2011 Indians Top 50 Prospects: #3 Alex White

Alex White – Right-handed Pitcher
Born: 08/29/1988 – Height: 6’3” – Weight: 195 – Bats: Right – Throws: Right

(Photo: Ken Carr)

History: White was selected by the Indians in the 1^st round of the 2009 Draft out of the University of North Carolina. He signed right at the August deadline for $2.25 million. He was the Atlantic Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2008. Last year he finished 2nd in the organization in ERA (2.45) and tied for 4th in wins. For his efforts last season he won the organization’s Bob Feller Award, which goes to their top minor league pitcher each season. The Indians have known him since he was in high school as area scout Bob Mayer followed and got to know him then.

Strengths: White is a big, strong, durable workhorse kind of pitcher with lots of athleticism featuring an electric plus fastball that sits at 91-94 MPH and has touched 97 MPH. His fastball comes out of his hand free and easy with good life and late, heavy sink to it, and he maintains his velocity well late in games. His plus-plus splitter is his most effective pitch, and one he added to his arsenal in college. It is a strikeout weapon for him as it has great late fade and he eats up left-handers with it. His developing slider sits at 82-85 MPH and is an inconsistent offering that has shown flashes of wipeout potential as an above average offering because of the good tilt and depth he gets when he is on with it.

White has a good feel for pitching and how to get hitters out. He shows a good rhythm and tempo on the mound and really believes in himself and has a lot of confidence in his stuff pitching to contact. He has a loose-armed, athletic delivery and has been a durable pitcher with no injury history. He consistently keeps the ball down in the zone, shows maturity beyond his years, and displays an advanced understanding of how to plan for and attack hitters. He has unbelievable composure with a great track record of being able to pitch when under pressure. He has a great presence and temperament on the mound as he does not try to do too much and nothing seems to speed up on him. He is extremely athletic which helps him field his position well, repeat his delivery, and control a running game exceptionally well. He is a competitor who is a bulldog on the mound that goes right after hitters.

White is a plus-plus makeup guy who is very intelligent, coachable, grounded, and strong in his values. He is very open-minded about suggestions and has handled the progress and process of development as well as anyone the Indians have ever had. He shows an incredible professionalism with how he approaches his bullpens and warm-ups by taking them very seriously. His worth ethic is very consistent and he has a lot of discipline. Off the field he is excellent with his routines, eating habits, and his strength and conditioning.

White had a very successful professional debut last season where he spent a lot of time enhancing his pitching talents by developing other areas of his game. He better solidified his delivery by incorporating more of his lower half, which in turn allowed him to more consistently command his fastball better to both sides of the plate. His refined delivery also helped his two secondary offerings become more effective and repeatable. Since he threw almost an exclusive fastball-splitter mix in college, he spent a lot of time last season incorporating his slider back into his pitch mix. He showed a better feel for it over the course of the season and late in the year it even started to become a weapon for him and one he quickly gained a lot of confidence in. Even though he had two starts left, the Indians shut him down with about a week left in the season. He had already eclipsed his innings pitched threshold of 150 innings, so they opted to protect his arm rather than have him make the final two starts or send him to Triple-A Columbus for their postseason run.

White was seen by some scouts as a power reliever coming out of college because he basically abandoned his breaking ball and his fastball-splitter mix is more conducive to the bullpen. With his makeup, mentality, composure, and stuff he has all the intangibles to be a successful backend reliever down the road. All that said, the Indians really like his athleticism and durability as a starter, especially with how he remains so strong late in his outings, so they will continue to develop him as a starter. Even if he ultimately ends up in the bullpen, by starting him now he can get regular work in games and in side sessions, and have more opportunities to be exposed to various game situations and to develop all of his pitches regularly in an outing. The bullpen option is something the Indians have decided to keep in their back pocket as he is just more valuable if he can start. Considering where he was taken in the draft and three potential above average pitches in his arsenal, they almost have to see him through as a starter first before turning to the bullpen as a fallback option.

Opportunities: The entire key to White remaining a starter is the development of his slider. He is still trying to find a consistent feel for the pitch as it lacks consistency in the zone. It is key for him because it adds a pitch with more side to side movement to change the eye level of the hitters rather than everything going down in the zone, which would make his fastball-splitter combination much more effective. He made strides with it last year, but it is still a below average offering at the moment that the Indians have challenged him to have more consistent shape, be able to throw it for strikes, and also be able to expand the strike zone with it. He is also working through a delivery adjustment mainly to work on repeating and smoothing out his delivery and try to throw all of his pitches for strikes to both sides of the plate. He has had some high pitch count, high effort innings, so he needs to get better with his location and being more efficient with his pitches.  While he does a good job of getting groundballs, he needs to develop more swing and miss to his pitches. His fastball command needs more refining, and his splitter needs a little more consistency.

Outlook: White had a very good professional debut across two different levels of the organization last year. He lived up to everything he was billed to be when he was taken in the 1st round of the 2009 Draft as a groundball machine (1.91 GO/AO) with the ability to miss bats and an exceptional work ethic. It was definitely a banner first pro season for him, and could be a great stepping stone to an even better year this season. He has a chance to be a middle of the rotation starter or more, and if his slider does not develop the Indians know he has the ability to impact as a late inning reliever. He will spend most if not all of the 2011 season at Columbus in order to finish him off and make him a full time option in the Cleveland rotation in 2012. Depending on need and his progress, he could debut with the Indians sometime after the All Star break, but there is a chance his debut may not come until 2012 for roster management reasons. He likely will open the 2011 season at Columbus, but there is a chance he could return to Double-A Akron to start the season. Either way, he should spend the majority of his time in Columbus this coming season.

Year	Age	Team	Lvl	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	AVG	BB/9	K/9	WHIP
2010	21	Kinston	A+	2	3	2.86	8	8	44.0	32	14	4	19	41	.204	3.9	8.4	1.16
2010	21	Akron	AA	8	7	2.28	18	17	106.2	91	27	8	27	76	.226	2.3	6.4	1.11
		MiLB Totals		10	10	2.45	26	25	150.2	123	41	12	46	117	.220	2.7	7.0	1.12

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