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'05 Draft Preview: Pick Pennington?
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Wade Townsend ... a top 10 pick once again?
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Chuck Murr Indians Ink
Date: Jun 6, 2005
The Indians are not exactly certain just who they will select with the 14th overall pick in the first round of the annual amateur player draft on Tuesday. The only certainty is Cleveland will select the player the organization believes is the most talented among those remaining.
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John Mirabelli, the Indians' director of scouting, says that the organization will always select the player that they have rated the highest, regardless of which position he plays -- at least for the first 10 rounds or so of the draft. After that, Mirabelli said the Indians will look to fill voids at certain positions.
The draft will last 50 rounds and will finish after all 30 teams have either passed on a selection or after the final pick in the 50th round, whichever comes first.
Mirabelli believes that the strength of the 2005 draft is in corner outfielders and infielders from collegiate programs. That's a departure from many recent drafts, where pitchers were the dominant choices. Mirabelli also believes that there is a good overall crop of high school players available, including pitchers -- but nothing like it was in 2001, when Cleveland had four picks in the first round and selected four prep pitchers.
Last year, the Indians were reasonably confident that they would get the player they wanted -- left-hander
Jeremy Sowers of Vanderbilt University, in the first round. That's because Cleveland selected sixth and pretty much knew what the five teams in front of them were going to do.
This year, Cleveland has its regular pick at No. 14 and also a couple of "sandwich" picks acquired from San Francisco when the Giants signed away free agent shortstop Omar Vizquel. Cleveland will get extra picks at No. 33 and No. 102 overall, respectively, giving the Indians a shot at five of the top 102 names on their list.
Picking 14th makes it more difficult to accurately assess just who will be Cleveland's first pick, however.
"We'll have 15 names ready," said Mirabelli. "Whichever player from that list who we have rated highest is remaining, that's the guy we'll select."
There are several players with good all-around tools available, led by high school shortstop/outfielder
Justin Upton. Upton's older brother B.J. was the second overall pick in 2002 by Tampa Bay, but Justin likely will be selected No. 1 overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks. They would become the highest brother tandem selected. Dmitri Young, now with Detroit, was the fourth overall choice by St. Louis in 1991 and his brother, Delmon, was chosen first by Tampa Bay in 2003.
If Arizona does take Upton, they will be adhering to a similar philosophy as the Indians by not being afraid to stockpile talent at one position. A year ago, the Diamondbacks' top pick also was a shortstop, Stephen Drew, who is the brother of Dodgers star J.D. and former Indians No. 1 pick Tim.
Many scouts regard Upton as a potential 30-homer, 30-stolen base man and as possibly the best prep player available since Alex Rodriguez was taken with the first overall pick by Seattle in 1993.
This year, the Mariners select No. 3 behind Kansas City. Both teams could select one of those corner infielders that Mirabelli said were a little more plentiful this year.
The Royals may take Gordon, a lefty hitter from Nebraska, though Zimmerman, considered the best defensive player available, could be their pick. Zimmerman's defensive skills are good enough that he could possibly be moved to another infield position -- whereas Gordon is considered to be a much better power hitter and clearly projects as a corner (third or first base) player.
If the Royals take Gordon, the Mariners might turn to outfielder Cameron Maybin, a North Carolina high school product said to have great raw ability. Or Seattle could select one of the top college pitchers available, most notably Craig Hansen of St. John's, Luke Hochevar of Tennessee and Mike Pelfrey of Wichita State.
Maybin hit 14 homers in 65 at-bats with a batting average of over .600 as a switch-hitter this spring. Since high schoolers are difficult to project, he could drop in the draft despite his big numbers, though at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, he appears to be a power hitter in the making.
Pelfry, a 6-7 right-hander, is the best pitcher in the draft, but teams might be scared away from because he has hired Scott Boras as his agent. Boras is notorious for being a hard-line dealer and has represented many players who have refused to sign and gone back into the draft the next year. Mirabelli said that if the Indians have a chance to draft a player represented by Boras, the organization would not let that factor keep them from picking the player, however.
Hochevar, a 6-4 right-hander, also is a Boras client and regarded as a workhorse type of pitcher in the mold of Cleveland right-hander Kevin Millwood.
Hansen, a 6-5 right-hander, is the top reliever available. He had a 1.09 ERA, 13 walks and 66 strikeouts in his first 50 innings this spring and is probably the pitcher closest to being ready for the majors right now.
Another pitcher with good credentials is Rice right-hander Wade Townsend, who is back in the draft after not signing with Baltimore. The Orioles made him the No. 8 pick overall last year and he could be selected in that area once again.
Troy Tulowitzki, a 6-3 shortstop, is often compared to Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby, who preceded him at Long Beach State. He has displayed good power and is likely to be one of the first five players selected overall.
