The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Captains edge Loons in final game of series
If you’ve been paying attention to the the team that will soon be known as the Guardians, you are aware they are precariously close to falling out of the race for a playoff spot.
As July disappears and August looms, the team that will soon be formerly known as the Indians has fallen further behind the division leading White Sox in the race for the American League Central crown. They stopped the bleeding with a 3-2 win over Tampa Bay on July 25, but they have struggled in recent weeks. The writing is on the wall, as the saying goes.
As the window closes on playoff hopes for the 2021 Tribe, so does the championship window for an organization that came within a game of the world’s championship in a glorious autumn postseason run 2016 that ended in a Game 7 loss to the Cubs. Gone from that squad are Francisco Lindor, Corey Kluber, Carlos Santana, and long gone is game-changing reliever Andrew Miller.
But help may soon be on the way. Consider this. In the summer of 2012, Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez were lighting up things for the Lake County Captains while the Indians were staggering near the bottom of the standings in the last year of Manny Acta era.
Four short years later, they (Lindor and Ramirez) were cornerstones of a team playing on the baseball’s biggest stage in October 2016.
If the Cleveland baseball team were to follow the same path ( “blue print” is the pro sports term) that led them to the World Series in 2016, then you’d think that in 2025 somebody on the Guardians roster, would have called Classic Park home in the summer of 2021.
Just who might some of the players be? There were plenty of major league scouts at the Captains game on July 25 to solicit opinions from on just that question.
They, along with 2,363 fans, watched the Captains pull out a 7-6 win over the Great Lake Loons on a sundrenched afternoon. And who better to get an analysis of who might be helping out the Indians in the near future if not a bigleague scout?
They are easy to locate. They sit in really good seats behind home plate. Many carry notebooks, stop watches and they all seem to sport the coolest sunglasses.
Here is what they said about the Captains:
The number of players on current roster that could make an impact at the major league numbers stands between two and five, according to the scouts. In no particular order, here are the players who made an impression on the scouts.
We start with the dynamic Brayan Rocchio, a 20-year old switch-hitting infielder. He stands 5-feet10, but tips the scales at just 150 pounds.
He can, run, throw and makes consistent contact, but one scout said he might not hit enough to make an impact at the big-league level.
“His MO is supposed to be defense, running and contact. But you aren’t going to make the big leagues with just defense. Not in today’s game. You just aren’t,” the scout said.
During the Captains’ 7-6 win, Rocchio had a big game at plate, collecting three hits, including his ninth home run of the year, scored two runs and drove in a pair. He gets his uniform dirty, an indication of how hard he plays. For the season, he is hitting .268 with 33 RBI and 14 stolen bases.
Catcher Bryan Lavastida earned a good grade, as well. He’s hitting .308 with five homers and 28 RBI and 14 stolen bases. Maybe he’s a future Sandy Alomar Jr.? He’s considered athletic for his position and because he’s so athletic he could also change positions as his career progresses.
“Good contact and enough power,” was one of the comments about the 22-year old catcher.
Outfielder Will Brennan is another with a chance to end up playing at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario in the not-so-distant future. “Good contact with the bat who has a good arm,” and would project out more as a corner outfielder, said one scout of the 23-year-old, who was taken in the eight-round of the 2019 draft.
Brennan may find himself sharing a big-league locker room with George Valera, a 20-year-old, who was signed as a free agent in 2017 out the Dominican Republic. He’s hitting .252 with eight HR and 22 RBI.
“Very good arm, power potential and he’s no slouch when it comes to contact,” said a scout of Valera.
Pitching prospects at Lake County do not seem as plentiful. The consensus among scouts was the top prospect was Daniel Espino, a a 20-year-old righthander taken in the firstround of the 2019 draft. He was recently called up to High-A and in his first home start on July 21 was roughed up by Great Lakes giving up a pair of homers, four runs and five innings in a loss.
Don’t read too much into the one rough start.
“Baseball is a humbling game,” said one scout.
The physical distance from Classic Park to Progressive Field is 18 miles, or 23 minutes by car. But making the trek from High-A to Progressive Field as player is a whole different trip.