I don't want the hope of the minor leagues to get lost in our worrying about Josh Naylor. Naylor's condition and recovery, to me, is more important in this moment than any baseball game at any level.
That being said, when you were a fan of the Indians in the 60s-80s you came to love the baseball draft and the minor leagues because that is where you knew the future of the Cleveland Indians had to come from to change this mediocre "MAJOR LEAGUE"-emulating franchise (are mimicing life) into a winner. So every time a new minor league season begins I have that sense of hope for the future. Every night when I watch the games or look through the box scores I am excited to see our minor leaguers having good performances, dreaming on the day they can do that in the majors and help the Indians win.
Right now we have some hopeful signs in the minors, especially for our hitters.
- I can't wait (but will have to for another night) wait for the rookie league team to get started. I harken back to a few years ago when Bobby Bradley tore up that league to the tune of winning the hitting triple crown. Today he is in Cleveland bringing our Indians hope and production. Who, if anyone, will be the next Bobby Bradley? Our rookie league team is, on the surface, position player-rich and pitching question marked. Which, if any, pitchers will step up and put up eye-popping numbers that give us hope of seeing him in Cleveland someday?
- Some of our prospects are finally coming around. Nolan Jones is starting to hit with authority. Will Benson is raising his average since being moved to leadoff hitter. Angel Martinez and Jhonkensy Noel are establishing themselves as top 10-level prospects in the Indians system. Oscar Gonzalez is on quite a roll right now and Andres Gimenez is showing incredible pop for a middle infielder. Guys like Tyler Freeman and Owen Miller still have promise of being major league contributors. Gabe Arias, Gabe Rodriguez, Richie Palacios, Jose Fermin, Jose Tena and Brayan Rocchio are all starting to move to and above the .250 line. Yainer Diaz is a hitting machine, the only question being will he do enough to convince the Indians to roster him this year so he doesn't go the way of Kai'i Tom in the Rule 5. George Valera is just getting healthy and Bryan Lavastida is showing that his low minors hitting was not a fluke but, rather, of the promise of things to come. Joe Naranjo shows a glimmer of hope as does Aaron Bracho.
- There have been some guys like Yordys Valdes, Christian Cairo, Delgado, Marcos Gonzalez, Bo Naylor
- The minor league pitching has, on the whole, been a disappointment. Except for the guys who have graduated to the majors, almost every true pitching prospect has underperformed or been injured except for Daniel Espino and Logan T. Allen. Not one other pitching prospect really stands out for me at this point and even guys like Robert Broom and Nick Mikolajchak have not been as lights out as I would have liked. Let's hope whatever is wrong with these guys gets fixed soon as we need guys like Cantillo, Wolf, Moss, Logan Allen and Lenny Torres to become studs in our future. It would be great if Cam Hill came back better than ever and if Adam Scott could contribute on the major league level, both by the end of this year.
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