Indians Top 50+ Prospects: The Book

As I alluded to a few months back, I had toyed with the idea of printing the top prospect listing I recently did. I had wanted a print copy to keep for myself, and some others had said they were interested as well. Anyway, now that the prospect piece is done, I am now seriously considering doing this while I have some free time the next few weeks, but because of the upfront cost involved I wanted to see the general interest for such an endeavor.The book would be somewhere around $10 (plus any shipping) and would be 5.5 x 8.5 size, which those familiar...

Read More

Matt Whitney

Matt Whitney - First BasemanAge: 24 Height: 6'4" Weight: 200 Bats: Right Throws: RightAVGGABRH2B3BHRRBIBBKSBOBPSLGOPS2007 Lake/Kinston.2991285129515330032113531221.364.545.909Career.2584061521227393803632421734496.339.439.778History: Whitney was taken in the first round of the 2002 Draft out of high school, and was a supplemental pick at the end of the first round the Indians obtained when Juan Gonzalez (Type-A free agent) was lost in free agency after the 2001 season. Whitney...

Read More

Update: 1/23

Just a quick update today on some of the news around the system. Not much is happening as players are getting ready to report to spring training in a little over a month. That said, several players have come up in the news the past few days.As I mentioned here last week, right-hander Randy Newsom has started a new company which allows fans to invest in minor league baseball players at www.realsportsinvestments.com. Baseball Prospectus wrote an article the other day on it, check it out. The article has some great insight into the financial hardships...

Read More

Brian Barton

Brian Barton - OutfielderAge: 25 Height: 6'3" Weight: 185 Bats: Right Throws: RightAVGGABRH2B3BHRRBIBBKSBOBPSLGOPS2007 Akr/Buf.3051314766414521210664811721.402.420.822Career.316354127822640471123521215230480.416.473.889History: The Indians signed Barton as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Miami, FL in August 2004. There were serious concerns about how serious he was about baseball after he had to sit out a year after transferring from Loyola and he was majoring...

Read More

Indians Top 50+ Prospects: Wrapup

This is the final installment of the Indians 2008 Top 50+ Prospects series. This is a recap to expand a little on the articles and give some extra insight into the thinking on these pieces since I left opinion out of the actual scouting reports. I received several e-mail responses and many questions which I answered privately, but after thinking about it felt it best to share some of the common questions that probably many people actually had.Here is a recap of the articles:Intro & Prospects Who Just MissedTop 2007 Draft & Dominican Summer...

Read More

Another Update: 1/17

Just a quick update on some things happening in the Tribe prospect world.Baseball America yesterday released their Indians Top 10 list, and Chris Kline also did a chat talking about the list and some other prospects. If I was ever going to recommend someone other than myself for Indians prospect info, Chris is the guy. He knows the Tribe system up and down, and actually sees a lot of these kids play and keeps tabs on them throughout the season. Most other sites - in fact no one else really – don’t do that. Not John Sickels, not MiLB.com, not any...

Read More

Chad Ogea Inducted Into Kinston HOF

Former World Series Star to Headline Kinston Hot StoveEx-Indian Chad Ogea earns a spot in the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of FameKINSTON – The Kinston Indians announced today that former Kinston and Cleveland Indian pitcher Chad Ogea (O-jay) will be inducted into the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame at the 2008 Kinston Indians Hot Stove banquet. The banquet will be held on Friday, February 8th at the Hampton Inn in Kinston. A silent auction and social hour will begin at 6pm, with dinner to follow at 7:30pm. Tickets for the...

Read More

A Quick Update

I'm back from my short vacation and catching up on things, but wanted to throw up a quick update.I am not sure or not if this has been reported on-line or in the papers, but the Winter Development Program roster has been released. It is as follows:Three Week Players1 Brown, Jordan 2 Choo, Shin-Soo 3 Constanza, Jose 4 Dixon, Kevin 5 Edell, Ryan 6 Finocchi, Michael 7 Gimenez, Chris 8 Goleski, Ryan 9 Head, Stephen 10 Huff, David 11 Stevens, Jeffrey 12 Tseng, Sung-Wei One Week Players 1 Crowe, Trevor 2 Lewis, Scott 3 Lofgren, Chuck 4 Herr, Aaron 5...

Read More

2008 Indians Top 50 Prospects

1. Adam Miller (RHP)2. Jordan Brown (1B)3. Wes Hodges (3B)4. Jensen Lewis (RHP)5. Chuck Lofgren (LHP)6. Nick Weglarz (OF)7. Aaron Laffey (LHP)8. Josh Rodriguez (SS)9. Tony Sipp (LHP)10. Beau Mills (1B)11. Ben Francisco (OF)12. Trevor Crowe (OF)13. Jared Goedert (2B/3B)14. Scott Lewis (LHP)15. Matt McBride (C)16. Jeff Stevens (RHP)17. John Drennen (OF)18. Kelvin De La Cruz (LHP)19. Carlos Rivero (SS)20. David Huff (LHP)21. Reid Santos (LHP)22. Hector Rondon (RHP)23. Michael Aubrey (1B)24. Chris Gimenez (C)25. Chris Nash (1B)26. Paolo Espino (RHP)27....

Read More

Indians Top 50+ Prospects: #1-5

This is the final installment a nine piece installment ranking the Indians top prospects. All photos in this installment are courtesy of Carl Kline. To get in touch with Carl Kline for photo assistance, please e-mail me at tlastoria@theclevelandfan.com and I will forward his e-mail address to you.One note, these height and weights are as of Feb/March 2007 as new height and weights are not available yet, so players have gotten bigger over the last year than the listed vitals....

Read More