SB Nation User Blog: mcrose

Nice Pitching Line

mcrose — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:28:00 -0000

Nice Pitching Line

Man, would I love to see something like this, say, next August in a tight race?

Hector Rondon - Futures Game Report

mcrose — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:14:05 -0000

Hector Rondon - Futures Game Report

BA was blogging the game inning by inning and had a nice review of Rondon. "Clean arm action - explosive fastball sitting at 93" . Nice.

Tony Sipp Writeup

mcrose — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:21:59 -0000

Tony Sipp Writeup

Good article by David Hall at Kinston.com . He took over the beat from Chris Kline, now at BA, and always catches non-baseball context in his stories, to very good effect.

Sipp's back throwing 93 again, but I'm not sure I like the qualified "largely pain-free" assessment of his elbow.

Sipp Sighting

mcrose — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:48:28 -0000

Sipp Sighting

The GCL Tribe began their season today, dropping two close games to the GCL Yanks after a rainout yesterday.

Tony Sipp made his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, pitching a scoreless inning to start the second game before giving way to 18 yr old Alex Perez who finished the game out.

Also making his first post-surgery appearance in a game was Matt McBride, who DH'd and had a hit and a stolen base. Great to see some guys actaully coming back after extended absences due to injury.

The GCL Tribe team has a lot of young talent this year, featuring a rotation fronted by TJ MacFarland, who pitched well in the first game, and a roster filled with prep draftees and grads from the Dominican Academy. Also a couple of international signees, Aussie Jason Smit (may be hurt, he didn't play in either game) and Taiwanese catcher Chun-Hsiu Chen.

The bulk of the talent as usual is on the pitching staff, but the G-Tribe does have some fairly high ceiling athletes on the offensive side as well, with Abner Abreu (3B) perhaps getting the most early attention. '07 draftees Bo Greenwell and Kevin Rucker join Devi Cid to make a very athletic outfield.

Looking forward to following the youngsters for the rest of the year, especially given the anti-inspirant vibe from the parent club this year.

Captains Notes

mcrose — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:02:55 -0000

Captains Notes

Lake County recap...

In other news, Trevor Crowe goes on the DL with back tightness, Stephen Head takes his place in the Akron OF, coming in from EST where he was recuperating from shoulder surgery.

Marte's Role In '08

mcrose — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:39:04 -0000

Entering the holidays and hot stove doldrums, I figured this deserved a diary thread, seeing as how its likely the roster will not undergo much upheaval going into spring training.

Assuming the roster stays pat, to me one of the biggest questions for next year is what role Andy Marte plays. He was our starting 3B at the beginning of last year, and even though his avg sucked, he handled himself pretty well at the hot corner throughout the cold weather and his ISO was decent. If he hadn't pulled a hammy, he probably would have made it into the warm weather as our 3B and gotten the sustained ML at bats most have figured he needs to give some indication of what kind of player he'll be.

A year later and much is the same - nobody knows. With the crucial distinction that he's out of options. Assuming health and a decent spring training, is he our starter at third once again? A backup at third and first? DFA? Minor part of a trade package? A very unusual range of options for someone who was an uber-prospect 2 years ago, and caused ShapCo to go through a very extended and public trade negotiation to acquire him as the third baseman of the future.

I'm of the opinion that he more than others needs consistent playing time to show anything, but given last season and the pressure to win in '08, it's hard to see him handed the starting job. Which means he's in a tough spot. And there are only 25.

Any thoughts?

Adam Miller Hurt?

mcrose — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:07:28 -0000

Apparently he started on the mound for the Surprise Rafters today and was removed in the first inning with a "hand/wrist injury", after giving up 3 runs in the first, recording 1 out.

No mention in the game log of getting hit by a batted ball or anything. No other news yet, and there may not be much reported on this right away, we'll see.

Worthwhile to note that his first stint on the DL this summer was for a finger tendon, not the elbow.

http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=l119&t=g_log&gid=2007_11_15_pddwin_surwin_1

Laffey to Cleveland

mcrose — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:01:54 -0000

Aaron Laffey was removed after 2.2 innings and specific # of pitches in the first game of a Buffalo doubleheader today.

