Clayton Cook and Francisco Jimenez: Indians Breakout Candidates

The Indians certainly have one of the worst systems in baseball right now, if not the worst. They have only one prospect on most top 100 prospect lists, and that is the unproven if supremely talented Francisco Lindor. Most of their other “top” prospects are other 2011 draftees, recent international signees, or other very low-floor players.

Pitchers Clayton Cook and Francisco Jimenez don’t show up on many prospect lists even in this underwhelming system–Minor League Ball’s John Sickels didn’t even include either on his “Others of Note” beyond his top 21 Cleveland prospects. Yet, both pitchers could turn into valuable big league arms for Cleveland.

Yesterday, I talked about Jeffry Antigua of the Cubs, who turned 21 midseason and pitched well in High-A. Cook is a month younger than Antigua, and while he wasn’t quite as dominant, he wasn’t bad either.

A ninth-round pick in 2008 out of a Texas high school, Cook has a career 3.68 minor league ERA despite always being very young for his levels. This past season, he had a 4.56 ERA in High-A, but a 3.93 FIP, with a 106/53 K/BB ratio in 122 1/3 innings. Unlike Antigua, Cook was a starter for the whole season, and he has an ideal pitcher’s frame and should have no trouble shouldering large workloads.

Cook also remains projectable. He already has a very good curveball that is very effective against lefthanded batters, as he had a slight reverse platoon split this past season. He also throws an 88-94 mph moving fastball. His delivery is somewhat busy, as it’s long in the back and includes a somewhat violent head jerk, but his mechanics are fundamentally sound and give him a bit of deception.

Jimenez is more in the Antigua mold, as a small lefthander who spent much of the season in the bullpen. He’s almost two years older than Cook, but at 22, he wasn’t really old for High-A by very much. He pitched to a 3.23 ERA and 2.78 FIP with Kinston, with a 75/23 K/BB in 69 1/3 innings. He made seven starts and nineteen relief appearances, and actually had a better FIP (2.63) as a starter than as a reliever (2.93). His ERA was also much better in a starting role: 2.60 to 3.86.

Jimenez had basically no platoon split, as his best pitch is a changeup, so stuff-wise, he can start. He’s physically maxed out at 5’11” and probably something like 180 lbs., so he pretty much is what he is, working at 86-92 mph and working in the good changeup and an average curveball.

Like many short pitchers, Jimenez is able to easily coordinate and repeat his delivery, even though his motion has a lot of funk and moving parts. As with Cook, the delivery is fundamentally sound, as he doesn’t have an Inverted W and gets a good line to the plate; his only mechanical problem is that he lands hard on his heel, which often causes him to spin off toward third base on his followthrough.

I’d be interested to see what Jimenez could do with 20 starts in spite of his small stature, as the concerns about his durability as a small pitcher seems to be all that would prevent him from working out in that role. It’s worth noting that his run in the rotation came to end the season, so it’s not like Cleveland gave up on the idea midseason. Given the dearth of quality starters at the Double-A level in this organization, I hope Jimenez gets a chance to take the ball every fifth day in Akron this year, possibly alongside Cook.

Cook has a nice two-pitch mix, projectability, plenty of time on his side, and a decent performance baseline, while Jimenez has a nice three-pitch mix and good results. Neither player makes any prospect headlines, but Indians fans should track the progress of both in the coming season–continued strong showings will put them squarely in the MLB team’s future plans.

For more on the Indians, check out Wahoo’s on First.

Follow S2S on Twitter @Seedlings2Stars and yours truly @stoltz_baseball. Also, like our Facebook page!