A shortstop, second baseman and another corner infielder are good bets to be first-round selections -- with one of them possibly slipping to the Indians at No. 14. The third baseman is
Ryan Braun of Miami, while Stanford second baseman
Jed Lowrie and shortstop
Cliff Pennington of Texas A&M are highly regarded, too.
The Indians have a recent history of players from two of those schools.
Brian Barton, who is off to a fabulous first pro season at Class A Lake County, played at Miami. The Indians have several players throughout their system from Stanford, most notably
Jody Gerut,
Jeremy Guthrie and
Jason Cooper.
Braun, a 6-2 right-hander, has been compared to White Sox third baseman Joe Crede. In his first 56 games this spring, he hit .396 with 18 homers and 75 RBI with 22 steals in 29 attempts.
He was Barton's teammate last year on the Hurricanes and has drawn comparisons to Phillies slugger and former Miami star Pat Burrell.
Lowrie, a 6-0 switch-hitter, hit .317 with 13 homers and 65 RBI in his first 58 games this year with five steals in seven attempts and only six errors at second base. He isn't an imposing physical specimen, which could lead to his dropping down. But scouts say his work ethic has made him a very reliable player.
Pennington, a 5-11 switch-hitter, has plenty of speed and displayed great leadership ability at Texas A&M. He hit .363 with 13 doubles, four triples, seven homers and 39 RBI in 56 games and had 29 stolen bases in 39 attempts. He, too, is regarded as a player who gets the most out of his abilities and is a middle infielder with great instincts.
There are some other players with familiar names, too.
John Mayberry Jr., son of the former Royals slugger, hit .306 with eight homers as a 6-5 first baseman at Stanford.
P.J. Phillips, brother of the Indians' Brandon, is a star shortstop at Stone Mountain (Ga.) High School.
Andrew McCutchen, a 5-foot-11 outfielder who hit .709 with 42 RBI and 16 steals at Fort Meade (Fla.) High School, is on everybody's list -- as are Cal State-Fullerton left-hander Ricky Romero, Southern Cal catcher Jeff Clement and Oregon State outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who hit .426 with 20 stolen bases.
These are just a few of the nearly 1,200 names the Indians have on their scouting board.
Fifty-two of them will be selected by Cleveland in the next two days. Stay tuned.
MINOR MATTERS
The Indians made a few organizational moves, releasing veteran outfielder Darnell McDonald from his contract at Class AA Buffalo and releasing veteran infielder Warren Morris from his contract at Class AA Akron. Right-hander Kyle Evans was transferred from Akron to Buffalo and lefty Victor Kleine was sent back to the Aeros from Triple-A. Cleveland also acquired veteran catcher Javier Cardona from the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named. He likely will be sent to Akron, where Armando Camacaro is on the disabled list with a sprained left knee. Lefty Michael Hernandez was promoted from Class A Lake County to Akron and right-hander Cody Bunkelman transferred from Mahoning Valley to the Captains.
CLASS AAA BUFFALO (35-22) lost to visiting Columbus, 6-4. Ryan Ludwick (.400) hit his first two homers since being sent to the Bisons last week. Buffalo got only four other hits. Starter Steve Watkins (4.65 ERA) allowed three runs over five innings. Kyle Evans (0-1, 3.00 ERA), just called up from Akron, was the loser. He gave up three runs, though only one was earned, over three innings. Andrew Brown (5.02 ERA) struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth inning.
Earlier Monday, veteran catcher Dusty Wathan was named the International League Player of the Week for the period from May 30-June 5. He batted .421 (8-for-19) with one double, four homers and 11 RBI.
CLASS AA AKRON (32-23) and the entire Eastern League was not scheduled.
CLASS A KINSTON (31-24) was rained out.
CLASS A LAKE COUNTY (33-25) completed a four-game sweep of visiting Delmarva by getting 22 hits in an 18-7 win. Argenis Reyes (.316) went 5-for-6 with three RBI and led off the first inning with his second homer. Brian Barton (.435) went 4-for-5, scored four runs and drove in four. Mike Butia (.242) went 4-for-6 with four RBI and scored twice. Marshall Szabo (.231) went 3-for-6, Matt Whitney (.208) 2-for-6, and Chris Gimenez (.203) 2-for-3 with three runs. Brian Finegan (.257) drove in two runs with his third homer. Tony Sipp (3-1, 2.25 ERA) allowed three runs over 5 1/3 innings and T.J. Burton (4.50 ERA) pitched a scoreless 1 2/3. Adrian Schau (7.07 ERA) gave up four runs and four hits over one inning before Kieran Mattison (2.45 ERA) pitched one scoreless inning for the Captains.
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