Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Cleveland Indians’

One Fort Wayne related player I have enjoyed following the last couple years is Josh Judy, a West Virginia native who played his college ball at Indiana Institute of Technology. IIT is hardly known as a hotbed of Major League talent, so the fact that he was drafted in the 34th round of the 2007 Amateur Draft was a bit of a surprise to many.

A two-time NAIA All-America, Judy posted an 8-1 record with a 1.63 earned run average and 84 strikeouts in 2007 before being selected as the 1034th overall pick by Cleveland.

But Judy didn’t remain in relative obscurity for long. Now, he ranks among the Tribe’s top prospects.

The latest stop on Judy’s get-to-know-me tour was the Arizona Fall League. In 11 relief appearances for the Peoria Saguaros, he went 2-2 with a 1.59 and 20 strikeouts. He gave up 13 hits in 17 innings . . . he went 12-1 and struck out 80 in 74-1/3 innings in 35 appearances for Class A Lake County. He also pitched seven games for Kinston (14 innings, 17 strikeouts).

Related BBIFW Josh Judy Posts:

• More Local Northeast Indiana Baseball Standouts Drafted
• Half Way There: A Mid-Season Look at Local Ties
• Josh Judy Lands on Top Prospect’s List
• Fort Fragments (Local Ties): Day, Parker, Chenoweth, Dygert, Judy 

Cleveland Indian’s prospect and former Indiana Tech pitcher, Josh Judy has been profiled as the #43 Indian’s prospect by Indian’s Prospect Insider.

The 6’4″ 200-pound Judy throws a fastball with great life that consistently sits at 92-94 MPH topping out as high as 96 MPH when he was in college. He complements his plus fastball with a slider and changeup. The slider is very good and has a nice sharp break to it and late movement. Hitters have a real hard time picking it up, and it is a swing-and-miss pitch for him. He used to throw a curveball as his third pitch, but it was tabled for the changeup. He did not use the changeup much in game situations last year, and instead mostly worked on it in bullpen sessions between games since he was still learning to throw it seeing that he never threw one before. In addition to his outstanding fastball-slider two pitch mix, he displays very good composure on the mound by being a bulldog in tight situations. He is aggressive on the mound and goes right after hitters.

January 14 at 11:27 pm – Baseball America is reporting that Jack Cassel has signed a minor league deal with the Cleveland Indians (h/t MLBTraderumors). I have not yet seen this reported anywhere else, but I trust BA. Hopefully we’ll hear a little more ove rthe next couple days.

Update: January 16 – The Indians’ website has finally confirmed Cassel’s signing:

Two more invitees were announced on Friday, as right-handers Matt Herges and Jack Cassel have been signed to Minor League contracts. As previously reported, right-handed reliever Vinnie Chulk was signed to a Minor League deal with an invite to big league camp on Thursday, though that deal hasn’t been officially announced by the club yet.

Best of luck with the Tribe Jack.

After my recent post on George Kottaras and the potential for him breaking camp with the Red Sox in 2009, I got to thinking about Josh Barfield.

His rise and fall is well documented. With the Padres in 2006, he was a legitimate candidate for NL Rookie of the Year. His numbers were pretty solid. Over 150 games, Barfield hit .280 with 151 hits, 13 home runs and 58 runs batted in. He also swiped 21 bases.

The offseason saw the Padres trade Barfield to the Indians for Kevin Kouzmanoff and Andrew Brown (who is now with Oakland) to fill a void at third base when the Sean Burroughs experience didn’t pan out the way they had planned. That’s when things went south for Barfield.

His 2007 production was lackluster at best. Over 130 games, Barfield hit.243 with three home runs and 50 RBIs. Rookie, Asdrubal Cabrera came out of nowhere to take advantage of the situation and wrestle away the starting gig at second base. His performance is one that often receives credit as a big reason the Tribe was able to launch into the playoffs and narrowly miss going to the World Series.

As one might expect, Cabrera entered Spring Training as the incumbent second baseman and began the 2008 season in that role. Barfield began the 2008 season at Triple-A Buffalo. His numbers were nothing to write home about, hitting .253 with 75 hits and 23 runs batted in over 299 at-bats. He struck out 58 teams.

But fortunately for Barfield, Cabrera offered a dismal performance that was reminiscent of Barfield’s 2007. It gave Barfield another shot. Though he went 0-6 during that stint, he might have had a good shot had he not gotten injured. He underwent surgery to repair an injured ligament on the left middle finger and missed several weeks.

By the time Barfield had recovered, Eric Wedge and the Indians had moved on and the season was more or less lost. Jamey Carroll held down most of the second base duties during that time, but didn’t really show any indication that he had locked up the role. That may have provided Barfield with yet another opportunity to regain his promise.

On the season, Barfield had little opportunity to impress at the MLB level and continues to show a high strikeout propensity (10 in 33 at bats). He hit just .182 during the combined stints. But reportedly, Barfield did make an impression and should get a legitimate shot at reclaiming his position unless there happens to be an acquisition of an established veteran. In all likelihood, the battle will come down to Barfield, Cabrera, Carroll and rookie Luis Valbuena, who hit .245 in 18 games last season.

