Jensen Lewis

Lewis' struggles with the long ball (13 allowed in 66.1 innings) bloated his ERA (4.61), but otherwise it was a fairly decent season as he bounced between Cleveland and Triple-A Columbus. The problem with Lewis is that he's no threat to close with Kerry Wood around and appears to have fallen behind both Joe Smith and Chris Perez in the pecking order from the right side. As a result, he'll probably bounce between Cleveland and Triple-A again this season and pitch in a middle-relief role when he finds himself with the Indians.

Lewis got a chance to close down the stretch and converted 13 of his 14 save chances. He's shown no platoon weaknesses in his brief career (.721 OPS against righties and a.728 OPS against lefties) but the Indians are still reluctant to name him their closer. The signing of Kerry Wood this winter will put Lewis in line for set-up work, but he'll likely be the fallback option if the oft-injured closer spends any time on the disabled list.

Lewis was converted into a reliever and the results were fantastic. In 52 innings between Double-A and Triple-A he allowed 32 hits, walked just 17 and fanned 61 to go along with a 1.73 ERA. To top it off, he posted a 1.227 WHIP and a 2.15 ERA with 34 strikeouts in 29.1 innings down the stretch for Cleveland. The right-hander handles lefties well enough to not have any major matchup issues and figured to play an important part in the Cleveland bullpen before the signing of Masahide Kobayashi. Now he'll face a roster crunch to even break camp with the Indians. The potential is there for a nice staff filler, but the opportunity may not be afforded to him.

Lewis is coming into his own as the Tribe is looking for the former Commodore to make it to the big leagues by 2008. He's average 9.12 strikeouts per 9 innings thus far and keeps the ball in the ballpark; two vital prerequisites in the big leagues. To continue the progression, Lewis needs to just do exactly what he's done thus far, keep healthy and make good pitches. The rest will come.

Played many different roles during his college career. He started, relieved and closed in three seasons at Vanderbilt. Throws a very good slider and has been in the high 80's with his fastball. Scouts feel his mechanics are sound and velocity will not be an issue.