Cleveland Sports Forum

Sunday:

CLE AA Papi, Mike LF 5 1 2 0 .205 BB (23), SB (3)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie DH 6 1 1 1 .261 2B (21)
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 3 1 1 0 .296 BB (15)
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 2 1 1 .246 HR (16), BB (52)
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 1 2 1 .274 2B (24), BB (32)
CLE HiA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 1 2 0 .327
CLE HiA Mathias, Mark 3B 5 0 2 0 .255
Lynchburg Infielders Cannot be Stopped
CLE MAJ Naquin, Tyler CF 4 1 1 2 .314 HR (9)
CLE HiA Lugo, Luis 6 11 4 4 4 3 4.30 W (5-3)
CLE SS Hillman, Juan 5.2 5 0 0 1 4 1.03 W (2-0)

BA's Top Risers and Top Fallers in the Top 100 Prospect List

On the positive side, not surprised to find:
Francisco Mejia, c, Indians

Mejia repeated low Class A Lake County to begin the season. Yes, he was repeating the league, but it’s hard not to be impressed with a catcher who led the Midwest League in batting average and slugging percentage. Mejia was hitting .347/.384/.531 with 17 doubles and seven home runs when he earned a promotion to high Class A Lynchburg. Mejia has also showed improvement defensively. He’s got a long way to go, but as a catcher with significant potential at the plate, he’s part of a steadily improving Indians’ farm system.

On the negative side, none of ours. Zimmer has been leapfrogged by Frazier and no one likes his vs LH split, but still among the top couple dozen prospects.

The almost complete lack of players with any talent is appearing to cost the Captains. Lake County shut out again today. The only prospect left here is SS Willi Castro and the 19 year old is slumping; 5 for his last 38.

Brantley is not just in the lineup, but playing LF for Mahoning Valley. Another team that doesn't score runs, although they do get guys on base, just don't move them along or hit for extra bases. Cleanup hitter 2B Erlin Cerda is 2 for 2 in early going. He came in 14 for his last 32 with a couple homers. But since he's already 22, he's clearly not a prospect.

Rotation here is very solid. Behind the teen age phenoms McKenzie and Hillman, there's 6-7 20-year-old Micah Minard whose ERA is 1.91 [although some of the 8 unearned runs he's allowed, opposed to only 5 ER most be kind of his fault] 21 K and 7 BB in 23 IP. And then there's 3rd rounder this year Lefty Aaron Civale who is unscored on in 7 innings with 8 K and 2 BB.

Good ole Mitch Brown holds a 3-0 lead in the 3rd for Lynchburg. In typical "good game" mode, i.e. not more runs allowed than IP, the only marks in the book for Brown are 4 walks to the 10 hitters he's faced.
Inspired by the arrival in Lynchburg of fellow 2015 draftee 2nd baseman Tyler Krieger, Mark Mathias is finally getting hot. 10 hits in his last 19 AB coming in, he has a single and double [#24] in his first 2 AB today . Season avg up to 264. Krieger has the night off.

While I was entering that, Brown walked his 3rd in the 3rd, so sacks are full with none out. The 2nd round draftee is still only 22 so with the investment they made in him we might have Mitch Brown to kick around for awhile longer despite his 5.51 in his return to Carolina League and garish 1.68 WHIP -- both worse than last season.

Brown allowed 6 walks in 2.2 IP tonight.

Not a good night for our farm system, especially for pitchers. Though none of our top prospects went tonight.

Akron and Columbus off for all star break. Lynchburg, Lake County, and Mahoning Valley all lost.

Any of you locals looking for something to do this week .... The Eastern League Home Run Derby will be at Akron tomorrow. ... And Michael Brantley will be playing for Lake County on Wednesday.

Most teams were off Monday,

CLE HiA Allen, Greg CF 5 1 1 0 .301
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 0 1 2 .247
CLE HiA Mathias, Mark 2B 4 2 3 1 .262 2 2B (23), BB (31)
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 1 0 .249
CLE HiA Brown, Mitch 2.2 1 2 2 6 1 5.56
CLE R Aiken, Brady 3 3 1 1 2 5 6.00 [18 strikeouts in 12 innings]

Another good start by Aaron Civale for the Scrappers. 3 shutout innings, his total is now 10, 4 hits, no walks, a K.

The "big 4" for Mahoning Valley have a combined stat line of:

87 IP
65 H
19 R
9 ER
21 BB
85 K
0.99 WHIP
0.90 ERA

Most teams remained on break, except for those playing in AAA and AA all star games.

Erik Gonzalez was starting SS for IL vs PCL. Went 1-4 with a home run. Played all 9 innings. Clevinger and Armstrong each with shutout innings.
Frazier and NRod and Zimmer all started for the EL West team and were all hitless with 3 K among them. A bunch of RDuck relievers pitched the final three innings with Feyeirsan by far the worst outing.

