Our farm system is looking like a mess right now.

 Using Baseball America's top Indians prospect list, here is what we have:

1. Triston McKenzie - 30 walks in 31 ip for a guy who doesn't even throw that hard?   Not good for your #1 prospect and a guy WITHOUT a significant history of wildness through his minor league career.   Hopefully tonight goes bettter because he has the stuff to be successful.

2. Nolan Jones: Hitting .172 at AAA  with an OPS of .583 and with 31 K in 70 PA.   

3. Tyler Freeman: The first (but not only) guy on this list who is actually performing as he is raking at AA at a .361 clip.  Most of his early damage was to RF he has started pulling the ball a little more.

4. Bo Naylor: .152 with a .530 OPS at Akron

5. George Valera - Currently hurt but hitting .182 with and OPS of .569 when he was hurt

6. Gabriel Arias - .237 with a .704 OPS at Columbus

7. Brayan Rocchio - .214 with a .600 OPS at Lake County

8. Daniel Espino - Second player on this list performing in the early going.   He has 2.70 ERA with 18 K in 13 innings and has already been hitting 100 mph this season.

9. Ethan Hankins - Currently out with an elbow injury

10. Aaron Bracho - .178 with a .567 OPS at Lake County and playing some first base...at 5'11"

11. Gabriel Rodriguea - .200 with a .523 OPS at Lynchburg

12. Carson Tucker - extended spring training

13. Logan Allen - Getting bombed at AAA after getting bombed for the Indians

14. Emmanuel Clase - Showing closer stuff if not closer mentatlity...so far.

15. Tanner Burns - 4.97 ERA 16 K in 12.2 innings at Lake County

16. Joey Cantillo - Currently on injured list

17. Carlos Vargas - Out with Tommy John surgery

18. Owen Miller - Hitting .400 at AAA and, in line with all the rest of our ML hitters, hitting .077 and looking lost at times for Cleveland.  But at least he has his first hit, first run and first RBI in the majors.

19. Scott Moss - Currently injured for Columbus

20. Logan T. Allen - Four guy out of 20 who is performing well, 1.18 ERA and 22 K in 15 innings in his professional debut

21.Bobby Bradley - Hitting .191 in his 3rd season at AAA.  Has 6 HR in 68 AB with 25 K at Columbus

22, Sam Hentges - This could be considered a real success story given that he is actually in the majors after getting blown out of the water at Akron in 2019,

23. Ernie Clement - Performing well at Columbus before he got hurt.

24. Lenny Torres - Mixed results at Lynchburg but just getting on the mound after his TJ surgery

25. Yordys Valdes - .200 average with a .463 OPS at Lynchburg

26. Angel Martinez -  Hitting well so far at Lynchburg.  Time will tell.

27.  Yu Chang -  Clearly establishing himself as a AAAA player

28. Daniel Johnson -  Looks more and more like a AAAA player but at least he is not sulking at AAA and is actually hitting with power.

29. Jose Pastrano - Extended spring training

30. Eli Morgan - He was hurt at the beginning of the year so it is tough to see what he will be this year.

31. Jose Tena -  Showing flashes so far, the whole season will tell his performance

32. Petey Halpin - Extended spring training.

33. Trevor Stephan - Holding his own in the majors, making this look like a good Rule 5 pickup.

34. Will Benson - Showing some promise but, at times, looking like the same old Will Benson who might never connect the tools with performance.

35. Nick Sandlin -  Better than expected due to his good FB velocity.  If you redid this list right now he might be top 15.

36. Junior  Sanquintin -  Extended spring training

37. Jean Carlos Mejia - A couple of good major league appearances give hope that he moves, once again, up this list.

38. Jose Fermin - Middle of the road so far but some promise there, to be sure, as he is at AA

39. Luis Durango, Jr. - Extended spring training

40. Kyle Nelson - He is exactly as advertised.  Maybe would be top 30 if you redid this list now.

Looking at this list, it is a rather disappointing start for our prospects.  Not a lot of help in the minors right now.  Plus our lower level prospects are not overwhelming their competition, at least at AAA, AA and Lake County at high A.    Hopefully our prospects and those I didn't mention above or below, especially those who were acquired in our recent blockbuster trades (like Andres Gimenez who would have been mayb #4 on the above list) will become solid stars in the next few years.

Now there are people that are not on this list who are overperforming: Jhonkensy Noel, Mason Hickman, Nick Mikolajchak, Andres Melendez, Will Bartlett, Johnathon Rodriguez, Kirk McCarthy and Oscar Gonzalez,

There are whole slew of young prospects who are off to decent starts but for whom it will take the whole season to see if they are on the upswing or the downswing in prospect status

Guys like Will Brennan and some of the college pitchers have their moments but it is hard to distinguish whether their success is because they are good or just because they are experienced players playing against young, inexperienced competition.