2010 Draft Recap: Cleveland Indians
By John Klima
July 17, 2010
The Indians went for an interesting cross-section of high school and college pitching and position players. I think I know why.
Baseball Beginnings
Scouting professional prospects and identifying future major leaguers
Baseball Beginnings on Tony Wolters, No. 87, (Cleveland Indians)
By Jen Marder
June 8, 2010
Today the Cleveland Indians selected Tony Wolters in the third round (#87 overall) in the 2010 MLB Draft. Baseball Beginnings has been scouting Wolters from the start of the draft cycle. Enjoy links to the content we have published on him through the year.
Watch Tony Wolters Video
Watch more Tony Wolters Scouting Video
Read Tony Wolters Scouting Report
Watch more Tony Wolters Scouting Video
Read about Tony Wolters at the MLSB Showcase
Baseball Beginnings on Drew Pomeranz, No. #5, (Cleveland Indians)
By Jen Marder
June 7, 2010
Today the Cleveland Indians selected Drew Pomeranz in the first round (#5 overall) in the 2010 MLB Draft. Baseball Beginnings has been scouting Pomeranz from the start of the draft cycle. Enjoy links to the content we have published on him through the year.
Read Drew Pomeranz Scouting Update
Read Drew Pomeranz Scouting Snapshot
Pro-side Scouting Report: Connor Graham, RHP, Cleveland Indians
By John Klima
January 9, 2010
The immediate comparison for Indians right-hander Connor Graham is White Sox closer Bobby Jenks. Graham is a big body with a big arm, a power closer two-pitch type with a fastball, split, and an average curveball. In the brief look I had, Graham struck me as a potential closer who needs to watch his body, improve his fastball command in the strike zone, and keep his composure. Big league hitters tend to smell blood against frustrated young pitchers who throw their gloves against the side of the dugout wall.
2009 Pro-Side Scouting Report: Lonnie Chisenhall, 3B, Indians
By John Klima
July 23, 2009
Lonnie Chisenhall
Bats: L; Throws: R
6-2, 190
2009 Opening Day age: 20 (B:10/4/88)
Drafted: Indians #1 (29th overall) 2008 draft
2009 club at time of report: Kinston (High A)
Games seen: 1, Innings: 5 (Cal-Carolina League All-Star game)
Q&A with Indians prospect Lonnie Chisenhall
By John Klima
July 22, 2009
(Kinston Indians)
Drafted by the Cleveland Indians with the club’s No. 1 pick (29th overall) in the 2008 draft, Lonnie Chisenhall is following up his solid pro debut in the short-A New York Penn League with another solid season at high-A Kinston.
The jump from short-A to high-A sometimes kills young players, but Chisenhall has showed that he’s on track to hit double-A in 2010, a pretty nice pace for a former junior college player. He entered July 2009 hitting .283 with 13 home runs and 19 doubles in 71 games, with an .864 OPS in a pitcher’s league.
The left-handed hitting Chisenhall moved over from shortstop to third base and put the onus on himself to hit for power. He’s done that through three months in 2009 and earned a trip to the California-Carolina League All-Star game, though he was somewhat alarmed at the rise in strikeouts.
Born and raised in baseball rich North Carolina, Chisenhall has a loose and whippy body that should allow for more power as he progresses. Baseball Beginnings caught up with him in Lake Elsinore. (more…)
Q&A with Preston Guilmet, RHP, Arizona, 275th overall, Cleveland Indians (2009 Draft)
By John Klima
July 1, 2009
(photo: UA)
Preston Guilmet will never be the guy who blows you away. He’s long understood that he’ll have to exceed expectations at every stop. Guilmet achieved that in the draft, upping his stock from a 22nd rounder as a junior in 2008 to a 9th rounder in 2009.
Guys like this sometimes surprise people in the baseball industry. They get outs, they eat innings, they grind, they never miss a start and next thing you know, they have 15 wins.
Guys who do that tend to move up, even if it’s slower, and even if they’re never going to be anyone’s radar gun darling. It never worked that way for the tall and lean right-hander at the University of Arizona, where he was a workhorse for four seasons.
It won’t work that way in pro ball, where he will have to dispel a whole new set of expectations. But you never know – there are guys like this who end up in the big leagues after being told they have no business there at all. You just never know which kid is going to make it.
Guilmet knows this is what he’s in for as a professional, but as he explained to Baseball Beginnings a month before the Cleveland Indians drafted him, that’s nothing new. He’s got the right name for what he pitches with – guile. Sometimes guile resonates longer than stuff. A pitcher geared for a marathon instead of a sprint, he discussed what it is like to be a marksman in a machine gunner’s game.
Scouting the Cal-Carolina League All-Star Pitchers
By John Klima
June 24, 2009
A funny thing happened Tuesday night: I went to an A-ball game and actually saw some guys who might pitch in the big leagues one day.
When one of these games goes 10 innings and features 25 strikeouts, it’s safe to say that either the wind was blowing in or the pitchers were throwing somewhat controlled smoke — or perhaps a combination of both.
Baseball Beginnings scouted the California-Carolina League All-Star game Tuesday night at Lake Elsinore. We were in the house at 2 p.m., we believe before any pro scouts were in the joint. We collected several interviews, most notably with Giants prospect Buster Posey, Royals prospect Mike Moustakas and Braves prospect Cody Johnson.
We’ll get to those stories in the coming days, but before they kick me out of the press box and make me hop the barbed-wire fence, I have to report what mattered most Tuesday night, the pitching. Read the story after the jump, and I hope that wearing shorts today wasn’t a bad idea. (Ah, the joys of online digital journalism as opposed to print. Personality plays!)
Jason Kipnis Drafted by the Cleveland Indians
By John Klima
June 9, 2009
(photo: ASU)
Today, the Cleveland Indians drafted Jason Kipnis in the 2nd round (63rd overall) in the draft. Follow the links below for Baseball Beginnings content on Kipnis.
Read Jason Kipnis Q&A
Watch Jason Kipnis Scouting video
Read Jason Kipnis Scouting report
