Cleveland Sports Forum

Benson was hitless. Samad Taylor (2nd baseman--10th round) doubled and tripled. Hosea Nelson (dh--9th round) single and 3K. Trenton Brooks (cf--17th round) singled, doubled twice.


Nelson is a strong lefthanded hitter who is an above-average runner and a great body. He's limited to left field. His swing will need some work in pro ball, but it dominated at Clarendon as he hit .531/.606/1.020 with 20 home runs and 17 steals.

Taylor made his name at the Area Code Games tryouts last year, earning his way into the Games at Long Beach State's Blair Field and performing well for hundreds of scouts. He's athletic and has some quick hands that give him surprising power at his size. He's a plus runner who could wind up as a utility player and has a good chance to stay in the infield. He's undersized at 5-foot-9, 159 pounds and may not have the arm strength to stick at shortstop. He is committed to Arizona.

No scouting report on Brooks, a college kid, signed cheap.

Mah Valley: Gabriel Mejia 2 hits, caught stealing.

Akron: Frazier 3 singles, apparently not being promoted. Zimmer single and walked. NellieRod single, double, walk. LH Nick Maronde 1 2/3 perfect, 2 K.

Columbus: Plutko 6-6-2-2-3-2
Joe Colon 2/3 scoreless, 1 walk 1 K. O ERA since return from suspension

All the US-based teams lost.

BA highlights from Thursday:

CLE AA Frazier, Clint DH 5 0 3 0 .305 BB (35)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 1 2 1 .238 2B (18), BB (35)
CLE AA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 1 1 0 .238 BB (44)
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy RF 4 0 1 0 .284
CLE AAA Plutko, Adam 6 6 2 2 3 2 3.09 L (1-1)
CLE SS McKenzie, Triston 4.2 4 0 0 1 5 0.00 [must be a 70-pitch limit; that's the point he left yesterday]

2 starts for McKenzie: 10 2/3 8 hits 0 runs 2 walks 11 strikeouts. Another "Hot Prospect" list candidate.

Sabathia at age 18 for the Scrappers: 19 2/3 9 5 4 12 27. Quick promotion to full season A followed.

McKenzie is No. 5 on the Hot Prospect list, by the far the highest short season player after their first week.


5. Triston McKenzie, rhp, Indians

Team: short-season Mahoning Valley (New York-Penn)
Age: 18
Why He’s Here: 0-1, 0.00, 2 GS, 10.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 11 SO, 2 BB, 1 HBP

The Scoop: A standout prep pitcher in Florida in 2015, McKenzie waited until the 42nd pick for the Indians to select him. The lean, 6-foot-5 righty has looked sharp through two New York-Penn League starts this season, striking out 11 against just two walks. McKenzie throws three pitches already, with the athleticism to repeat his delivery and throw strikes.

And this Q&A:

Keith (Farmington, CT): Thanks Matt. If McKenzie can add some weight/strength to his frame, does his ceiling reach #2 starter? He seems so poised for someone not even 19 yet.
Matt Eddy: The Indians love McKenzie, but caution for any young pitcher is warranted. Yes, an absolute ceiling of No. 2 starter for McKenzie is technically possible, but I would want to see him handle a full-season assignment before going nuts.

Interesting that there would be another person whose name starts with a K who lives in Farmington Ct who knows something about Indians short seaons teams.

Indians Prospective

Captains (C) Francisco Mejia extends his hitting streak to 22 games
37-87 19R 6(2B) 1(3B) 5HR 19RBI 3BB 1SB .425 AVG .451 OBP

Clippers RHP Michael Clevinger over his last 4 starts:
- 24.2(IP) 16H 4R 4ER 7BB 29SO 1.46 ERA

Clevinger and Hillman both with good outings tonight.

Benson with his first pro hit, double. Catcher we just drafted, Lucas, homered.

Indians Prospective
#Indians 2016 3rd Round Pick #92 20yr RHP Aaron Civale will make his pro debut starting for Mahoning Valley Saturday

There's an 18 year old OF'er named Oscar Gonzalez playing in the Arizona rookie league who has homered in 3 of his first 4 pro games. Beginners luck?

Simeon Lucas was drafted in 2014. This is his 3rd summer in Goodyear.
Gonzalez managed 4 homers last summer in the Dominican; hitting 203 with 587. Turning the corner, or lucky start?

Juan Hillman LH was just about as sharp as McKenzie the day before. 5 2 0 0 1 4. 1 walk in 11 innings.
Casey Shane in LC: 6 7 4 1 1 3 4.12
Brad Kaminsky for Akron: 5 7 2 2 2 2 4.16. Typical line for the lefty.
Clevinger was given a 9-run lead in the first. 6 8 4 4 0 8. not his best, but his control was great again.

T J House with a perfect inning for his first professional save.
Robbie Aviles, another lefty, 3 shutout innings for Akron. When he's good: 25 innings, 7 ER. When he's bad: 2 games, 2 1/3 innings, 10 ER.

Some hitters:
Erik Gonzalez double, homer 293
Zimmer double
Bradley and Chang each singled. Allen walked and stole another. C Danny Salters doubles his season HR total from 2 to 4
Mejia's 3 hits put him at 343.
Worst hitter of the first half, Nathan Winfrey [142 for the Captains, then 0-14 for the Scrappers] with a single.
One of our worst recent international signings Grofi Cruz, got $400K in 2013, still putzing around short season ball, is hitless for Mahoning Valley. [The same year we paid $1.1M to OF Hector Caro who's long gone already.]
2016 draftee Trenton Brooks doubled, hitting 571. But it's early.

