2012 Fish Watch: Cleveland Indians – June Edition
The first thing you need to know about The Fish Watch is that it’s not a list of sleepers. It is instead a list of players at various points in their respective minor league journeys that for one reason or another have piqued my interest enough that I am watching their development more closely than the bulk of prospects out there. To read more about this project, check out the introduction and master list.
This is the second round of updates in this series so I will not rehash why each player made my list but you can always go back and read previous installments of the series. While doing the installments by division worked the first time around, I’m going to go team-by-team for the June recaps (yes I realize it is mid-July already).
Cleveland Indians (S2S 2012 Indians Team Prospect List)
1B – Jesus Aguilar (21) – Signed out of Venezuela as a NDFA on November 13th, 2007
2011 – Lake County (A)/Kinston (A+): 0.284/.359/.506, 30 2B, 23 HR, 2 SB, 46 BB and 126 SO in 521 PA
2012 – Carolina (A+): 0.294/.379/.491, 21 2B, 2 3B, 11 HR, 0 SB, 37 BB and 75 SO in 340 PA
Notes – On the whole Aguilar certainly hasn’t disappointed. He fared well during the month of June but a slash line of 0.282/.361/.482 – after powering his way to a 1.018 OPS in May – felt like a bit of a letdown. During June, he posted his lowest BABIP (0.313) on the season and his LD% experienced a precipitous decline from 15.8% and 16.4% in the season’s first two month to just 5.9%. Since this drop off is extremely out of character relative to the other monthly splits in his career it’s reasonable to assume that this was simply a statistical anomaly, but it’s on record regardless. Aguilar did manage to keep his BB rate around 10% and dropped his strikeout rate under 20% for the first time so not everything about his June was a negative relative to the rest of his 2012 season.
OF – Bryson Myles (22) – Indians 2011 6th Round Pick
2011 -Mahoning Valley (A-): 0.302/.394/.401, 14 XBH, 20 SB, 24 BB and 32 SO in 222 PA
2012 – Lake County (A): 0.271/.338/.369, 10 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 13 SB, 20 BB and 46 SO in 235 PA
Notes – Myles hasn’t had the breakout season that I anticipated thus far but he’s been solid overall. After struggling to the tune of 0.225/.333/.275 during the month of May, he picked it up in June to hit 0.256/.365/.372. The most curious thing about his performance last month is the fact that he failed to steal a base after swiping 6 in April and 5 in May. Speed and instincts are two of his best assets as a prospect after all. Myles walked in 13.2% of his PA during the month which was up slightly from his 12.2% in May but that modest gain was completely offset by the fact that his K% ballooned to 28.3%. Obviously getting his strikeouts under control is priority number one and the rest should fall into place fairly quick if he can make the necessary adjustments.
C – Jake Lowery (21) – Indians 2011 4th Round Pick
2011 – Mahoning Valley: 0.245/.377/.415, 30 XBH, 54 BB and 56 SO in 310 PA
2012 – Carolina/Lake County: 0.219/.314/.312, 16 2B,0 3B, 2 HR, 1 SB, 33 BB and 82 SO in 274 PA
Notes – Catchers have a tendency to follow some bizarre career trajectories and I’m hoping that’s what going on here, but in simple terms June was not good to Jake Lowery. In 13 games during the month he hit a paltry 0.114/.304/.200 with a 0.190 BABIP, 4.5 LD% and 31.9 K%. The only real positive to take away from his performance were the 10 walks he drew in 47 PA (21.3 BB%). His overall dismal performance at the plate got him bumped down from Carolina to Lake County just a few games into July, but we’ll get more into that in next month’s installment.
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For more on the Cleveland Indians, check out Wahoo’s on First