Groundhog Day Update

Happy Groundhog's Day everyone. Hopefully Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow so winter soon ends......who cares though, as baseball gets started again in less than two weeks!

Anyway, lots of updates and news today. With all the work I have been doing the last week in formatting and getting the prospect book ready to (hopefully) go to print, I have slacked off on some of the news from the past week. Here is a rundown of pretty much everything that has happened in the Tribe minor league world the past 5-7 days:

Several prospect lists were released recently. John Sickels actually released his Indians Top 20 list a few weeks ago, and Kevin Goldstein just released his Top 100 list of all the players in the minors, and the Indians Adam Miller (#52) and Wes Hodges (#78) were the only ones to place in the listing. Goldstein’s Indians Top 11 list actually posted back in November. Also, I got the heads up on another listing that ranks the Indians top 20 prospects at HardballScouts.com.

Keith Law also just released his Top Five Prospect listing for each organization. His Indians top five prospects are: 1. Adam Miller, 2. Nick Weglarz, 3. Chuck Lofgren, 4. Beau Mills, 5. Wes Hodges. He also released his Top 100 list of all the players in the minors, with Adam Miller (#29) and Nick Weglarz (#62) making the list. To view the writeups for the players, these are premium articles on ESPN so you will need a subscription when you click on either of the two links.

Randy Newsom’s venture into the investment world has been put on hold. According to a story in the New York Times on Friday, Newsom has tabled his idea for the short term while he works with Major League Baseball, The Player’s Union, and the Securities and Exchange Commission on something they all approve and support. Newsom had sold 1800 shares of his future earnings (one share was .002% of his future earnings) at $20 apiece, and has returned all the money totaling $36,000 to the investors. According to a quote from Farm Director Ross Atkins in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ”Newsom is a very educated individual, and obviously very creative." This is one of the wildest stories in the offseason, and is something that looks to just beginning to catch on and take shape. More on this as things develop, and it will be interesting to see how this carries into the season and whether or not it distracts Newsom.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer did a piece on Trevor Crowe this past Monday. Nothing new really, but more comments from Crowe on how he put too much pressure on himself last year in what he thought was the year he would make his major league debut. If you read my stuff over the last year, it is well documented how much Trevor struggled the first half of last season, but also how well he turned it around the second half of the year. Trevor is a hard worker, and would fit right in with the players currently on the Indians roster. If you are looking for a prospect who can make an impact with the Indians in 2008, Trevor is the guy. It will be interesting to see if he can finally put it all together this year and be consistent from start to finish.

Just to recap, here are the Indians minor league signings from the offseason: Brandon Chaves (SS), Matt Ginter (RHP), Rafael Vera (2B), Aaron Herr (3B), Jeff Harris (RHP), Angel Gonzalez (SS), Anthony Medrano (SS), Danny Sandoval (SS). It should be noted that Medrano is now the hitting coach at Mahoning Valley.

In my Weglarz writeup, I had video that I had shot where he wiffed at the plate this time and also this time. Not exactly what you want to show for a prospect, but that was the one game I videoed him and he happened to strikeout all four times at the plate, so he did not help me much there (heh). I got a video from someone who shall remain anonymous that is a great video of him. It is from the TV feed at one of the Captains games this year, and he hits a booming home run. I updated it in his writeup, and the strikeout video has been banished. I think a home run video is much better to see than one of a guy flailing away at the plate, don’t you?:-)

Last, I’ll have an update sometime this week on the prospect book for those of you who were interested in a copy. I am about done with the formatting, with the only potential roadblock being the design of a front cover. I have a few people working on one, but may also instead just go with the publisher’s fee of a $100 to get one they help design. We’ll see. In any case, my goal is to have this thing ready to go to print by Valentine’s Day, and to have it in hand to ship out to people by the end of the month, as well as also have copies to take with me to spring training in March to hand out to people. If interested in a copy, e-mail me at tlastoria@theclevelandfan.com . I'll have more details soon.

I'll be updating the reference material on this site this week as well, so keep an eye out for that. Thanks again for the interest and support, and I look forward to seeing some of you in spring training.

Posted in: Baseball Prospectus,Nick Weglarz,Randy Newsom,Trevor Crowe