Indians Top 100 Prospects: #13 Scott Lewis

13. Scott Lewis - Left-handed Pitcher
Born: 09/26/1983 - Height: 6'0" - Weight: 195 - Bats: Switch - Throws: Left

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2004	20	Mahoning Vy	A-	0	2	5.06	3	3	0	5.1	5	3	0	1	13	1.7	22.0	1.13
2005	21	Mahoning Vy	A-	0	1	4.60	7	6	0	15.2	13	8	2	6	24	3.4	13.8	1.21
2006	22	Kinston	A+	3	3	1.48	27	26	0	115.2	84	19	3	28	123	2.2	9.6	0.97
2007	23	Akron	AA	7	9	3.68	27	25	0	134.2	135	55	13	34	121	2.3	8.1	1.26
2008	24	Akron	AA	6	2	2.33	13	13	0	73.1	62	19	2	9	61	1.1	7.5	0.97
	24	Buffalo	AAA	2	2	2.63	4	4	0	24.0	19	7	2	4	21	1.5	7.9	0.96
	24	Cleveland	MLB	4	0	2.63	4	4	0	24.0	20	7	4	6	15	2.3	5.6	1.08
		Career (minors)		18	19	2.71	81	77	0	368.2	318	111	22	82	363	2.0	8.9	1.09

History:  The Indians drafted Lewis in the 3rd round of the 2004 Draft out of Ohio State University. At Ohio State, Lewis was a dominant pitcher, as his sophomore season in 2003 he went 9-1 with a 1.61 ERA and struck out 127 batters in just 84 innings pitched and won Big Ten Pitcher of the Year honors. In 2006, with a 1.48 ERA, Lewis won the Minor League ERA Title with the best ERA in all the minors.  He made his major league debut this past September and impressed in his first two starts not allowing a run in 14 innings. 

Strengths & Opportunities: Once pegged as a left-on-left guy in the bullpen or a middle reliever, Lewis has showcased the endurance and ability to be a major league starter. There is no question he has the pitches and ability.  He has a fastball that consistently sits around 88-90 MPH and tops out at 91 MPH, but his tremendous command of his secondary pitches along with good arm action and deception throughout his delivery make his fastball play up and look faster.  He also throws a curveball and changeup, with both grading out as very good pitches.  The power and depth he has added to his nasty 12-6 curveball has made it one of the best in the system, and his changeup has developed into a plus pitch where he gets a lot of action on the pitch in the strike zone.  The Indians have been particularly encouraged by the absence of any arm injuries considering how aggressive his release is when he throws the ball. 

Lewis has a history of arm troubles going all the way back to his college days.  After his brilliant 2003 season at Ohio State and being considered as a first round possibility in the 2004 Draft, he suffered a severe arm injury that resulted in him needing Tommy John surgery.  He also battled bicep tendonitis all through 2005, and ended up pitching a total of only 21 innings combined in 2004 and 2005, so he went into the 2006 season on a strict pitch count of 65 to 70 pitches an outing.  Lewis made it through the 2006 and 2007 seasons unscathed and made every turn in the rotation.  While Lewis made it through the 2007 season without injury, he was put on the disabled list for the Eastern League playoffs that year with inflammation in his left elbow.  He reportedly complained of some soreness in the elbow and had some tingling and numbness in his hand, and as a precaution he was shutdown for the playoffs.  He also had another setback this past spring where in his last outing before the end of spring training he pulled a lat muscle in his back and missed nearly three months of the season. 

Lewis is currently 100% healthy and ready for spring training, but going forward Lewis needs to continue to prove he can be a durable pitcher and stay on the field for the Indians.  His curveball continues to improve and is a very good pitch, but the Indians are still trying to firm it up a bit and make it more of an out pitch.  Also, he does not throw hard, so he will need to depend on his excellent command and secondary pitches to get more advanced hitters out on a regular basis. He also needs to continue getting better at repeating his delivery and ironing out some flaws with his delivery mechanics. 

Outlook:  It was really a tough year for Lewis in some ways as the Indians were expecting a lot out of him in 2008, but he was injured in his last spring training outing.  After missing half the season with the injury, the Indians major focus with him was to get him to an innings threshold where he could be starting depth for the major league team in 2009.  The Indians were able to accomplish that with the innings he threw in Double-A Akron, Triple-A Buffalo, Cleveland as well as in the offseason winter leagues.  He really showed a lot of poise and took command of his performance last season to sort of tell Indians officials "I'm ready".  He is a candidate to open the season in the Cleveland starting rotation as the fifth starter, but likely will open the season in the Triple-A Columbus rotation which will be a homecoming for him having played at Ohio State.  He should be up in Cleveland at some point during the season. 

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr 

Scott Lewis MinorLeagueBaseball.com stats page 

Scott Lewis Baseball-Reference page 

Scott Lewis MinorLeagueSplits.com page 

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