I went to a political rally last night with a bunch of friends. Our congressman got the job as secretary of interior so we're having a special election. Afterwards we invaded a local bar/restaurant. Good times. So I guess you could say I had a der-election of duty. But a couple things worth mentioning that BA didn't.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Ben Krauth pitched 2.2 scoreless innings again yesterday. 1 hit and 3 K.

Chu 2-4 with double.

And Lugo pitched 6 shutout innings for Ducks. 1 hit 3 K.

Lugo was my breakout pitcher along with Santander as hitter after his solid first season in Mahoning Valley. He's slipped down the ratings every year since. This is his best stats year since then, with an ERA below 2, but he's still walking too many, over 1 per 2 innings. Like McKenzie he's a big guy who was expected to fill out and throw harder. I don't think it had happened yet, but his annual 1-level ascent and retained health makes him at least a marginal prospect.

Pretty strong vote of confidence in our skinny righthander:

Hot Prospect List:
1. Triston McKenzie, rhp, Indians (19) High Class A Lynchburg (Carolina)

McKenzie has quickly put himself in the conversation among the game’s best pitching prospects. Just 19 and already in high Class A, he doesn’t have the upper-90s velocity that’s becoming more commonplace among elite young pitching prospect, but he has outstanding feel for pitching. He misses bats with his low-90s fastball and, especially, his curveball.

Adding weight to his tall, skinny frame could help McKenzie add to his fastball or at least maintain his velocity deeper into his outings. Given his polish, he could be pitching in the major leagues before his 21st birthday.

That makes McK sound like better than the 56th best prospect in the game!

Guess what: Pannone does not make the Hot list. No earned runs since mid-August with well more than 1 k per innings is not quite good enough.

Doesn't surprise me.

So how good is McKenzie?

"McKenzie has quickly put himself in the conversation among the game’s best pitching prospects" sounds like than higher than No. 56 on the Top 100 list issued this week!
Ben Badler: A lot of McKenzie fans at BA, but I think you’re probably talking to the high man on him here internally. I don’t need two hands to count the number of pitching prospects in the minors I like more than him.

You might need more than two hands, Civ, to count the number of prospects it takes to find one solid Major League starter.

Clippers win 5-2 tonight. Plutko pitched nice game. 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K. ... Zimmer continues his hot streak. 2-4 with a walk and a homer. He's up to .288 now. I'm still concerned by the amount of K's. Another one tonight. What would major leaguers do to him? ... Gonzalez came in late as replacement, was 1-1.

Akron beats those Rumble Ponies 5-1 on another nice pitching effort, this one by Merryweather. 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K. ... Krieger 1-4 with homer. ... Papi 2-4 with a walk and a stolen base. He's hitting .310 now. Finally reaching potential or a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut? I've always liked his batting eye, hope it's finally paying off. ... Bradley 2-5 with a K. Not been striking out as much lately. His work in that regard has been paying off.

Lynchburg gets a damn fine start tonight too and wins 3-1. ... Chiang 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K. ... Marabell stays hot, 3-3 with a walk.

And of course the Captains spoil the party, losing 7-5. ... Hillman 5 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. ... Tully allows no earned runs but takes loss. 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. ... Ice 1-4 a double. ... Chu 2-4

Lake County Captains transactions
(C) Juan De La Cruz promoted to Akron
(C) Jose Vicente promoted from Extended Spring Training

RubberDucks transactions
LHP Luis Lugo inactive
RHP Argenis Angulo promoted from Lynchburg

Tomorrows starters

Columbus - Morimando
Akron - The much feared "TBD"
Lynchburg - Esparza
Lake County - Miniard

Video of Zimmer HR

http://m.milb.com/video/1382662483/?vre ... 1382662483

Got company tonight for the UFC fights, hoping Cleveland's Stipi Miocic takes that title back home. Probably won't get to post any updates later but just wanted to mention Pannone started for Akron tonight and got roughed up in 2nd inning. But then game was suspended in 3rd due to weather. Not sure if it will end up counting. If they continue it tomorrow it will. But today was supposed to be a double header. What a ton of rain they've been getting so far. Can't even get make up games in.

Stamets being promoted from Akron to Columbus to replace Gonzalez.

Clippers won 7-4 last night.
Zimmer had a single and a walk to extend his hit streak to 7 games.
Shawn Morimando 6.0 6 1 0 1 7 0 5.97
Shawn Armstrong 1.0 0 0 0 1 3 0 2.89

Michael Peoples starts today for Columbus.

In Akron Game 1 was suspended and to be finished today. Game two rained out.

Akron will try to get in another double header today. Finishing the game from yesterday, then playing another which will be started by DJ Brown.

Lynchburg got rained out yesterday too. Esparza is scheduled to start today.

Captains lost to Wisconsin last night 5-4.

Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Micah Miniard (L, 1-3) 3.2 8 5 4 5 2 0 5.59

Chu was 3-5 with double. Isaacs 2-4 with triple.

Clippers lost 6-2. Peoples got lit up. 6 IP, 13 H, 6 ER, 0 BB, 3 K. ... Zimmer stays hot, 2-4 with double.

Akron was rained out again. Damn.

Lynchburg got swept in a double header. 7-0 and 5-4. ... Esparza 4 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. ... Literally no highlights to mention.

Lake County was off. On a Sunday?

Plutko has rebounded from a dreadful first 3 starts with a series of decent outings, though not spectacular


First 3 11 1/3 17hits 8walks 11K 11.91 ERA
Next 4 25 2/3 28hits 7walks 16K 3.86 ERA

Chiang seems even less likely than Pannone to get anyone's attention despite a very fine start. His 1.74 ERA is third in the league [Pannone is on top, obviously with all those zeros; McKenzie is fourth] and he's only allowed 31 hits and 4 walks in 41 1/3 innings, but merely 21 K suggest he relies on offspeed stuff. While Pannone appeared hear the very bottom of BA's Indians prospect preseason, Chiang didn't get the least of mentions.

Sorry to see Lugo "inactive". He's had a nice start hope he's not off on a serious DL break.