Indians Prospect Insider

Just wanted to thank Tony for all the hard work he does during the year, especially putting the book together. It looks great again. And, I know how hard it is to write and organize such a project -- not an easy task (been writing my own book for 2-1/2 years now and still not done).

I really liked the top-10 Latin players to watch this year ...

Can't wait to get mine and go thru it this weekend.

Rankings spreadsheet is rounding 3rd base at this point....

I just got mine in the mail today. Thanks Tony for all your hard work. The book looks fantastic.

Thanks everyone.....work has already started on the 2011 edition!

Still haven't gotten mine yet.. hopefully tomorrow!

Yours should ship tonight. I have one final big batch of orders to get out and hope to get them all out tonight so i am all caught up. Thanks to all for the patience.

Yes! This snow tonight might end up leaving me stuck at work an extra hour or two in the morning until the plows go through, but I found both Tony's book and BA's Prospect Handbook in the mailbox on my way out the door, so it's all good. Thanks Tony!

Thanks for the support, it is much appreciated!

your wife must be a saint if your allowed to start sketching out the next edition already....

I received my book this afternoon and all I can say is - thank you. What a great resource for this season. I wore the 2009 version out. Now that I have 2010 I look forward to cross referencing the 2009 book - should be fun.

Great job Tony and thanks!

This is an awesome reference guide! I have been lurking since August, reading about the talent that the organization has stockpiled. I am impressed with Tony's in-depth analysis, the future looks bright for the Indians!

Great job on the book this year Tony! Received mine earlier in the week.

Got mine and am enjoying it immensely.

Just ordered my copy.

Thanks everyone.

If anyone has any ideas for next year for new features, by all means please let me know. It is my goal to add something new every year and to make it the most complete Indians minor league reference guide available.

By the way, for those that have the 2009 and/or 2008 version, what do you think of the bumped up font size this year? An improvement, or not necessary?

Haven't gotten mine yet, but I'll be very sensitive to font size issues.

Got mine today and love it.

It came in this afternoon. Looks really good, and I think the print size is clearly an improvement.

Good work, appreciate the effort and product.

Yeah the font size thing is a tough issue because when doing anything that is reference material the idea is to make it small and compact. I believe BA uses an "8" font size for their handbook and most encyclopedia's do it as well. That's what I used for the 2008 and 2009 versions, but this year bumped it up to "9" and I must say it does look better. I think what helps is the overall book is larger as it used to be 5.5x8.5 and now is 6x9 so that helps too.

got mine today

WORD! Thanks, Tony, love it much. Sooo much detail! Got it before my Spanish exam today, and failed to study a lick upon receipt. ahem...thanks!

(and from another thread)


I (and many others) will continue to echo this point to you T.
I'm curious on the number of 8.5 x 11 pages your manuscript was. Perhaps future editions might be available as a loose-leaf/ 3 ring binder edition.

got mine today! top notch as usual.

between this and the BA almanac, I should have suficient reading material to tide me over until the Tribe media guide comes out.

Fantastic book.

Exactly what I need for my trip to Goodyear.

have really enjoyed, as I was reading though I find myself looking back to see how some players have moved up or down, next year might you have the previous year rank so we can see who has really jumped or dropped from some of the lesser specs. Still a fantastic book and a great resource

Yeah, that's something I will add in there next year. I was going to add it this year, but it was too late in the game to add it and also figure out how to incorporate it into the report. I'm toying with the idea of using a number/star system to give grades to guys in certain areas to add to the right of the report (below the picture) to show a snapshot of strengths....though I have not fully committed to this as giving true number grades is tough as I am not a scout. I may opt for a very general 1-5 listing of some sort with 5 of course be excellent in that area, 4 very good, 3 ok, 2 below average, 1 poor, 0 terrible.

I dont want to seem like a nit picker, I loved my copy. Just was something that came to mind

Nah, you are not. Something some people brought up last year and this year in private emails. I do keep a list of all the suggestions so I don't forget when it comes time for putting the book together. I obviously can't incorporate every change, but two big suggestions last year were the increased font size and an index, both of which I added this year.

If you are looking for suggestions, one idea (but may take too much time and not much value for those of us who follow you all year long) is a position analysis ... breaking it down by short-term, next 1-2 years (anyone at AAA or AA) and beyond (single A)...

I think that you have it all there in the book so it may not be that much of an add-on for those who study it. Yet, it looks looks at where we may have weakness in the system (e.g., FOR starters and first base after Laporta and Mills) ... This may be more of a pre-draft analysis for those who are interested and not to overload the book... but it is something people probably think about when reading the book and who may be coming up soon.

I just bring it up because for a while I wanted to know more why Indians thought they had better options at Loogies than Lofgren. I know we have many lefties to fill the role up top (Sipp, Perez, Hagadone, Berger and Barnes) but all them may seem to be in other roles (setup/starters). So it would be interesting to see the thought process maybe that one of Laffey, Berger or Barnes will take that Loggie role if Perez and Sipp both take on set-up roles when Perez takes the closer role for Wood.

Or, that in 3 years ... our starters at FOR ... a battle between Hagadone, Masterson and Carmona as Westbrook will probably leave this July or year-end. Then we have White and House probably breaking in but need a year or two more to battle Carmona. Yet, don't be surprised if one of either Rondon or Carassco start to factor into that role by that time either.

Just an idea...
Just would be interesting to see other thoughts where all the pieces may fit in a few years down the road factoring in you need 2-3 players at each position as many prospects will not pan out.