Everyone loves Chang's power at shortstop but unfortunately it about everything else that is the problem. He's hitting .201 with .280 OBP and has struck out 49 times in 134 AB's, to only 12 walks.. ... Previous two seasons very similar. 110 K in 417 AB, and 103 K in 393 AB. Career BA of .255 with OBP of .325. I just don't have much faith in Chang ever making it.

Todays starters

Columbus - Plutko
Akron - TBD
Lynchburg - Chiang
Lake County - Garza

Best thing Chang has going for him besides the power is that he's well below average age for AA. He doesn't turn 22 until late August. So he has time to work on his strikeouts, maybe.

Well it is going very well for Bradley so I'll have hope for anybody!

Bobby Bradley has only struck out 6 times his last 12 games, since he has worked on cutting down on the K's. In the previous 12 games he had struck out 16 times. In the previous 23 games he had struck out 32 times.

So Bradley went from striking out over once a game to only once every 2 games.

So Chang can do it too.

I think this is now the complete picture on yesterdays minor league roster moves.

Indians have signed free agent OF and Akron-native, Green HS alum OF David Lough, assigned to @CLBClippers
OF Jordan Smith promoted to Akron
IF Todd Hankins promoted from Akron to Columbus
OF Connor Marabell sent back down from Columbus to Lynchburg
LHP Alsis Herrera sent down from Lynchburg to Lake County.
RHP D.J. Brown placed on the 7-day DL in Columbus
LHP David Speer sent down to Akron from Columbus

Since Akron has many of our top position player prospects and Lynchburg has one, it also means that the RDucks are younger at many positions than the Hillcats:

C: Mejia 21 Loopstock-Cervenka-Salters 24 +3
1b:Bradley 20 Loopstock 24/Miller 22 +3
2b: Krieger 23 Haggerty 22 -1
ss: Chang 21 Castro 20 -1
3b: Mathias 22 Bautista 23 +1
of: Papi 24 Calica 23 -1
of: Allen 24 Tom 22 -2
of: Paulino 22 Carter 20 -2
dh: Rodriguez 24 Cervenka/Loopstock 24 ----

Lake County played early today, lost 5-3.

Chu went 1-4 with his 4th homer.

And it is official, Ben Krauth is human, and he has been having his issues lately.

Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA*
Justin Garza 5.2 3 3 3 1 7 0 5.71
Ben Krauth (BS, 1)(L, 3-2) 2.1 3 2 2 2 2 0 1.80

Speaking of the young roster in Akron, Krauth is older than the following RubberDucks:

Starting pitchers Thomas Pannone, Rob Kaminsky; 5 days younger than Luis Lugo.
Relievers Cameron Hill, Mitch Brown
Non-pitchers Mejia, Bradley, Chang, Krieger, Paulino

I don't think BA mentioned it but speaking of Lugo, he had a decent start yesterday. 6+ innings, 6 hits, 2 ER. His current ERA is still a tick under 3.

He's a big lefty. 6'5. 23 years old. Might make a candidate for a spot starter next couple years after this one.

I don't pay as much attention to age as you do though, Civ. Not meaning that as a bad thing, just my personal preference. Brian Giles was like 25 or 26 before he got decent MLB playing time. Randy Johnson was too. Some guys just find their groove a little later than others. Especially lefty pitchers.

Columbus won 6-3 today. ... Plutko 5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. ... Austin Jackson 1-4 with double. ... Yandy 2-5 RBI. ... Lough singled in his first and only at bat as a Clipper. (So far)

Akron won 4-2. ... Whitehouse got the start and pitched 4 shutout innings. No hits, 1 walk. ... Papi 1-4 with a double, a walk and RBI. ... Frankie 1-5. ... Bradley 1-4 with a walk and no K.

Lynchburg lost 3-0. ... Chiang 6 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K. ... Castro 1-4.

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 1 0 .228 BB (21)
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 5 0 1 0 .201
CLE AA Mathias, Mark 2B 3 2 2 0 .244 BB (3)
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco C 5 0 1 1 .301
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy LF 5 1 2 1 .347
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 1 0 0 .105 BB (12)
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 1 0 .291
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 1 0 0 0 .294 BB (4)
LE AAA Plutko, Adam 5 4 3 3 1 4 6.19 W (2-6)

Mathias has moved his average to the norm. Nellie is having trouble doing the same.
I like also those walks Zimmer draws. The one thing he's bad at is hitting the ball at people. Only 3 of 21 at bats have resulted in outs that were not strikeouts.

Forgot to post it last night but Morimando, Merryweather, Esparza, and Hillman are SP's today.

Some early games today again too.

Morimando, Merryweather, Esparza, and Hillman

preseason were ranked in order: Hillman, Morimando, Merryweather, Esparza
YTD they're probably ranked: Merryweather, Esparza, Morimando, Hillman. Morimando is getting better. Hillman has been pretty consistantly lousy.

Akron and Lynchburg played early. Games are already over.

Akron beat the Curve 3-2 on a really good outing by Merryweather, who has been a surprise to me this year. 8 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. ... Mitch Brown with another good relief outing too. 1 shutout inning, 2 K's. ... Krieger 1-4. ... Frankie 1-4. ... Bradley 1-4 with 2 RBI and again zero K's. ... Papi 2-4 with 1 RBI.

Pannone is on the rubber tomorrow. Hoping he gets back on track.

Lynchburg scored twice in the 9th to beat the Royals farm team, who happens to have one of my least favorite names, the Wilmington Blue Rocks, 4-2. Esparza was great. 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K. ... Angula pitched a scoreless 9th for his 5th save. Has ERA on the year of 1.80 now. ... Calica 1-2 with walk and RBI. ... Marabell 2-5 with double. ... Castro 1-5 with double.

Shane Bieber on the mound tomorrow. Looks to be a good day to follow the young pitchers.

And the later two games ...

Clippers got shutout 5-0 by the RailRiders. ... Morimando was not good. 5 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. ... Yandy was 0-3 with a walk.

Kluber is getting the start in a rehab assignment tomorrow for Columbus.

Captains lost to the LugNuts 5-4 in a 7 inning affair. ... Hillman 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 1 K. ... Tully the Buckeye took the loss tho. 2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K. ... Chu 1-3 with a double.

Miniard getting the start tomorrow.