Maybe the brass doesn't think Donald is quite skinny enough to wear #1. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Last night

CLE AA Weglarz, Nick DH 4 0 1 1 .240 [he stinks]
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Ronny SS 3 1 2 2 .270 2B (16), BB (13) ]good bat, erratic glove, one of the youngest in his league]
CLE LoA Lindor, Francisco SS 5 2 3 1 .269 SB (23) [great glove, fair bat, one of the youngest in his league]
CLE LoA Lowery, Jake C 4 0 1 1 .200 2B (2), BB (10) [terrible sophomore season]
CLE LoA Myles, Bryson LF 4 1 1 0 .281 SB (16) [5 tools, but not so great with any of them]
CLE LoA Rodriguez, Luigi CF 4 1 1 0 .270 2B (17), BB (41) [one of the youngest in his league, could be very good]
CLE LoA Smith, Jordan RF 5 1 2 2 .311 [good bat, not a lot of power, good arm]
CLE SS Naquin, Tyler CF 4 1 1 0 .288 [no pro homers yet]

CLE HiA Rayl, Mike 7 4 0 0 1 2 4.35 W (7-8) [some good, some bat, never overpowering]
CLE LoA Araujo, Elvis 5 5 2 1 5 1 5.15 W (5-9) [high ceiling, long way to go to reach it]
CLE MAJ McAllister, Zach 6 5 5 4 2 3 3.42 L (4-3) [Indians No. 1 for now?!!]

All of our teams lost last night except in the Domincan but there were some notable performances, well a few:

Tim Fedroff 2 doubles, hitting 377/437/610
Matt LaPorta singled, doubled, walked
Chun Chen reappeard for Akron
Thomas Neal 3 hits, 320 but he is not allowed in AAA
TJ House for Akron 7-5-2-1-2-9
Bo Greenwell single and double
Trey Haley 1 0 0 0 1 1
Juan Nivar in the Dominican 5-2-1-1-1-6 ERA 1.36
Victor Cabral on same team single, 2 rbi, 318

Luigi Rodriguez 0-4 3K
Cody Anderson 3 innings, 2 runs
Jake Sisco 4 innings, 4 runs on 7 hits. Dillon Howard would love to do that well.




http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... a_noraaa_1

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BA restricts its lists to the preseason Top 30 and top draftees, so nothing much shows up here

CLE AAA Phelps, Cord 2B 4 0 1 0 .268
CLE HiA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 4 0 1 0 .288
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Ronny 2B 4 0 1 0 .269
CLE HiA Wolters, Tony SS 3 0 1 0 .261 BB (32)
CLE LoA Lindor, Francisco SS 4 0 1 0 .269
CLE SS Naquin, Tyler CF 5 0 1 0 .285 CS (3)
CLE HiA Haley, Trey 1 0 0 0 1 1 1.04
CLE SS Sisco, Jake 4 7 4 4 2 2 3.47

Matt Packer promoted to AAA. A 32nd round lefty who's overachieved to some degree. Break out 2010, nondescript 2011, injured in 2012 rehabbed his way through Class A back to Akron. He's been lights out with a combined ERA of 1.82, not a big strike out pitcher. Another potential back of the rotation starter. If we're lucky we're developing five 4th starters.

BA columnist Ben Badler with a long article on probably our best offensive prospect. In many many years he could make an impact in Cleveland.


Dorssys Paulino was one of the big names on the international market last year.

A Dominican shortstop from Bani who trained with Alberto Mercedes (known as "Pelkin") and worked out at La Academia, Paulino drew strong reviews for his advanced approach and ability to hit in games.

Yet even the Indians, who signed the righthanded-hitting Paulino for $1.1 million last year on July 2, could not have expected Paulino to play this well.

Paulino, 17, has hit .355/.412/.607 with 11 walks, 19 strikeouts, three home runs, five triples and eight doubles in 119 plate appearances in the Rookie-level Arizona League. At 6 feet, 175 pounds, Paulino ranks eighth in the league with a 1.019 OPS.

"We obviously liked the bat and we liked his hittability coming into it," said John Mirabelli, who oversees the organization's international efforts as Cleveland's vice president of scouting, "but to expect a 1.000 OPS from a 17-year-old who's never played organized baseball would have been too much. But the more you see him, the more you see he has the ability to slow the game down at the plate. He sees the ball and he has great vision.

"You can talk about his quick hands, his bat speed, his ability to control the strike zone as a 17-year-old, but the bottom line is the kid has exceptional bat-to-ball, hand-eye coordination. Then you start to factor in strength, bat speed, other things and you have the ingredients for a pretty good-looking offensive player."

