Indians Organization All-Stars outtakes
By Kelsie Heneghan
By Kelsie Heneghan / MiLB.com
On Monday, we posted the 2015 Indians Organization All-Stars. With a system full of talent and a director of player development, Carter Hawkins, who’s happy to talk about it, there are a couple players and quotes that just missed the cut. Here are a few honorable mentions and bonus quotes.
Right-handed starting pitcher — Mike Clevinger, Akron (27 games): Clevinger had a star-studded season by any measure, but Adam Plutko just beat him out. The 24-year-old led the organization with 145 strikeouts and ranked second with a 2.73 ERA.
After dominating for Double-A Akron, Clevinger moved up to Triple-A Columbus and flat-out dominated in the International League playoffs. In his debut, he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning to secure a trip to the Governors’ Cup Finals.
Left-handed starting pitcher — Shawn Morimando, Akron (28 games): The competition didn’t get any easier among southpaws as Morimando was edged by Justus Sheffield. The 22-year-old joined Clevinger in the RubberDucks rotation and posted a 3.18 ERA and 128 strikeouts.
On outfielders Bradley Zimmer and Clint Frazier living up to expectations, Hawkins said:
“It’s always tough for guys like Clint and guys like Brad, being a first-round pick, coming in with a lot of fanfare, people know who they are. It can be very easy to coast, it can be very easy to feel like you’ve already arrived, even if you’re only in Rookie ball or A-ball. But both of those guys, Zimmer especially, continue to make adjustments, continue to work, continue to understand that he’s going to have to do things differently once he got to professional baseball and certainly bought into a lot of those things and the production followed for him.”
On Yandy Diaz’s experience:
“Yandy’s Cuban and played over there for a while, so he has some experience with some upper level-type competition. And certainly just the things that he’s gone through in that process to get to the States definitely has given him a perspective that’s a little more mature than most Minor Leaguers when they get into the system.”
On Nellie Rodriguez working with Bobby Bradley:
“Both those guys worked out together in the offseason, they pushed each other. Nellie definitely being the guy who’s been around a little bit longer kind of showed Bobby the ropes. My expectations would be that they’re going to be attached at the hips going forward through our system. But it’s great when we got guys that are trying to make the guys around them better. That’s a true team-first approach, which you don’t see a ton of in the Minor Leagues, but it’s a really great environment for guys to improve.”
