After months and months of waiting for Francisco Lindor to be called up to the big leagues, Tribe fans just may have a new prisoner they would like to free from the minor league system sooner than later.
Bradley Zimmer was recently promoted High-A Lynchburg to AA Akron. The 2014 first round pick seems to be on the fast track to the show.
Zimmer started off his professional career with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 2014 and played in 45 games there before being promoted to Lake County for the final three games of the season. His first campaign as a professional saw him slash .302/.400/.492 with six long balls and 32 runs batted in while playing in the New York-Penn League and the Midwest League combined.
That impressive showing was enough for him to start the 2015 season in High-A with the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Carolina League.
While in Lynchburg, the center fielder was very impressive with a line of .308/.403/.493 and showed the ability to hit for power with ten home runs and 39 runs batted in. Zimmer has also shown very impressive speed swiping 32 bags in 78 games played.
Zimmer was very good for the most part in Lynchburg, although he did struggle a little bit during the month of June. The left handed bat attributed his struggles to pulling off the ball in his swing. He said that he has been trying to stick with a middle-away approach.
“Baseball is a game of a lot of failures. It’s all about how you can make adjustments and how you can move on from it. It was more of getting myself out versus them getting me out, so I’ve made the adjustment and kind of went from there.”
Since making that adjustment, he has been impressive enough to earn the call up to AA Akron. Since moving up to AA the University of San Francisco product has played well in a small sample size. In Zimmer’s first nine games with Akron he has nine hits in 33 at bats. Three of Zimmer’s nine hits have been for extra bases (two doubles, one home run). He has driven in six runs and the speedster has stolen three bases in three attempts. Zimmer classified his transition from High-A to AA as very smooth.
“It’s been a pretty smooth transition, everyone here has been welcoming with open arms, I’ve really been getting along with all the players. Good experience so far.”
There have been some differences between the levels, as to be expected. Zimmer had this to say on the difference between High-A and AA.
“The overall command of pitching is a little better. You’ll see a little bit more consistent velocity, but I haven’t had that many opportunities yet, so we’ll see how that goes from here on out.”
The center fielder made his home debut on Thursday, and he had to share the spotlight with a player at the different end of his career, Nick Swisher.
Swisher had words of encouragement for the youngster, saying this:
“It’s awfully nice to be that gifted with talent at such a young age. I haven’t gotten a whole lot of time to see him play but he is one of our good young guys. If I had to give advice, my advice to him [Zimmer] would be you have to have a blast playing this game.”
The top prospect is trying his best to better his game while in Akron, but his eyes are on taking that trip up I-77 and playing at the highest level.
“Obviously I want to get there as soon as I can, but at the same time I want to get better here and ultimately be ready for the day I get called up.”
For now, he will have to do with sharing the city with Cavaliers superstar LeBron James. Zimmer is a huge fan of his and had this to say when asked about the NBA player.
“I was told LeBron lives right by the hotel I was at so maybe I’ll have to go creep on his house for a minute. It’s awesome sharing the same city with him.”
Maybe one day Zimmer will get the chance to meet the man he said he would be if given the opportunity to be anyone for a day.
Until then, he’ll have to live with just sharing the city with him.
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