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| Dan Mendlik/Cleveland Indians |
The architect of the Indians aggressive approach in the draft this year was Amateur Scouting Director Brad Grant. He along with the help of Scouting Director John Mirabelli and about two dozen area scouts and crosscheckers had what on paper was an impactful, memorable draft, and when it is looked back on in four to five years has the potential to go down as one of the all-time great drafts in Indians’ history.
As with any draft, there are no sure things and the attrition rate can be high. There could be some unexpected surprises or disappointments, and as always injuries are the great equalizer. But, with what appears a string of now three successful drafts in a row since Grant took the draft reigns in 2008, things are finally starting to look more promising with the Indians now beginning to draft and develop their own players.
I had a chance to talk to Grant over the weekend about a myriad of topics surrounding this year’s draft, the draft process, and their preparations for next year. Below is what was talked about, in Q&A style.
Q: Now that the dust has settled on the 2010 Draft and the signing deadline has come and gone, how do you feel about things?
Brad Grant (BG): We are very excited about how the process worked out with the ability to sign the first 14 picks. We went into the draft trying to talk the best player available and trying to add as much talent as we possibly could. We came out of it where right now on paper it looks like a very successful draft. We will see where it all plays out over the next four years, but we like where we are right now."
Q: Going into the draft it was said you would be very aggressive with your approach not only in drafting players, but in getting them signed as well. As an example, you selected 12 of Baseball
BG: I just think with where we are as an organization we need to continue to add talent to our development system. Obviously we are not going to be able to compete on the free agent market, especially with premium free agent acquisitions, so we have to acquire talent at the amateur level and develop it and add it to our major league club. We wanted to be aggressive. We have been aggressive in the past with our drafts, and we wanted to continue to be aggressive this year and ensure we are adding as much talent as possible to the development system.
Q: Why don't we just adopt this approach every year, or is this easier said than done?
BG: Yeah it is easier said than done. It is a case by case basis and depends with where we are economically as well and what we have available to be able to spend. Last year we only went out of slot one time, but we still felt like we had a very successful draft last year. Recognizing that we did take players that would sign for slot, we still took very talented players. So just because you take players and sign them for overslot doesn't dictate that you are going to have premium talent as we were able to add premium talent last year without going overslot.
Q: The late signing deadline and the slot recommendations seem to be a crutch in the negotiating process. With more and more players signing so late, you as an organization are losing more and more opportunities to get these guys on the field in their draft year for a significant amount of games. Is there anything you would like to see changed with the signing process?
BG: Yeah we will see what happens over the course of the next basic agreement. Certainly moving the signing deadline closer to the draft so that we can get players out and into our development system would definitely be something I would like. Also, just having some consistency in the process so it doesn't reward a larger market team and doesn't penalize a smaller market team and that there is some consistency with teams being able to acquire the best available players with the way they are picking. (Editor’s Note: I take this as Grant talking about the free agent draft pick compensation system how so many large market teams get comp picks.)
Q: There were a lot of overslot signings this year, not just by the Indians but industry-wide. What kind of repercussions – if any – come from Major League Baseball for going overslot with so many players?
BG: It is just part of the process to go through it and to make sure that we are negotiating correctly and that we are going through it correctly. Each case is dictated by a players leverage in negotiations and what type of leverage they have. Just because you are going overslot doesn't dictate they have better talent than a player who signs in that slot, it is more based on their leverage during the course of negotiations.
Q: How does the relationship work between major league teams and colleges since you are essentially taking their draft eligible sophomores, juniors, enrolled freshman, or transfers?
BG: It is just how it works and is a professional relationship. Obviously they are working to try and keep their players, and we are working to try and sign them. Both sides realize that sometimes we will get it and the college realizes that sometimes they will get the player back. It is just part of the process and we want to build and maintain relationships with the college programs. Obviously we need their assistance and they need our assistance when their players are ready to be drafted as they want to have them drafted. It is definitely a professional relationship and we try to maintain those relationships with all college programs.
Q: When it comes to the draft do your crosscheckers see everyone you draft, or as you get deeper in the draft is it really the scout’s draft?
BG: With how we are setup with four regional crosscheckers and a national crosschecker, we are usually able to get pretty deep in terms of our crosscheck looks. A lot of times it is just one look from a crosschecker, whereas the top end guys in the first five-ten picks will have multiple crosscheck looks where later on it becomes more of the scout's draft. It is the area scout having multiple looks at a player and maybe one look by a crosschecker. A lot of times the late picks are dictated by the area scout.
Q: You took an approach of taking the best player available in the draft this year with each pick, but are there ever situations in any given round with two or more players having a similar rating where depth in a position may influence a pick?
