Cleveland Indians Prospect Development Program - On MLNSportszone.com, A Minor League Sports News Magazine.

Indian Winter
The top prospects in the Cleveland Indians organization spend their offseason working on making the transition from minor to major-leaguers.

By Brian M. Anderson
MinorLeagueNews.com

02.24.04 – Cleveland, OH -- It would be a safe assumption that thoughts of baseball are not running through the heads of many Cleveland residents during the bitter winters that envelop the shores of beautiful Lake Erie.

In addition to the life altering cold that makes one avoid the outdoors whenever possible, there's usually enough snow to make you wonder when you'll see your front lawn again.

Despite the frigid temperatures, there is a bustle of activity near the corner of Ontario and Carnegie at Jacobs Field, home of the Cleveland Indians.

While many of the veterans are off doing their own workouts or playing winter ball somewhere else, the Tribe gathered 17 of their top minor league prospects for a month long program in January that leads into Spring Training.

The Winter Development Program was started in 1996 by current General Manager Mark Shapiro, as an attempt to better prepare the Indians young players for the jump to the big leagues.

The curriculum focuses on developing all aspects of a player's game. Besides working on fundamentals and implementing a strength and conditioning program, the mental aspect of the game is also addressed through classroom style meetings and speakers brought in to address the cerebral parts of the game.

Former Indians pitcher John Farrell, the team's current Director of Player Development, now runs the program.

"We have seen the direct effect that this program has had with our young players performing at the major league level," said Farrell, who looks like he still might have a few innings left in him. "We want to be successful in developing our young players both on and off the field."

The players enjoy the opportunity to work with Major League training programs and the world-class facilities at the top level of the organization.

"The resources we have here are phenomenal," said outfielder Jason Cooper, who spent last season in class A, moving from the Lake County Captains to the Kingston Indians.

"To be able to work with the Indians strength and conditioning program and speed conditioning has been great to really maximize our potential."

It is evident from first glance that minor league development programs have grown in leaps and bounds over the last decades.

Instead of seeing youngsters in desperate need of directions to a weight room, the Indians players on hand looked as if they could just as easily fit in at the Cleveland Browns training complex.

As catcher Dave Wallace was taking his cuts during hitting drills in the Indians clubhouse, it would be easy to imagine him lining up on the gridiron with his 6-4, 230-pound frame.

It certainly isn't a stretch of the imagination considering Wallace went to Vanderbilt as a two-sport athlete and started seven games at quarterback for the Commodores his freshman year.

The 24-year-old spent 2003 in single-A and is using this month long program to make up for any missed development while splitting time between football and baseball in college.

"I do feel like I've fallen behind," he said. "Your biggest fear playing both sports is being mediocre at both. At this level baseball needs to be a year round thing, and I've had some catching up to do."

The learning curve has been steep for Wallace and some of the others with meetings and drills crammed into a tight schedule.

Two of the prospects were previous attendees of the development program and did not participate for the full month.

Infielder Eric Crozier, who spent last season in AA Akron, and right-handed pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, were there for the final two weeks for what the Indians call a "finishing" program.

A former first round pick out of Stanford in 2002, Guthrie is hopeful the extra work will help him land a shot in Cleveland at the end of the year.

Although highly regarded and penciled in as a part of the future, he has already been told he will start the year in Buffalo after Spring Training. While Guthrie was dominant in Akron last year, he struggled after making the jump to AAA.

Guthrie is upbeat about the 2004 campaign despite knowing he will not have the chance to break camp with the Indians.

"It's tough to move up," the 6-1, 200-lbs. hurler stated. "My goal is to have some success at Buffalo first, because I had a tough time there initially. It's not a discouraging situation, because I have a very realistic view. I haven't established myself at AAA yet. There are still a lot of pitchers (in the organization), and my time will come when I'm ready."

Also in Cleveland for the program was outfielder Grady Sizemore. Last season, he was the Eastern League Rookie of the Year while with the Akron Aeros. He put up double-digits in all three extra-base categories (26 doubles, 11 triples, a league high, and 13 homeruns) to go with a .304 average in 128 games.

Of all the prospects in town, Kazuhito Tadano, may be the closest to making the parent club this season, despite some off-the field distractions.

Tadano made headlines earlier this year, after he admitted to participating in a homosexual act while appearing in a pornographic video.

Reportedly, Tadano has received overwhelming support from his teammates after addressing the situation in a press conference, describing it as "a one-time mistake", and asking for their forgiveness.

All the commotion aside, the Tribe's first Japanese prospect has shown plenty of potential on the diamond.

In his first season in North America, Tadano made the jump from Class A to AAA, after spending most of the year at AA Akron. The right-handed relief pitcher struck out 78 batters in 72.2 innings last season and posted a 1.55 earned run average in 40 appearances combined from all three levels.

While free agency has changed the face of the game, efforts by teams to really develop in-house talent is a long-term commitment to excellence. Mid-major markets like Cleveland will have to lean heavily on their farm systems to supply talent to avoid bidding wars they can't win with Boston, Los Angeles or New York.

Some of the players invited to the Indians winter program have better chances than others of making an impact at the Major League level. However, this development program gives all of these prospects a chance at fully maximizing their potential.