Dominican teenagers who come to the U.S. for their pro debut aren't supposed to make it look this easy. Robinson Cano hit .230/.330/.365 in 57 games in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League when he was 18. When Placido Polanco was 18, he hit .213/.259/.268 in 32 games in the AZL, while a 19-year-old Rafael Furcal (.258/.335/.342 in 50 GCL games) didn't fare much better.

Hanley Ramirez exploded on to the scene for the Red Sox 10 years ago as an 18-year-old in the GCL, where he hit .341/.402/.555 in 45 games, while Starlin Castro hit .311/.364/.464 in 51 AZL games at 18. Yet in addition to being a year older than Paulino at the time, both Ramirez and Castro had spent a season in the Dominican Summer League before making the jump to a U.S. complex league. The Indians have thrown Paulino into the fire, and he's responded by making the Arizona League look like Little League.

"He just has such a good approach and a short swing to the ball," AZL Indians manager Anthony Medrano said. "He always stays with his approach. He's an absolute great hitter."

Paulino has baseball bloodlines, as his father Jesus Sanchez was a lefthander who pitched in the big leagues from 1998-2004. While many of Paulino's peers are still learning how to manage their at-bats in the DSL, Paulino's plate discipline is remarkably advanced.

"It's unbelievable for his age," Medrano said. "I don't think I've seen a 17-year-old with his approach who's able to lay off some of the pitches that he does."

Trying to get a handle on a 16-year-old Latin American amateur hitter's plate discipline is one of the hardest things for a scout to evaluate. A player may show what looks like a keen eye at the plate, but if he's facing pitchers throwing 84 mph or guys who have limited offspeed stuff in their arsenal, it's not always indicative of a skill that will translate when the velocity gets higher and the breaking balls start to snap instead of roll.

"I think from his evaluation, when we had him in our complex, it wasn't so much about the strike-zone discipline and controlling the strike zone as much as it was, when he got a pitch in the strike zone, he tended to put a pretty good swing on it," Mirabelli said. "We didn't see him chase a lot, but then again, in the environment you're scouting these guys in in Latin America, they want to show you what they can do. They're not out to show you strike-zone discipline or to try to get on base for the team. They want to show you their swing and show you what they can do.

"We felt good, when he did get a ball in the strike zone, that there wasn't much swing and miss . . . but I don't think anyone's judging strike-zone discipline or patience in Latin American tryout situations. That being said, the more we've seen him in instructional league and spring training, his ability to recognize spin stands out. At that age and experience level, it's pretty rare."

When pitchers have come in the zone to attack Paulino, he's been able to make them pay. He has good bat speed and an easy stroke that should help him hit for average and, with his patience, get on base at a high clip.

"The good thing about him is he's able to cover the whole plate," Medrano said. "He'll pull the ball, but they throw him away and he's not afraid to go the other way. He uses the whole field and he goes with power to all fields. He's going to be a real impressive hitter down the road.

"He has a very simple swing that stays in the zone for a long time. You've got a lot of hitters who get out of the zone, but his bat stays in the zone a long time and I think that's why he's able to hit so well."

International scouts regarded Paulino as a hit-first, power-second type last year. The Indians knew he was going to be more of a hitter than a slugger, but they saw his bat speed, saw him get the barrel out front against fastballs and figured he had a chance to be a threat for extra-base hits. The ball tends to carry in Arizona, but Paulino has shown a bit more pop than some scouts expected, and he doesn't need to sell out for power or try to yank balls out of the park to drive the ball.

"With a good, short, compact swing and not trying to do too much," Medrano said of how Paulino generates his power. "He doesn't overswing and he's hardly ever overaggressive. It's just a short swing to the ball, he makes contact and he's such a strong kid that when he hits it good, the ball is going to carry."

Where Paulino ends up defensively remains to be seen. Most international scouts who saw Paulino last year expected him to slide over to third base or second base, based on his body type, lack of range and the fact that defense doesn't come as naturally for him as hitting, though he runs and throws pretty well. Medrano said Paulino has made strides defensively and has shown he can make the routine play, but he's also made 12 errors in 18 games at shortstop, so there's still plenty of work to be done.

"He's got the raw attributes to be a shortstop," Mirabelli said. "We're committed to that. What he needs, like a lot of young Latin players who don't have game situations, is to understand the speed of the game. He needs to develop his own internal clock defensively.

"He makes a lot of careless, youthful, inexperienced mistakes. He needs to read hops a little bit better, and you can't get that from a buscon hitting you 100 fungoes a day. These are all game situations, speed of the game, under the lights, playing live, that he doesn't have. He has the tools and we're committed to him at shortstop."

