Cleveland Sports Forum

as the next Jhonny Peralta we should be able to deal Chang for the next Jeff Stevens

16. Anthony Santander, of, Lynchburg (Indians)

Age: 21. B-T: B-R. Ht.: 6-2. Wt.: 190. Signed: Venezuela, 2011.

Santander combined with league MVP Bradley to give Lynchburg a fearsome middle-of-the lineup combination. He finished sixth in the league in hitting, third in home runs and RBIs and first with 42 doubles. He stayed healthy the entire season for the first time and broke out offensively, earning 70 grades for his raw power on the 20-to-80 scouting scale.

“He’s a switch-hitting outfielder who showed power from both sides,” Carolina manager Rocket Wheeler said. “If there was a guy on third, he was going to get the run in.”

Managers also said Santander showed decent speed and athleticism, but he’ll need to work to stay in left field, where he is below-average. He played nine games at first base as well.

John (Raleigh): Thoughts on Greg Allen? Is he more than a 4th OF in your estimation?

Lacy Lusk: Greg Allen's an interesting guy. He's one of the players the Brewers would've landed if Jonathan Lucroy had accepted their deal with the Indians. He won a minor league Gold Glove in center field and has made progress with the bat, so I definitely look forward to seeing what he does next year.

Mikey (Jackson Co.): How close was Greg Allen?

Lacy Lusk: He received some interest but wasn't quite in the final group of 23-25 or so. Still, I don't think there's much difference from about 15 to 35, and he's definitely in that group.

Elliot (Youngstown OH): Mixed messages on Mejia as a catcher. Is his future behind the plate?

Lacy Lusk: Mixed messages is spot-on. I’d say more evaluators think he will remain a catcher. Maybe he’ll follow the Victor Martinez/Carlos Santana route and catch for a while before moving off the position.

Sam (Washington): Tell me about your thoughts on Thomas Pannone. He seems to be so polished and he has dominated at each level. His numbers at High--A were great. What do you think?

Lacy Lusk: He’s a lefty who throws hard and has some improving secondary stuff. He repeated at Lake County, but he definitely has a chance.

Eastern League Prospects today


8. Clint Frazier, of, Akron (Indians) |
Age: 22. B-T: R-R. HT.: 6-1. WT.: 190. Drafted: HS—Loganville, Ga., 2013 (1).

The Indians traded Frazier, the fifth overall pick in the 2013 draft, to the Yankees in July as the key prospect for Andrew Miller. Frazier draws raves for his combination of plus power and above-average speed. His swing is short, compact and features some of the best bat speed in the minors, thanks to exceptionally strong forearms, hands and wrists. He’s also a baseball rat who zealously studies opposing hitters and pitchers.

Frazier’s speed allows him to play center field, but he saw most of his time at Akron and Scranton on an outfield corner. He has improved his reads and jumps this year. His well above-average arm positions him as a profile right fielder.

14. Bradley Zimmer, of, Akron (Indians) |
Age: 23. B-T: L-R. HT.: 6-4. WT.: 185. Drafted: San Francisco, 2014 (1).

As has always been the case, Zimmer’s calling card as a prospect revolves around his combination of power and speed and his strong defense in center field. He showed many of those same traits this year in a return to Akron, which won the Eastern League championship, but also showed a few warts.

He’s a lanky player with long arms and, as such, has a few holes he needs to close. Indians coaches worked with Zimmer to keep his bat in the zone through impact and also to adjust his bat path to allow him better access to inside pitches. Zimmer also has a strong platoon split, and hit just .176/.346/.271 against southpaws with Double-A. He’s always been a strong defender and still projects to stay in center field over the long-term, but he worked this year to improve his reads and jumps, especially on balls hit directly at him.

James Arnott (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada): Regarding Bradley Zimmer: When can we expect him in Cleveland? What would an average MLB season be for a player with his profile? Keep up the great work !!!

Josh Norris: Zimmer has tools galore, but he has holes to close in his swing and he worked hard to do so this year. Namely, he tried to make himself less vulnerable to the inside pitch and in turn cut down on his strikeouts. He’ll need to continue to do that in 2017 before he’s ready for Cleveland. Plus, Michael Brantley looms large if he’s healthy next year.

What would an average MLB season be for a player with his profile?

Unless he can figure out lefties, hard to see him being much different than Naquin. Tyler's power in the majors was much better than in the minors. Zimmer's has always been solid. Let me amend that comparison: Naquin with speed, Zimmer has a really good history of stealing bases. He has 5 really good tools but only 3 of them work when the pitcher is a lefty.

Short Q and A session, so no questions on Plutko or Kaminsky or Rodriguez or Morimando. I think Kaminsky's second half should have put him on this list somewhere.

Zimmer wins Arizona Fall League Hitting Challenge

By William Boor / MLB.com | 12:26 AM ET

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Indians top prospect Bradley Zimmer hasn't played much baseball over the past several days, but there was no apparent rust as he sprayed the ball all over the yard in the Arizona Fall League's fourth annual Hitting Challenge on Saturday night at Salt River Fields.

Zimmer won the event with 2,350 points, edging out Orioles No. 12 prospect D.J. Stewart, who finished with 1,950.

