I've been reading on the scouting reports on Pannone that you've posted. He's not a super-hard thrower but precision with his fastball and good secondary pitches make him attractive. I was going to say I like him until I read: "Having grown up a Yankees fan". So never mind.

BA report is similar to Hillbilly's

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 0 1 1 .202 2B (3), BB (18)
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 1 0 .202 SB (2)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 1 1 1 .267 HR (2)
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik 2B 6 1 2 2 .271 3B (3), BB (5)
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 0 0 0 .113
CLE AAA Zimmer, Bradley CF 5 1 2 1 .273 BB (12)
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 1 0 1 0 .222 BB (9), SB (3) walked 19 times all last year
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 4 0 0 0 .250
CLE MAJ Diaz, Yandy LF 3 0 0 0 .203
CLE LoA Aiken, Brady 4.1 5 4 3 4 5 4.66 L (0-6) [Much lower than Morimando or Plutko]

Yes I know that Yandy has lots of potential but he's sure not showing it in the majors yet. One extra base hit in nearly 70 at bats. A near-zero rate of success with RISP. Doesn't have much yet to prove in the minors, other than refining his OF skills. It's one of those dilemmas that a competitive team has that a developing team doesn't.

But perhaps for the time-being that should give Richie Shaffer a shot at least while various OFs are hurt. Another corner guy, he's hitting 277/395/561. 8 homers, 4 doubles. Whiffs a lot: 35 times, but walks a bunch too, 19.
Yesterday perfect Jekyll/hyde performance: 3 run homer, 4 strikeouts.

When Yandy got his first taste this year I took up for him cause he was being patient, swinging at good pitches, and hitting the ball hard. Just didn't have any luck. Played good defense too.

But this week it has been ugly in every way.

He's not being patient, swinging at everything. When he does make contact it's a weak grounder or pop up. Looked totally lost in LF yesterday.

Total choke job.

I hand it to the Indians, they are giving him a legit look. But he is blowing it. Nobody to blame but himself.

As far as Pannone, I was very pleased with what I read. Topping out at 93 on a cold evening in Akron is not bad at all for a guy with his command.

Hillbilly. I also wanted Diaz to excel but the way he played yesterday I think he may have shared food with Gomes but stayed in the game.

LOL!

LOL Lou!

What I have been watching this week is not the Yandy Diaz I've watched the last couple years. Don't write him off. Maybe he can get his head together.

.

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 4 hours ago

Akron #RubberDucks transaction

(C) Francisco Mejia placed on 7-day DL (Groin)

Lake County #Captains transaction

OF Gabriel Mejia placed on the 7-day DL (Wrist)
OF Mitch Longo promoted from extended spring training

Diaz = AAAA?

Anybody that follows this folder knows how much I love Yandy. Not often you see a young guy come up through minors with the patience and discipline at the plate that he has done.

And the ones that do almost always end up very good. Brantley, Thome, Giles types, to name a few. Last year I think I posted a message here that showed his minor league numbers matched up very favorable to some of our best home grown hitters. (In Brantley's case his numbers in Milwaukee system. But if you remember, when rumors broke that we were talking trade with the Brewers for Sabathia, Brantley was one of the first guys I mentioned that I wanted. For same reasons I love Yandy's approach)

And in the case with those guys, and a guy like Jose, the power has come later. I figured it would with Yandy too.

When the season started he was doing all the right things. Was being patient waiting for a good pitch to hit. (Ted Williams #1 rule for hitting) But he ran into bad luck. Was hitting the ball hard but right at guys.

But this week he is up there being far too aggressive, flailing at everything. Makes me think he is trying too hard. Wants to stay this time.

I hope the skipper and coaches gets in his ear this day off and calms him down. Gets him back to doing what he does. If not I can't imagine him being up here much longer. He's been absolutely terrible this week.

But like I said, don't write him off yet. I know he has the goods. He has to get the wiring between his ears straightened out.

Hey nearly all young players fail in their first go around in the majors; the failure is usually the first they've ever encountered and they develop further with a return to the minors. I have not had as high hopes for Yandy as you, but that only means that I don't expect him to be a big league star, but I think he should be either big league average [sort of Casey Blake-ish] if his defense is good enough, or at worst a valuable super-utility bat. Nothing wrong with a career that turns out to be 400 major league at bats annually with OPS of something like 775.
He's got to deliver lots of doubles, some triples and at least an occasional homerun. I assume he'll get the batting average and on base average up with regained confidence.

BA lines from Thursday:

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 0 0 .194
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 0 0 .194
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 0 1 0 .266 2 SB (8)
CLE AA Mathias, Mark 3B 3 0 0 0 .100
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik 2B-SS 4 0 0 0 .263
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 0 1 0 .119
CLE AAA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 1 2 0 .281 SB (8) [his OPS is #12 in the IL, and second best among OF's behind only teammate Rickie Shaffer, who's only half time in the OF. Add in Zimmer's defensive skills in CF and his strong arm and he's apparently the best-performing outfielder in the league. His avg will always make him look worse than he is.]
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 4 0 1 0 .250
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 1 1 0 0 0 1 3.24 Sv (3) [with Bauer probably headed to the pen, Armstrong is going to be stuck in the minors except for brief interludes when the big league pen needs a fresh arm and someone else can be temporarily demoted -- who in the pen has options remaining?]
CLE AAA Merritt, Ryan 6.1 7 1 1 2 7 3.95 W (3-3)

No doubt McKenzie will be at the top of the Hot Prospect List from BA today. And Bieber and Civale had good weeks and could get noticed too. But the chances that they will deign to mention Pannone remain pretty dim.

It's a little for it, but BA has posted its first "updated Top 100 prospects" list. The Indians players are now rated as follows:

Mejia No. 21 and top catcher
Zimmer No. 34, 20 places behind Frazier
McKenzie No. 56 7th ranked teenage pitcher
no one else makes the grade, which is not exactly a surprise since our next highest rated previously -- Aiken, Bradley and Chang-- have not done much in the first 6 weeks.

a long chat accompanied the list but since no questions about any of our kids, no answers either.