Paulino, Lindor, Luigi Rodriguez and Naquin probably make up the top of the prospect list. Only Naquin is old enough to buy a drink. SImilarly the top pitchers will probably be Brown, Baker and Lovegrove, all HS draftees in 2012, since McAllister was the only starter among the top 15 last season. Jake Sisco from 2011 draft has been halfway good at Mahoning Valley so count him in. They're all very very far away from the majors and have lots of opportunities to fail.

The most interesting starters coming into this year were Araujo, Sterling and Howard and they've been respectively inconsistent, generally ineffective and totally ineffective. Of course they are all young enough to get things back in gear and succeed. Maybe.

Ah, well, maybe somewhere in there is a Sandy Koufax or Randy Johnson who just needs a few years to figure it out--and then we will admire his work for Chicago or New York or some such.

Stars of the night: Lower Level Luis DeJesus 20 year old 6-3 RHP with the Scrappers. 7 shutout innings, 3 hit, no walks, 6 K ERA now 1.41.

Upper Level: Jeanmar Gomez same numbers as with DeJ but 8 went down on strikes. Might as well bring him back up to Cleveland. No one of the starters up here is doing much good.

Shwan Morimando is younger but at a higher level. The 5-10 lefty's line for Lake County: 6-6-3-3-0-3. ERA is at 3.52. He was paid big money to sign in 2011. Along with Armstrong and Anderson

Hitting for the Captains: RF JOrdan Smith 2 hits, 310. 2B Jose Ramirez 3 hits, 344. C Jake Lowery single and homer, 210. LuigiRod doubles and 3 K, 266.

Tony Wolters and Jesus Aguillar each with a double, RonnieRod a single and walk for Carolina. Lousy second year RH Will Roberts 6-6-4-4-0-6 5.99. He's 6-5 195 and averages barely a strikeout in 2 innings.

Armstrong a weak finishing inning: 1-1-1-1-2-1 in Aero win. SS Juan Diaz's 11th homer was a grand slam,he added a single. He doesn't walk but he has good power ("isolated power" is .168, i.e. SLG-AVG)
Thomas Neal with 3 singles, not enough power for an OF I guess, since Tribe refuses to promote him with his 324 avg. (HIs IPS is 153). Chen single and double. Nick Weglarz with a solid chance for the most games played in his stellar career since 2007, remains uninjured and practically useless.

AAA hitting: Jason Donald single and homer. Fedroff and Phelps singe. Lars debuts with a walk and 2 strikeouts.

Young fellow named Anthony Vizcaya with 8 shutout innings for DSL Indians. 4 hits 1 walk and 2K. APparently not a fireballer; he's fanned 20 in 49 innings. 6-0 RH.

Offense in Arizona from Jorge Martinez, 3 hits,including a homer; he'd been quiet for awhile, but stillhiting 379. Paulino singled. McClure single and walk and caught stealing. NelsonRod single and double. On the mound, 2nd rounder MItch Brown 3 2/3 3 3 2 3. Last year he never would have pitched since his signing negotiations would still be ongoing. Demoted Felix Sterling 3-4-3-1-0-3, he's been much worse.

Here are BA comments on the Lars for DelTorre sway:

Lars Anderson moves to an organization where he might have his best chance for success. He stood little chance of supplanting Adrian Gonzalez in Boston (or any other expensive first-base import), but if Anderson can displace first basemen Casey Kotchman and Matt LaPorta in Cleveland—a reasonable bet for ’13—then he ought to benefit from playing half his games in Progressive Field, a venue friendly for lefty power. Though Anderson put up a mediocre .779 OPS in three full seasons with Triple-A Pawtucket, for whatever reason the 24-year-old hit much better away from home, batting .288/.370/.475 with 20 homers (.187 isolated power) in 737 plate appearances. The strikeouts could cut into his production, but for Anderson it's now or never. (Technically, he has one minor league option remaining after this season.)

A 26-year-old career minor league reliever, Jose de la Torre throws a plus sinking fastball at 90-94 mph and has pitched at Triple-A in each of the past three seasons, logging 10.2 strikeouts and 3.9 walks per nine innings. He doesn't have a consistent second pitch to go with his fastball—his slider is so-so—but he could receive a September look in Boston. If he's not on the 40-man roster this winter then he'll qualify as a minor league free agent.

Still scratching my head on that story Civ since the Indians traded Steven Wright to get Anderson? This is what I came up with at BA:

Red Sox Flip Anderson To Indians For Wright

By Jim Callis and Matt Eddy
July 31, 2012

The Deal
The Red Sox and Indians exchanged second-tier prospects as time expired on the 2012 non-waiver trade deadline. Boston sent first baseman and former No. 1 prospect Lars Anderson to Cleveland for Double-A knuckleballer Steve Wright.

