Former Indians farmhand Max Ramirez is excelling in the Texas Rangers organization. The catcher is the No. 8 prospect in the Rangers organization, according to Baseball America.
Ramirez just won Rookie of the Year in the Venezuelan Winter League on Tuesday, MLB.com reports.
The Indians acquired Ramirez from the Atlanta Braves in 2006 for relief pitcher Bob Wickman. Cleveland then traded Ramirez to the Rangers in 2007 for Kenny Lofton.
Despite losing Ramirez, The Indians have a highly touted catching prospect of their own in Carlos Santana, a switching catcher acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Casey Blake deal last season.
Santana is the Indians top-rated prospect according to Baseball America.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Max may be down the list in a very deep group of Ranger farmhands but would be the 3rd best prospect in the Indians system. He can hit, but a position switch is likely. Another of the many ill advised Tribe trades that comes in under the radar of those who would crown Shapiro King of Prospects.
do tell us exactly how you’d rank our prospects – assuming you could even name them?
Evil barry, you challenge the BTL?
Ranking is kind’ve silly to me, so let’s just talk about them.
The fortunes of prospects can change dramatically from year to year, but it’s pretty widely accepted that Carlos Santana and Matt LaPorta would be 1-2 going into this season. I haven’t seen Santana so I’ll reserve personal judgement there. Dangerous though rating A ball kids so high. Many hit the wall when they begin to see experienced pitchers in AA. We’ll know soon enough whether Santana will.
LaPorta I like a lot. He had a rough year between the trade, the Futures Game, the Olympics where he got beaned, and the playoffs with Akron. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility that he could land a starting job in Cleveland at some point this season. There are few locks when it comes to prospects, but Matt definitely projects as a big time major league hitter. I don’t want to be too optimistic too soon here, but .270-.290 with 30 homers is where I see him someday if he continues to learn.
Adam Miller would still rank # 1 if he hadn’t been injured so often. Elsewhere here on the blog I mentioned that Reyes had better stuff than any of the other kids they’ve debuted recently, but Adam is definitely an exception. The question is, will he ever put a healthy full season together? Hard to expect much at this point.
The rest of the pitching at the higher levels in the system looks pretty weak.
Everybody is high on David Huff, but finesse lefties rarely show up out of the minors, pitch well, and stick for more than a year. Often those we think of as successful finesse lefties didn’t start out that way. Scott Lewis is another guy in that mold but I like the way he carries himself on the mound and he throws strikes. Again, I wouldn’t expect too much but he’s one that I hope gets a real ood shot in March. Chuck Lofgren was an exciting prospect a year or two ago but appears to be headed south. I wouldn’t get too pumped up about Laffey. That K/BB/INN rate indicates that he may soon have you longing for Neal Heaton. There are a few other guys in the low minors that they’re talking up, but again I haven’t seen them and it’s prudent to see what they do at the higher levels of the minors before getting too excited. If those baby prospects do well at Kinston and Akron, in a year you might have 2-3 or 4 arms that change the whole dynamic of the organizations pitching depth. But right now it stinks.
Beau Mills is a VERY intriguing young hitter. Along with Santana and LaPorta he’s part of the three headed prospect monster heading into 2009. The “experts” seem to be a bit down on Wes Hodges, but I really liked his approach, swing and aggressiveness when I saw him last year.
Fans still hold out hope for Trevor Crowe, but he’s looking like a 4th OF kind’ve guy at best. Whoever thought they should try to convert him into a 2B at Akron two years ago should be fired.
That was the single dumbest development move with a Tribe prospect that I’ve ever seen. You just don’t take a blue chip 22 year old and try to move him from the OF to 2B in the middle of the season, ESPECIALLY a week after he gets to AA. 90% of the guys who go from A to AA are going to have some struggles initially at the plate because for the first time they’re seeing experienced pitching. There are so many players in AA who while they may not ever make it to the big leagues, they have been pitching in pro ball for 5-10 years. Many of ‘em are smart, and pretty good at working a hitter. That’s one of the key factors that make the jump from Kinston to Akron a huge one. Most hitters who will eventually rock in the majors will make the necessary adjustments in 2-8 weeks, then once in a blue moon you’ll see a kid like Manny R, who makes the adjustment in 2 at bats. But I digress.
That first month for a young hitter in AA is huge. Why on earth would you put the added pressure on a kid to learn a complicated new position? Yeah, they scrapped the 2B idea after 2 weeks that saw him hit .150 and make 6 errors, but by then it was too late. The same kid who had torn up minor league pitching from the git-go found his confidence completely shot because all of a sudden he couldn’t hit OR field. Let’s remember, we’re talking about a 22 year old here who already has a fair amount of pressure to deal with. In the aftermath it took Crowe another two years at Akron to get back to where he was in 2006. Very mediocre in ‘07, then a great year there last season. But if you are 24-25 years old and it’s your third go-round in AA, you’re not really a prospect anymore. Someone’s stupidity cost Crowe the most valuable two years of his development, perhaps amillions of dollars and likely cost the organization a terrific OF prospect.
There are others (Weglarz, Chisenall, Rivero) that make various lists but to be honest I have not seem them nor spoken to baseball people about them. To sum it up, I’m very enthusiastic about Santana, Mills, LaPorta, but very discouraged with the pitching end of it. That said, I think at least at the big league level, the Indians have one of the very best in the game at teaching young pitchers in Carl Willis.
BTL