When to Promote Minor Leaguers

I would say you’ve got to view a player’s current performance in the larger context of what you would like their developmental path to look like (best case scenario, middle of the road, and worst case scenario) first and foremost, and to a lesser degree in how they fit into the larger organizational picture. For example, Ryan Miller was a college draftee and is a little older tha De La Cruz. He probably needs to be put on a more expedited path than Lord Kelvin (or at least would benefit more from one). That’s not to say that you couldn’t put Kelvin on an accelerated path as well, but there’s less pressure given his age to do that. I think the presence of guys “blocking” players at higher levels is only an issue if the two players are of equal prospect value. Minor league rosters are flexible enough that rarely can you not accomodate two players, even if they play the same position.

In this specific case I would hope Miller gets promoted soon (like by June 1st). De La Cruz I’m content to wait a little longer, although if the FO felt the need to swap him with one of Kinston’s struggling young pitchers (Espino, Gomez) I’d be fine with that.

The June draft and the beginning of the NYP league season will be a natural time for sorting things out. It probably also depends on how much talent there is in extended spring training. For example, I noticed that John Gaub and Joey Mahalic have recently been promoted to Lake County. We still have guys like Chris Jones and T.J. McFarland (and Gregorio Rosario!) in ESP to promote when needed. Then there’ll be the college guys from the June draft.

Oh, and, you could make a case for promoting Ryan Morris, and maybe Pestano, Cawiezell, and Judy-despite the APV jinx-also.

This is a good question. To promote there has to be room. My guess is (without studying the rosters right now) that, similar to what APV is saying above there shouldn’t be too much of a problem in players being blocked, although they may want to make sure a guy is given enough rope to hang himself before simply demoting him or releasing him. I think Ken has it right that the draft and NYP league season will often play a role in forcing the issue.

Indiansfan might have an interesting take on this when he pops in.

There was an article in the NY Times this morning about the Yankees woes; part of it was about whether there were players in the lower minor leagues who might help the Yankees out. It brought up the fact that Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain came out of nowhere last year to help the Yankees get to the playoffs and wondered if that would happen again. It almost sounded as if the sportswriter (I forget who it was) thought this wasn’t unusual and the response from Girardi (or it might have been Cashman, I can’t recall now) wasn’t “are you out of your mind?” or anything along those lines.

Anyway, I found this interesting since it’s very different from the orderly, planned approach the Indians adopt, although we have had a few guys who’ve moved up several steps pretty quickly (where did Stomp start last year?—Akron?).