From MILB.com

Francisco Mejia may be repeating the Class A level, but it's almost like a whole new player is at and behind the plate for Lake County.

The Indians' No. 8 prospect went 13-for-25 (.520) with four homers, a double, 11 RBIs and eight runs scored in six games last week to take home Midwest League Offensive Player of the Week. The award is Mejia's first since he was named New York-Penn League Player of the Week for Class A Short Season Mahoning Valley on Sept. 2, 2014.

With hits in each of his six contests last week, the 20-year-old switch-hitting catcher has a 14-game hitting streak for the Captains, the second-longest active streak in the Midwest League behind teammate Tyler Krieger's 20-gamer. He twice homered in back-to-back games -- Tuesday/Wednesday and Friday/Saturday -- but his standout performance came Thursday when he collected a season-high four hits in four at-bats to lead a 6-5 win over Lansing.

Thanks to his latest run, Mejia leads the MWL with a .338 average and ranks second with a .507 slugging percentage and .881 OPS through 50 games. The Dominican Republic native returned to the Class A circuit after hitting just .243/.324/.345 in 109 games there last season. While Mejia is certainly collecting more hits, he is also making much louder contact this time around with his ISO jumping from .102 to .169. His strikeout rate has dropped slightly from 17.5 percent to 16.1, but he drew plaudits last week for his improved selectiveness at the plate.

"He just needs to continue to figure out the strike zone," Lake County hitting coach Kevin Howard told MiLB.com on Thursday. "Like most young hitters he'll chase, swing at pitches in the dirt, swing at pitches up in the strike zone. He's continuing to learn what pitches he can drive and what pitches he can take. I think for his age he's done a really good job.

"As he gets older and as he moves up levels, they're going to start throwing balls out of the strike zone a little bit more to see if they can get him to chase. So he needs to figure out the strike zone before he's ready to move up to the next level."

Mejia's offensive improvements are perhaps even more special given his abilities behind the plate. The backstop was given a 70 grade for his arm last offseason from MLB.com and has backed that up by throwing out 19 of 43 (44.2 percent) potential basestealers this season.

Tuesday games:

CLE AA Frazier, Clint DH 4 1 1 0 .308 2B (20), BB (32)
CLE AA Papi, Mike RF 3 0 2 3 .179 2B (3), BB (8) [finally some offense]
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 0 2 1 .236 2 2B (17)
CLE AA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 0 1 0 .233 BB (36)
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy LF 4 0 1 0 .271
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 0 1 0 .283 2B (14)
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 3 2 1 0 .278 3B (6), BB (24), SB (8) [hardly a day without an XB hit]
CLE HiA Mathias, Mark 2B 2 2 2 2 .247 2 BB (21), 2 SB (6) [pushed up to Hi A he's struggled some]
CLE MAJ Naquin, Tyler CF 4 0 1 0 .309 SB (1)
CLE AA Kaminsky, Rob 4 7 5 4 2 2 5.20 L (1-4) [ugh, once again]
CLE AAA Clevinger, Mike 7 3 0 0 3 5 2.75 [wasn't there some talk about using him in big league bullpen?]
CLE HiA Brown, Mitch 4 2 1 1 5 4 4.25 [at least he brought his ERA down; he's now walked 36 in 59 1/3]

No doubt Papi has been a disappointment but I keep waiting for him to turn it around. As this article says, he has a great eye. He gets a good pitch and puts the barrel on it. But for some insane reason it just is not producing results for him.

Zimmer apparently doing good things in the field too.

.

Papi makes his mark

It was only his 13th game in an Akron uniform, but it has been a rather uneventful start to the season for former Virginia standout Mike Papi (.139 batting average, two extra-base hits). Papi looked like a different player on Tuesday night as he drove in three of the team’s four runs with an RBI double, a two-run single, and a walk.

“We just want him to continue the work he’s been doing all year," RubberDucks manager Dave Wallace said after the contest. "He’s a guy that has a good eye at the plate, puts together good at bats, and finds the barrel. We’re just letting him get consistent at bats, let him get comfortable, and we’ll see more of these nights.”

Now in his third year of pro ball, Papi is most notable for his historic career as a Virginia Cavalier where he led the ACC in batting average with a mark of .381 in 2013. The left-handed hitting outfielder was selected in the competitive balance round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians.

“Result wise, it was there tonight," Papi said following his best performance as a RubberDuck. "Ever since I got called up here I feel like I’ve put a good bat to the ball every night. Been a little unfortunate but there’s obviously an adjustment period with a lot better players.”

... The lone highlight for the home crowd was a leaping grab at the wall in centerfield by the acrobatic Bradley Zimmer to take a home run away from Green.