BG: You are always using different things to separate out players. You are always going to have players with similar type abilities, so you use different indicators then to separate it out whether it be what we have already taken in the draft, what is perceived as a lack of depth in our development system, or just using premium position/starter to separate out things. There are a lot of different pieces that come into play in terms of separating out players and making decisions. A lot of it to is the area scout who knows the guy the best and says “this is a guy I'd like to get so let’s go get him now".
Q: With Pomeranz signing so late and not throwing a professional pitch this year, is he very likely going to be on the same track that Alex White has been on the past 12 months where he goes to Instructional League, opens in Kinston, and pitches a majority of next season at Akron?
BG: I always kind of go back to where every player dictates their own time frame and path. Obviously Drew had success at the collegiate level and at the national level with Team
Q: We have heard a lot about most of your top ten picks this year, but the one guy who has not been talked about much at all is 6th round pick shortstop Nick Bartolone. Considering how high he was taken, he has been tabbed as a mystery man because of the lack of information on him from several draft publications. Is this a guy where his scout Don Lyle really pushed for us to go get him?
BG: Don has a lot of experience and has had a lot of success signing major league players. This is a guy that Don identified early on, and when Don gets a gut feel for a guy I usually listen to that. This was a case where Don felt strongly about Nick and his ability to play short was something that he really thought was an attribute. He is a guy who can play a premium position at shortstop, has speed, arm strength and as he gets stronger and continues to adjust to wood will be able to handle the wood. He already kind of exceeded our expectations offensively a little bit this year. He went out and played the defense that we thought he would be able to play and held his own offensively, which was good to see. Maybe he wasn't a name in Baseball
Q: Going back to the Baseball
BG: Yeah. We were going to try and make a pretty aggressive offer to him, but Burch made the decision that he wanted to go to college and was pretty firm on that. We respected how he went about the process. He said that college was important to him and he wanted to go and try to prove it one more year. He is definitely a guy we are going to scout again next year and definitely a guy on our radar again next year.
Q: Instructional League starts up this week. One thing of note with the roster is that 9th round pick third baseman Hunter Jones is listed as an outfielder. Is he moving to the outfield, or are you guys just experimenting with him out there?
BG: I am not going to tell you that he is going to make the switch yet. We are just trying the different options and see how he plays out there as well. We think he can play third base, but also just want the flexibility to see how he performs in the outfield too. We like the speed, power, athleticism and upside. He is an athlete and obviously has bloodlines as a well above average runner who has power and is progressing in terms of his hitting and defense. He is an athlete that has a strong baseball background and a guy we feel that we can mold into a very good player.
Q: Are there any other position changes in store for anyone else in Instructs?
BG: Jones is the only one. You have seen Tyler Holt play a little bit on the corners [in
Q: Speaking of Holt, he has certainly lived up to his billing as a very intense player who lets his emotions show. How do you approach a player like this to scale it back a little since that intense approach is so much a part of their game?
BG: That aggressive approach is part of his game. He will find that he will have to tone it down a little bit in terms of just the length to a minor league and ultimately major league season. That to play at that type of speed and aggressiveness that he will have to manage it. At the same time you don't want to take it away from him at all because that is what makes him good and allows him to overachieve. That's what has gotten him to the point where he is right now.
Q: I know it is early in the process, but any idea what the draft strategy will be next year?
BG: We will wait and see and what we think the talent level is and where we are picking. A lot of those things will come out during the course of the offseason in our planning and everything else. So how we are going to approach it next year is still something that we are continuing to discuss and walk through.
Q: There has been some talk that the 2011 Draft looks to be pretty good, is this true?
BG: On paper right now, especially at the top end, there is probably more depth to it whereas this past year the industry kind of agreed on the top three and after that kind of depending on who you liked there were a lot of similar type players. I think next year, looking at it right now, in terms of premium players there will be more depth at the top of the draft.
Q: What is the general schedule of events for the next several months to prepare for next year’s draft?
BG: We already started in June right after we finished the Draft. Our scouts were out and I went out to the Tournament of the Stars and the high school showcases. We covered all the collegiate summer leagues, saw the east coast showcases, and the national showcases. When we get to September there is a little bit of a lull, and now we will start right back up in October with all the college fall ball and scout days that each university has and begin to cover all the colleges again. It doesn't stop at all. We will break again for a couple of weeks in January and then pick it up at the end of January.
Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIPI. His new book the 2010 Cleveland Indians Top 100 Prospects & More is also available for purchase on Amazon.com or his site.
