another perfect night for the majors' winningest farm system. Only two in action were Lake County [now 19-9] and Akron [18-8]. Lynchburg record is even better [19-7] and Columbus brings up the rear with not shabby [17-9]. Overall record is a Chicago Cub-like [73-33]. Which is happening even though our biggest prospects are not having great starts. This is now a very deep organization although perhaps not a lot of the most shining lights in baseball. Zimm and Fraz are rather disappointingly doing OK only; Bradley could well soar to the top of the system's prospects and up among the best in baseball. Clevinger and Morimando and Sheffield are pitching well. In lower levels SSs Chang and Castro; 2b Krieger; C Mejia are looking very good. Aiken, McKenzie and Hillman are all still hanging out in Goodyear.

Thursday highlights:

CLE AA Diaz, Yandy 3B 4 1 3 0 .288 BB (23) [ready for AAA, but Urshela is still there...]
CLE AA Frazier, Clint CF 4 1 2 0 .257 2B (10), BB (8)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 1 1 1 .237 2B (6), BB (12)
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 1 0 .294
CLE LoA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 0 1 0 .371 [ready for Lynchburg, but Mathias is there]
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 4 1 1 1 .333 3B (2)
CLE AA Morimando, Shawn 6.1 3 1 1 3 3 1.89 W (5-0) [if he could just get his walk total down]

Again no Indians on the Hot Prospect Sheet from BA. Not totally surprising but the 700 winning pct does say something abou the strength of the farm system. I think Chang deserved consideration; a 20 year old SS in High A who went 474/565/578 for the week with only 1 strikeout

Winning in the minors has very little to do with how your prospect project as major league players

For sure, but .700 winning pct means we have lots of talent, some of which could step up as they move along. Depth is important at least for trade opportunities. Nice to have lots of athletic middle IFs who could be re-purposed to anywhere on the diamond [e.g. Jose Ramirez]

I would move Yandy up as soon as he's ready. He's got major league written all over him.

3 Left-handed starters on Sunday:

TJ House 5 1/3 5-6-2-3-3
Kaminsky 3 2/3-6-3-3-3-3
Luis Lugo 6-5-1-1-1-4

In Columbus; Aguillar HR7, double; Ronny Rodriguez double, walk, .321
In Akron: Zimmer 3-run HR6; NellieRodriguez 2-run HR8; Frazier double, walk, 2 bi
In Lynchburg: Bradley 2-run double, 2 walks in May: 7 walks, 3 strikeouts; Paulino single, double, homer

BA Notes:

Nellie Rodriguez, 1b, Indians. Rodriguez hit his eighth homer–second most in the Eastern League behind David Dahl’s nine—as Akron beat Binghamton (Mets) 9-6. As is his wont, Rodriguez produces plenty of power, but it comes with a large dose of strikeouts. He has fanned 43 times in 119 plate appearances. Rodriguez is limited defensively to first base and has Bobby Bradley right on his heels at high Class A.

CLE AA Frazier, Clint DH 4 2 1 2 .259 2B (12), BB (11)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 1 2 2 .243 HR (8)
CLE AA Zimmer, Bradley RF 5 1 1 3 .229 HR (6)
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 5 0 2 1 .309
CLE AAA Naquin, Tyler CF 5 0 1 0 .200 CS (1)
CLE HiA Allen, Greg CF 1 0 1 0 .305 2B (7)
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 2 1 1 2 .267 2B (7), 2 BB (16)
CLE HiA Papi, Mike RF 4 1 1 0 .238
CLE HiA Paulino, Dorssys LF 4 2 3 2 .233 2B (5), HR (1)
CLE AA Kaminsky, Rob 3.2 6 3 3 3 3 4.75
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 0.2 1 1 1 1 1 3.60
CLE HiA Lugo, Luis 6 5 1 1 1 4 4.31 W (2-1)

If baseball players were to have a sitcom, Bradley Zimmer might name it Everybody Loves Home Runs.

