Lynchburg certainly didn't look the best of our teams when the season started but after today's sweep they're now at 32-23. Of course it always starts with pitching and McKenzie has been excellent as anticipated. But no one other than Hillbilly expected Pannone to have an ERA of 0.00. Esparza was fine before his promotion. Hartson good enough. Now Bieber and Civale are there and pitching well too.

Castro is the only position player who rated the top 30 prospect list. Calica had some promise but hasn't done much. No one would have expected my buddy Loopstock or HB's friend Marabell be solid hitters, as they've been. Let me see who's managing this team. He needs a promotion, too.

Tony Mansolino, 34 year old. Pitching coach: Rigo Beltran. Other coaches: Kevin Howard, Kyle Hudson. Not familiar with any of them, although perhaps Mansolino had a job with us last season? Yes, he managed Lake County, so he knows these kids.

And Chiang, I always overlook him. 7-3 2.69. McKenzie 3-3 2.65. Hartson 2-2 3.46. Esparza 3-3 3.26 Bieber 0-0 3.38 Pannone 2-0 0,00 Civale 1-0 1.50. [that's in order of IP}
Closer Argenis Angulo 1.48 8 saves

Loopie paces the offensive with a 490 slugging average, 861 OPS and 20 extra base hits [13-2-5]

I'm not a big fan of Marabell, but did make mention recently that he has been a doubles machine the last year or two. So figured might start watching him a bit.

Loopstok is making a believer out of me at the plate. But unfortunately he's down the list as far as our defensive catchers, and finds himself at DH a lot. So hard to get too excited about him either I guess. Outside of Bradley we don't have a slew of 1st base prospects. They may want to think about moving him there.

Loopstok is like 23 or 24 still in high A too.

And he's 5'11" so not really ideal for 1st base.

The Indians are off today, and so are the RubberDucks, Hillcats, and Captains. Columbus is the only team in organization that is in action, and Merryweather is back on the mound. The follow up to his spectacular AAA debut.

BA lines for Sunday games:

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 1 2 2 .230 HR (8), BB (23), CS (1)
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 2 0 .213 2B (10), SB (4)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 1 0 0 .231
CLE AA Mathias, Mark 3B 3 1 0 0 .218 BB (7)
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco C 3 0 0 1 .325
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 1 0 .278
CLE MAJ Gonzalez, Erik 2B 1 0 0 0 .267
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 3 1 0 0 .277 BB (6)
CLE LoA Hillman, Juan 6 6 3 2 3 2 6.84 [ERA reaches low point for the season]

Interesting. Papi is in CF tonight. Never saw that coming.

Pretty good 3rd inning. Yandy, Wilson and Calabello all get on base, then Shaffer hits a grand slam. Then Urshela doubles, followed by a Mike Papi 2 run homer.

Merryweather has given up 4 hits in 3 innings but no runs.

6-0 good guys.

Clippers beat the Louisville Bats 15-5 tonight. ... Merryweather gave up 4 runs and 3 homers in the 5th inning. But in his other 5 innings he didn't do too bad at all. Final line ...6 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. ... Yandy 2-5 with a walk. ... New guy Wilson 3-4 with a walk and stolen base. ... Papi 2-4 with a double a homer and 4 RBI.

Narveson pitching tomorrow for Clips.

Esparza for Ducks.

Bieber for Hillcats.

The foreigner with the funny name, TBD, is going for Captains.

Not much for BA to show, since only one team was in action:

CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy LF 5 2 2 0 .313 BB (20) [last extra base hit May 19, 40 at bats ago]
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 1 2 2 .130 2 2B (8), BB (17) [OPS 874 in his few June games]
CLE AAA Merryweather, Julian 6 10 4 4 0 4 2.57 W (2-0)

So what do you think Hillbilly, would Merryweather now be our No. 2 pitching prospect?

It sure seems likely that the draft will be very lopsided toward pitching.

That is a good question, Civ. A case could be made for that. A case could maybe be made for Pannone, but I'm biased. Heh

McKenzie is definitely 1. And I would think Merryweather and Pannone round out top 3.

Rounding out the top 5 would be tough. Lugo, Chiang, Bieber, Civale, & Esparza could all have an argument.

Here is the updated leaderboard for our organization. What say you guys? Would I be too much of a homer to start talking more about Tully too?

.

Indians Prospective @indiansPro

#Indians MiLB leaders (ERA) 40+ IP

Thomas Pannone 0.94
Triston McKenzie 2.65
Shao-Ching Chiang 2.69
Tanner Tully 2.81

.

#Indians MiLB leaders (SO/9) 40+ IP

Triston McKenzie (11.1)
Thomas Pannone (9.7)
Tanner Tully (9.5)
Julian Merryweather (9.2)

.

#Indians MiLB leaders (Strikeouts)

Triston McKenzie (71)
Thomas Pannone (62)
Julian Merryweather (60)
Aaron Civale (58)

.

Oh goodness, completely forgot the Dominican Summer League started couple days ago.

Indians Prospective @indiansPro

DSL Rays 5 #Indians 2 (6/3/17)

M. Garcia 4(IP) 3H 3R 0ER 2BB 3SO
Celesten 1-3 R BB
Diaz 1-4 2RBI

.

DSL Astros 5 Indians/Brewers 3 (6/3/17)

Cespedes 1-3 R 2B RBI
Palacio 0-2 BB 2SB
Kelkboom 1-3

.

DSL Rays 7 #Indians 2 (6/4/17)

@KheelThomas 2(IP) 1H 1R 1ER 2BB 4SO
Jimenez 1-4 R HR RBI
Lopez 1-4 R HR RBI

.

DSL #Indians/Brewers 11 Astros 1

Palacio 1-3 2R 2B RBI BB
Perez 2-3 R 2B RBI BB
Kelkboom 0-1 R 4BB

Man, I was just checking out our recent drafts and Civ was not kidding. Our 2nd rounders are complete busts. But we've done OK in the following rounds, like 3 through 9. Allen, Bradley, Pannone, Bieber, Civale, etc.

Have a feeling the Indians reach for star potential early, rounds 1 and 2, then in the 3rd round they just start going best available guy.

They should just do best available guy starting in round 2 this year.