Indians Top 100 Prospects: #11 Carlos Rivero

11. Carlos Rivero - Shortstop
Born: 05/20/1988 - Height: 6'3" - Weight: 210 - Bats: Right - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2005	17	DSL Indians	R	66	237	21	61	6	0	0	31	12	26	7	.257	.295	.283	.578
2006	18	GCL Indians	R	37	134	17	38	6	0	2	22	10	20	0	.284	.338	.373	.711
		Burlington	R	16	66	3	14	3	0	1	7	5	11	0	.212	.264	.303	.567
2007	19	Lake County	A	115	436	59	114	26	0	7	62	47	84	1	.261	.332	.369	.701
2008	20	Kinston	A+	108	411	46	116	27	1	8	64	36	84	1	.282	.342	.411	.753
		Career		342	1284	146	343	68	1	18	186	110	225	9	.267	.326	.364	.690

History: Rivero was signed by the Indians out of Venezuela in March of 2005 at just 16 years of age. This upcoming season will be Rivero's fifth year in the Indians system, his fourth year stateside.

Strengths & Opportunities: Rivero has been sort of a hidden gem in the Indians system the past two years, but he finally started to show his potential with his late season surge in 2008. He battled through some injuries earlier in the year last season and put up average to below average numbers for most of the season hitting .241 with a .613 OPS in April, .304/.738 in May, .241/.732 in June, and .223/.617 in July. But, the 20-year old Venezuelan finished strong with a sensational August where he hit .356 with 4 HR, 21 RBI, and a .981 OPS.

Rivero has the potential to be a good hitting middle infielder with some power potential down the road, and has a very good approach for a young player. He has a great looking swing with good technique, and the ball comes off his bat well. He has some of the best power potential in the Indians system, and he doesn't have to generate his power because it comes naturally from the strength in his bat. He could hit more home runs if he was allowed to pull the ball more, but he has been working on staying in the middle of the field and learning to work counts to better develop his plate discipline. One thing going for him is he already has a good handle with his two-strike approach as in 1284 career at bats he has only struck out 225 times. Considering he has played all four of his previous minor league seasons very underage for his level, a 6:1 at bat to strikeout ratio is very good and shows the potential with his bat-to-ball ability and plate discipline. He also has excellent makeup.

While size is not everything, Rivero is impressive physically and is expected to get even bigger. To go along with his size, he has all the outstanding abilities and intangibles except speed. What he lacks in speed, though, he more than makes up with his power potential, bat-to-ball ability, his hands, and his glove-work. For his size, he moves around well at shortstop. He is not fast and only has average range, but he has good first step quickness, has real good hands, and a strong and accurate arm. Whether or not he sticks at shortstop or slides over to third base depends on how big he gets, but the Indians believe he will be able to stick at shortstop long term.

Rivero has it all to become an elite prospect given his abilities at such a young age, but like with so many highly touted players at his age, developing his plate discipline, breaking ball recognition, and staying healthy will determine his prospect status down the road. Going forward, Rivero needs to keep getting stronger and maintain his first step quickness, and he has been working on getting better jumps to the ball. At this point his career is relative to where Jhonny Peralta was four to five years ago as they are in very similar places in their career. They are slightly different in that Rivero is a little more athletic than Peralta was, but Peralta had better hands and they both have similar power. Some baseball officials have even gone as far as to say he could eventually be another player along the lines of Miguel Cabrera.

Outlook: Rivero is projection with a capital "P". He doesn't have the stats to backup his lofty prospect status, but this is the classic example of looking beyond the stats and looking at age, level, ability and flat out grading out a prospect with what you see and feel he will become. In a system mostly barren when it comes to good middle infield depth, Rivero is at the top of the class. He is still an emerging talent, and it is scary to think what he may become once his age catches up with the level he is at and he grows into his body more. He will start the 2009 season as the starting shortstop at Double-A Akron.

Photo courtesy of Carl Kline

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