CLEVELAND — Despite his slow progress, the Indians are not giving up on Trevor Crowe, the club’s first-round draft pick (14th overall) in 2005.
It was Crowe, not Michael Brantley, whom Cleveland chose as a replacement for injured center fielder Grady Sizemore. And it is Crowe that manager Manny Acta has liked since watching him during his first spring training with the Indians this year.
“I like his energy, the fact that he’s a switch hitter and has speed,” Acta said. “It’s not out there in the game anymore. It’s all power hitters now. I like those kinds of guys.”
Crowe, who is in the final year of his contract with the Indians, is off to a positive start, pulling into Monday with a .324 batting average, one home run, seven RBIs and five runs in nine games since his promotion from Triple-A Columbus. He’s getting the chance to prove he belongs in the majors on a full-time basis. “This is a perfect opportunity for him,” Acta said. “Is he going to be labeled as a fourth outfielder, or an everyday player here or somewhere else? He’s got the tools to do it, but he’s going to have to prove it and stay consistent with his performance.
“I’ve always felt that as an everyday or fourth outfielder he’s a valuable piece here.”
With vast experience in player development as a longtime minor-league manager, Acta has seen the progression or lack of same by plenty of first-round draft choices such as Crowe, whom Cleveland chose in front of Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury in 2005.
“Every organization has one or two guys they had high hopes for,” Acta said. “Some guys it takes them forever, but obviously, they get the benefit of the doubt over the kid in the 30th or 40th round. Those guys that do get drafted (in the first round), you can see a lot of reasons people picked them there. “Sometimes some guys take two, three or four years, some guys take seven or eight years. As long as you have those tools, you’re going to get looked at.”
That’s part of the reason the Indians are still looking at Crowe.
All-Star update
The first balloting results for the American League All-Star team were announced and, not surprisingly, outfielder Shin-Soo Choo is the only Cleveland player among the leading vote-getters — and just barely.
Choo is 14th among 15 AL outfielders with 127,042 votes.
He entered Monday batting .308 with six homers and 24 RBIs, while ranking third in the AL with a .421 on-base percentage.
Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer is the league’s leading vote-getter with 644,533 votes.
Omar in familiar spot
Omar Vizquel was back in familiar territory Monday, making his second start of the season for the White Sox at shortstop — a spot he occupied at Jacobs/Progressive Field from 1994-2004.
Though he entered Monday batting just .175 (7-for-40), Vizquel had a pair of singles to move past Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio for second place on the all-time hits list by a shortstop, with 2,675.
Minor details
- Double-A Akron left-hander Scott Barnes was named Eastern League pitcher of the week after a sparkling start against Altoona that earned him his first win of the season. Barnes, acquired in a trade with the Giants last year for Ryan Garko, tossed five no-hit innings, striking out five and walking four.
- Catcher Chun Chen went 3-for-4 in Class A Lake County’s 6-3 loss to South Bend on Sunday. The 21-year-old native of Taiwan entered Monday batting .419 (26-for-62) with eight doubles, three triples, two homers and 12 RBIs for the month (17 games).
Roundin’ third
- Travis Hafner, who is batting .353 (24-for-68) with two homers and 10 RBIs over his last 19 games, got the night off. He was replaced at designated hitter by Matt LaPorta.
- Reliever Chris Perez had not allowed an earned run in his last 14 appearances (12 1/ 3 innings) through Sunday.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.
