Baseball America 2009 League Top 20 Recap

Baseball America recently wrapped up their coverage where they ranked the Top 20 prospects in every league in the minor leagues from rookie ball all the way up to Triple-A.  Below I have listed the Indians who were ranked in one of the leagues.  There were 16 leagues in all ranked, totaling 320 players.  The Indians in all had 12 players ranked which was above the league average of 10.6 (320 players / 30 teams). For more information, click on the link to go to the Baseball America article on that league: Arizona League (Rookie) 14....

Read More

Indians Remove Three From 40-man Roster

Today the Indians outrighted left-handed pitcher Mike Gosling, left-handed pitcher Scott Lewis, and infielder Niuman Romero to Triple-A Columbus.  The 40-man roster is now at 33 players, though right-handed pitcher Jake Westbrook and right-handed pitcher Anthony Reyes are still not included as they are still on the 60-day disabled list.  Both of them will be added at the roster deadline in about three wee...

Read More

Prospect Insider Webring

This is the beginnings of a Prospect Webring where all the top prospect sites for each team are linked together.  The chart below lists the best prospect sites for each team that I was able to find, though it should be noted with is not a final listing as changes will continually be made as I find better sites for some of the teams.  This listing will be kept in the "Webring" link just below the site heading. If you have a suggestion for a better site that has in-depth and detailed prospect information for that team, please use the contact...

Read More

Random Thoughts On Acta And The Indians

Here are some random thoughts about the Manny Acta hiring by the Indians and some things that came to mind in listening to his Monday press conference: - Paul and I talked about this a lot Monday night on our radio show, but what if a big reason the Indians were attracted to Acta is not only because he is bi-lingual but that he appears better able to handle communicating and relating to Spanish speaking players from Latin America? - To expand on that point, when you look...

Read More

Top Pitching Coach Candidates

From where I sit, I believe the biggest decision for new manager Manny Acta and the Indians is who they pick as his pitching coach. With so many young arms presently on the staff and a lot on the horizon, the focus the next few years will be on finishing off their development at the big league level. I really believe such a hiring will come from within the organization as they look for someone familiar with the current staff and also very familiar of the influx of arms...

Read More

Smoke Signals 10/26: Manny Acta

Paul Cousineau and I will be back on the air tonight to talk about the hiring of Manny Acta as the new manager of the Cleveland Indians.  Both of us will give our thoughts on the hiring, the process the Indians went through to get to this decision, the other candidates, and where the Indians and Acta go from here as far as filling out his big league coaching staff. We will also take calls from any fans who want to call in and chime in on the hiring or anything else....

Read More

Acta's Hiring Brings A Lot Of Unknowns

Well, the Indians on Sunday officially announced that Manny Acta has been named as the new manager of the team and has agreed to a three year deal with a club option year for a fourth in 2013. A press conference is scheduled for later this afternoon when Acta will be officially welcomed into the Indians family and don his Wahoo ball cap for the first time. With the hiring now official, my initial reaction is I don't know what to think of this hiring right now. There are...

Read More

Acta Named As New Indians Manager

The Cleveland Indians and Executive Vice President and General Manager Mark Shapiro today named Manny Acta the 40th Manager in franchise history. He is signed thru 2012 with a club option for 2013. Acta, who will turn 41 on January 11, has been a coach or manager at the Major League level each of the last eight seasons since 2002. He most recently served as the Manager of the Washington Nationals for two and one half seasons after being named to the post on November 14,...

Read More

Winter Ball Stats: 10/25 Update

Here is a quick look at how all the Indians players are doing out in the Arizona Fall League and all the other various winter leagues: BATTERS   LGE   AB   H   2B   3B   HR   RBI   BB   SO   AVG   OBP   SLG   Brown, Jordan VWL 36 9 2 1 1 5 10 7 .250 0.396 0.444 Camacaro, Armando VWL 10 3 1 0 0 3 0 0 .300 0.300 0.400 Constanza, Jose DWL 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000 0.250 0.000 McBride, Matt AFL 23 9 1 1 1 8 5 4 .391 0.500 0.652 Merchan,...

Read More

Offseason Happenings: Knapp Still On Schedule For Return

It has been a little over a month since right-hander Jason Knapp had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder. He had the surgery back on September 15th in New York City in a short procedure performed by Dr. David Altchek to clean out some loose bodies in his throwing shoulder. In the six weeks since the surgery, Knapp has been rehabbing and is on schedule for a healthy return by the start of minor league spring training the first week of March. That said, some of this...

Read More

Roenicke Enters Manager Mix

The LA Times reported today that the Cleveland Indians have contacted Los Angeles Angels bench coach Ron Roenicke to interview him for their vacant managerial job.  Roenicke has spent the last ten years working on Angels' manager Mike Scioscia's staff with the first six years as a third base coach and the last four as a bench coach. The Indians have not confirmed that they have contacted Roenicke, so it is not certain if he has been contacted to be a part of their...

Read More

Parallel League: Final Stats

We close the book on the 2009 Instructional League with the final stats for the new Parallel League.  Since these were co-op teams, only a few players participated in this new league as just five Indians regulars hit in the lineup and a half dozen pitchers threw in games.  Thanks again to "Arthur" for putting this stat listing together for us. Final 2009 Parallel League Stats: PLAYER AVG. SLG. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB E Beau Mills .282 .487 39 9 11 2 0 2 6 6 6 0 1 Nick Weglarz .250 .250 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 Tim Fedroff .244 .333 45 5 11 2 1 0 1 8 4 2 1 Matt...

Read More

Acta Impresses, Valentine Bombs

I usually do not remark much on the happenings on the big league side of things with the Indians, but in listening to Bobby Valentine's 35-min presser today I have to say I was not impressed at all with what I heard. I listened to Manny Acta's 18-min presser on Tuesday, and listened to it again just before Valentine in order to compare the two back-to-back, and to me Acta just absolutely blew Valentine away at least by means of presentation, delivery, and knowledge of his...

Read More

Instructional League: Final Stats

Here are the final stats for the 2009 Instructional League.  This is a comprehensive listing of all players who participated in games for both the first half of camp (Instructional League) and the second half of camp (Development League).  I will post the final Parallel League stats tomorrow.  Thanks again to "Arthur" for putting this listing together. Final 2009 Instructional League Stats: PLAYER AVG. SLG. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB E Chun Chen .750 1.625 8 4 6 1 0 2 3 2 0 0 1 Jason Smit .500 .917 12 3 6 2 0 1 2 1 2 0 0 Rolando...

Read More

Instructional League: Second Half Stats

Here are the second half stats for the Instructional League period.  I am re-posting the first half stats from the Fall Instructional League (FIL) period and now including the stats from the Fall Development League (FDL) period.  Tomorrow I will have one final comprehensive listing showing the final stat listing for all players during Instructional League and the Parallel League.  Many thanks to "Arthur" for compiling these stats and putting this listing together. Fall Instructional League (First Half): PLAYER AVG. SLG. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB E Chun...

Read More