Hello APV and Ken,

Everts was considered to be one of the Nationals’ most promising pitching prospects for the past few seasons, but has struggled with injuries (I don’t remember if it was his shoulder or something with his arm,) but he was quite a promising starting pitching prospect for a few seasons.

Whether the Nationals are just letting him regain his arm strength and stamina or if they’re thinking that they will have a better chance of keeping him healthy by having him pitch in relieft, it seems he’s just coming out of the bullpen exclusively this season. His K/9 IP rate is good, though his BB/9 IP is quite high as well.

Certainly last night though, he had his stuff working and Kinston’s hitters couldn’t adjust to it.

Just my 2 cents.

Kelvin De La Cruz and Josh Tomlin were both awesome in their own distinctive ways. There’s an entertaining thread on Lord Kelvin’s A+ debut over there on the FanPost side (I think that’s where it is). What I liked most was De La Cruz’s ability to throw a strike-and not just a meatball, but a good one-when he had to. He was undermined by his fielders, who were sloppy, to use your word. I liked the looks of Rivero as a hitter—with the glove, not so much.

Thanks for the info. LeftyCatcher – it sounds like you had fun at the game you attended.

Regarding Rivero, he’s a promising prospect (one scout even said he was reminded of Miguel Cabrera, particularly his size, but I think the scout meant it in a positive way, not a negative way), but there had been talk that Rivero will eventually outgrow the position of SS and likely move to 3B, which could partly explain why Rivero doesn’t look all that smooth at SS.

Regarding Ryan Goleski, you are correct – that is the same Goleski who mentioned he was disappointed that he returned to the Indians’ organization after Oakland returned him in the Rule 5 Draft around a year ago, presumably because the Indians’ organization had many OFers in the system (besides Crowe and others at or near Goleski’s level, but Francisco, Choo, and even Gutierrez were not regularly in the Majors yet at that time).

Unfortunately for Ryan, he is not helping his case of proving he’s ML-ready – it was bad enough he was unimpressive at Akron, but his demotion pretty much confirms (and it was sort of looking apparent before this) that he is an “organization” guy now. Whether Ryan didn’t have the right mind-set, and that’s why he faltered at Akron this season, or he’s just lost the skills he had (which weren’t great, but better than what he’s showing now, and whether that’s due to injury or just a lack of concentration), I can’t say for sure, but certainly, any chance of Goleski contributing something to the Indians’ organization at the ML level pretty much went up in smoke with his demotion to Kinston, being that he is 26-YO.

Goedert has been a bit inconsistent defensively, though I believe that was just his 9th error on the season (I don’t know how many he’s made at 3B, compared to 2B). As for Drennen, it would be nice to see some consistency from him and see him go on a tear – being that this is his second year in the Carolina League, I think most were hoping he’d be ready to make the jump to Akron by now, but that does not appear to be the case at this point. Let’s hope he can put himself (and Goedert can do so as well) in the position to maybe earn a “cup of coffee” at Akron before the season is over with.

As for Wagner (another guy you’d like to see at Akron soon), he was inconsistent with his command to start the season, but has been better of late, with only an occasional hiccup, command-wise. I read that his fastball is second only to Adam Miller’s in the entire Indians’ organization, so he certainly has a live arm and could probably factor in quite well into the Indians’ future bullpen plans if he can maintain consistent command and provide a string of quality outings from here on out. Let’s hope he can do so.

Regarding Kinston, I can’t remember the last time they did not make the Carolina League postseason, winning at least one half of the season in probably each of the last 7-8 years, if not 10 years. However, if I remember the standings correctly, they have work to do to continue that streak, as they did not win the first half and have been inconsistent (again) in the second half. More importantly, though, let’s hope the players distinguish themselves and are in position to move up to Akron late this season or very early next season.

Just my 2 cents. :-)

A fan video. It’s a little uncomfortable the way they cheer like it’s a gladiator fight, but what are you gonna do.