Indians Top 100 Prospects: #25 Jeanmar Gomez

25. Jeanmar Gomez - Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 02/10/1988 - Height: 6'3" - Weight: 168 - Bats: Right - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2005	17	DSL Indians	R	5	3	1.33	13	10	1	61.0	47	9	2	9	46	1.3	6.8	0.92
2006	18	GCL Indians	R	4	3	2.48	11	9	0	54.1	50	15	2	12	34	2.0	5.6	1.14
2007	19	Lake County	A	11	7	4.80	27	27	0	140.2	152	75	19	46	94	2.9	6.0	1.41
2008	20	Kinston	A+	5	9	4.55	27	27	0	138.1	154	70	14	46	110	3.0	7.2	1.45
		Career		25	22	3.86	78	73	1	394.1	403	169	37	113	284	2.6	6.5	1.31

History:  Gomez was signed as a non-drafted free agent out of Venezuela in April of 2005.   

Strengths & Opportunities:  In his first four seasons in the Indians farm system Gomez has been very good showing considerable upside with his growth potential in size and stuff.  He has a good feel for his three pitch mix of a fastball, slider and changeup.  His fastball consistently clocks in at 89-91 MPH topping out at 93 MPH, and his velocity continues to increase each year with good potential for future strength gains because of his plus arm strength.  His curveball has true 11-5 break, and shows good potential.  His changeup is an average pitch with sink and fade, and he has good command of it.  He has proven to be very durable as the Indians have never had to back him off any of his starts. 

Gomez has shown a penchant for being a slow starter as in 2007 at Single-A Lake County in 13 starts before the All-Star break he went 5-6 with a 6.51 ERA and then in 14 starts after the break was 6-1 with a 3.27 ERA.  He followed that up last season at advanced Single-A Kinston where in 14 starts before the All-Star break he was 2-6 with a 5.27 ERA and then after it in 13 starts he was 3-3 with a 3.82 ERA.  He really finished the season strong in August going 2-1 with a 1.74 ERA in six starts, and his success stemmed from him being able to command his fastball to both sides of the plate and being able to consistently throw his secondary pitches for strikes which has allowed him to throw off-speed pitches in fastball counts.  He also worked a lot in bullpen sessions with pitching coach Greg Hibbard to improve the velocity of his slider by improving his mechanics to ended up making it sharper with much better late break.  Prior to the adjustments, he would fly open and expose his arm slot which caused problems in getting proper velocity on his pitches and in turn he ended up overthrowing a lot.  Now that he is throwing with his arm more out front he is throwing much easier and getting much more life on all his pitches.  Gomez also continues to improve in some of the mental aspects of pitching such as reading swings. 

His command and control is still only average and it is something the Indians are working with him to improve and they feel he has the ability to have plus command/control in the future.  He has been pushed in the system the last two years where he has been one of the youngest pitchers in the league both seasons, and shown an ability to hang in there and compete even though the numbers always are not very good.  Being so young, inconsistency is one of the major growing pains for pitchers his age, and is something he will need to get a handle on going forward.  The breaking ball is a big key with Gomez developing into a quality starting pitcher.  Being an over-the-top guy his slider may be scrapped at some point since it does not work up at that arm slot and is very hittable, so he will need to find another vertical pitch like the overhand breaking ball or split-finger.  If he develops a top to bottom vertical pitch to go with his fastball, it could vault his prospect standing significantly.  

Outlook:  Due to his youth and inexperience pitching at a higher level, Gomez has often spent a lot of time learning on the job.  This coming season he will continue to work on improving his mechanics on the mound, repeating his delivery, and throwing strikes more consistently.  He is the third amigo in the Latin Trifecta which also includes Kelvin De La Cruz and Hector Rondon, and he should move up to Double-A Akron in 2009 and be in the starting rotation. 

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr 

Jeanmar Gomez MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page 

Jeanmar Gomez Baseball-Reference page 

Jeanmar Gomez MinorLeagueSplits.com page 

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