Tribe's new young arm

There are a few things I could write about today. There's the Indians' 4-1 loss to Boston yesterday, in which Austin Kearns' homer was the Tribe's only run; there's Victor Martinez's first return to Cleveland in an enemy uniform; there's further developments on the Izzo front; there's minor stuff from the Browns' optional workouts; there's always more to report on LeBron; and there's the fact that the Cavaliers will be introducing new general manager Chris Grant this afternoon.

But today's Cleveland sports news that interests me the most is Major League Baseball's amateur draft, in which the Indians, with the fifth overall pick, selected Drew Pomeranz, a left-handed pitcher from the University of Mississippi. Pomeranz, named the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year as a junior this season, went 9-2 with a 2.24 ERA in 16 starts for the Rebels. He struck out 139 hitters in 100 2/3 innings, against 49 walks. Opposing hitters batted .195 against him.

I listened to a little bit of the Indians-Red Sox game on the radio last night, and Mike Hegan and Tom Hamilton were talking about Pomeranz's prospects. They compared him to Mike Leake, whom the Reds took with the eighth pick in last year's draft. For those who haven't been following, Leake signed late last summer, the Reds chose to rest his arm the remainder of the season, and after a stint in the Instructional League, he made the big club out of spring training to be the first player to totally skip the minor leagues since Xavier Nady in 2000. Leake is off to a phenomenal start, going 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA so far. (It must be noted that Leake is a right-hander, and Pomeranz is a southpaw; nonetheless, their college numbers are similar.)

It would be ridiculous to predict such a start for Pomeranz, simply because it so rarely happens. For that matter, it would have been ridiculous to predict such a start for Leake. And even Leake's fast start doesn't necessarily indicate future success in the majors. How many times have we seen a young pitcher dominate, only to flame out because of arm trouble? Current Indians closer Kerry Wood is a prime example of that, but at least he's been able to stick around as a reliever. The same cannot be said of his former teammate Mark Prior, who won 18 games at the age of 22, but hasn't pitched in the bigs since 2006, when he was just 25, because his arm gave out. There's just an awful lot that can happen to a young arm.

The Indians have until August to sign Pomeranz. If they don't, he can go back to Ole Miss and pitch again next year; but I don't anticipate too much trouble on that front. I would presume they'll handle him similarly to how the Reds handled Leake last year. And barring injury, we'll see him at Progressive Field in 2011 or 2012. I look forward to it.