Cleveland Indians: Way-too-early reactions to minor league performances

The Cleveland Indians are preparing for the 2021 MLB Draft (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
The Cleveland Indians are preparing for the 2021 MLB Draft (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
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Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians (Photo by Ron Vesely/Getty Images)

Lake County Captains & Lynchburg Hillcats

The Lake County Captains finished out the first week of the season with a .500 record and that’s about where the roster stands as well, average. There’s only a couple players on the brink of being “standout” while most of the roster struggled during the first week of action. It’s going to take at least another week of games before we can make any sort of distinction on if Lake County has players to keep an eye on based off the early outings.

As for the Lynchburg Hillcats, they might be sending some players up to Lake County very soon if the two clubs keep playing the way they did in the first week. The Hillcats have six players that have logged five or more RBI through their first five games, at most. Leading the squad is first baseman Jhonkensy Noel who has tallied 11 RBI.

Noel played rookie ball in both 2018 and 2019 for the Tribe. Still just 19-years old, he’s drawing a lot of attention in Lynchburg. Not only does he lead the team in RBI, but he’s been able to slash .440/.444/.960 thanks to four doubles and three home runs through the first five games while striking out just twice. There’s still a lot of time left in the season, nearly all of it, but if Noel keeps this up he will be in Lake County very soon and might end the season at an even higher level.