but Trey Haley is back on the DL] Carlos Moncrief HR #8, and 2 K. Tony Wolters single, double, 2 rbi, E #10.

And the sweep completed by Lake County 14-6. Jordan Smith with a pair of doubles and 4 RBI. LuigiRod double and two singles. Garcia, Castillo, Sabourin 2 hits each. Felix Sterling 6 innings, 7 hits, 3 earned runs, 6 total, 2 K.

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2012 Indians Draft: Q&A with John Mirabelli (Pt. 2)

By Tony Lastoria
June 9, 2012

Note: This piece would normally be a premium article but is being provided as a non-premium article today so fans can see everything Mirabelli has to say and also get a taste of the information provided in the premium pieces on the site.

This is a continuation from part one of my Q&A that I had with Indians Vice President of Scouting John Mirabelli on Thursday. If you missed the first part, just click on the hyperlink in the previous sentence.

In this part of the Q&A, we talk about the new CBA and the effect it had on the draft this year, the learning process the Indians went through with this new wrinkle in the draft, his son Tommy being drafted, and much more.

Q: This was the first draft under the new CBA that implemented the new bonus draft pool for all teams on picks in the first ten rounds. Now that this year’s draft is over, how much of an effect did it have on it?

John Mirabelli (JM): I think it had a huge impact on how teams conducted business. That was pretty apparent. We put our board together like we always do based on ability and talent, but as the process unfolded there were a lot of moving parts. You had to keep one eye on your board, but you also had to keep one eye on your budget. You had to constantly be aware of the overage and underage from pick to pick, and also the range and expectations of the players we were talking to and what we had left to apply from our pool. It was really a step by step process that a lot of people in our room were involved in this year. But I think it definitely had an impact. We are not going to lose a first round pick either intentionally or unintentionally. It was a different process where we really had to pay attention to that just like I am sure the other teams did as well.

Q: One thing that was noticeable was that more college seniors went in the top ten rounds this year. There is obviously some strategy with this was you can probably save a lot by signing them to an underslot bonus to cover overslot bonuses for other players draft in the first ten rounds or even later in the draft….yes?

JM: We had a pool of money and it is a finite budget. Pick to pick you have to figure out how you are going to fit that talent under your cap. We had [the new rules] in our hands since January, but if you really thought you could do it in advance you could not because in real-time it was very tricky. You did not know who was going to be there, who was not going to be there, what talent is going to be there, and how you are going to make the guys fit. It was not a premeditated thing. It was ‘okay, here is the next talent, what are his expectations and how do we make that work’ or ‘okay, we took player X and here is where we are in our budget and the numbers have been reduced to this’. It was a very tricky thing to do. We had to work within the parameters of the pool to get the kids signed.

Q: Has the bonus pool kind of ruined some of the creativity teams can have with their picks in the draft and just going after whomever and whatever they want?

JM: Absolutely. I don’t think there is any question the creativity has been lost in the draft. There is no use complaining about it as it is done and we have to do what we can to work within it, but if you talked to all 30 scouting directors I don’t think you will find anybody that says ‘I like this system, let’s keep it going’. No way.

Q: Having gone through the draft process now for the first time under the new bonus pool rules, I am sure you learned a few things, yes?

JM: Absolutely. We sat down as a group numerous times in the offseason. We even had some mock trial runs just to see how it would work, but it is just so different in real time because you don’t know how the other 29 teams are going to react or the answers you are going to get from an individual player. Our goal is to stay in our pool as we are not going to pay a tax and we are certainly not going to lose a first round pick. In real time and on the run we learned a lot.

Q: With the new system, how much do you have to know in advance about guys willing to sign? How hard is it to orchestrate talking to guys and knowing you can sign them during the time limits between picks?

JM: It is very difficult. We bring all of our area scouts into the room and we have already rehearsed with them to make some contact with their players the night before and tell their players that we are going to need a quick and immediate decision when we call them and to have their numbers handy. This is a juggling act with a lot of balls in the air. I feel like we were prepared, but you never know when you go through it. It was very challenging. We had a lot of people doing a lot of different things simultaneously talking to a lot of different people. We think we are in a good spot, but we gotta go get these guys in the top ten rounds signed for sure.

