In 2014 the Cleveland Indians finished with a winning record in consecutive seasons for the first time since the 2000-2001 seasons. The backbone of that success at the big league level is their Player Development system which continues to churn out players to help the Major League roster and has groomed several star quality players. The Indians farm system has evolved from one that lacked many Major League alternatives a half decade ago to one that is now consistently pumping out two to three key players a year plus several other role players - and they now legitimately have a true prospect as depth at every position or in every role in Double-A or above. As long as they continue to keep pumping out the amount of talent they have over the last two seasons that success at the big league level should continue for some time. As the page turns to 2015, the continued development of more prospects will be essential to the success of the Cleveland Indians now and in the future. This book is the essential resource guide for everything Cleveland Indians beyond the Major League team. In this book you will find: - Detailed and updated scouting reports for the Cleveland Indians Top 50 prospects. - Released payers, 2014 Draft recap, seven-year ranking history. - Career stats including college for all players in the Top 50. - 2015 coaching staffs, affiliate information, and more! Whether you are a diehard follower of the minor leagues or a casual fan of the big league team, this book has something for everyone. It is a must have for any fan of the minors and is the most complete and detailed reference guide around on the Cleveland Indians and their prospects.
Tony Lastoria was born and raised in Northeast Ohio and has lived here all 40+ years of his life. He has grown up as a diehard Cleveland Browns and Ohio State Buckeyes fan, but his entire life he has been following the Cleveland Indians with a passion and deep love for baseball. He has been playing and/or following baseball since he was five years old. Since he can remember that passion for baseball has permeated the minor league baseball scene, and over the past decade-plus minor league baseball now rivals his love for Major League Baseball. Back in 2003, Lastoria started to write about the Indians minor league system for a few different media outlets, and eventually spawned a weekly column called "Minor Happenings" which recapped all the news, notes, and developments in the Cleveland Indians farm system each week. That piece brought about a relationship in 2006 with SportsTime Ohio, the Indians' cable TV home where he began doing freelance stuff outside of the weekly column and continued with a blog at Fox Sports Ohio before moving onto Scout.com. As things grew bigger in scope, the idea of his own site to better categorize all of his writings came about, and thus the Indians Prospect Insider was born on October 24, 2007. The site has grown a lot over the years as what was initially setup to merely be a blog to post quick updates and such, quickly turned into a legitimate website chock full of information in regard to the Cleveland Indians not just in the minor leagues but the big leagues as well, and on January 1, 2013 the name was changed to Indians Baseball Insider. Over the course of the season Lastoria will travel around and visit all of the Indians' minor league affiliates several times each to get a feel for the players and interview them, various Indians coaches, managers, front office executives, and coordinators in the organization. He also speaks with several executives and scouts for other organizations as well in order to get a good balance of the information he acquires. You'll get no better coverage of the prospects in the Cleveland Indians' farm system and the philosophies of the organization than right here in this book and on Lastoria's website. Several new articles are posted every day and 365 days a year, and you can always expect lots of prospect analysis pieces, scouting reports, interviews, news, inside information, and more.