"It was fun, I had about 10 days without baseball and got a little hungry," Zimmer said. "It's good to be out here with some new faces and enjoying the event."

The Hitting Challenge is a twist on the Home Run Derby, as participants were awarded points for either hitting home runs or targets scattered throughout the field.

"Honestly, I was just trying to treat it like a Home Run Derby and hit everything out to center field and if I missed, hopefully it'd hit a target out there somewhere," Zimmer said.

The 23-year-old outfielder hit plenty of targets, and after hitting 15 homers in 130 games during the regular season, Zimmer hit four long balls during his two-minute round.

The Mariners' No. 2 prospect Tyler O'Neill, who finished with 1,150 points, didn't receive any awards, but may have had the most impressive swing of the night.

O'Neill has hit 56 total homers over the past two seasons and it was easy to see why as he concluded his round with a monstrous 400-foot blast off a tee.

Prior to the swing O'Neill said his approach was simple: "I'm just going to swing and see what happens." That turned out to be the right approach as he hit the first homer off a tee in Bowman Hitting Challenge history.

The 21-year-old knew the ball was gone as soon as it left his bat and promptly celebrated with a bat flip.

"When you feel a ball off the bat like that, you know," O'Neill said. "I had a hunch it was going to go over, I'm just glad it did."

Even the night's champion was impressed with O'Neill.

"If you look at the guy, he's a pretty strong cat," Zimmer said. "So, it doesn't surprise me that he muscled one out of here."

The White Sox No. 2 prospect Zack Collins also flexed his muscle with a flurry of home runs during the middle of his round.

Chicago's first-round selection in June hit six homers in 39 games during his professional debut this season and matched that in a minute Saturday.

Collins hit six homers in a span of eight swings -- all to right and right-center -- and finished with a score of 1,600.

podcast with Brad Grant
"Indians scouting director Brad Grant talks about what it’s like for a front office when the playoffs are going on"

http://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/a ... Pcw6IP6.97

A rather insignificant accomplishment by Bradley Zimmer:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Set against the resplendent background of Salt River Fields, the Arizona Fall League season kicked off its season on Saturday night with the fourth annual Bowman Hitting Challenge.

A home run derby with a twist, the hitting challenge gathers one player from each of the 30 clubs and asks them to rack up as many points as possible in two minutes by hitting a series of bizarre targets set up across the field.

Among the targets are: stand-up ads for Bowman baseball cards, interns in giant hamster balls, bucket pyramids and a roving golf cart equipped with a bull’s-eye. This year also featured a pair of gigantic inflatables—a dinosaur in left field and a bald eagle in right field—down each line.

This year’s winner was Bradley Zimmer, an Indians outfielder who hit .273/.368/.446 with 16 home runs this season between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus and ranked No. 14 among Eastern League prospects.

“Honestly, I was just trying to treat it like a home run derby and hit everything out to center field,” Zimmer said. “If I missed, hopefully it’d hit a target out there somewhere.”

Also among the participants were Red Sox infielder Yoan Moncada—Baseball America’s newly crowned Minor League Player of the Year—Cubs outfielder Eloy Jimenez, Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo, Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader and Brewers infielder Isan Diaz.

Nearly every player put on a decent power display, but some were truly awe-inspring. Zack Collins, for example, hit five home runs in a span of eight swings. Twins catcher Mitch Garver hit one of the two pink balloons suspended high above the left- and right-center field alleyways. For this, he was awarded 700 points.

But the most incredible power stroke came from Mariners outfielder Tyler O’Neill. After wowing the crowd at in San Diego at this year’s Futures Game, the sinewy Canadian dropped jaws at Salt River Field with his final swing of the evening.

After each round, every player gets to put a ball on a tee and take aim at a specific target. O’Neill wanted to leave the yard.

“Last year, I put the ball off the wall off the tee,” he said. “So I knew I was able to put it out if I got enough of it if I put it down the line a little bit more, but I actually put it in the same spot. I just got a little bit more this time.”

O’Neill’s shot was a laser that just cleared the fence in left-center field, which is 390 feet. His blast probably landed close to 400 feet away, and it started off a tee.

He was so sure he got it all, in fact, that he emphatically flipped his bat to punctuate the moment. And if that weren’t enough, he found a picture of the bat flip, tweeted it, and made sure to mention Jose Bautista, the game’s resident bat-flipping artist.

I post these winter stats here, not in the Joe Abroad folder, since they deal with Minor leaguers

CLE AFL Zimmer, Bradley DH 4 0 1 1 .286 SB (2)
CLE VL Medina, Yhoxian PH 0 0 0 0 .286
CLE VL Mendoza, Yonathan PH-2B 1 0 0 0 .000

Usually this is the only baseball going on for the Indians in mid-October.

CLE AFL Allen, Greg LF 4 1 1 0 .444 BB (1)
CLE AFL Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 5 0 2 1 .333 2B (1)
CLE AFL Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 2 1 0 .273 2B (1), BB (2), SB (3)
CLE VL Mendoza, Yonathan 2B 0 0 0 0 .000
CLE AFL Speer, David 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.00 W (1 - 0)
CLE VL Valladares, Randy 0.1 1 0 0 0 1 0.00