Here is the first stab at a 2011 depth chart for the Cleveland Indians organization from the big league team on down to their lowest full season minor league team at Low-A Lake County. As more information becomes available on possible placement this depth chart will be updated several more times in the coming days, months leading up to opening day in April for all five teams. This depth chart can be easily referenced as it will be linked in the tab along the top of the page below the site header.
A few notes:
- Triple-A Columbus and Double-A Akron are only allowed a 24 man active roster, so it makes it expecially tough to sort through the bullpen and bench options at both levels.
- At Akron I have Nick Hagadone in the starting rotation, though this should actually be a piggyback situation with him and another pitcher who is still deemed a starter, likely one of Austin Adams or T.J. McFarland.
- At Lake County I have Anthony Dischler and Jordan Cooper in the rotation, but this should be another piggyback situation. Michael Goonight and Alexander Morales are their likely piggyback partners.
Last Updated: January 5, 2011
| Cleveland | Columbus | Akron | Kinston | Lake Co. | |
Lineup | |||||
| C | Carlos Santana | Luke Carlin | Chun Chen | Roberto Perez | Alex Lavisky |
| 1B | Matt LaPorta | Jordan Brown | Beau Mills | Jeremie Tice | Chase Burnette |
| 2B | Jason Donald | Jason Kipnis | Karexon Sanchez | Argenis Martinez | Nick Bartolone |
| SS | Asdrubal Cabrera | Adam Everrett | Juan Diaz | Casey Frawley | Tony Wolters |
| 3B | Jayson Nix | Lonnie Chisenhall | Kyle Bellows | Adam Abraham | Giovanny Urshella |
| LF | Michael Brantley | Nick Weglarz | Tim Fedroff | Delvi Cid | Brian Heere |
| CF | Grady Sizemore | Ezequiel Carrera | Jordan Henry | Tyler Holt | LeVon Washington |
| RF | Shin-Soo Choo | Matt McBride | John Drennen | Abner Abreu | Carlos Moncrief |
| DH | Travis Hafner | Cord Phelps (INF) | Nate Recknagel | Bo Greenwell | Jesus Aguilar |
| Bench | |||||
| C | Lou Marson | Paul Phillips | Juan Apodaca | Diego Seastrunk | Alex Monsalve |
| INF | Luis Valbuena | Wes Hodges | Justin Toole | Kyle Smith | Tyler Cannon |
| INF | Jared Goedert | Cristo Arnal | Preston Mattingly | Jason Smit | Aaron Fields |
| INF | |||||
| OF | Austin Kearns | Jerad Head | Donnie Webb | Greg Folgia | Jordan Casas |
| Rotation | |||||
| SP | Fausto Carmona | Jeanmar Gomez | Scott Barnes | Drew Pomeranz | Clayton Cook |
| SP | Justin Masterson | David Huff | Kelvin De La Cruz | Jason Knapp | Trey Haley |
| SP | Carlos Carrasco | Alex White | Matt Packer | Giovanni Soto | Cole Cook |
| SP | Mitch Talbot | Corey Kluber | Joe Gardner | Kyle Blair | Jordan Cooper |
| SP | Josh Tomlin | Zach McAllister | Nick Hagadone | T.J. House | Anthony Dischler |
| Bullpen | |||||
| MR | Aaron Laffey | Jess Todd | T.J. McFarland | Francisco Jimenez | Michael Goodnight |
| MR | Frank Herrmann | Bryce Stowell | Austin Adams | Nick Sarianides | Taka Nakamura |
| MR | Jensen Lewis | Chen Lee | Eric Berger | Marty Popham | Mike Rayl |
| MR | Joe Smith | Zach Putnam | Rob Bryson | Tyler Sturdevant | Owen Dew |
| MR | Rafael Perez | Josh Judy | Bryan Price | Chris Jones | Alexander Morales |
| MR | Tony Sipp | Brett Brach | Ramon Cespedes | ||
| MR | |||||
| CL | Chris Perez | Vinnie Pestano | Cory Burns | Preston Guilmet | Nathan Striz |
| Bubble Guys or Rehab (*) | |||||
| Adam Miller | Carlton Smith | Brian Grening | Alexander Perez* | Moises Montero | |
| Anthony Reyes | Connor Graham | David Roberts | Andrew Shive | Elvis Araujo | |
| Jack Hannahan | Hector Rondon* | Joseph Mahalic* | Antwonie Hubbard | Alex Kaminsky | |
| Shelley Duncan | Paolo Espino | Kyle Landis | Ben Carlson | Anthony Gallas | |
| Joe Martinez | Steven Wright | Ron Rivas | Chris Kersten | Casey Gaynor | |
| Justin Germano | Yohan Pino | Ryan Morris* | Danny Salazar* | Dale Dickerson | |
