Mound Talk

1. Adam Miller, RHSP, AAA. Miller suffered an injury this year that limited him to 78.1 innings between Triple-A and the Arizona Fall League. He struck out a combined 79 batters and walked 24. Those numbers indicate solid work froma 22 year old pitcher with good stuff, but he became very hittable this year allowing more than one hit per inning. Miller may see a move to the bullpen in his near future.
2. Beau Mills, 3B, A+. Mills full scouting report describes a polished collegiate slugger. He’s still at third, but will likely require a move to first before long.
3. Wes Hodges, 3B, A+. The 23 year old Hodges spent 2007 in High-A where he made his pro-debut. In 393 at-bats, he hit .288/.367/.473 with 40 extra base hits. Strikeouts are a concern but it’s a fixable problem.
4. Chuck Lofgren, LHSP, AAA. Lofgren struggled through Double-A for much of the year before being promoted for one forgettable start in Triple-A. In 146.1 innings, Lofgren struck out 123 and walked 68. He allowed 153 hits and 46 of those were for extra bases. After two brilliant seasons in A and A+, Lofgren got a dose of reality in 2007. Don’t count him out just yet. Lofgren’s fastball sits in the 90-93 range consistently and has a very good changeup.
5. Aaron Laffey, LHSP, MLB. Perhaps no Indians player took a bigger leap this year than Aaron Laffey did. Starting the season with 35 innings repeating Double-A (despite performing well there last season) Laffey came out the gates a changed pitcher. Prior to 2007, Laffey had racked up K% of 11.7% in Low-A, 14.1% in High-A and 12.8% in Double-A while posting BB% of 8.8%, 3.5% and 6.9%. Over his time in AA and AAA this year, Laffey totaled 17.0% and 19.2% strikeout rates while dropping his walk rate to 5.0% and 5.8%. It should suffice to say Laffey was much better. He’s a groundball pitcher who is finally getting strikeouts and doesn’t walk many batters. Laffey needed just two outs to lose his rookie eligibility and will find himself starting for the Tribe in 2008.
6. Jensen Lewis, RHRP, MLB. Lewis struck out 29.05% of the batters he faced this year. He’s fairly unhittable allowing 3.645 hits per nine innings. Lewis figures to be a prominent part of the Indians bullpen in 2008.
7. Nick Weglarz, LF, A. The 19-year-old outfielder hit .276/.395/.497 for an OPS of .892. That’s very good considering the only players under 20 to have an OPS in the Sally League of .892 or higher in the last 15 years are: Adrian Beltre, Ian Stewart, Lastings Milledge, Vlad Guererro, Chipper Jones, Delmon Young and Kelly Johnson. That’s good company to be associated with.
8. Trevor Crowe, CF, AA. Crowe spent 176 plate appearances in Double-A last season and got a full shot at cracking the Eastern League in 2007. He did better, but not by much. His final season line read .259/.340/.353 and has solidified his prospect free fall. After a very promising start to his career in Low-A (2005) and High-A (2006), Crowe has taken a big hit. He still has skills and could rebound. On the positive side of his skillset, he doesn’t strikeout a lot and he knows how to draw walks.
9. Josh Rodriguez, SS, A+. Rodriguez hit .262/.350/.460 for Kinston this year in 568 PAs. He hit 20 home runs, 20 doubles and nine triples as well.
10. Jordan Brown, DH, AA. Brown hit .333/.421/.484 for Akron this year with 36 doubes and 11 home runs. He walks a lot, doesn’t strikeout much and has power. He needs to work on driving the ball to all fields more if he plans on finding any playing time in the bigs.
Flier. Michael Finocchi, RHRP, AA. Finocchi spent the year between High-A, Double-A and finished with a shot at the Arizona Fall League. He isn’t an overpowering pitcher and will walk too many at times but he is an extreme groundball pitcher who can strike batters out when necessary. In the AFL he threw 10.1 innings allowing just seven hits, but he struck out just five and walked four. Look for a quick rise from the 22-year-old pitcher in 2008.

There are some very interesting prospects in the Indians system. Guys like Miller and Crowe have big time questions while others like Mills and Brown have positional questions. The toughest question I had to answer was who was going to be my flier. I like Hector Rondon, the control starter, Mike Pontius, another groundball reliever, Jared Goedert, an on-base machine and I still like Tony Sipp and Edward Mujica. The only real downside to the Indians organization is that they don’t have the star talent at the top. Miller, Mills and Hodges lack a little luster in my mind. That is partially because of Miller’s question marks, Mills defense and Hodges lack of porjectibility. Nonetheless, a very healthy system that has helped fill a lot of big league holes in the past couple years.

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