Cleveland Sports Forum

Dave (Indianapolis): Indians defensive shortcomings in CF were evident in the World Series. From comments above, it seems that you believe Zimmer can handle the position and can I presume Allen can as well? Two shots at a 2018 solution?

Teddy Cahill: The Indians took center fielders with their top draft pick for three straight years from 2012-2014. Allen was picked later in the '14 draft, and he's the best defensive outfielder the Indians drafted in that time. So, yes, there are internal solutions on the way. And while Naquin needs to work on his defense, I wouldn't write him off yet. But in the long run, you're probably looking at Zimmer or Allen in center.

Frank (Indianapolis IN): How many of these guys are likely to make the BA 100?

Teddy Cahill: Up to six, I would guess. I think five for sure and Chang has a real chance, too. But the usual caveat that the Top 100 is not solely up to me obviously applies.

One final one and Teddy fulfilled his duty to the Tribe fans:

Brian (Ohio): Who are your two favorite under the radar prospects in the system? Can you give me one inside the top 30 and one outside?

Teddy Cahill: We’ll close here. I sometimes struggle with defining under-the-radar and the top 30 isn’t fully set yet (as I previously mentioned), but here goes. For likely inside the 30 – Micah Miniard, a tall righty who throws in the mid 90s with natural cut on his fastball. Outside the 30, I’ll say Sam Hentges, a big lefty who throws in the low 90s with solid secondary stuff. His star was definitely on the rise before he had Tommy John surgery this year.

CLE AFL Allen, Greg PH-DH 1 0 0 0 .300
CLE AFL Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 2 2 .326 2B (4)
CLE AFL Zimmer, Bradley CF 3 1 1 0 .237 2 BB (16), SB (8) [keeps walking and running]
CLE PRL Gonzalez, Gianpaul C 0 0 0 0 --
CLE VL Aguilar, Jesus 1B 3 0 0 0 .333 BB (6)
CLE VL Diaz, Yandy CF-LF 3 1 0 0 .375 BB (6)
CLE VL Urshela, Giovanny 3B 3 1 1 0 .353 2B (7)

So stats show that in 2014 in Mahoning Valley, and in 2015 in Lynchburg and Akron Zimmer did fine against lefties. So 2016 was an aberration, but one he has to correct

2014 vs LHP 385/518/636
2015 vs LHP 286/407/438
2016 vs LHP 179/343/250

I'd like to see the comparative 2016 splits for Akron and Columbus, to see if the problem was aggravated against the AAAA crafty lefties who predominate in AAA, but I think I remember they were similarly bad at both levels.

Here they are:

in Columbus .172/314/173 which is really awful
in Akron .181/320/277 which is pretty bad

Yandy now hitting .377 with 9 RBI in 14 games in Venezuala.

Hillbilly wrote:Yandy now hitting .377 with 9 RBI in 14 games in Venezuala.

I am with you on this guy Hillbilly! Put him at First Base.

Saturday games:

CLE AFL Allen, Greg CF 3 0 2 0 .299 BB (9), 2 SB (9)
CLE AFL Chang, Yu-Cheng DH 4 0 1 0 .319 2B (5)
CLE AFL Zimmer, Bradley RF 3 1 0 0 .226 BB (17) [looking worse all the time, except for the walks]
CLE DL Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 0 0 0 .171 BB (9)
CLE DL Rodriguez, Ronny 3B 4 0 1 0 .375
CLE PRL Murphy, Taylor RF 3 0 0 0 .348
CLE VL Aguilar, Jesus 1B 3 0 2 0 .367 BB (9)
CLE VL Diaz, Yandy LF 3 0 1 0 .375 2B (6), BB (7)

Monday:

CLE AFL Zimmer, Bradley CF 5 1 1 2 .224 HR (3)
CLE DL Rodriguez, Ronny 3B-2B 5 0 1 0 .358 SB (2) [ 40 man roster addition, or a rule 5 loss, but we could probably spare him with all the other IFs we have coming up from Gonzalez-Chang-Krieger-Mathias-Castro]
CLE VL Monsalve, Alex 1B 2 0 0 0 .125
CLE VL Urshela, Giovanny 3B 5 0 2 2 .346
CLE VL Valladares, Randy 0.2 1 3 0 1 0 3.38

Bradley Zimmer, rf, Indians
Zimmer began the scoring Tuesday for Mesa with a homer in the second inning against the Brewers’ Javier Salas, and ended it with a two-run single in the 10th off Tigers’ flamethrower Adam Ravenelle in a 6-5 win over Salt River. Zimmer, the Indians’ No. 2 prospect, offers an intriguing mix of power, speed and defense, and ranks among AFL leaders in homers, runs, steals and walks, as well as sitting second with 26 strikeouts, trailing Michael Gettys’ 30 whiffs.

Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/b ... 2szZBTv.99

Yandy, Allen, and Mejia combined to go 0 fer 8 yesterday.

Tuesday's report:

Bradley Zimmer, rf, Indians. Zimmer began the scoring Tuesday for Mesa with a homer in the second inning against the Brewers’ Javier Salas, and ended it with a two-run single in the 10th off Tigers’ flamethrower Adam Ravenelle in a 6-5 win over Salt River. Zimmer, the Indians’ No. 2 prospect, offers an intriguing mix of power, speed and defense, and ranks among AFL leaders in homers, runs, steals and walks, as well as sitting second with 26 strikeouts, trailing Michael Gettys' 30 whiffs.

CLE AFL Allen, Greg LF 2 0 0 0 .290 BB (10), 2 SB (11)
CLE AFL Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 5 1 2 2 .327
CLE AFL Zimmer, Bradley RF 4 1 2 3 .239 HR (4), BB (18)
CLE DL Mejia, Francisco C 4 0 0 0 .211 [hitless!]
CLE DL Rodriguez, Ronny 3B-SS 4 0 0 0 .333
CLE PRL Murphy, Taylor RF 4 0 0 0 .258
CLE VL Aguilar, Jesus 1B 4 1 1 1 .316 HR (3)
CLE VL Diaz, Yandy CF 2 1 0 0 .355 BB (8)
CLE AFL Hill, Cameron 2 1 0 0 0 1 4.80
CLE AFL Peoples, Scott 4 3 3 2 0 5 3.96
CLE AFL Speer, David 1 1 0 0 0 1 5.27

Arizona League winding down. We'll have to wait a full 3 months for baseball in the US to return. But Joe will be busy in the winter leagues.


CLE AFL Allen, Greg CF 4 0 1 0 .288
CLE AFL Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 0 0 .304
CLE DL Rodriguez, Ronny 3B-SS 3 0 0 0 .317 BB (2)
CLE VL Aguilar, Jesus 1B 5 0 0 0 .279
CLE VL Quiroz, Guillermo PH 1 0 0 0 .000
CLE VL Urshela, Giovanny 3B 5 1 2 2 .349
CLE AFL Frank, Trevor 1 4 4 4 2 0 11.88 [concluding a miserable fall for this nonprospect reliever]

Usually the 40-man rosters have to be set about six weeks after the Indians' season ends. This year the deadline was moved up to only about two weeks after the season. Deadline to fill rosters is Friday. Rule 5 draft is Dec 8.

Here are our Top 30 prospects [ranked by MLB.com] who are "at risk"

4. Francisco Mejia, C
23. Nellie Rodriguez, 1B
27. Luis Lugo, LHP
30. Anthony Santander, OF/1B

Roster has 37 names on it, so no problem adding Mejia and Santander [who has played about 3 games at 1st base despite his designation on that list]. If we want to add Nellie we have room. If we want Lugo, or anyone else, like Ronny Rodriguez who appeals to me as a good hitting utility man, we can make room easily enough by removing Chris Giminez and/or Michael Martinez who are nice helpful spare parts but are readily replicable or even reasonably likely to be available to sign as minor league free agents as soon as they are DFA'd.

There are some more relievers at AA and AAA who could be lost in the draft, Jeff Johnson and Josh Martin [who was drafted and returned last winter] and who are marginal prospects.

I also see no need to carry Austin Adams if he blocks anyone else and Joe Colon doesn't do anything for me, but the Indians know much better than I do. Finally there's Dylan Baker who has been injured nearly all of the past 3 seasons and hasn't returned to activity as far as I know, but perhaps has been in the instructional league.