Thoughts on the first week in the minores

 First, good to have minor league baseball back.   Not sure how I am going to fit into my schedule keeping up with all these teams.

Here are some initial thoughts on our 18-4 farm system:

Lynchburg (6-0) 

 I wanted to start with them because they look the most impressive.   The problem with 6 game series is if you play a team that is talent-challenged or playing badly you can dust them off to the tune of 5 or 6 wins and it doesn't represent what your team really is in terms of talent.

Washington has the worst farm system in baseball (ranked 30th by Baseball America).   Their top prospect is not even in the top 100 prospects in baseball.   None of their top 30 prospects is even on Fredrickburg's roster.  Basically, Fredrickburg is one of the worst teams, if not the worst team, in minor league baseball.

Compare that to Lynchburg which has 9 of Cleveland's top 30 prospects on it and Cleveland's farm system is the 11th best in baseball

So, no positive stat can be taken as that positive so far and any negative stat, in my opinion, is magnified.  So the starts by Lenny Torres and Daniel Espino are called into question not because they were terrible but because they didn't flat out dominate a weak opponent.  Still, Torres returning from injury and both he and Espino being young guys so we can throw out these results, for now.

So, not much you can say so far about how the prospects look on the Hillcats.  Let's revisit them after the next two weeks.

Columbus (4-1)

They are 4-1 and have three players, Owen Miller, Ernie Clement and Ryan Law\varnway who have over 10 ABs and a BA of over .150.  The team is not hitting.   Sound familiar?  We need new batting coaches!  Regarding Miller, he is using an unsustainable BABIP of .692 to fuel his .450 average.   

As far as pitching, what is one of the constants about the Indians' minor league system?  LOTS OF INTERESTING RELIEF PROSPECTS.  Eight relievers still have an ERA of 0.00.   Everyone except for Logan Allen (the elder) and Eli Morgan have ERAs of under 4.00.  We have already talked about Logan Allen and his struggles and I have given you my opinions.   As far as Morgan, let's hope he is just shaking off the rust of a shortened spring training.  Moss looked good in his start, Mejia and McCarty were OK.  Parker looked impressive as minor league depth and Broom looked surprisingly good for a guy they have pushed up their system pretty hard.  I think Kyle Dowdy is just a 4A guy but he has been effective so far.  Plus, we haven't seen Cam Hill yet and there are guys at AA (see below) who might sneak up to the ML roster this year if the need is there.

They key to this team is the hitting of Miller and Bradley.   If they hit it gives us weapons in the minors.   If they don't then what you see in the majors is what you get for the rest of the year.   Notice I haven't even mentioned Zimmer, Mercado and Johnson as their performances so far have not indicated that they can help right now or in the future.  As far as the pitching, we need the starting pitching to be a strong point.   If we have injuries or bad performance by our starters we need good starters in the minors.   I think we have the bullpen covered.  

What about the competition?  AAA is the hardest to tell.   Teams can load up on AAAA guys and 'buy' a contender.   So predictability of success is harder based on stats or record at AAA.   The Clippers are 5-1 and looking at both rosters I don't see any of that being from Columbus loading up with AAAA guys or Louisville being so loaded with prospects that they are underperforming.   So, for now, let's assume there are many positives here in tersms of the future and reinforcements for this year.

AKRON (5-0)

Their opponent, Binhamton, seems a little old for this league but doesn't have a lot of great prospects on it.  The results so far from the Rubber Ducks, both pitching and hitting, have been interesting.   With everything that I have looked at it seems like Binghamton may be one of the worst AA teams but not by so much that the stats so far for Akron are rendered meaningless like they are for Lynchburg.   So I think this is the most solid record of any of our farm teams, although it is way too early to determine trends or whether certain players are about to break out.   Still, some interesting hitting and pitching so far.

Lake County (3-3)

I am most excited about this year as they seem really yound for their level of competition.   So, for me, a 3-3 record at this point is a huge victory.   Tanner Burns and Logan Allen looked tough.  The hitting has started slowly but will be interesting to watch.  Good number of prospects, hitting and pitching, to keep this interesting.