The Indians' top prospect homered for the third straight game as Double-A Akron beat Erie, 12-5, on Monday.

Zimmer helped the RubberDucks jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning with a single into left field that scored Cleveland's No. 2 prospect, Clint Frazier. After striking out in the third and walking in the fifth, the 23-year-old outfielder again drove in Frazier, this time with a single to center in the sixth. Zimmer, who also stole a base, capped his night with a two-run homer over the center-field wall of Canal Park.

"I was feeling great," he said. "I was seeing the ball well and felt really good about my approach. I got a couple of good pitches to hit and was able to score a couple more runs for the pitchers and get us a 'W' there."
In addition to marking his third straight game with a long ball, it was his second straight contest with multiple RBIs after he plated three Sunday.

"Everyone loves hitting home runs," the California native said. "Obviously, it's not something I'm trying to do. I'm getting myself in a good hitter's count and put a couple of good swings on the ball. Ended up with a good result, so I'm pretty happy about it."

Zimmer's bat has come alive in May, and he sports a .273/.368/.788 slash line in the first eight games of the month. MLB.com's No. 23 prospect has gone deep five times and his 13 RBIs are tied for second among all Minor Leaguers since May 1. Overall, Zimmer's 26 RBIs rank second in the Eastern League to Erie's Dean Green (28).

"I think I've just really gotten back to my approach," Zimmer said. "I think I got away from my approach a little bit and I was trying to do a little too much. I got back to my usual approach of seeing the ball up and relaxing up there and putting some good swings up there."

Frazier reached base three times, scored three runs, had an RBI and stole his third base of the season.

"He's been doing a great job," Zimmer said. "It's been fun to watch him so far. I think he's stepped up in the leadoff position for us and he's been having some great at-bats. He's been working walks, hitting the ball and getting on base and getting in scoring position for the guys behind him."

Joe Sever, who entered the game in the third as a pinch-runner for Yandy Diaz, went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Bryson Myles slugged a two-run homer for the RubberDucks.

Some other impressive performances:

in AAA Ryan Merritt with a 9-inning complete game, awfully unusual in the minors. 4 innings of shutout ball, 1 walk, 6 K. His 5th win, ERA 2.14. A potential left-handed Josh Tomlin.

in Akron, Frazier doubled and walked twice. Diaz left after 1 AB, injured?

in Lynchburg, everyone hits.
Chang 2 hits, .296
Bradley double, 2 rbi, walk. 267
Santander single double, steal 309
Allen single 309
T Murphy 3 hits, 325
Paulino, single and walk, always picks up in warmer weather.
Mathias double
Surprising Julian Merryweather sharp again: 7-5-1-1-2-8 [5-1 0.73]

only Lake County lost but some good hitting:
Nathan Luke CF 2 doubles, and a single, 308
Ka'ai Tom 2 singles, walk 381 in limited time
Mejia double 309

BA highlights:

competes.

Bradley Zimmer, cf, Indians. Cleveland’s top prospect homered for the third straight game, displaying the loft in his swing that scouts projected would show up as he matures. A tooled-up player, Zimmer drove in four runs with RBI singles in the first and sixth innings and the homer in the eighth. Zimmer ranks in the top 10 in Double-A in homers with seven and his 26 RBIs are fourth overall in the classification. His 12 steals also rank just outside the top 10 in Double-A.
[His 248 batting average is contrasted with his 904 OPS -2nd in the EL - and the 12 steals. On the other hand, his 39 K are second in the EL to N. Rodriguez. Frazier is a ways down the list with 29, but also trails with 3 homers and 3 steals.]


