In honor of my TCF colleague Al Ciammaichella’s Top 61 Prospects countdown, with an overview, #61-56, #55-51, and #50-46 posted by mid-afternoon on Saturday, I wanted to rank the players on my projected Indians 25-man roster. To do this, I’m going to consider offensive and defensive value for position players and performance and importance for pitchers. The Indians’ organizational strength at that position will also be considered because players that are replaceable will be ranked lower.

This is entirely subjective and your personal rankings may differ drastically from mine. A lot can change between now and April 2, so the 25-man roster may be affected by injuries, late free agent signings or trades, and guys really making a positive impact the rest of the spring. This, however, is the roster I fully explain the Indians to break camp with.

To avoid a 4,000+-word article, I’ll split this up into two parts running on consecutive Saturdays as my weekly View from the Porch article.

In descending order, here is a rank of my #25-#13 on my projected Indians 25-man roster:

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Day three of the countdown is unofficial outfielder day! We're going to take an in-depth look at three of the outfielders in the system, only one of which has played at the AA level. All three are above-average to plus runners, and all three can contribute with the glove as well as with the bat. In addition to the outfielders, we're going to get a look at my favorite catcher in the system and a soft-tossing southpaw who is looking to bounce back from an injury-plagued 2012 season here in 2013.

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It was a good day in Mesa for two Indians pitchers battling for spots at the back of the rotation, as the Indians beat the Cubs 9-2, their second victory at HoHoKam Stadium in six days, behind seven strong combined innings from David Huff and Zach McAllister.  The two hopefuls allowed two runs on seven hits, without surrendering a walk and striking out five.

David Huff got the start for Terry Francona on Saturday, and it looked as though it might be a rough day for the Tribe’s 2006 first-round selection.  After Cubs starter Chris Rusin set the Tribe down in order in the first inning, lead off man David DeJesus poked a double up the middle.  Hot-hitting prospect Javier Baez hit his 2nd home run of the spring to center field to give Dale Sveum’s club a 2-0 advantage.  Huff bounced back to retire the side on a couple of ground balls and a Nate Schierholtz swing and miss.

Huff allowed just two hits after the Baez dinger; a Johermyn Chavez double in the 2nd inning that he was able to pitch around and a Baez single on pitch that Huff jammed him on, that just landed where the Indians were not, in the 3rd inning.  Huff was confident that if he’d seen Baez a 3rd time, he’d have known how to handle him.  Familiarity, or lack thereof, with some of these National League hitters proves difficult for Tribe pitching, as they get ready for the 2013 season. The Tribe lefty erased Baez when he caught him leaning for the caught stealing with Wellington Castillo at the plate, then got Castillo looking on the 7th pitch of the at-bat.  Huff got up on Castillo 0-2 before falling to 3-2.

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Day two of the prospect countdown rolls on, and today we'll tackle the #55-51 prospects in the system. We'll look at a soft-tossing righty, the Cook twins, the best moustache in the organization and a catcher-turned-first baseman who needs to improve his power output to regain some of his prospect standing. We're barely two days into the countdown, and I'm already second-guessing myself on whether or not I have at least one guy ranked too low on this list.

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