2009 Coaching Staffs

Columbus Clippers (AAA):Torey Lovullo, ManagerScott Radinsky, Pitching CoachJon Nunnally, Hitting CoachJeff Desjardins, Athletic TrainerAkron Aeros (AA):Mike Sarbaugh, ManagerRuben Niebla, Pitching CoachLee May Jr., Hitting CoachMichael Salazar, Athletic TrainerKinston Indians (A):Chris Tremie, ManagerGreg Hibbard, Pitching CoachRouglas Odor, Hitting CoachChad Wolfe, Athletic TrainerLake County Captains (A):Aaron Holbert, ManagerTony Arnold, Pitching CoachJim Rickon, Hitting CoachJeremy Heller, Athletic TrainerMahoning Valley Scrappers (A):Travis...

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2009 Player Development Staff

Player Development Director, Player Development: Ross Atkins Director, Latin American Operations: Lino Diaz Assistant, Player Development: Meka Asonye Advisor, Player Development: Johnny Goryl Field Coordinator: Dave Hudgens Pitching Coordinator: Dave Miller Lower Level Pitching Coordinator: Steve Lyons Hitting Coordinator: Bruce Fields Defensive Coordinator: Ted Kubiak Outfield/Baserunning Coordinator: Gary Thurman Catching Coordinator: Tim Laker Latin America Field Coordinator: Minnie Mendoza Advisor, Dominican Republic: Winston Llenas Director,...

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Winter League Sunday Round-up

Caribbean Winter LeaguesPlayer Updates (overall numbers - Italics indicate players season is over): -VENEZUELAN WINTER LEAGUE RHP Randy Newsom - 4G, 2.2IP, 7H, 7R/ER, 3BB, 1K, 23.62ERAOF Matt LaPorta - 17G, .164(11-for-67)/.250/.299/.549, 3 2B, 2HR, 12RBIINF Asdrubal Cabrera - 6G, .368(7-for-19)/.500/.632/1.132, 2 2B, HR, 5RBIOF Franklin Gutierrez - 10G, .281(9-for-32)/.429/.563/.991, 3HR, 7RBIRHP Edward Mujica - 7G, 7.2IP, 12H, 7R/ER, BB, K, 8.22ERAINF Nuiman Romero - 18G, .313(15-for-48)/.389/.313/.701, 6RBIINF Karexon Sanchez - Has not yet played.RHP...

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Weekend Update: 11/29

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and for those that ventured out on Black Friday you are still in one piece. Anyway, here is a quick roundup of the recent news in the Indians farm system this week:For those that missed our special Tuesday night edition of Smoke Signals this past week, you missed a great guest in first baseman Jordan Brown. Brown was very candid throughout the 25-minute interview which covered many things from his 2008 season, to not being put on the 40-man roster this offseason, his time in the Dominican Republic, his...

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Shapiro Needs To Believe In His Prospects

This story was originally written in January 2007; however, the general theme here still exists and I wanted to re-publish it to this blog for those that may have missed it the first time around on TheClevelandFan.com and SportsTimeOhio.com.In an unexpected move last week, the Indians signed free agent outfielder Trot Nixon to a 1 year $3M deal that also included a total of up to $2M in incentives.* At this point, however, it is hard to get a true grasp of what purpose this...

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Q&A With Erik Stiller

I originally wrote this piece and conducted the Q&A with Stiller in August 2007. This is a re-post to this blog since it was written before this blog was started in October 2007. Happy Thanksgiving!I'll be heading to Kinston, North Carolina this weekend to visit the Cleveland Indians advanced Single-A affiliate the Kinston Indians. While I plan on speaking with several of the players during my visit, I was treated to an advance e-mail interview this past week with right-handed...

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Winter League Wednesday Round-up

As you know by now, the Leagues in Hawaii and Arizona are over for another season. However, feel free to check last Sundays round-up for a reminder on the Indians farmhands individual performances.Caribbean Winter LeaguesThere are a couple of adjustment to the Caribbean rosters this week. In Venezuela, Eddie Mujica has transferred from Caribes de Anzoategui to Navegantes del Magallanes and Asdrubal Cabrera has joined up with Cardenales de Lara.Meanwhile, in the Dominican Jhonny Peralta is now playing for Aguilas Cibaenas and actually started his...

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Smoke Signals: Jordan Brown Is Tonight's Guest

With Thanksgiving on Thursday, our show has been moved up to a special day and time tonight, Tuesday November 25th at 8:00-9:00 pm EST. Paul and I will touch on several of the current topics with the Indians, and halfway through the show Jordan Brown will be calling in where we will spend the last half hour talking about things from his thoughts on not being rostered, the Rule 5 Draft, his 2008 season, and what he is doing to prepare for 2009.Here is the link to listen live:http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheClevelandFan/2008/11/26/Smoke-SignalsCall...

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The 4th Option Year

For those wondering about the fourth option year rule and how a player like Michael Aubrey will get one this year and how Tony Sipp will likely get one a few years from now (if needed) here is the explanation as offered by Baseball America a few years ago:http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/columnists/askba05sept.htmlIn some circumstances, baseball rules allow for a fourth option. A player receives a fourth option if he has less than five seasons of pro experience. Draftees who immediately sign a major league contract will qualify unless they...