Q: What happens in “war room” during the draft? With so many things going on at once, it all comes down to preparation, yes?

JM: Everybody knows their role going into the draft. We have our leadership, our crosscheckers, and our supervisors. We are working off the board and we already know the signability, at least the parameters and range of it. Our board is in order of ability and talent, but next to each guy is a notation on what the expectations are ($$$). The good thing in our draft room is we can turn around to our areas scouts and get them to confirm if a guy can sign for X amount and then they will get them on the phone. There are a lot of moving parts and it is people doing their job in a very systematic process. It comes down to preparation with the scouts knowing the players and scouts having dialogue with the payers. It is a lot of preparation by a lot of different people, and it is a pretty interesting dynamic if you are just sitting there watching it. You can’t just wing it. I think preparation is the word I would use even more so in this new system.

Q: Now while all of this was going on Wednesday you found out your son Tommy was drafted by the Pirates in the 28th round. Even though you probably knew no matter what he was going to college at the University of Kansas, this still had to be a pretty great thrill for you, your son, and the rest of your family?

JM: I had been receiving some texts from Oakland and St. Louis and some other clubs that we knew had interest [in Tommy]. It sounded like he was going to be drafted by somebody. He has a pretty strong commitment to go play for the University of Kansas to play baseball, but we were all surprised. I did not have any inkling and it was neat to hear your son’s name called. It is a great honor. It was exciting and a different feeling. I am happy for him. He put a lot of work into it and he is committed to it.

Q: In addition to your son, another person in the organization had their son drafted when Voice of the Indians Tom Hamilton’s son Nick Hamilton was drafted by you guys in the 35th round out of Kent State. What do you like about him?

JM: He is a pretty interesting as he has overcome a lot and I think that tells you a lot about his makeup. I have known Hammy for a long time and I have seen Nick play. I think you are getting a kid with tremendous work ethic. He is not going to be afraid and he has overcome a lot to get to this point. He has made himself a better player and had a great year offensively and he has a little versatility. I know he wants to play and you never know how it will end up, but we look forward to getting him in the organization.

Q: Now that the draft is over obviously the focus will be on signing some of the players and doing some summer follows, but what do you and the rest of the scouting staff start to focus in on now?

JM: Our amateur guys will take a break and then jump right into the 2013 class. I know that sounds crazy, but it probably cranks up in about ten days. The showcase tournaments, Team USA, the summer leagues and Cape Cod all get ramped up here shortly. I will be more involved on the international end, and that is going to be even more of an unknown [than the draft] as nobody has an idea on how that is going to unfold. There has been a dead period where we have not been able to work any players out and will end here in a couple of weeks, so we will get involved right around the July 2nd week and do some workouts. That is going to be crazy, so I have no idea how that will play out.

Elvis Araujo with one of those nights for LakeCounty. He retired 2, walked 3, allowed 3 hits, and all 6 scored. He and Felix Sterling have each now had one really awful line.

Saturday games. Good pitching by McAllister: 7-7-3-3-1-7. Very good pitching by House: 8-5-1-1-2-3. He's 2.53 at Akron after his great start in Carolina.

in AAA, Phelps 2 doubles; Fedroff HR, first at AAA, 4th of the season, matches career high
in AA, Weglarz HR #6, 3rd in the past 7 games.
in HiA, 2 games, 5 hits for the Mudcats.
in LowA, LRod double, Myles double, Lavisky single and double, Smith single and walk

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Kind of mediocre night for David Huff in AAA, Giovanni Soto in AA. Mike Rayl with a solid 6 innings for Carolina. Excellent relief all over the place including Landis and Bryson in Columbus; Sturdevant and Armstrong at Carolina. 3 hits for Lindor. Weglarz stays on a hot streak.