Baseball America has published their listing of the Top 10 prospects for the Cleveland Indians. Here's the list:
1. Adam Miller, rhp
2. Michael Aubrey, 1b
3. Franklin Gutierrez, of
4. Brad Snyder, of
5. Jeremy Sowers, lhp
6. Fausto Carmona, rhp
7. Fernando Cabrera, rhp
8. Ryan Garko, c/1b
9. Nick Pesco, rhp
10. Andy Brown, rhp
(via CIR)
More amateurish editorializing and baseless speculation about the 2005 Indians follows...
The 2003 Draft may go down as one of the best ever for the Indians, as four of the top five picks (Miller, Aubrey, Garko, Snyder) made this Baseball America list, and several other prospects with some major league potential (i.e. Kevin Kouzmanoff, Brandon Pinckney, Javier Herrera and Ryan Goleski) were also in that class.
Top prospect Adam Miller, who just turned 20, gets rave reviews from everybody who sees him, and looks to start 2005 in AA Akron. He and Ryan Garko were the team's Pitcher and Player of the Year respectively, for the minor league system. Gutierrez and Brown were the two players acquired from the Dodgers in the Milton Bradley trade (nice job, Shapiro).
Aubrey and Snyder are guys who played college ball and should be ready soon, both high average hitters with power that will come as they mature. We need to do something about the impending logjam at first base (Broussard, Hafner, Blake?, Garko, Aubrey). Garko is a catcher too, but won't be doing much of that as long as Victor Martinez is around.
Aubrey has played some outfield, and it sounds like Garko might want to start taking some fly balls too. It looks like the bats of Aubrey and Garko, and of course Martinez and Hafner, will have to play every day, so somebody will have to play third base, and somebody will have to play outfield for it to work out.
Then within a year or two you project Gutierrez and possibly Snyder, plus Garko or Aubrey, into an outfield picture that is already pretty young with Sizemore, Crisp, Ludwick and Gerut, and we look pretty formidable, if crowded.
Pitching is deep, albeit young. I know, we think it's deep every year, but we can't possibly have three elbow surgeries again this year, can we? Young starters who seem "major league ready" include Jason Stanford, Brian Tallet, Jeremy Guthrie, Kenny Rayborn, and possibly Kyle Denney, to join an already young Big 3 of starters (C.C., Westbrook and Lee). Elarton is likely to be back and Shapiro WILL sign a free agent starter. Just around the corner are Miller, Sowers, Jake Dittler, Fausto Carmona, and Brown. The next wave could include Sean Smith, Nick Pesco and J.D. Martin. Wow.
Kaz Tadano, Jake Robbins, Fernando Cabrera, and lefty Scott Sauerbeck will compete to round out a bullpen that will return Bob Wickman, David Riske, Raphael Betancourt, Bob Howry, Jason Davis and Cliff Bartosh. That's not exactly the Nasty Boys, but it beats the heck out of the guys we were throwing out there in April and May of this past season. The team must also be high on a skinny (6'6" 190 lb.) 22 year old lefty named Mariano Gomez, because they are carrying him on the 40-man major league roster.
All this talk of BA's prospects says nothing of the team's other rising young stars, whose eligibility for the BA list has come and gone, but who remain mere pups in major league terms. I speak of 2004 AAA League MVP Jhonny Peralta, Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore, Victor Martinez, C.C. Sabathia, Westbrook, and Travis Hafner. It's a safe prediction that Sizemore will "arrive" in a big way in 2005 in much the same fashion that Martinez and Hafner did last year. It's too early to tell if Coco Crisp is in the "rising star" category or the group of other solid if unspectacular performers that return from 2004. That would include Gerut, Blake, and Ludwick.
Ronnie Belliard was spectacular for most of the season, hitting well over .300 and playing a flashy second base. We don't know yet if he'll be back. What we do know is that Aaron Boone will be at third base. I still don't understand that signing, but I'll give Shapiro the benefit of the doubt for now.
As much as Shapiro and Wedge would like to see the team get older, it can hardly happen this year, with so much talent coming up through the system. I think the youth movement will end after 2006, when most of the Top 10 list above will be in the majors. Unlike some optimists, I don't think we'll actually contend for any postseason series wins until '07, but I can wait. Hell, I've waited this long.
Shapiro has done it right. The team should contend for the long haul (maybe 6-8 years...whose crystal ball sees any farther than that?) The only thing that could screw it up would be finding out that owner Larry Dolan was lying when he said he'd spend the money when the time came to spend it. At this point, color me hopeful but unconvinced.
Posted by dan at November 29, 2004 02:38 AM