And speaking of promotions not based on success, Papi's replacement in the Lynchburg OF is terrible cornerman Bobby Ison. His stats in lake County:

2015: 251/307/307
2016: 181/267/248

Lynchburg's missing Paulino who's on the DL. They've promoted Tyler Murphy earlier and now Papi. Not much left of their deep OF that started the year; just Greg Allen and Anthony Santander.

Thursday game notes from BA:

CLE AA Papi, Mike RF 3 0 1 1 .200 BB (3), SB (1) [he draws walks at any level]
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 1 2 0 .259 2 2B (14) [if he just didn't strike out so much]
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy DH 4 1 1 0 .257
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik 2B-SS 5 1 1 0 .300 2B (12)
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 5 0 1 0 .227
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 2 0 1 2 .268 2 BB (20), SB (5) [no power]
CLE LoA Castro, Willi DH 4 0 1 0 .259
CLE LoA Krieger, Tyler 2B 3 0 1 0 .330 2B (10), BB (25), CS (5) [belongs in Lynchburg]
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 4 0 1 1 .301
CLE LoA Tom, Ka'ai LF 3 1 1 0 .323 BB (21) [on base nearly 1/2 the time]
CLE MAJ Naquin, Tyler CF 4 0 1 1 .313
CLE HiA Brown, Mitch 5 4 2 1 3 7 4.38 W (2-4) [he's been plenty worse]

a rare week in which we are shut out on the Hot Prospects List. I took a look through the rosters and don't find outstanding lines for the week. The best would be:

Erik Gonzalez 30-3-9-4 [2 doubles, homer] [one walk] 300/323/467

Nellie Rodriguez 27-4-7-4 [5 doubles, homer] [3 walks, 9 K] 259/333/556

Yu-Chiang Chang 22-1-6-6 [2 doubles, 2 triples] [3 walks, 5K] 273/360/545
Greg Allen 18-4-5-1 [double, homer] [8 walks, 5 K, 2 steals] 278/500/500

Nathan Lukes 23-8-9-3 [3 doubles] [2 walks, 4K] 387/440/522
Tyler Krieger 26-4-10-3 [3 doubles, triple] [4 walks, 4 K] 385/467/578

3 extra inning games provide extra offensive opportunities. Akron won 7-6 in 13; Lynchburg won 16-11 in 10; Lake County won 4-3 in 10. Columbus played only 9 and was blasted 10-3.


Offensive stars:
Bobby Bradley's 11th double and 13th homer and 2bi offset his 3 more strikeouts.
Y-C Chang with his 4th triple, 7th homer, 2 walks, hitting 278 but not a real power hitter OPS 863 for the SS
Anthony Santander single and double and 3 rbi
And finally for Lynchburg the well-named Sicnarf Loopstok doubled, homered, batted in two, hitting 273

Nathan Lukes with a pair of singles; and Tyler Krieger 3rd homer for Lake County

Frazier doubled and batted in 3, also walked, but left the game. Zimmer 1-6 2b, bi, 3K. Papi double and his typical 2 bb.

As the scores suggest not a lot of good pitching lines:
Plutko 7 1/3-10-5-5-0-6
Sean Brady 2 1/3-10-8-8-3-1 5.60
Sam Hentges 5-6-3-3-2-6 6.30
Josh Martin at Columbus 2 0 0 0 0 5
Joe Colon back from his suspension 1 1/3 walks 3.
Hartson in relief at LC: 5-3-0-0-2-6

Chang also has 16 doubles, so 27 xb hits total in 216 plate appearances. Perhaps he's not going to be a prolific homerun hitter at higher levels, but the doubles and triples may be capable of replication. He's a 6-1 176 20 year old. He's made a dozen errors at short. If the Indians like him, they'll be shifting his position since no one bests Lindor.

The Case: As with most players on this list—they are middle infielders, after all—Chang has more power than his lithe frame belies. He barrels the ball with regularity. The Verdict: Fluke. Lynchburg’s Calvin Falwell Field does help power play up, and Chang’s swing is more geared for line drives.

So just for the heck of it, I looked at Chang's splits and he's far more profilic away from that home field. On the road 12 of his 17 doubles, 2 of his 4 triples, 5 of his seven homeruns. OPS at home about 725. On the road over 1000. So perhaps the verdict is based on faulty evidence.

New name noted by BA in today's prospects report:

Matt Esparza, rhp, Indians. A former high school shortstop who wound his way in college through Tennessee, junior college and UC Irvine, Esparza was a 14th-round pick of the Indians in 2015. As you’d expect of a former shortstop, Esparza is a good athlete. For a player who didn’t pitch much until college Esparza commands his pitches well, including a fastball that sits in the low 90s with downward angle. He struck out 10 and and gave up just one hit and two walks in six innings Saturday for low Class A Lake County against Great Lakes (Dodgers). For the season, Esparza has struck out 51 and walked 11 in 51 innings.

