Pitching staff highlighted by power arms

As a catcher during a 14-year playing career in professional baseball that included brief stints with the Indians and two other big-league teams, Luke Carlin was a battery mate with many talented pitchers.

Carlin, about to begin his first season as manager of the Lake County Captains, is mightily impressed with the power he sees in the arms of many of his pitchers.

“It seems like all of these young guys are throwing way up over 90 (mph) now. It’s impressive to watch,” Carlin said.

Indeed, many of the 13 pitchers on the Lake County roster possess power arms and the numbers to match.

Eli Morgan, a 21-yearold right-hander from California, will get the start on April 5 against the Fort Wayne (Ind.) TinCaps in the season opener at Classic Park.

Last year, in his professional debut at short-season Single-A Mahoning Valley, Morgan was 3-2 with a 1.03 ERA. In 13 appearances, four of them starts, Morgan notched 58 strikeouts while yielding only nine walks in 35 innings. He did not give up a home run.

Selected by the Indians in the 15th round of the 2017 draft out of Gonzaga University, the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Morgan mixes a four-seam fastball that sits in the low 90s with a hard slider and changeup that Baseball America rates as the best in the Indians’ farm system.

“I throw strikes and challenge hitters,” Morgan said. “Growing up, my favorite pitcher was Pedro Martinez on the (Boston) Red Sox. He was such

a bad-ass. That guy had swagger and wasn’t afraid of any batter.”

Morgan and 10 of the other pitchers in the Captains this season spent all or part of the 2017 campaign with Mahoning Valley. The Scrappers finished 44-29 and made the New York-Penn League playoffs.

“The pitchers we have here this season dominated last year at Mahoning Valley. Our goal is to do the same this season in the Midwest League and win a championship,” Morgan said.

Carlin said the balance of his team’s starting rotation shapes up as follows: left-hander Juan Hillman piggybacking with righthander Grigori Vasquez; left-hander Kirk McCarty; right-hander Grant Hockin; left-hander Prancisco Perez piggybacking with right-hander Felix Tati.

The relievers are lefthander Kyle Nelson and right-handers Tommy DeJuneas, Domingo Jimenez, James Karinchak and Jonathan Teaney. At Mahoning Valley last season, these pitchers had combined totals of 172 strikeouts in 117 innings.

Fort Wayne’s starter in the opener, Nick Margevicius, is a 2014 graduate of St. Ignatius High School. The 6-5, 220-pound lefthander from North Royalton was selected by the San Diego Padres in the seventh round of the 2017 draft out of Rider University.

Morgan