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‘PATIENT TO A POINT’
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Cleveland Indians' Lonnie Chisenhall throws during baseball spring training practice Friday, Feb. 26, 2010, in Goodyear, Ariz.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
This is a 2011 photo of pitcher Alex White of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. This image reflects the Cleveland Indians active roster as of Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 when this image was taken.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
This is a 2011 photo of infielder Jason Kipnis of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. This image reflects the Cleveland Indians active roster as of Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 when this image was taken.
Prospects must wait for opportunity at the big-league level
By Paul Hoynes
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
GOODYEAR, Ariz.
Only the clock can move time. It does not recognize good intentions or impatience.
So we wait. We wait for good news and bad, in check-out lines and at red lights. Time doesn’t care. It moves when it wants to move.
It’s the same in baseball. Especially for players such as Lonnie Chisenhall, Jason Kipnis and Alex White, who are trying to get to Cleveland to play in the big leagues. They are close, but in baseball that can mean many things. It can mean next season or it can mean a promotion at the All-Star break. It can be a September call-up or a spot start in July.
“I’m patient to a point,” said Chisenhall, a third baseman rated by Baseball America as the Indians’ top prospect. “You get an itch. You get close to the major leagues and feel you should be there, but sometime you don’t see the small things that other people see.”
The Indians ended last season with 93 losses and the youngest roster in the big leagues. They aren’t much older, but manager Manny Acta says this upcoming season is about winning, not baby steps. Managers get paid to talk like that, but if it were within the Indians’ power, they would probably be tempted to hit the fast-forward button to see what 2012 and 2013 have to offer.
Jason Donald, who played shortstop and second base last season, will get the first chance to play third this year. If he wins the job, Opening Day will be his first big-league start there.
At second base, 36-year-old Orlando Cabrera is going to get a long look. If he doesn’t win the job, Jayson Nix, claimed on waivers last year, or Luis Valbuena, who hit all of .193 in 91 games in 2010, will be among Acta’s prime options.
Flash forward to 2012 and Chisenhall could be at third with Kipnis at second and White in the starting rotation. If not those three, how about Nick Weglarz in left field, Cord Phelps at second and Bryce Stowell in the bullpen?
But this is precisely what one should never do in baseball — look too fast and too far into the future. That is why Acta and GM Chris Antonetti meet with every player in big-league camp to tell them exactly where they stand in terms of making the club and where they’ll be spending the season. It sounds as if Chisenhall, Kipnis and White received a version of the same speech.
“We make it clear to them that they’re probably not going to be contributing to this club on April 1,” said Acta, “but they have to be ready for April 15 or April 30. For the most part these guys are very good self-evaluators. They know when they need work on secondary pitches and other stuff.”
Chisenhall, Kipnis and White are expected to open this season at Class AAA Columbus, but no promises were made. Although Kipnis was promoted to help Columbus in the International League playoffs last year, none have played a regular season game at Triple-A.
“I couldn’t tell you,” said Kipnis, when asked at what level he’d play at this year. “Don’t even know ... don’t care. What does matter to me is that I put my head down, play hard and get better every day. Where they put me, is where they put me.”
This is Antonetti’s first year as general manager, but the former farm director knows what a player has to do.
“Two things need to happen for a player to get an opportunity at the major-league level,” said Antonetti. “First, there needs to be an opportunity. Second, they need to be prepared for and positioned for that opportunity from a development standpoint and a performance standpoint.”
Antonetti and Acta stressed that to every prospect in camp in their 1-on-2 meetings.
White, a No.1 pick in 2009, was told he needed to refine his delivery and work on his secondary pitchers (slider and splitter). Chisenhall, a No.1 pick in 2008, is a converted shortstop who needs to continue to improve at third base. Kipnis, a second-round pick in 2009, moved from center field to second before last season and needs more work at the position.
Such straight eye-to-eye talks seem to work.
“When my time comes, my time comes,” said Kipnis. “I have no idea when that is.”
Only time can tell him that.