BA's report on Friday

CLE AA Papi, Mike DH 3 1 1 0 .188 BB (11)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 1 1 0 .239 BB (36)
CLE AA Zimmer, Bradley RF 4 0 1 2 .238 2B (15)
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy 3B 2 1 1 2 .287 2 BB (19)
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 5 2 2 2 .293 2B (18), HR (5)
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 1 0 .242
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 1 0 .276
CLE HiA Mathias, Mark 2B 4 1 1 0 .255
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 1 1 .270
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 4 0 3 0 .343 SB (1)
CLE AA Kaminsky, Rob 5 7 2 2 2 2 4.66 W (2-4)
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 1 0 0 0 1 2 2.33
CLE AAA Clevinger, Mike 6 8 4 4 0 8 2.81 W (7-0)
CLE SS Hillman, Juan 5 2 0 0 1 4 2.45

D'oh. We drafted so many catchers this year that I just posted that without thinking. You're right about Lucas.

The Fringe Five: Baseball’s Most Compelling Fringe Prospects
by Carson Cistulli - June 24, 2016

The Fringe Five is a weekly regular-season exercise, introduced a few years ago by the present author, wherein that same author utilizes regressed stats, scouting reports, and also his own fallible intuition to identify and/or continue monitoring the most compelling fringe prospects in all of baseball.

Central to the exercise, of course, is a definition of the word fringe, a term which possesses different connotations for different sorts of readers. For the purposes of the column this year, a fringe prospect (and therefore one eligible for inclusion in the Five) is any rookie-eligible player at High-A or above who (a) received a future value grade of 45 or less from Dan Farnsworth during the course of his organizational lists and who (b) was omitted from the preseason prospect lists produced by Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo, and John Sickels, and also who (c) is currently absent from a major-league roster. Players appearing on an updated prospect list or, otherwise, selected in the first round of the current season’s amateur draft will also be excluded from eligibility.

In the final analysis, the basic idea is this: to recognize those prospects who are perhaps receiving less notoriety than their talents or performance might otherwise warrant.


Greg Allen, CF, Cleveland (Profile)
This represents Allen’s fifth consecutive appearance among the Five and [occurs] after a week in which Allen played only four games, owing to the Carolina League’s All-Star break. Despite the truncated schedule, the 23-year-old continued to exhibit the skills which earned him a place here each of the four weeks prior, reaching base by a hit, walk, or hit-by-pitch in 8 of his 16 plate appearances while striking out just once during that same interval. Nor is that to acknowledge his actual role in the All-Star game itself, during which he batted leadoff and played center field for the Carolina League. While the author hardly possesses the requisite professional gravitas to declare such a thing unilaterally, it certainly appears as though Allen has mastered the High-A level — a hypothesis further supported utilizing Arbitrary Endpoints in the form of the table below.

Greg Allen, Before and Since Debut Among Fringe Five
Range PA BB% K% ISO Spd
4/07 to 5/26 209 12.0% 13.4% .081 8.4
5/27 to 6/23 91 19.8% 12.1% .156 8.5
Yandy Diaz, 3B/OF, Cleveland (Profile)
During his first two affiliated seasons after signing with Cleveland, Yandy Diaz recorded a total of 200 defensive appearances at third base and zero defensive appearances at all the other positions. Since last Friday, meanwhile, Diaz has recorded one start at third base, one start in right field, and five starts in left — which is to say, infinitely more starts in left and right field than during his whole 2014 or -15 campaigns. What else he’s done since last Friday is record nearly a .300 isolated-power figure while striking out in only 16% of his plate appearances. It’s possible that this latter development is related to the former. Because regard: Diaz’s offensive skills are likely to make him useful to the major-league club. What else would make him useful is complementing those offensive skills with some defensive flexibility.

Here’s footage of Diaz doubling earlier in the week by way of an impressive opposite-field swing:





Whatever Green’s future, his immediate past has been impressive. Over his last two starts (14.0 innings), the right-hander has recorded a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 20:1 against 49 batters, amounting to rates of 40.8% and 2.0%, respectively — which is to say, figures that are typically the province of the Yankees’ best relief pitchers, not a fringe Triple-A starter.

Here’s footage from his most recent start of Green throwing his slider for a swinging strike to mostly helpless JaCoby Jones:
a (Double-A Southern League)
Jesmuel Valentin, 2B/SS, Philadelphia (Double-A Eastern League)
Ildemaro Vargas, SS, Arizona (Double-A Southern League)
Aaron Wilkerson, RHP, Boston (Triple-A International League)

Fringe Five Scoreboard
Here are the top-10 the players to have appeared among either the Fringe Five (FF) or Next Five (NF) so far this season (which is to say, today). For mostly arbitrary reasons, players are assessed three points for each week they’ve appeared among the Fringe Five; a single point, for each week among the Next Five.

Fringe Five Scoreboard, 2016
Name Team POS FF NF PTS
1 Sherman Johnson Angels 2B 12 0 36
2 Greg Allen Indians CF 5 2 17
3 Jharel Cotton Dodgers RHP 4 3 15
4 Aaron Wilkerson Red Sox RHP 4 2 14
5 Jaime Schultz Rays RHP 3 2 11
Tim Locastro Dodgers 2B/SS 3 2 11
Yandy Diaz Indians 3B 3 2 11
8 Joan Gregorio Giants RHP 3 1 10
9 Ildemaro Vargas D-backs SS 2 2 8
10 Chance Adams Yankees RHP 2 1 7
Chih-Wei Hu Rays RHP 2 1 7
Edison Frias Astros RHP 2 1 7
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The Fringe Five: Baseball’s Most Compelling Fringe…