Only line games noted by BA:
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 2 1 .252 CS (5)

Mah Valley with its first winning streak of more than 1 game behind another solid start this time from Micah Miniard
6-5-2-2-1-5 and a perfect day at the plate by Andrew Calica single, triple, 2 walks. Even Dace Kime did OK in 1 scoreless inning with only one walk and one hit.

I looked at the DSL Indian stats and not too much stands out. These are sort of impressive:

Luis Araujo 19 year old RHP 25-14-8-4-4-22 1.44 ERA 0.72 WHIP
Henry Pujols 17 year old 3B 804 OPS 6 doubles 4 triples 4 homers but hitting only 214 and 35K
Wilbis Santiago 2B offensive line: 305/356/463 only 5 K but he's heading toward his 21st birthday this offseason

Jim Ingraham for BA:

CLEVELAND—One year after selecting him with their first pick in the draft, the Indians are very happy with the progress of Brady Aiken.

The Indians selected the high school lefthander with the 17th overall pick in 2015 despite the knowledge that he was only three months removed from Tommy John surgery and wouldn’t pitch competitively for at least another year. That year has passed, Aiken is pitching again, and Indians officials like what they see from the 19-year-old.

“It’s still early, but the returns from his outings have been very positive,” farm director Carter Hawkins said. “He’s commanding the ball, spinning his breaking ball well, and his velocity is in a great spot.”

Aiken made his pro debut on June 20 in the Rookie-level Arizona League, working two innings against the Reds in which he allowed no hits and struck out three. Through his first five starts, he went 0-2, 6.00 with 18 strikeouts, nine walks and 12 hits allowed in 12 innings.

Of course at this stage, it’s less about the numbers than about how Aiken feels, how he looks, and how much he’s progressing.

“From the time we selected Brady, he’s worked daily to not only get healthy, but to be a better pitcher than he was when he first had his injury,” Hawkins said.

The Astros made Aiken, a San Diego prep product, the first overall pick in the 2014 draft, but the two sides reached an impasse during negotiations. Aiken eventually enrolled in the post-graduate program at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., where in his first start he suffered the injury that led to Tommy John surgery on March 26, 2015.

The Indians signed Aiken for $2.5 million, and he spent the majority of his time at the Indians’ spring-training complex in Goodyear, Ariz., diligently working towards the resumption of his career.

“This is really just the first step for him, getting back into competitive innings,” Hawkins said. “We’re looking forward to watching him develop now that he’s in a team environment.”

SMOKE SIGNALS

• Clint Frazier started in left field for the U.S. team at the Futures Game and went 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and a stolen base. Catcher Francisco Mejia went 1-for-3 as a reserve for the World team. [Jim missed Yandy's line]

• Righthander Mike Clevinger ran up a 7.71 ERA through his first 16 big league innings, but he continues to be impressive at Triple-A Columbus, where in his first 14 starts he went 9-0, 2.72 with 83 strikeouts in 76 innings.

Thursday lines from BA:

CLE AA Papi, Mike LF 4 0 1 0 .207
CLE AA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 1 1 1 .260 HR (18)
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy RF 3 1 1 1 .312 BB (27)
CLE HiA Allen, Greg CF 3 0 1 0 .296 BB (55), CS (7)
CLE HiA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 2 2 0 .254
CLE HiA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 2 3 2 .276 2 2B (26), 3B (7)
CLE HiA Krieger, Tyler 2B 2 1 1 0 .345 2 BB (7), SB (2), CS (3)
CLE LoA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 2 0 .255

Actually Lynchburg played two games and BA only picked one to highlight. But Bradley had two hits in each. Chang with one mere single in the other game. Krieger a single and double. Santander doesn't get listed since he wasn't in the preseason Top 30 had two singles and his 11th homer in game 1, hitless in game 2; avg is 281, OPS 820. He's not reached age 22 yet.

CLE AAA Merritt, Ryan 5.2 3 1 1 3 1 4.23
CLE SS McKenzie, Triston 4 5 0 0 5 3 0.28 [by far his worst start, but he kept all those guys from scoring]

For Arizona, Benson was 3 0 0 1; Jones 3 0 1 0; Chu 4 2 2 1 [hr]; O Gonzalez 3 0 1 1 [15 rbi]

Kinda got lost during future game break but Frankie Mejia's hit streak is at 34 games now.

Today's MiLB report
+@RealNRod25 hits 18th HR
+Yu leads Hillcats
+@T_eazy24 5.0 more shutout IP
+Mejia streak @ 34G

pressbox.mlb.com/documents/5/4/…