CLE AA Diaz, Yandy 3B 1 1 1 0 .286
CLE AA Frazier, Clint LF 3 3 1 1 .261 2B (13), 2 BB (13), SB (3)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 0 1 1 .241
CLE AA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 2 3 4 .248 HR (7), BB (17), SB (12)
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 3 0 1 0 .310
CLE AAA Naquin, Tyler CF 4 0 1 1 .222
CLE HiA Allen, Greg CF 5 1 1 0 .309
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 1 2 .267 2B (8), BB (17)
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 5 2 2 0 .296
CLE HiA Mathias, Mark 2B 4 1 1 1 .216 2B (9)
CLE HiA Paulino, Dorssys LF 3 1 1 0 .237 BB (13)
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 1 0 .287
CLE LoA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 0 1 0 .349 2B (5)
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 4 0 1 0 .309 2B (8)
CLE LoA Tom, Ka'ai LF 4 0 2 1 .381 BB (6)
CLE AAA Merritt, Ryan 9 4 0 0 1 6 2.54 W (3-2) [looks like I overstated the win-loss record for Merritt]

Yandy left in the 3rd inning with a "hand contusion". I am assuming he got hit with a pitch but I don't know. May have took a bad hop on it or something.

HBP: Diaz, Y (by Harrell, L).

Akron's already underway today and Yandy is not in the lineup. Jeremy Lucas with a grand slam in the 1st [his 5th homer]. Zimmer has walked, been hit by a pitch [no contusion apparently, he's still in the game] and stole his 13th base.

Lefty Shawn Morimando continues to pitch well: 5-4-1-1-0-3 so far. The Zero in the walk column is the most impressive thing for him. ERA is 1.88. He throws harder than Merritt, but command more uncertain. Both are potential back of rotation starters.

Top 18 batters in the Carolina League by OPS, 6 from Lynchburg

<pre>
Carolina League: Batting Leaders (click column headers to sort)
NAME TEAM POS G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG OPS
Ryan O'Hearn WIL 1B 22 88 13 31 7 0 7 18 59 8 27 0 0 .408 .670 .352 1.079
Andrew Benintendi SAL OF 29 117 26 43 13 7 1 29 73 11 8 7 2 .424 .624 .368 1.048
Drew Ward POT 3B 28 104 20 32 7 0 7 18 60 14 29 0 1 .400 .577 .308 .977
Dansby Swanson CAR SS 21 78 14 26 12 0 1 10 41 15 13 7 1 .441 .526 .333 .967
Yoan Moncada SAL 2B 28 104 33 33 7 2 3 18 53 23 28 19 4 .450 .510 .317 .960
Nick Basto WS 3B 30 119 18 41 7 1 5 18 65 10 28 0 0 .397 .546 .345 .943
Jose Marmolejos POT 1B 28 102 21 29 12 1 3 12 52 22 28 1 3 .416 .510 .284 .926
Bobby Bradley LYN 1B 28 105 19 28 8 0 7 33 57 17 39 0 0 .381 .543 .267 .924
Taylor Murphy LYN OF 23 80 15 26 4 0 3 18 39 13 22 1 1 .412 .488 .325 .900
Anthony Santander LYN OF 25 97 22 30 9 0 3 19 48 11 22 3 0 .400 .495 .309 .895
Andrew Stevenson POT OF 26 106 15 36 6 4 0 9 50 14 15 12 5 .417 .472 .340 .888
Joey Meneses CAR 1B 27 97 11 32 8 0 3 9 49 9 16 1 1 .383 .505 .330 .888
Mike Papi LYN LF 24 84 15 20 7 0 5 13 42 20 21 0 1 .383 .500 .238 .883
Ian Happ MB IF 29 107 15 30 7 1 4 18 51 19 32 5 0 .394 .477 .280 .870
Yu-Cheng Chang LYN SS 26 108 22 32 10 1 3 23 53 11 27 2 3 .366 .491 .296 .857
Mauricio Dubon SAL SS 28 113 24 40 3 2 0 13 47 14 8 8 4 .419 .416 .354 .835
Jay Gonzalez FRE CF 21 81 16 24 6 2 0 10 34 17 20 17 2 .414 .420 .296 .834
Greg Allen LYN RF 28 110 29 34 7 1 0 6 43 19 18 17 2 .429 .391 .309 .819