Red Sox Acquire
Steve Wright, rhp
Age: 27. Born: Aug 30, 1984 in Torrance, Calif.
Ht.: 6-1. Wt.: 200.
Bats: R. Throws: R.
School: Hawaii.
Career Transactions: Selected by Indians in second round of 2006 draft; signed July 3, 2006.

Club (League) Class W L ERA G GS SV IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP
Akron (EL) AA 9 6 2.65 20 20 0 116 86 44 34 8 62 101 1.28

A demotion from Triple-A to Double-A in 2010 convinced Wright it was time to ditch his traditional sinker/cutter repertoire in favor of the knuckleball. Following a year of growing pains in 2011, he found his groove with Arkon this season, going 9-6, 2.49 with 101 strikeouts in 116 innings and pacing all Eastern League starters with a .207 opponent average. Wright throws his knuckler in the style of the Mets' R.A. Dickey, sitting in the mid- to high-70s and topping out in the low 80s. Wright's traditional offerings—the sinker and cutter—also grade out a bit better than Dickey's corresponding pitches, and now that he's joined the Red Sox organization Wright figures to have unlimited access to the advice of Tim Wakefield.

Indians Acquire
Lars Anderson, 1b
Age: 24. Born: Sep 25, 1987 in Oakland.
Ht.: 6-4. Wt.: 215.
Bats: L. Throws: L.
School: Jesuit HS, Carmichael, Calif.
Career Transactions: Selected by Red Sox in 18th round of 2006 draft; signed Aug. 8, 2006.

Club (League) Class AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB OBP SLG
Boston (AL) MLB .125 6 8 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 .125 .125
Pawtucket (AAA) AAA .259 93 340 49 88 22 2 9 52 56 89 1 .359 .415

Signed for $825,000 as an 18th-round pick out of high school, Anderson ranked as Boston's No. 1 prospect after he tore up Double-A pitching as a 20-year-old in 2008. His stock has dropped considerably since and he has spent most of last three years putting up mediocre numbers in Triple-A. He's still big and strong and shows promising bat speed and contact skills, yet he doesn't show enough power to profile as a regular at first base. Blocked by Adrian Gonzalez in Boston, Anderson got some time in left field this year. He still fits best at first base, where he has worked hard to become a solid defender. The Red Sox nearly traded him to the Athletics a year ago for Rich Harden, but changed their mind after reviewing Harden's medical records.

Last winter the Tribe dealt from its depth in relievers to acquire some terrible talent. Zach Putnam for Kevin Slowey. Neither of them has done much this year. Cory Burns for Aaron Cunningham. Burns just got the call to the Padres after a fine 4 months in his AAA debut. Cunningham just got his first AAA hit raising his Columbus avg to 100, nearly as fine as his work in Cleveland.

Lars with his second 0-4 with 2 K game. At least he gave the Tribe to remove Chad Huffman RH OF with OPS of 802 from the active roster.

3 singles for Chen, just what we need from a 1stbaseman; 2 doubles for Weglarz; Danny Salazar's AA debut is better than his pitching line, 1 run in 4 innings, which is about all that he was left while in Carolina, puts on 3 retires 2 in the 5th, Rob Bryson lets them all score.

Tony Wolters singles, doubles, homers, 3 rbi. 2 hits for Mon-crief and Mon-salve. Single and walk for RonnieRod.

Roberto/Fausto working for Lake County today. Last night's loser for the Captains: Manny Carmona. Danny Jiminez worked 6 allowed 4 in his longerst start.

Robbie Aviles routed for 5 runs in 2 2/3 Saturday. Naquin missed back to back games. Joe Wendel and Robel Garcia 2 hits apiece. Today's game, Naquin still out. Robel 2 hits, a walk a steal. Wendel singles twice and homers, his 3rd gives him 3 more than Naquin as a pro.

14-12 Arizona win Saturday. Homers by Jorge Martinez #5, Nelson Rodriguez #4, C/1B Ryan Battaglia #3, 2B Claudio Bautista #3. 4 hits total for Bautista. 3 by Devon McClure. Martinez 4 rbi. Paulino leaves after 2 ab's. Lovergrove 2 in 2 2/3, ERA drops to an even 10.00

Great outing by TJ McFarland for Columbus. 8 shutout innings, yield of 3 hits and 1 walk. Cord Phelps with 2 doubles, LaPorta drives in the only run of the game with a single.

McFarland has been consistently inconsistent in his AAA debut. His 4 real clunkers total 16 2/3 innings, 25 runs allowed, cumulative ERA of 13.50. The other 8 starts total 56 2/3 IP and 11 runs for 1.75 ERA. 23 year old lefty projects as yet another back of the rotation starter; not overwhelming power arm, good offspeed stuff.