Final stats - 2019 HS draftees

OK, so here is the final look at the overall stats of high school hitters who were high Indians' draftees in the 2019 draft.  These are the stats for Will Bartlett, Joe Naranjo, Yordys Valdes, Christian Cairo and Jordan Brown.

705 AB
99 Runs
151 Hits
64 RBI
25 Doubles
5 Triples
5 Homeruns
27 Stolen Bases
107 Walks
217 Strikeouts
.215 Batting Average

For reference, here are the combined stats of HS hitters drafted highly by the Indians in the previous 3 drafts.

2018 - HS hitters Holland, Naylor, Delgado: 108-384  16 2B, 4 3B, 3 HR  74 BB  102 K   .281 BA

2017 - HS hitters Holmes, Freeman, Rodriguez, Cooper 128-552, 27 2B 9 3B 7 HR 53 BB  128 K .232 BA

2016 - HS hitters Benson, Jones, Capel, Cantu, Taylor 146-630 27 2B 10 3B 8 HR 79 BB 195 K ,232 BA


Obviously my opinion is that the 2019 stats are underwhelming especially since Valdes, Cairo and Brown hit under .190 each and the guys with the two best results, Bartlett and Naranjo, hit a combined 2 HRs.

Time will tell but nothing I have seen so far changes my opinion that not only did the Indians blow this draft but messed it up so badly that almost none of these guys will make it to the majors and all but 1 or 2 will never make it past Lake County, something that shouldn't happen with guys drafted this high.  I doubt that any of these guys even make the top 10 Indians prospect lists this off-season and that none of them will make the top 20 prospects in the AZL, when that list comes out form Baseball America.

Small market teams need to score big in the draft.   Maybe not as big as the Indians 2016 draft but still, big.   This may be the worst draft in a long while in Cleveland and we can't have that if we are going to be competitive long term.

A look at the 40 man roster and September callups

OK, there is a lot of rehabbing going on in the Indians organization this week.   So let's take a look at the 40-man roster on how this will all impact our September callups.  

60 Day DL 

Right now Zimmer, Carrasco, Otero, Kluber, Christian Arroyo, Jefry Rodriguez and Cody Anderson are on this list.   As none of these guys count against the 40 man roster if they are added to the roster someone else has to be taken off the roster.

Likely to activated in September: Carrasco, Otero, Zimmer

Maybe activated in September: Kluber and Rodriguez

Likely not to be activated in September: Anderson and Arroyo

That means that we could have up to 5 guys added to the 40 man roster meaning we would have to remove 5 guys.

40 Man Roster

Looking at the Indians' 40 man roster for guys who could be removed or put on the 60 day DL in order to make room for these callups, here is what I see:

Candidates to be removed from the roster (designated for assignment):

Very likely: Jon Edwards, Phil Maton, Jordan Stephens.
Somewhat likely; Andrew Velazquez, Josh Smith, Cody Anderson, Christian Arroyo
Unlikely: Cody Anderson, Christian Arroyo, Jean Carlos Mejia, Sam Hentges, Jake Bauers, Bobby Bradley

So, looking at the guys coming off the 60 day DL it is likely that Edwards, Maton and Stephens will be DFA  for Carrasco, Otero and Zimmer.   If Kluber and Rodriguez are activated then Velazquez and Josh Smith are likely gone.

As far as Anderson and Arroyo, there is an advantage to keeping them on the 60-day DL as they afford the Indians the opportunity to bring up two guys from the minors not on the 40 man roster IF the Indians make the playoffs.

September Callups:

Called up from the minors:

Likely: Bauers, Haase
Somewhat likely: Bradley (but only after the IL playoffs and only if he starts hitting)


Activated from the 10 day DL

Likely: Salazar, Luplow
Maybe: Tyler Olson, AJ Cole,
Not likely: Jose Ramirez

Callups not currently on the 40-man roster

No one is likely to be called up in September due to the roster crunch.  

While all of us would like to see James Karinchak (I can already see the nicknames now: K-man, K-dog, James KKK, etc.) and Daniel Johnson called up, there won't be any expendable guys left on the 40-man roster who could be removed.   The only thing I could see is if the Indians would take a guy on the 10 day DL and move them to the 60 day DL, such as AJ Cole, Tyler Olson or even Jose Ramirez if they don't anticipate them helping the Indians in the playoffs, if we make it that far.   If the Indians are going to add players to the 60-day DL they would likely do it before September 1st to get Karinchak and Johnson up to the majors for the September run to see what they have AND to give the Indains more roster flexibility for the playoffs with the extra guys on the 60-day DL (See above regarding Arroyo and Anderson)..

Well, there you have it.   I would love to see guys like Cam Hill and other minor league relievers get their chance but it is unlikely Francona would trust them AND we don't want to add them if he isn't going to use them because it makes our situation for the 40-man roster over the winter even more difficult than it will be already.  Frankly, even with the free agents we have, it will still be a difficult winter as prospects may have to be removed from the 40 man, something we haven't seen in recent years.  So in a rebuilding organization some more guys might be called to the majors for the first time but, in the middle of a playoff race with guys returning from the DL, it's likely these minor leaguers will have to wait until at least next year to make the ML debuts.

Still, there should be a lot of movement on the roster after September 1st.   We'll just have to see how much with a lot of that dependent on how our DL players progress.

Thoughts for a Friday night

We are tied for first.  Yeah!   Good job guys.   We have a long way to go but the Indians are playing well.

If only Franmil could start hitting:  Look, the guy is the perfect DH.   He should thrive in that role once he adjusts to the league and his new surroundings.   If he can just get on a tear from now to the end of the month I think this would be just what the Indians need to get through this tough stretch.

Speaking about getting through this tough stretch, it would be great if Kluber could be back in a couple of weeks at full-Klubot strength!  Ditto for Danny Salazar as we could use him the rest of the way.

Little league numbers: We talked a little about our minor league relievers earlier in the year.   Nick Sandlin and James Karinchak appeared on the fast track to Cleveland.  Then injuries derailed both.  Sandlin is shut down for the year.  Karinchak also was injured after a good beginning to his AAA experience and was rusty when he came back on his rehab assignments and to AAA.   But now he is on sort of a role.

Sort of?  Well he has given up some runs and hits but look at his strikeouts.

He has pitched 8 2/3 AAA innings.   That's 26 individual outs, folks, assuming no double plays.  He has struck out 23 guys.  

Only 3 guys have hit into outs against him!  I mean any little leaguer with an early growth spurt and a strong arm would be pleased with that ratio...against 8 year olds!

That is what is amazing here.  He is doing it against AAA hitters, who are made up of AAAA veterans and really good prospects.  The first time I looked at these numbers I thought they were a typo.   I can't remember ANY player having this type of swing-and-miss stuff against AAA players.

He could be what we need at the end of the bullpen.   And maybe as early as September and, if we play the IL correctly, maybe in the playoffs if we make it that far.   He, along with Reyes and Salazar could be the end-of-season surprises that Cinderella playoff teams leverage into deep runs in the playoffs.   Hey, I don't want to get ahead of myself here but looking ahead I can see a path to a number of guys who are not helping now helping out later on this year when we need it the most.