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SCRAPPERS TO UNVEIL NEW LOGOS

Niles, OH – The Mahoning Valley Scrappers are scheduled to unveil a new look on Wednesday, December 3, 2008. Members of the media and fans are encouraged to attend the announcement that will be held at Center Court of the Eastwood Mall at 3:00 PM. The Scrappers will be releasing a new primary team logo along with new uniforms featuring new home and road caps. New Scrappers merchandise will be available for purchase at the conclusion of the eve...

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McBride Full Of Talent And Hustle

This is a piece from August 2007 that ran before this blog started. Up until the New Year, I'll continue to re-post some past articles on players still in the system which were written before the conception of this blog. Also, McBride will be appearing on Smoke Signals sometime in Janaury to talk about his 2008 season, his transition to the outfield, and what is in store for him in 2009.Fans of professional sports have a knack of gravitating to players who show good hustle...

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Winter League Sunday Round-up

Arizona Fall LeagueThe Championship game between Mesa Solar Sox and Phoenix Desert Dogs took place yesterday (11/22) with the Desert Dogs winning 10-4 to claim the AFL title. The Desert Dogs rode out the first 5 innings against Atlanta Braves uber prospect Tommy Hanson (5IP, 3H, 1R, 8K) before exploding for 5 runs in the 6th inning and 4 runs in the 7th against the Sox bullpen.With the Fall League now over, here's one final reminder of how the Indians prospects fared whilst playing for the Surprise Rafters.LHP Chuck Lofgren - 10G, 0-3, 7IP, 19H,...

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Weekend Update: Michigan Week

It is Ohio State vs. Michigan today (Go Bucks!), and time for another Saturday rundown to recap all the happenings in the Indians system from this past week: There has been a lot of talk the past few weeks about third baseman Wes Hodges defensive issues. The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a story on him this week, and in Baseball America's Indians Top 10 rankings which came out this week they did not include Hodges in the listing because of his defense.In doing some of my final research for my upcoming Indians prospect rankings, I came cross a quote...

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Indians Announce 2009 Player Development Staff

CLEVELAND, OH-- The Cleveland Indians & Director of Player Development ROSS ATKINS today announced the player development staff assignments for the 2009 season. TOREY LOVULLO will manage the Columbus Clippers, the Indians newest Player Development affiliate, while MIKE SARBAUGH (Akron), CHRIS TREMIE (Kinston), AARON HOLBERT (Lake County) and TRAVIS FRYMAN (Mahoning Valley) will all return as managers of their respective 2008 club’s. TED KUBIAK will manage the AZL Indians as Cleveland shifts its rookie league team from the Gulf Coast League...

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40-man Thoughts: The Day After

After a wild and hectic day yesterday with the 40-man roster, here are some quick thoughts on it and the selections the Indians made:Players were informed around 6pm EST (about 4 hours before the press release) they were being rostered. I know some people were wondering when they find out, so there you go. They are pretty much strung along just like everyone else and don't have an idea what is going on. I talked to five of the players last night who were either rostered or just missed and the common theme was that it was an extremely stressful...

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Indians Add Five Players To 40-man

CLEVELAND, OH --- The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has added five (5) players on to the club’s 40-man roster. Today the Indians purchased the contracts of the following players from the Triple A Columbus roster: CA CARLOS SANTANA, OF TREVOR CROWE, CA CHRIS GIMENEZ and RHP JEFF STEVENS. The club also purchased the contract of RHP HECTOR RONDON from Class A Kinston.Santana, 22, had arguably the finest season of any minor league player in 2008, batting .326 (151-463) with 39 2B, 5 3B, 21HR, 125 runs & 117 RBI in 130 games. He led...

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Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm.....

Edit 9:19pm: Dodgers just added 10 players to their 40-man. We'll talk about the developments with the Indians 40-man on our show which starts in ten minutes.________________________________Edit 9:08pm: The Rangers and Phillies completed a trade tonight that looks like a deal for 40-man purposes. Also, the Reds 40-man has been set. That leaves four teams, the Indians, Dodgers, Mets and Giants yet to finalize or publish their 40-man by the deadline.Boy, this is strange. Nothing may happen, but it is clear to me the Indians are talking trade. Could...

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Smoke Signals 11/20: Chuck Lofgren on tonight!

Paul and I will be talking about the roster decisions the Indians made today to add players from their minor league system to the 40-man roster. We will talk about what impact these players, if any, have on the 2009 season and also touch on any surprise decisions. In addition, time permitting we will talk about the slow start the Indians are off to this offseason and baseball in general and what to expect going forward.As usual, our guest will be calling in around 10pm. Left-handed pitcher Chuck Lofgren is our guest this week, and with so much...

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Indians name Minor Leaguers of the Year

CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Indians today announced the recipients of the organization's 2008 Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year awards.INF Beau Mills has been named the 2008 winner of the Lou Boudreau Award as the top Minor League position player in the Indians player development system. Additionally, LHP David Huff has been selected as the Bob Feller Award winner for 2008 as the organization's top Minor League pitcher. Mills, 22, batted .293 (141-482) with 78 runs scored, 34 doubles, three triples, 21 home runs and 90 RBI while also recording...

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Roster news

Nothing yet on who the Indians will be adding to the 40-man roster, but just got an email from the source on Jordan Brown. According to him there is now a chance Brown is NOT rostered. A week or so ago he was supposedly set to be rostered, but something changed.I am speculating here, but is it possibly his foot injury that had him prematurely end his winter league season in the Dominican Republic? Dunno. In any case, it looks like if in fact only five players are rostered that it is coming down to Gimenez, Rondon, and Brown for the final two spots....

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