Championship roster beginning to round into shape

Indians' fans: hope springs eternal in, uh, spring.

As we approach opening day Thursday the Indians 'championship' level roster is falling into place.

Shelly Duncan is the current leader in open 'competition' for who stands out in left field on opening day.  This is actually a reverse competition as it appears the guy with the worst statistics wins with Duncan hitting .178 this spring.

Dan Wheeler celebrated being told he had made the team based on his solid 7.78 ERA by giving up 5 runs on 3 HR to bloat his ERA to 10.78.  I guess he had given it his all giving up runs in his first four outings.  The Indians' braintrust, thinking that his first four outings were an aberration and his last 3 scoreless innnings were who he really is, will now think yesterday's outing was another in a long line of aberrations.  Isn't that contradictory?

Jason Donald is the only one who has earned his extra man spot on the roster and that wasn't deserved either, statistically, until his 4-5 day yesterday.

A check on the expensive off-season moves:

Aaron Cunningham .205 (cost us Cody Burns AND Josh Judy)

Kevin Slowey (6.75 plus getting bombed yesterday in a minor league game) (cost us Zach Putnam)

And then there is Ubaldo Jimenez......

I can't wait for our next big move from Antonnetti.  All of his previous moves have been so good that the next one, made in more desperation than any of the other ones, will surely be a humdinger!

Think minor leagues - Updated Indians' top 75 prospects.

OK, as we approach 2012 baseball I wanted to update my Indians' prospect list.  In the off-season we lost Zach Putnam (#16), Josh Judy (#17), Kelvin de la Cruz (#30) and Cory Burns (#40) from my post 2011 top 50 and got little or nothing back.  But that’s another story.  Without hearing a lot from spring training yet I have updated this prospect list based on transactions and information that I have learned since the end of 2011 and it will be updated again around minor league opening day. 

In summary, my thoughts are: I think Dillon Howard is a BIG risk (thus why I have him at #14).  I have dropped Tyler Sturdevant and Austin Adams a tad due to their current arm injuries and Hector Rondon has dropped due to the same thing.  This farm system is incredibly weak right now and got weaker by the give aways of Putnam, Judy, De la Cruz and Burns.  They are not prime prospects but in a system with as few true prospects as we have, losses of those guys have to be balanced by who we picked up.  That didn’t happen meaning that we are now probably the weakest farm system in the majors, not a position a small market team wants to be in!

1.             Francisco Lindor – SS

2.             Nick Hagadone – LHRP

3.             Tony Wolters – SS

4.             Felix Sterling – RHP

5.             Elvis Araujo – LHP

6.             Dorsyss Paulino - SS

7.             Chun Chen – C

8.             Chen Lee – RHRP

9.             Alexander Perez – LHP

10.          Robbie Aviles – RHSP

11.          LeVon Washington – OF

12.          Scott Barnes – LHSP

13.          Zach McAllister – RHSP

14.          Dillon Howard – RHP

15.          Juan Diaz – SS

16.          Cord Phelps – Utility

17.          Ronny Rodriguez – SS

18.          Luigi Rodriguez OF

19.          Jesus Aguilar – 1B

20.          Alex Lavisky – C

21.          Danny Salazar – RHSP

22.          Bryson Myles – OF

23.          Roberto Perez – C

24.          Jake Lowery – C

25.          Robel Garcia – 3B/OF

26.          Jake Sisco – RHSP

27.          Austin Adams – RHSP

28.          Hector Rondon – RHP

29.          Paulo Espino – RHSP

30.          T.J. McFarland – LHSP

31.          Matt Packer – LHSP

32.          Alex Monsalve – C

33.          Kyle Blair – RHSP

34.          Bryce Stowell – RHRP

35.          Tyler Sturdevant – RHRP

36.          Tyler Holt – OF

37.          Giovanny Urshela – 3B

38.          Beau Mills – 1B

39.          Clayton Cook – RHSP

40.          T.J. House – LHSP

41.          Matt Langwell – RHRP

42.          Thomas Neal – OF

43.          Michael Goodnight – RHSP

44.          Cole Cook – RHSP

45.          Carlos Moncrief – OF

46.          Enosil Tejada – RHRP

47.          Jordan Smith – 3B/OF

48.          Nick Weglarz – OF

49.          Trey Haley - RHRP

50.          Jose Ramirez – SS

51.          Jorge Martinez – 2B

52.          Corey Kluber – RHSP

53.          Wil Roberts – RHSP

54.          Tim Fedroff – OF

55.          Jordan Henry – OF

56.          Rob Bryson – RHRP

57.          GIovanny Soto – RHSP

58.          Brett Brach – RHSP

59.          Eric Berger – LHRP

60.          Cody Allen – RHRP

61.          Mike Rayl - RHSP

62.          Anthony Santander - OF

63.          Kyle Bellows – 3B

64.          Eric Haase – C

65.          Miguel Carmona – RHRP

66.          Ramon Cespedes – RHRP

67.          Moisses Ramirez – RHRP

68.          Jeffry Cleto – RHSP

69.          Erik Gonzales – 2B

70.          Shawn Armstrong – RHRP

71.          Bo Greenwell – OF

72.          Shawn Morimando – RHRP

73.          Tony Dischler – RHRP

74.          Bryan Price – RHRP
75.        Casey Frawley - INF