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June 13, 2013Although the Cleveland Indians finally snapped their eight-game losing streak on Tuesday, many already have been calling for the return of Lonnie Baseball.
The team’s first-round pick in 2008, Chisenhall has been tearing up Triple-A pitching in the past three weeks. Dating back to May 18th, he has the best OPS among qualified full-season minor league players. Here is the entire top 10:
Chisenhall remains only 24 years old. He’s notably struggled defensively during this 19-game stretch, committing 7 errors at third base. But the offense has been extraordinary, even admittedly in a very small sample size.
In his 135-game MLB career, Chisenhall is batting .250/.286/.406. Those numbers were down across the board in 2013, despite being handed the starting position at third base. Most concerning for the Indians staff, he had 22 strikeouts against just 3 walks in 99 plate appearances. That was one of the specific items they mentioned upon his demotion on May 13th.
How is he doing thus far in Columbus? He has only 18 strikeouts along with an improved 11 walks in 110 plate appearances. Not anything exceptional, but certainly better.
Yet, it’s worth noting that Lonnie Baseball has never produced these dynamite numbers at any level before. His best full season in the minor leagues likely was in 2009 with High-A Kinston when he batted .276/.346/.492 with 18 homers and 79 RBI in 99 games.
Is he simply a AAAA player having a long stroke of good luck back against easier pitching? Perhaps, and he’s never going to be the most patient hitter in the world. The defense also is awful, but that’s not what he was sent down to Columbus to focus on. With the way his bat is performing, maybe it’s time for his return up I-71 to Cleveland.
[Related: The Diff: Update on top Cleveland Indians prospects]
16 Comments
“Chisenhall remains only 24 years old.”
Well, that’s one streak that is bound to end.
I’m all for bringing Lonnie back up and giving him a chance, but let’s not all forget about our friend Dandy Marte and how good he was against AAA pitching.
Chisenhall and Carrasco just might be AAAA players!
I hope that he has his confidence back now.. however, he has EIGHT errors since being demoted to AAA. That’s brutal. Mind you, Reynolds at the hot corner is incredibly sketchy as well. Seems like every other day he is having a great play as well as booting a routine one.
Put them together with LaPorta and we are starting to get a pretty good AAAA squad
By the way my source on that error count is just several different tweets I saw.. I can’t find his actual fielding stats for Columbus.
And David Huff, Trevor Crowe…
It’s really hard to hit over .400 with 5 HRs over 19 games at any level of pro ball. I don’t think it’s the measurables, don’t think it’s the bat speed like it was for Marte and LaPorta. As the Grinder would say, it’s the heartbeat.
Time for Chiz to grow up and stop clenching in Major league batters boxes. Up here he’s gonna constantly face guys with great breaking pitches and command. He’ll have to make his own confidence. These pitchers are merciless with those who won’t let it flow.
You’re right, sir. He has 7 in his last 19 games, including one more before that.
Exactly and LaPorta isn’t even playing, I think.
True dat!
#3 on that list went to St.Eds in my class. From my class alone we now have him, Alex Lavisky who is playing in Akron and Ross Kivett Big 12 player of the year just got drafted by the Tribe in the 10th round. Go Eagles.
I suppose I should have read the article more carefully before commenting, I didn’t notice that you had mentioned his fielding at all.
since he’s not patient, it very well could be that he has a tough time recognizing pitches and that just puts him at a huge disadvantage right away. it is something that can be learned (to a degree), but he’s not going to do it against AAA pitching.
How far is Naquin from coming up? How long you think stubs will be around.
I think Brantley should be around for a while, and Bourne for a few years as well. New raft pick hopefully up in 3 years, meaning Naquin, if there isa spot to improve cle, needs to come up sometime this year