Cleveland Sports Forum

Only Tyler Holt saw action Monday, 4 1 1 0 .289

Arizona League:

Ronny Rodriguez 5 0 1 3 2b, .275 sb#3, he had only 7 steals in the full season at Carolina.
Carlos Moncrief 5 1 1 0 2k .385
Alex Monsalve 3 2 1 1 2b, w .207 no sb versus

Trey Haley 2 0 0 0 0 1 2.00

Rising Stars Game rosters packed with prospects

Fall League's showcase set for Saturday, airs live on MLB.com, MLB Network

By Jonathan Mayo / MLB.com | 10/31/12 8:38 PM ET

The seventh annual exhibition at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, which will air live on MLB Network and MLB.com at 8 p.m. ET.

Trey Haley CLE P, Alex Monsalve CLE C, selected but are unable to play: Shawn Armstrong (CLE),


http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... b&c_id=mlb

Monsalve is a surprising pick; must not be very many AL catchers available.

The entire list of hundreds of minorleague free agents is here:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/pro ... ents-2012/

I see big names like Jason Michaels and C.J. Nitkowski; old friends like Jason Brown and Kevin Kouzmanoff and Kelvin de la Cruz and Trevor Crowe are available to any minor league team to add to their roster for no compensation to the current team.

Indians list is one of the shortest ones, meaning we did not have a lot of junky minor league vets on our farm teams. The only one who we might miss is Jose Flores who is supposed to be a hard throwing reliever. No one cares about Weglarz any more. Ditto Aaron Cunningham. I suppose that there would be some regrets at losing Jared Goedart.

leveland Indians
RHP: Jose Flores (AA), Loek Van Mil (AAA)
C: Michel Hernandez (AA), Matt Pagnozzi (AAA)
2B: Carlos Rojas (AA)
3B: Jared Goedert (AAA), Tony Mansolino (SS), Ryan Rohlinger (AA)
SS: Gregorio Petit (AAA)
OF: Aaron Cunningham (AAA), Chad Huffman (AAA), Nick Weglarz (AA)

OK! I'm ready to pick my position player for next season....JOSE RAMIREZ !! This kid looks awesome so far. He can hit, he can run, and he looks like an excellent fielder.

Ramirez is a secondbaseman and is a really slick fielder. I wonder if Kipnis can play third to make room for Ramirez. It really does not look like he is that far away from a big time job. Lindor at shortstop. WoW! If I thought that Peralta and Phillips would have been our best keystone combination, I would just love to see Lindor and Ramirez go for it.

Indians resign Rondon, lose Goedert

Jared Goedert (Photo: Lianna Holub)
By Tony Lastoria
November 7, 2012



The Indians lost a long time member of their minor league system today as free agent third baseman/outfielder Jared Goedert agreed to a minor league deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates. They did, however, add two players earlier in the week as they signed free agent infielder Luis Hernandez and resigned right-handed pitcher Hector Rondon, both to minor league deals.

Goedert, 27, was drafted and signed by the Indians in the 9th round of the 2006 Draft out of Kansas State University. He played seven seasons in the Indians organization, and this past season in 121 combined games between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus hit .311 with 19 HR, 77 RBI and .875 OPS. He was officially free to speak to other teams as a free agent as of Sunday, and the Pirates were quick to call and very aggressive in their pursuit of him. The union with the Pirates reunites him with Neal Huntington who was a part of the front office in Cleveland that drafted him in 2006.

Rondon, 24, has missed most of the last three seasons because of two major elbow injuries. He tore the UCL in his right elbow early in 2009 and required Tommy John surgery, and in his return while pitching winter ball last offseason fractured his right elbow. He only made four appearances late in the season with a minor league affiliate and is currently pitching winter ball in the Venezuela Winter League to make up for lost innings. If healthy, he is expected to be a part of the Triple-A Columbus bullpen next season and could still be a factor as a possible big league pen arm sometime next season.

Hernandez, 28, played last season in the Rangers organization at Triple-A Round Rock. In 129 games he hit .262 with 8 HR, 70 RBI, and .679 OPS, and was a late August callup to the Rangers while Michael Young was on paternity leave and played in two games. He was designated for assignment by the Rangers just three days later and declined an outright assignment to the minors and became a free agent. He is signed as minor league depth, and if he makes the Triple-A Columbus roster next season would likely fill the role that shortstop Gregorio Petit did for them in 2012.

Lots of solid middle infielders Joe. Ramirez had a terrific first season on a full season club, but don't discount Ronny Rodriguez (more power) and Tony Wolters who had solid years in High A at age 20. And I always have liked Giovanny Urshela's glove at 3b and his hitting picked up throughout the course of 2012 and he also finished the season at age 20. All three of them will probably move up to Akron in 2013 while Lindor and Ramirez move on to Carolina. I could see two besides Lindor being major league options which could move Kipnis back to the OF. And then there's Dorsyss Paulino who had a terrific debut in Arizona and Mahoning Valley while playing SS but seems to be more likely to wind up at 3rd or in the outfield.

That's a rather exciting group of prospects. But regrettably it's about all that we have. Naquin and Washington perhaps as real OF's. Aguillar or Chen if we're really lucky at 1b

Ramirez is raking for the Toros. There are not very many players including the experienced and including the veteran players that can roll through the Dominican League as easily as Ramirez has so far. He looks special. I guess that's why I'm selecting him as my break out position player this year.

I'm sick of middle infielders. I want some outfielders that can hit the snot out of the ball.

How about Tyler Naquin, "best pure hitter" in the draft, who managed a super impressive offensive line in the NYPL:

270/379/380/759. 11 doubles and even 2 triples in only 178 plate appearances. Power, they like to say, is the last tool to come, so just wait a few years and he'll even hit a ball over the fence.

Makes you forget Trevor Crowe(?)


Well, don't forget Jason Kipnis was drafted as an OF who can rake and has been another middle IF who can rake. I can see logic in returning to the OF.

Maybe some better options:

Probably my breakout player for 2013: Anthony Santander 17 year old in the Arizona League: 305/381/494/875. 15 doubles, 1 triple, 4 homers. 6-2 185 switch hitter. Mostly played LF, half dozen in Right.

Or Nelson Rodriguez a 1B. 229/375/459/834. 7 doubles, 3 triples, 4 homers. 15th round pick this year. 6-2 225 RH hitter. Formerly a catcher. BA rated him postseason as the power prospect among our draft class [he faced little competitiion for that honor]

I don't know who I like as a pitcher yet.

Kipnis is going no where other then 2nd.