The Buffalo announcers said that they got the word he was heading to Cleveland. I didn't get many details, not sure if they knew much, but the impression I got was that he was being brought up to make a spot start sometime during the next week.

Could be a showcase for a trade, or a trade already completed, could be just to rest someone, I don't know - but the Buffalo/Cleveland shuttle is going into high gear as the brass looks to improve the team one way or the other.

Minor Details

mcrose — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:09:21 -0000

Thought it was time to once again highlight a player or two on the farm that may be below the radar a bit. I was going to focus on Aaron Laffey, but he is starting to get his own press, as evidenced by the Sowers comp in a diary below. I would think he has moved up to the #3 position for Tribe pitching prospects behind Miller and Lofgren, and not only looks to provide starting depth for the parent club as early as next year, but also has become a prime trade chip for any deals in the meantime.

Another guy I wanted to look at is Nick Weglarz, who was drafted as a 17 yr old out of Canada in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft. Considering young Nick's size (6-3, 215) and raw power, this was a relatively rare "high-risk, high reward" type pick for Mirabelli. A wrist injury kept him out of the mix in '06, so Weglarz came into '07 with only a handful of pro at bats and was a surprise selection for the full season Lake County roster. At 19, he is still pretty young for the league.

However, big Nick has shown an uncanny ability to draw walks from the getgo, and now that he has started to hit with some regularity he is putting up Pronk-esque type numbers. He is showing the power and K's you might expect, but is also leading the entire league in walks, which is a great sign for his future development. He also seems to be getting the hang of playing the OF, so we can now officially say we have a power hitting corner OF prospect. Its just that he's still a teenager. Anyhow, Weglarz is currently tearing the cover off the ball in his first extended hot streak as a pro, and I think we'll see him on a top 10 list or two this offseason.

Stats and news links:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Nicholas%2520Weglarz&pos=&sid=milb &t=p_pbp&pid=475676

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18516883&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21848&rf i=6

Speaking of youth, the GCL Indians have assembled a very young but talented group of starters in FL that look to generate a lot of competition amongst themselves while they put a hurting on the opposition. Kelvin de la Cruz, Ryan Morris, Chris Archer, Gregorio Rosario (from the JD trade) and Santo Frias have all started the season well and bear watching over the summer. The team also has 17 yr old Jason Smit playing middle infield , and he also looks like he's making a good transition to pro ball.

Last note: As expected, Beau Mills was promoted to LC to take over 1B for Matt Whitney, who is promoted to Kinston.

A-Cab article

mcrose — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:45:07 -0000

Was asked to re-post this on its own, a nice article on Asdrubal:

Corrected link here. [Jay]

And here's his current player stats.

Might as well expand into general ob's...

A-Cab has probably had the best '07 season of any Tribe prospect so far. He has performed almost exactly as you would wish a future ML shortstop: he has fielded his position with consistency and flair, he has shown good instincts and awareness as "captain of the defense", he has been an ideal #2 hitter, has gotten on base well and stolen bases efficiently, and he has shown a little pop to boot. Not to mention he's 21 yrs old at AA.

Sound familiar? Yes, its eerily like Omar, except that Cabrera is showing offensive capabilities at a far younger age. Where does he go from here? Well, to Buffalo first, thus postponing a FO decision on what to do with him when he's ready to play with the big boys. Ideally, he gets his AAA time and becomes the Tribe's UT before any final decision is made. He is equally as proficient at 2B and certainly could handle 3B as well. With a year left in his development, and with Peralta, Barfield and Marte all still maturing, there are a lot of future scenarios in play.

Personally, assumimg A-Cab develops along the lines he's shown this year, I'd eventually want him at SS. But that's just me.

BTW, "Asdrubal" is one of those great latin names that retain the association to, well, latin times. I beleive it means "Ba'al helps". Or "Ba'al is an ass", one. Most famous Asdrubal: Hannibal's brother, who played 2B for the Carthaginian Berserkers before jumping on an elephant and sacking Rome.