| Trevor Crowe | Chad Huffman | Travis Turek | Dwight Childs | Daniel DeGeorge | |
| Hector Ambriz* | Matt Cusick | Jeremy Johnson | Daniel Jimenez | ||
| Matt Langwell | Vidal Nuno | Henry Dunn | |||
| Doug Pickens | James Ehlert | ||||
| James Reichenbach | |||||
| Joel Torres | |||||
| John Goryl | |||||
| Joseph Colon | |||||
| Juan Aponte | |||||
| Julio Ramirez | |||||
| Kevin Rucker | |||||
| Kirk Wetmore | |||||
| Kyle C. Smith | |||||
| Kyle Petter | |||||
| Logan Thompson | |||||
| Kevin Fontanez | |||||
| Nick Kirk | |||||
| Xavier De La Santos | |||||
| Ryan Gardner | |||||
| Trent Baker | |||||
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19 comments:
What information do you use to project the depth charts? Insider information from having been speaking directly to the staff and coaches? Probability based on players stats from last season and current needs? Gut feeling / instinct?
I only realize how spoiled Tribe fans are when I try to look at other team's minor league systems and only come up with MiLB.com and links to BA's scouting reports that are locked to non-subscribers. Keep up the great work!
I did not see Tony Wolters on a list, where will he be placed once the season begins?
A combination of information is gathered and applied from all you list.
While this is how I think the Indians will do it (not necessarily how I would do it), the hardest thing to show with the depth chart are the up-in-the-air battles at a lot of positions that can have a trickle down effect.
For example, the RH bat on the bench in Cleveland. I have a feeling that Goedert will end up being the guy as he can play LF, 3B and some 1B. But, Duncan certainly is an option too. And Phelps can be the 3B in Cleveland. If any of Duncan/Phelps ends up in Cleveland, the Columbus roster is affected greatly. There is a lot of backup in the system there with fringe ML bats (Brown, Hodges, Goedert, JRod, Duncan, McBride, Head) that something will have to give.
Injuries always help sort things out....but if people remain healthy it is going to be interesting to see how the Columbus lineup shakes out to start the season and also how all the bullpens at Kinston/Lake COunty shake out (REALLY tough to project). There are gonna be a lot of surprising cuts, and also a lot of guys repeating a level because of a logjam in front of them.
Wolters was tough for me. I think he could open in Lake COunty, but he is so young (18) that I believe the Indians will be conservative and have him open in extended spring training and then go to Lake County later in the year or Mahoning Valley. They want to develop him as a shortstop, and they also like Bartolone, so tough to have them both at Lake County to start.
After thinking about it a little more and getting some insight from a source, for now I am going to say Wolters does open in Lake COunty (I slid Bartolone over to 2B). This depth chart will be fluid as things are rationalized more and more info comes in the next several days, weeks.
Tony: I would be surprised if Lavisky starts right off with a full season team; as with Wolters he's only 18 and I would guess they would want to do plenty of work with a catcher in Arizona before he gets assigned to a team.
I'd expect T.J. House to be in the Akron rotation.
I'd hope that Drennen finally shows up in Columbus. 2 seasons in Akron should be all anyone gets before either promotion or release.
That Akron lineup looks really, really bad. Not your fault, though!
Tony- Love your work on the projected minor league depth charts. I cannot see Argenis Martinez moving all the way up to KIN regardless of his polish. He is a very young latin player that will transition in at LC playing 2B / SS spelling Bartolone / Wolters. If anything, At KIN it will probably end up being Rivas at 2B and Frawley at SS. This is just my 2 cents as everything else look very plausible.
