It’s that time of year. I’m breaking the Indians prospects into two lists - hitting prospects and pitching prospects.
Indians Hitting Prospects
1 - Nick Weglarz OF
2 - Carlos Santana C
3 -Matt LaPorta 1B/Dh
4 - Beau Mills 1B/DH
5 - Michael Brantley CF
6 - Carlos Rivero SS
7 - Lonnie Chisenhall SS
8 - Matt Whitney 1B
9 - Wes Hodges 3B
10 - Bo Greenwell OF
The top four hitting prospects on this list are legitimate blue chip types.
The biggest difficulty was choosing between Weglarz and Santana. Nick Weglarz gets the nod based on higher power potential along with the fact he played the year at Kinston (low A) as a young 20 year old. By that I mean he doesn’t have a lot of playing experience, being a Canadian draftee, plus the fact he has missed time with injury.
Carlos Santana is not only a catcher but an extreme hitting talent. I didn’t think I’d see the day anytime soon when the Indians would have another catching prospect with Victor Martinez’ hitting skill. I think they found one. And it cost them Casey Blake 
Matt LaPorta gets the media love in the high profile Sabathia trade and deserves it based on his talent. The question mark on him is if he can play 1B in a satisfactory manner. His power potential is so good that even if the Indians never get back the real Travis Hafner, this prospect has a chance of replacing his bat.
Check the Indians Prospects category for more comments & discussion.
Pitching Prospects
1 - David Huff LH
2 - Scott Lewis LH
3 - Hector Rondon RH
4 - J.D. Martin RH
5 - Jeff Stevens RH relief prospect
6 - Tony Sipp LH relief prospect
7 - Josh Tomlin RH relief prospect
8 - Elvis Araujo LH
9 - Marty Popham RH
10 - Kyle Landis RH
The Indians appear to have mostly average starting pitching prospects at the upper levels. The exception to this is Adam Miller, who is probably major league ready and definitely their top pitching prospect as far as stuff goes. The problem with Miller is that his injury status has clouded his future currently. So i did not include him on this list.
The next closest top pitching prospect is David Huff, a LH starter. He split 2008 between AA and AAA and was amazingly consistent. I love the combination he showed this year of great control while maintaining a good strikeout rate. A 1:5 or better BB/K and BB/IP is excellent. He strikes out as many as he walks.
Being a lefty, he is more dominating against like hitters. But his numbers against right handed hitters were still very good.