Zimmer's big problem is his really terrible hitting vs. left handed pitching. He's still showing all 5 tools but he can't make it far as a sub .100 hitter vs LH.

Cody Anderson is being shut down with elbow tightness. They're hoping nothing serious. Just on 7 day DL for now.

Tito says he'll be out a few weeks.

Wednesday lines from BA:

CLE AA Frazier, Clint LF 4 1 1 1 .307 HR (7)
CLE AA Papi, Mike RF 3 0 1 0 .190 SB (2)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie DH 4 0 1 0 .236
CLE AA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 0 1 0 .233
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy DH 3 0 1 0 .273 BB (14)
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 0 2 1 .287 2B (15)
CLE HiA Mathias, Mark 2B 2 1 2 0 .255 2B (16), BB (22), SB (7)
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 4 1 3 0 .275 CS (4)
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco DH 3 2 2 1 .340 2 2B (15), BB (13)
[actually Lake County played two games, and Mejia had one hit in the opener. That 340 avg looks pretty good]
No prospects on the mound last night.

for what they're worth, here are current records of our 4 teams as they near the end of the first half. All still with winning records but overall and especially Akron have been sliding down. Ducks were winning about 70% of their games, the last I saw they were on a losing streak of 7 or 8.

Columbus 35-31
Akron 38-28
Lynchburg 43-23
Lake County 38-28

Overall: 154-110 Pct. .583

I read last night that Anderson could miss as much as 6 weeks.

He's gonna rest for 10 days and they hope he'll be ready for game action in 3 to 4 weeks, but might be 4 to 6 weeks.

Indians Prospective
(DSL) #Indians 17yr old RHP Luis Oviedo has been sensational over his first 3 career pro starts:
- 14.0(IP) 12H 3R 1ER 3BB 16SO 0.64 ERA

Captains (C) Francisco Mejia extends his hitting streak to 18 straight games
30-70 17R 5(2B) 1(3B) 5HR 17RBI 3BB .429 AVG .459 OBP #Indians

Akron RubberDucks OF Mike Papi extended his On-Base streak to 5 games
5-15 1(2B) 3RBI 3BB 1SB .333 AVG ..474 OBP #Indians @UVABaseball

No stopping Papi now!

Now maybe if he just get some extra base hits.

Papi has a couple doubles.

CLE AA Papi, Mike RF 3 0 1 0 .200 BB (9)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 1 2 1 .239 HR (13)
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy 3B 2 1 1 0 .277 BB (15) [back at 3rd base for a change]
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik 2B 4 0 1 1 .286
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 2 0 1 0 .277 2 BB (9) [good to see him talking some walks]
CLE LoA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 0 1 0 .325 [his long hitting streak ended a couple nights ago, starting again]
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 4 0 1 0 .338 2B (16)
CLE AA Morimando, Shawn 6.2 6 2 2 1 7 2.84 [back on track after a couple bad outings]
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 1 0 0 0 1 1 1.88 [still walking them]
CLE AAA Merritt, Ryan 6 7 4 4 1 3 3.38 L (4-5)

Mejia has a chance for a repeat performance on the Hot Prospect list, although not No. 1 this time. For the week ended yesterday:

27 6 9 7 3 doubles, 3 homers 2 walks 6 strikeouts 333/379/778/1157 [OPS was 1477 last week; his slide is rather precipitous, down 320 points]

Mejia repeats on the Hot Prospect List. He's No. 11 this year, which puts him 4th among non-pitchers.


11. Francisco Mejia, c, Indians

Team: low Class A Lake County (Midwest)
Age: 20
Why He’s Here: .333/.379/.778 (9-for-27), 6 R, 3 2B, 0 3B, 3 HR, 7 RBIs, 2 BB, 6 SO

The Scoop: After topping this list last week, Mejia is back again. He added three more home runs this week, doubling his season total. He leads the Midwest League in average and OPS, and is just three points behind Eloy Jimenez for the slugging percentage lead. He’s also caught 42 percent of runners trying to steal and has permitted just three passed balls.

5th among non-pitchers, no. 14 overall is:


14. Mark Mathias, 2b, Indians

Team: high Class A Lynchburg (Carolina)
Age: 21
Why He’s Here: .471/.609/.765 (8-for-17), 6 R, 2 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBIs, 5 BB, 3 SO, 3-for-3 SB

The Scoop: Mathias’ best skill is his ability to control the strike zone, which he’s shown this year by drawing a walk in 10 percent of his plate appearances this season. What Mathias needs to show more of is the ability to make damage upon contact, as he’s hit just two home runs with a .255/.345/.370 line overall in 53 games.