Top Prospect Lindor Finally Called Up

After last night's 5-4 win over the Tigers, the news filtered through that the Indians had decided to promote top prospect Francisco Lindor to the majors. The highly anticipated 21 year-old shortstop will join the team in Detroit today for the series finale and should hopefully take the field this afternoon when Corey Kluber toes the rubber, weather permitting.

This is like an Indians fan's Christmas and Birthday rolled into one. Finally we are going to see Lindor on the big stage, something all Tribe fans have been anxiously waiting for since his selection 8th overall in the 2011 MLB draft.

Known for his elite defensive ability at shortstop, Lindor should be able to help solve the Indians' defensive woes in the infield right off the bat. Combined with Giovanny Urshela at third base, the left side of the diamond should be a strength defensively for years to come.

Lindor's promotion is just one of a handful of highly touted prospect promotions that have happened recently. The Twins also decided to promote their number one prospect Byron Buxton yesterday, considered by most to be the top prospect in all of baseball. Lindor and Buxton will join Houston's Carlos Correa and Texas' Joey Gallo, both of whom were brought up earlier this month. It's been quite a year for prospects overall, with the Cubs' Kris Bryant and the Dodgers' Joc Pederson setting the league ablaze. Hopefully Lindor can get off to a fast start and add his name to the conversation.

Photo credit to Jonathan Quilter at Columbus Dispatch.

Indians select Brady Aiken with #17 pick in 2015 MLB Draft

The Cleveland Indians pulled off a potential steal last night when they selected left handed pitcher Brady Aiken with the number 17 pick in this year's MLB draft.

Most baseball fans will remember the 18 year-old lefty being selected number 1 overall by the Astros in last year's draft and forgoing to sign with Houston largely because the Astros' medical staff spotted signs of trouble with Aiken's elbow. As a result, Aiken and the Astros could not land on a deal that was satisfactory for both parties and Aiken walked away from millions of dollars to join the IMG Baseball Academy in Florida. Unfortunately for the young pitcher, in just the first inning of his first start for IMG, he felt discomfort in his elbow (a torn UCL as it turned out) and had to undergo Tommy John surgery, which was successfully performed in March.

In what has been widely considered as one of the weakest draft classes in recent memory, for the Indians to get a potential All Star pitcher with their 17th pick is a brilliant selection by the Cleveland head office. The 6'4 prospect has a mid-90s fastball that could touch 97mph pre-surgery, to go along with two plus off-speed pitches, a curve and a change-up that had scouts raving. This is a guy who has top of the rotation ability, if healthy.

Now that's the big question going forward: Can Aiken successfully recover from his surgery and regain the velocity and control that made him such a stud prospect in high school? The Indians organisation has some success with pitchers coming off Tommy John surgery, namely Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco, so I feel pretty good about Aiken being taken care of and developed properly.

The Indians went into this draft with a 'take the best player available' mentality and they certainly delivered. Aiken will receive a lot less than he was initially offered with the Astros last year (roughly $6.5 million initially, then about $3 million after his elbow issue was discovered) but I'm hopeful he will sign with Cleveland just to put 2014 behind him and get on with his professional career. He must be desperate to forget all about the past and get back to pitching.

Drafting Aiken is a great pick for the Indians, and the young pitcher has a high ceiling, despite the high risk involved. It's been well documented that the Tribe's farm system has been deemed underwhelming in terms of top prospect pitchers, so the addition of Aiken should help to address that. I for one can't wait to see him pitch in and Indians uniform.