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9 comments:
Thanks for asking the question, Tony. You got a real BS answer that dodged the question but not much you can do about that.
Tony, have you noticed teams in our division are getting their top pitching prospects to the ML's much quicker than we are currently doing. Both the Tigers and White Sox are getting contributions in pennant race competition with certain young pitchers.
Wonder how many years Porcello and Sale would have labored in our system before getting their chance?
Yes Mike, I have noticed that. Though there is a difference when you are contending and not contending, and in addition to that when you are desperate for pitching.
In the Indians case, it makes no sense to rush a guy to the big leagues. What good would having Alex White or whoever play this year? Doing so just gets them a year closer to FA, and the idea is to use your best players as close to contention as possible so you have them longer in that contention window.
I believe that had the Indians been contending, and their pitching options were exhausted, they would have seriously considered Alex White in the big leagues this year in some sort of role.
Tony, I agree to you to a certain extent. What the Indians really need to do is re-focus on winning games at the ML level. Right now, it appears they have a different agenda. Their winning priorities need to be revisited. If one player is better and more talented than another than they should be on the field no matter what the other circumstances might warrant. Until this organization values winning again at the ML level day-in and day- out then the fans will continue to stay away ... in droves.
I'm sure you heard Hawk Harrelson the other day, who by the way is a good guy, he doesn't see the Indians contending in 2012. Getting more input from other scouts and organization members will put the heat on ownership who very much like to paint a blue sky way to often.
Please consider as a member of the Cleveland media covering the Indians in a professional manner to find ways to make the Indians organization be accountable. When they put winning aside as they have been doing ... that should not be acceptable.
I do agree that there needs to be more urgency with guys who are about major league ready and getting those guys to Cleveland and seeing what they can do rather than mess around with the Marte's, Duncan's, etc of the world.
I do disagree that they have put winning aside though. Maybe this year since they know it was a development year, but they surely want to win now and going forward. Unfortunately, it's a hard process when the chips are stacked against you like they are with the way baseball is setup. Hopefully with some of the pieces coming together at the big league level already along with the pieces in the pipeline hopefully continuing to progress that we can start winning again in 2012. I still think - if healthy - this team could be on the verge of a 2004 campaign next year. Win 78-82 games and be much more competitive. We'll see though.
It looks tome like 2011 is the transition year of rebuilding. By the middle of next year, the pieces should be in place with the possible additions of Weglarz, Chisenhall, Phelps/Kipnis, White and some RPs to our prospects from this year. How good they will be and how soon they assimilate into the ML will probably dictate how quickly the rebuild goes from there. Lots of tinkering can be done with the pitching but position replacements internally is another matter.
Tony, agree the baseball chips may be stacked, but other mid-market teams are competing year in and year out. Prior to our run in the 90's we faced the very same obstacles but they were overcome with the infusion of talent and front office people who knew talent. Right now we have more than 2 million fans in NE Ohio who are turned off with Indians baseball. That says a whole lot ... it is real. The Indians most valuable asset, the fans, are telling them how they feel.
Don't see them winning trying to implement and sustain this current model. Last point ... how long would Sale have labored in our minor league system prior to being promoted even though he is already contributing at the ML level today? Could that not be a great question for Ross Atkins? Apparantely the talent evaluators in Chicago recognized his ability. I applaud them for a gutty move. There is a lot more to baseball talent recognition than just crunching numbers on a lap top. I'm really concerned with what we are not going to get with Chris Antonetti ... who lacks the credentials of a true baseball man. It will not be an advantage for the Indians.
Indian inkslinger,
How refreshing is it to finally see a decent sized list of drafted prospects which should contribute to the major league team within the next year! That to me is the missing piece, and the only way that we have a chance to compete year in and year out, like we all desire. I'm worried that we will have no place for Weglarz due to Hafner's large contract, but that's a worry for another day. I think next year is all about finding out what these young guys are made of.
As for the last comment, please give Chris Antonetti a chance. We don't know how he is going to lead and steer this team, until he actually begins the job.
Me personally, I don't bring Sale to the big leagues this year. It hurts more than it helps the player long run, but I understand why the White Sox did it as their pitching cupboard was pretty bare and they were desperate. I'll take the Alex White approach everytime, as I prefer that model for fasttracked college pitchers (1+ years in minors).
Also, with Antonetti, I will wait and see. I've heard many say he is a Shapiro clone, but I am not sure on that. Just because the guy worked under Shapiro as his right-hand man doesn't mean a lot as when he finally gets in the GM chair things could be a lot different or the same. We will see. I mean, Shapiro was John Hart's right hand man before he took over, and look how different he turned out to be.
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