Methinks there’s an very outside shot that Barfield could regain the role he lost nearly two years ago. Though, I might be a bit more on the hopeful side than most. As I often do with former Wizards players, as I researched this post, I did an environmental scan of news stories and blog posts. Many have already written Barfield out of the future plans not only for the Indians, but every team in Major League Baseball.

The DiaTribe suggests:

As 2009 looms, the decline of Barfield from being an up-and-coming steady MLB contributor at the age of 23 to a player that isn’t likely to factor into the Indians’ 2009 plans as a 26-year-old is nearly complete.

Sheldon Ocker of Ohio.com predicts that…

Jhonny Peralta probably will move from short to third – a move I don’t like – Asdrubal Cabrera will be shifted from second to short, and manager Eric Wedge will re-introduce himself to Josh Barfield, the forgotten man. It’s also not out of the question that Shapiro will find a free-agent second baseman.

And finally, Michael Taylor provides a thorough (yet bleak) analysis for MVN:

While Kouzmanoff has lived up to his end of the trade, the son of a former home run champion has arguably become the worst position player in the American League when he has been in the lineup. Barfield’s OPS, which is on-base percentage plus slugging percentage, is under .600! That’s right, under .600!

In that segment, Taylor reviews Barfield in comparison to baseball-reference.com’s similar batters through age 25.  Those batters are Russ Adams, Carlos Febles, Carlos Guillen, Pat Kelly and Michael Young. It’s an interesting mix, but I don’t recall any of those players ever emerging as the type of player who was irreplaceable for a team.

So, while the outlook is dim, it does appear that Barfield still has an opportunity to restore an unfulfilled promise. He’s still relatively young, nobody has a lock on his position at the MLB level, and he’s playing for a club that saw Cliff Lee make one of the most phenomenal “out-of-nowhere” resurgences in Major League Baseball History. So I guess anything’s possible!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in:

• Barfield on His Way Back to Tribe (June 9, 2008)
• Barfield Focuses on Mechanics, Wants Job Back (March 9, 2008)
• Barfield Looks to Reclaim Job (February 23, 2008)
• Barfield Looking Forward to New Team; League (January 14, 2008)
• Barfield to Tribe (November 8, 2006)

Photograph courtesy of the Fort Wayne Wizards/TinCaps

Eric Wedge will be back with Cleveland for 2009 after a disapponting 2008 that ended strongly. While he may have the whole off-season to plan, he’s wasting little time.

During a news conference today, he had plenty of reasons to point the finger, but refused to place blame.

“In essence, we lost our Nos. 2-, 3- and 4-hole hitters from ’07, our closer, our bullpen — which really went south on us — and two of our starters,” Wedge said. “It’s tough to overcome that. “But nobody cares about that in the end, you know. What they want you to do is play out with the expectations that were in front of you.”

He was also quick to respond to the bullpen woes by firing longtime Cleveland bullpen coach, Luis Isaac, who had been in that position since 1993 and a member of the club for much longer. One of the key things that will be pursued over the course of time leading up to Spring Training is to locate a closer. Jensen Lewis showed some promise near the end of hte season, but he’s no sure thing. Beyond the closer’s role, there will be a search for additional arms and some power bats.

Should be a busy offseason for Wedge and the Tribe.

Former Wizards infielder, Josh Barfield is set to rejoin the big league club after the Indians optioned the struggling Cabrera down to Triple-A Buffalo and recalled Barfield to take his roster spot.
Barfield was acquired in a trade that sent Kevin Kouzmanoff to the Padres and was slotted in at second base. However, after batting just .243 with three home runs and 50 RBIs over 130 games, Cabrera was promoted from Buffalo and took over the everyday gig at second.

Following those events and Barfield’s inability to show anything more during spring training, he began the year at Triple-A Buffalo. He had hit safely in nine of his last 12 games while at Buffao. During that time, he batted .288 (15-for-52) with a homer and five RBIs.

He was in Monday’s starting lineup for the Indians.

“Being down there was enough motivation,” Barfield said. “It wasn’t fun at all. It’s something you deal with. The first thing I thought about when I woke up and the last thing I thought about when I went to sleep was getting back here. [source: MLB.com]“

This caps a big couple week’s for the Barfield family. Josh’s younger brother, Jeremy, was taken by the Oakland A’s in the eighth round of last week’s First-Year Player Draft and signed his first professional contract Monday.

Photo courtesy of the Fort Wayne Wizards.

You could go here, here, here or here to read about Asdrubal Cabrera’s unassisted triple play that took place today. If found this interesting because there are a couple Fort Wayne ties (believe it or not).

The most obvious, Cabrera is the player who seized an opportunity to take the 2B position from former Wizard, Josh Barfield (who remains in Triple-A Buffalo). But what I also found interesting is the fact that the ONLY unassisted triple play in World Series play history was turned in by another member of the Cleveland Indians.

In the 1920 World Series, Bill Wambsganss turned an unassisted triple play. “Wamby” grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he attended Concordia College. He later returned and managed the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1945 and 1946.