Cleveland Sports Forum

Papi's arm is good enough that he has played the majority of his games in RF in our system.

I like pitchers who strike a lot of guys out, more room for error when you have nasty stuff. So Hentges was another I liked from that draft. He's a big lefty too which is a plus.

Hit enough and defense weakness doesn't matter.

I previously shared that a couple guys were being brought up from extended spring training to Lake County. I wondered what was happening to make room. Here is one.

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 4 hours ago

RHP Justin Garza placed on 7-day DL (Forearm Tightness)

Stop me if you've heard this before. The start of the Columbus game has been delayed due to rai .... I could have stopped sooner. Looks like they are going to get going though.

Pannone is wild again tonight. 2 hits and 2 walks so far through 3, but limiting damage so far. 1 run.

Merryweather strikes out 2 in his first inning of AAA work.

Lynchburg was off today but other 3 teams in action, and some good stuff to talk about from our young pitchers.

Clippers beat the RailRiders 5-0. Merryweather, another of the fine '14 draft picks, was great in his AAA debut. Scattered 4 hits over 8 innings, no runs, no walks, and 8 K's. ... Yandy 1-4. ... Papi his first 0'fer in Columbus.

Akron scored 2 in the 9th to force extra innings, but give up a run in the 10th to lose 5-4 to the Altoona Curve. ... But the good news here is Pannone, while a little wild early on, settled in for another very nice outing. 6 innings, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. ... Krieger 1-5. ... Frankie slumping a little, 1-5. ... Bradley 2-4 with a double. ... Chang 2-4 with homer.

Hillcats night off to rest their weary paws.

Captains beat Lansing from that state up north 9-4. ... Hillman started the night off rough with a couple early runs but then settled in and had a pretty good night. 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K. ... Chu 2-3 with 2 homers, 2 walks, and 4 RBI.

What makes Merryweather's start even more impressive is I just read that Scranton has the top offense in AAA and 2 of the top 25 top prospects in their offense.

Indians Prospective @indianspro
#Indians former 2011 5th Round Pick RHP Will Roberts has decided to retire. 26yr old Roberts spent 5yrs in organization making it to (AAA)

#Indians RHP prospect Julian Merryweather over his last (15) starts:
- 88.2(IP) 67H 31R 27ER 14BB 90SO 2.74 ERA @WeatherMan1313

Merryweather's AAA debut was outstanding. Let me enter the BA prospect report on him in the 2017 prospect book:

Given a grade of 45 [same as Plutko, Morimando, Civale, Bieber and Kaminsky]; he was ranked our No. 23 prospect behind all of the above-named except for Kaminsky. [45 is defined as "fringe average" major league, with several examples including "Trevor Bauer's control" which he can comprehend pretty well.

5th round pick, injuries marred his first full season in 2015, but he broke out in 2016 earning All Star honors in the Carolina league and a midseason promotion to AA Akron. Merryweather's fastball sits 93-95 and regularly touches 97. His changeup which made significant strides in 2016 and his breaking ball are both average offerings. In addition to working on his changup, Merryweather refined his delivery to allow him to repeat it more consistently and better leverage his 6-4 frame. As a result he threw more strikes and worked well down in the zone more often, helping him create a high number of groundball outs. Merryweather's arsenal gives him a chance to develop into a major league starter, but would also play well in the bullpen.

Columbus kicking off early today, game is starting. Peoples on the mound today.

Tully the Buckeye starting for Lake County today.

Still no announced starter for Akron and Lynchburg today. Well, they say TBD is starting, but how can he pitch for both teams? Especially since TBD has been getting alot of starts lately.

Well People's and Clip were drubbed, but now the Captains are starting. Hopefully they and Tully will be better. I have day off while wife at work, I want to enjoy some baseball overload.

Tully had given up 1 homer all year, he's now given up 2. Captains losing 4-0.

Thank God game 2 of Columbus double header is starting...

Several MLB games in progress now, too.

My wife has been too busy to do much gardening so I'm helping her out today. Getting in touch with my feminine side planting flowers. But I bought them at Home Depot so it's still a manly job.

Listening to the young'ans while working.

Tully has 8 K's in 5 innings but still losing 4-0.

Captains owner joined broadcast last inning. They were talking about Zimmer's game last night. He said between Frazier and Zimmer the organization definitely kept the right one. Maybe nothing to it besides just being a homer, but I mentioned here once before about rumblings behind the scenes about Frazier's attitude.

Frazier was one of the guys On the Scranton team Merryweather shut down last night.