Indians Top 50: #33 Danny Salazar

Danny Salazar - Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 01/11/1990 - Height: 6'0" - Weight: 180 - Bats: Right - Throws: Right

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	AVG	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2007	17	DSL Indians	R	5	3	1.96	14	14	64.1	52	14	1	12	49	.221	1.7	6.9	1.00
2008	18	GCL Indians	R	4	2	2.87	11	11	53.1	46	17	5	13	43	.231	2.2	7.3	1.11
2009	19	Lake County	A	5	7	4.44	21	20	107.1	114	53	10	40	65	.271	3.4	5.5	1.44
		Totals		14	12	3.36	46	45	225.0	212	84	16	65	157	.248	2.6	6.3	1.23

History: Salazar was signed by the Indians as an undrafted free agent out of the Dominican Republic during the International Signing Period in July 2006. He made his stateside debut in Instructional League in 2007 and in the rookie level Gulf Coast League in 2008.

Strengths & Opportunities: Salazar has a three pitch mix of a fastball, slider and changeup. His plus fastball sits between 89-92 MPH while touching 94 MPH.  He pitches off his fastball and relies on it a lot, and the pitch has good late movement and he commands it well by throwing good strikes in the zone.  He has a good feel for a changeup at such a young age, and it is his best secondary pitch at the moment showing good tumbling action. He also flashes an average slider with late, hard bite that hitters have no chance at when he is on.  He is a former shortstop and moves around well, so that excellent athleticism will help him make adjustments more easily and in a shorter timeframe. He shows great composure and good makeup.

Salazar made a lot of progress last year pitching in his first full season.  He spent the first six weeks of the season in extended spring training, and when he first arrived at Low-A Lake County in May he was up in the zone with his fastball command.  He was also getting a little bit across himself with his delivery, so it did not allow him to leverage the ball down in the zone consistently. As the season wore on he made progress with improving his pitching mechanics and his stride direction was much more consistent which in turn allowed him to command his fastball better.  This shows in his numbers as in the first half of the season he was 1-3 with a 6.81 ERA in 8 starts, but in the second half he was 4-4 with a 3.20 ERA in 13 starts.

Salazar's improvement in the second half was also a result of him getting better at trusting his stuff and keeping hitters off balance with his improved secondary pitches.  The main focus for him this coming season is getting him more consistent with his delivery, command, and refining his secondary stuff.  Also, the Indians would like to see him pile up more strikeouts since they think he has the stuff to do it, and they believe he will start to increase the strikeout total once he more consistently gets ahead of hitters so he can get to his quality out pitches.

Outlook:  The Indians feel Salazar had a year last year in Lake County that was very similar to the seasons that fellow right-handers Jeanmar Gomez and Hector Rondon had when they passed through there at the same age in 2007.  He really had a very good season for a guy who was 19 years old and very young for the league, and even better is he showed much improvement as the season went along by making strides with his delivery and strike throwing.  He is a sleeper prospect to watch who has some helium, and should pitch in the starting rotation for High-A Kinston, or due to starting depth in the system could begin the year in Low-A Lake County but move quickly to Kinston.

Photo courtesy of Ken Carr

Danny Salazar MinorLeagueBaseball.com page

Danny Salazar Baseball-Reference page

Danny Salazar MinorLeagueSplits.com page

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