And the daily lines:

CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 0 1 0 .252
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy DH 4 0 1 1 .260
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 5 1 1 2 .297
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 1 0 .278
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 3 0 1 0 .254 BB (7), SB (7)
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 3 1 2 1 .316 BB (11)
CLE MAJ Naquin, Tyler CF 3 1 2 2 .333 HR (2), BB (4)

CLE AA Kaminsky, Rob 5 1 0 0 0 3 4.06 [looking better]
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 2.33
CLE AAA Clevinger, Mike 3.2 5 4 4 3 5 3.66 [looking worse]

some non-producers on Saturday:

Frazier 0-3 with a K, but also a walk
Zimmer 0-4 with a K
Papi 0-4 with a K
Bradley 0-4 with 2k

Ben Heller records second save for Columbus since promotion.

Akron RubberDucks 2, Bowie Baysox 1

Box Score · RubberDucks improve to 38-17

Akron didn't provide much offense in this one, but they didn't need to thanks to some stellar pitching performances.

Jeremy Lucas put the RubberDucks on the board with a solo shot in the seventh inning while Todd Hankens picked up an RBI single in the eighth. There wasn't much to write home about offensively as both Clint Frazier and Bradley Zimmer had quiet days at the plate, going 0-7 with a walk combined.

Also of note, 26-year old Cuban player Angel Miguel picked up his first career hit in his MiLB debut, although he was subsequently picked off.

The real star of the game was Rob Kaminsky, who looked sharp in his second start after returning from the disabled list. Kaminsky pitched five shutout innings while surrendering only one base hit, striking out three and walking zero in his best start of the 2016 season. He likely could have gone deeper into the game but was still on a pitch count.

Sunday games:

CLE AA Frazier, Clint LF 1 0 1 0 .309 2 BB (28) [he's way ahead of Zimmer now]
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie DH 3 2 1 1 .250 HR (12) [one-trick pony?]
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 0 1 1 .296 2B (13), SB (7)
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 2 1 1 0 .228 2B (12)
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 2 0 1 0 .280
CLE LoA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 1 1 0 .325 2B (11)
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 5 0 1 0 .313
CLE MAJ Naquin, Tyler CF 2 2 2 1 .351 2B (3), HR (3), BB (5)

CLE AA Morimando, Shawn 4.2 10 5 5 1 3 2.17 L (9-1) [can't win em all]
CLE AAA Merritt, Ryan 6 5 1 0 1 3 2.64 W (4-4)

Zimmer's hitting 228. He does have plenty of homers, walks and steals. But he's slipping rather than improving, and he's now 3-42 with 20K vs. lefties.

Mike Papi's first week in Akron finds him hitting 111 but with 5 walks in 23 plate appearances.

Frazier had a slash line in April of: 274/319/488. In May: 350/475/588. Since April 30, his walk and strikeout totals are even at 22.
Zimmer is very suspectible to peaks and valleys; in May he was 256/402/589 but in his first week of June he's 1-21.

Glass empty:

Bobby Bradley fanned three times yesterday, including with the bases loaded and a chance to break the game open in the first inning. He's hitting 232 and has fanned a mammoth 75 times in 54 games.

Glass full:

Bobby Brantley crashed a grand slam in the first inning, and added a two-run double. His 14 homers lead the Carolina League; his 53 RBI lead the Carolina League. And he's just a kid, turned 20 a week ago, and is one of the youngest players in the league. And he's improved his K/BB ratio: 35/9 in April; 40-27 since.

BA noted the following:

Bobby Bradley, 1b, Indians. Bradley has the best power in the Indians’ system [that's sort of an understatement] and showed it off on Monday. Bradley had a grand slam and and two-run double as high Class A Lynchburg beat Salem (Red Sox) 13-5. Bradley slumped in May (.180/.376/.393) although he did hit five homers. He’s already hit three in June. Bradley has outstanding bat speed and good feel for the strike zone, but an aggressive approach leads to many strikeouts. He’s seventh in all the minors with 75 strikeouts.

CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy DH 3 0 1 0 .250 BB (8)
CLE HiA Allen, Greg CF 3 3 1 2 .259 2 BB (36)
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 5 1 2 6 .232 2B (13), HR (14)
CLE HiA Mathias, Mark 2B 5 0 1 0 .240
CLE HiA Lugo, Luis 1.2 0 2 2 4 2 4.97 [he's off my prospect list as he's worse the second time around in Lynchburg]