John Sickels on the Tribe farm system
He's inclined to rank 26 players in the top 15, which seems good. No "A" grades yet, but he mentions a couple of players that could be there with the right sort of 2011 season.
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Sickels comments that he believes it’s even tougher to predict future success for minor league pitchers than hitters. And 17/26 players listed are pitchers. To me, it means there are players not on his list that have a legit chance at contributing as major leaguers.
Gets back to the quantity vs. quality discussion. The Tribe’s view at this point seems to be that quantity is what you need in terms of pitchers, perhaps still more focused on quality for hitters.
by Jay on Dec 2, 2010 2:56 PM EST up reply actions
I also don’t see a lot of emphasis on power hitting in the Indians’ approach. Other than Weglarz, most of their top hitting prospects seem to have been selected for other qualities.
This is harder for me to deal with. On one level, power has clearly been shown to be one of the last traits to develop in good hitters, and those hitters who show great power at a young age often flame out because they have terrible plate approaches (the most likely trajectory for Abner Abreu, for example). But there has to be some recognition of guys who are good hitters and have the body and swing type capable of developing power down the road. I wish I saw a few more of these guys in the system right now, but maybe they are just hard to see. I will say that across the minor league system, this was the best year for “power” that the Indians have produced in some time, though much of it coming from older, more marginal prospects like Goedert and McBride.
by APV on Dec 2, 2010 3:45 PM EST up reply actions
It might be useful to review the minor league development of Thome, Belle, Sexton, Manny and Giles.
Our best players wear suits.
yeah….can we add Corey Smith, Ryan Goleski, Eric Crozier, Ryan Ludwick, Scott Morgan, Todd Betts or about 20 other guys from the last 15 years to the list
by APV on Dec 5, 2010 9:05 AM EST up reply actions
My point is this: our successful power hitters – for the most part – had power from day one. I can’t think of an Indians power hitter who started out as a singles hitter and then turned into a power hitter. Can you?
Our best players wear suits.
Are you serious? Sizemore (6 HRs in his first 3 minor league seasons). Choo (20 HRs in his first 3 minor league seasons…with his power driven by 32 triples during that span). Peralta had an ISO of .068 his first minor league season, followed by just .111 his second season. Brian Giles had 16 HRs combined in his first five minor league seasons.
Chuck, I think you need to give up the ghost on Belle, Thome and Ramirez as your go-to guys. These are exceptional, Hall of Fame caliber guys. By definition they are not good comparative models.
I’ll give you Choo – but he isn’t exactly a guy who came up through our system. And Peralta? Now who’s reaching?
Again, it’s not the “average” player I’m concerned with. You won’t win much with a team of average players. What I wanna know is this: how to you find and develope the superstars – like Carlos Santana?
So, yeah, that’s why I’m focused on Belle, Manny and Thome – might wanna throw Pujols, Bonds and Lee in there too. I really don’t care where the next Jhonny Peralta’s coming from What I wanna know is: how can we sign the next Jason Heyward ?
Our best players wear suits.
a lot of good luck.
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
“I’ll give you Choo – but he isn’t exactly a guy who came up through our system. "
What’s the relevance of that in this context?
Singles hitters can develop power but not if Shapiro is the one telling them to hit homeruns?
In the new Geico commercial, Marte sings "Let me be myself" on Wedge's front lawn (with the cavemen).
by V-Mart Shopper on Dec 6, 2010 3:13 AM EST up reply actions
Nice sig.
It’s a truism that power is the last tool to develop. Not even talking about the Indians — hard to tell what their philosophy is on this — but among all scouts and all player development executives. This is what the entire industry says.
In fact, it’s considered a dubious achievement when a minor league hits more homers than doubles. The sense is that all he’s doing is hitting mistakes by inexperienced pitchers, he’s not learning to square up and hit the ball hard every time — which, with age and physiological development, should turn doubles into home runs as the player matures from 21 to 27.
Manny was a pure hitter, not a home run hitter, coming up. Thome hit over .300 in the minors. And on and on.
by Jay on Dec 5, 2010 6:12 PM EST up reply actions
Manny was a pure hitter, not a home run hitter, coming up. Thome hit over .300 in the minors. And on and on.
Of course you’re right, but then again these guys hit the ball hard from the time they started in the Minors – and in Belle’s case while in college. And they did get stronger too, but none of these guys went from Mike Hargrove to Dave Kingman.
This is why I’m excited about Weglarz and Santana. These guys are power guys now, today. I’m not so sure
Our best players wear suits.
This is an approach, as I’ve stated, that I agree with. I’m trying to put together a longer piece to more clearly articulate why, but that’ll be later coming.
by APV on Dec 2, 2010 3:42 PM EST up reply actions
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