Elliott...a few things. First off, Lavisky turns 20 years old this January. He's being moved faster as he was a 19-year old high school sign. Also, he's a guy who I have heard that more than likely opens at Lake County.
I too think House could end up in Akron, but at the end of the day, there has to be a spot. With Barnes, Packer, De La Cruz, Gardner and Hagadone/McFarland/Adams there in the 5th spot or piggybacking, there is no room for House. Which is why at least to start the season I think he returns to Kinston....but should move up to Akron by midseason if he does well. He didn't have a very good season last year either and could really use the development time at Kinston still.
Same goes for Drennen. While I agree he probably should be in Columbus....the question is who you take off the roster? Already you have a logjam with outfielders Carrera, Weglarz, McBride, Head, and Brown. With a 24 man roster, it leaves for only 3-4 bench guys, and makes it hard to have Drennen there from the outset. I think he returns to Akron to start, but definitely could be in Columbus at some point.
Toledo, note that Argenis Martinez will be 21 at the start of next season and was in Lake County all of 2010 as a regular. Not much of a bat, but they love his defense. You may be thinking of the young Jorge Martinez kid in the AZL last year?
Yep, I was thinking of Jorge Martinez. Thanks.
Nice work! Some things that I have differently in my mind:
I'd put each of the Akron and CBus bullpens at 7, mostly because that's what the Tribe has done the last few years. Certainly plenty of arms for it.
I think, at this point, Hodges is a backup in AAA. Phelps is going to get everyday playing time there, and that creates a logjam at 3B and 1B. Especially if Goedert is optioned down there to start the season. Granted, he'll probably play quite a bit on everyone else's off day, but I think his ship has pretty much sailed.
Was Jerad Head re-signed? I had Huffman in his spot, who is still with the team if I'm not mistaken.
I think both Akron and Columbus could end up with one or two extra arms that get sent to "Mahoning Valley" at the start of the season and get rotated in, like what happened with Sowers and Pino last year.
Matt, damn, I completely forgot about Huffman. He's a guy I know the org likes because of his RH bat as a potential guy for ML/AAA in the outfield next year. I'm gonna put him on the bubble for Columbus though. As for Head, he wasn't a FA. Still with the org.
You are also right that a few pitchers and position players will get the Mahoning Valley treatment and be with the team though not active. I expect that to be the case for Pino and a few others in COlumbus, as well as a guy or two in Akron. THey mostly do it for those two levels.
After thinking about it, I have swapped Phelps and Hodges. Phelps is listed as a DH only to show he will start, but he will actually split time at 3B/2B/DH. Hodges will likely split with Brown at 1B and he will also DH some....Brown will also play some OF/DH. Lots of moving parts.
Won't Hector Ambriz be in the bullpen for COL?
Forgot to list Ambriz as a rehab guy, so thanks. He actually won't be pitching for Columbus or anyone for at least the first half of the season since he had Tommy John surgery just a few months back.
Hey Tony,
Great Job! Just wondering when the 2011 prospect book gets released.
Regarding prospects just wondering if you could tell me which pitcher you see with the most major league POTENTIAL between Alex White, Drew Pomeranz, and Jason Knapp?
Thanks Shawn...you may have already seen my book update from Monday, but if not...plan at moment is to send to press at end of month or first week of February.
As for best major league potential among those you listed, I'd say Knapp. Great stuff. As to who has the best chance to get to the big leagues, that's an entirely different answer of course!
Please do not tell me Elvis Araujo has left the building. I sure hope to see him healthy and in the starting rotation at LC this year. elvis has some crazy potential and only his injuries have derailed him thus far. Hoping this is Elvis' breakout year.
Elvis is still very much in the plans...just after not pitching for two years he will be limited with innings, so likely opens in extended spring training then pitches for Mahoning Valley or Lake County later in the year.
Was wondering about Hagadone being listed in the rotation. Certainly great news, thought he was moved to the bullpen full time??
I've got Hagadone in the starting rotation, but he is going to piggyback this year again so he can develop pitches and mechanics. But he is expected to eventually move to the bullpen full time.....but for now is starting to help him with his fastball command and pitches.
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