Indians Prospect Insider

The lack of impact arms in the Indians farm system has been addressed on many occasions. However, thankfully, there does seem to be one pitcher that currently projects as an "impact arm." Danny Salazar just completed a brilliant 2012 campaign and is now very much on the radar of the big league club. The IPI's Steve Orbanek looks back at his career in this week's edition of Then & Now.

Fresh off his trip home from his visit to Arizona last week to see Instructional League, Tony chimes in with his first of three planned notebooks this week. In today's notebook he gives lots of news, notes and comments about players such as Luis Lugo, Claudio Bautista, Nelson Rodriguez, Luis Gomez, Josh McAdams, Joe Sever and more, and also provides injury updates on Austin Adams, Geoff Davenport, Owen Dew and others.

While the Major League Baseball postseason is in full swing, the offseason baseball leagues are also a week into their season's. The Indians continue to put up some good showings in the Arizona Fall League, Dominican Winter League and Venezuela Winter League this offseason, and yesterday Tyler Holt and Trey Haley both continued that trend with good showings.

Minor league free agency opens tomorrow, Tuesday October 16th, and with that Tony provides a listing of the Indians current 2012 minor league free agents. A few former top prospects that have struggled with injuries are included in that listing, and some recent good performers as well.

Fall Instructional League (FIL) is over and the players have departed and gone home for the offseason. Tony and his IPI staff have compiled all the stats from the four week Instructional League period and today the FIL stats and team leaders are posted. Later this week the Arizona Parallel League (AZPL) stats will be posted and Tony also have two in-depth notebooks coming to wrap up Instructional League coverage for 2012.

The Arizona Fall League had the day off, so ATF comes in with a slow and steady day with only five players in action. Jesus Aguilar has been struggling in the early stages of the winter leagues, as has Hector Rondon. Tim Fedroff got his winter league started right where his 2012 regular season left off, as did Toru Murata and Danny Salazar. Find out just how well they played, after the jump...

Today we wrap up the 2012 Tony Awards with the announcement of the All-Tony teams for 2012. These are the first, second, and third teams as I see them in the Cleveland Indians organization based on their performance this past year. Again, this is not a top prospect listing by position, but a listing based 100% on performance from the 2012 season.

The Cleveland Indians made the first move in major league baseball when they hired Terry Francona as their 42nd manager. While that's clearly a move of major importance, if it becomes the Indians biggest move of the offseason, the Indians will be in serious trouble in 2013. Can Chris Antonetti build on his early momentum with the hiring of Terry Francona, or will this offseason turn into another winter of discontent?

To celebrate the conclusion of another baseball season, we here at Indians Prospect Insider have decided to give out our picks for the major awards in Major League Baseball. Today we give out our final award to the Most Valuable Indian. Despite the difficult season the Indians had, there were plenty of players who got votes. Who won in the final tally? Click on the IPI Awards one final time to find out.

In the final Instructs ATF, the Parallel League "Goodyear" team sang its swan song with a look at a handful of future Indians taking part. A couple of players that call Cleveland home both had hits, as they continue their slow-but-sure climb through the system. A shining potential top-ten prospect continued to showcase a .300 bat...again, while the Sabour-Tooth tigers were given another multi-hit ballgame from their favorite over-achiever. Check out ATF with yours truly, Jim Pete...after the jump...

The IPI Digest catches you up on anything you might have missed over the past week at Indians Prospect Insider and also notes some of the more popular columns posted at the major news sites and blogs.

Winter and fall leagues are beginning to heat up, and the Indians had players playing in both the Arizona Fall League and the Venezuela Winter League on Friday. Jesus Aguilar put together a nice showing in Venezuela while Shawn Armstrong continues to show why he was a deserving recipient of the 2012 Tony Award for Reliever of the Year.

To celebrate the conclusion of another baseball season, we here at Indians Prospect Insider have decided to give out our picks for the major awards in Major League Baseball. Today we tab the winner of the Least Valuable Indian, an award with no shortage of nominees after the Indians' 68-94 season. Ubaldo Jimenez is the front-runner for the award, but could someone else jump up and steal it? Click the link to find out.

The Instructional League wrapped up for the 2012 season on Thursday. Joe Wendle, D'Vone McClure and Kieran Lovegrove all ended their 2012 seasons with solid performances. Plus, the Parallel League was in action once again, and Kyle Bellows came through big time for the second time this week. The IPI's Steve Orbanek provides all the statistics from both games after the jump.

Today we continue the IPI’s year-end awards with the announcement of the Offensive Player of the Year. This award goes to the position player in the Indians organization that had the best year offensively and like with all the awards so far is 100% based on performance and not on prospect standing. This is the final “Tony Award” to be handed out, but this weekend the "All-Tony" team will be posted as Tony lists the best players this season position-by-position in a “1st team” and “2nd team” format.

To celebrate the conclusion of another baseball season, we here at Indians Prospect Insider have decided to give out our picks for the major awards in Major League Baseball. Today we tab the winner of the NL MVP, a wide-open race between Ryan Braun, Buster Posey, Andrew McCutchen, and others.