Cleveland Sports Forum

BA "prospect team of the month" for May and second team are devoid of Indians prospects. Not exactly a big surprise. Since these are mathematically chosen for position players with best "RAA" runs above average and for pitchers by R/9 "runs allowed per nine innings" and I don't know how to figure these out myself I have no basis to challenge them.

I thought I read that Capel had made the weekly prospect team?

Well, now that I think about it it may have been for MiLB Pipeline's team of the week.

And don't feel bad, Civ. My man on Twitter posted this leaderboard and I have no idea what it means.

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Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro

#Indians MiLB leaders (FIP) 50+ IP

Aaron Civale 2.61
Shane Bieber 2.72
Thomas Pannone 2.92
Julian Merryweather 3.17
Triston McKenzie 3.46

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What is FIP? Guess if I cared more I'd google it.

Some more stats and stuff he just tweeted ...

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Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 5 minutes ago
#RubberDucks LHP @ThomasPannone has allowed just 29 hits in 57.2 Innings Pitched for a .148 AVG against which is best in all MiLB. #Indians

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Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 12 minutes ago
#Indians OF prospect Mike Papi organizational ranks:

1) OBP .394
2) R 28
2) RBI 28
2) BB 29
3) wRC+ 134
3) H 50
4) AVG .287
8) HR 6

What is FIP? Guess if I cared more I'd google it.

Obviously it's Freakin' Innings Pitched

I'm glad to see Papi having a good year. But his raw numbers in most of those categories are not all that impressive. His rankings have a lot to do with everyone else having a pretty crappy year.

Obviously, indeed!

Sometimes I can't see the forest from the trees.

I just took a look and the system was rated No. 18 coming in to the season. Since what counts is who makes it to the majors not how many solid AA hitters we have, maybe that's not overrating us.
Zimmer appears to have graduated to the majors successfully. Mejia and McKenzie are solidifying themselves as Top 25 or so prospects. That's not a bad top of the organization.

As for solid possibles
Bradley is one of the youngest players in AA and he's making strides after a homer or nothing April.
Chang is great at extra base hits.
Merryweather's burst forth with a 97 mph fastball.
Pannone's been great but gets no credit for it.
Last year's top picks haven't played a bit so they had no influx of talent to what we've seen on the field.

And then there are a whole bunch of guys with modest potential.
Makes for a pretty boring minor league season.

Yandy being a total bust in the OF and Greg Allen's injury really took some steam out of following my favorite hitting prospects this year. Even Frankie Mejia, my other top hitting prospect, has been in and out of the lineup with injuries.

I'm becoming resigned to the fact that the Indians should just leave Yandy at 3rd base and use him for trade fodder this July. If he doesn't get traded they should give him plenty of time at 1st base down the stretch. Good chance Santana is gone this offseason.

When Greg Allen gets back he and Frankie will make Akron fun to follow.

At least we have had some pitchers emerge that few expected. There is at least a half dozen pitchers in the organization now that I look forward to seeing the box score on nights they pitch. And the fact that none of them is named Merritt is kind of crazy.

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Indians Prospective

#Indians OF prospect @CMarabell2 over his last 162 games

172-571 70R 51(2B) 5(3B) 11HR 81RBI 50BB 13SB .301 AVG .353 OBP #Indians

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Akron #RubberDucks LHP @ThomasPannone over his last 21 games:

21(G) 119.1(IP) 74H 21R 17ER 35BB 115SO 1.28 ERA #Indians

Only 11 homers for Marabell over the course of the last full season. But 51 freakin doubles. Damn.

Lake County is about to start. Tully in the bump.

Some more news from today ...

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Indians Prospective @indiansPro

#Indians Michael Tinsley will see his first game since tearing his labrum last August. Batting 2nd as the DH in Extended Spring Training.

Columbus #Clippers transactions
LHP Tyler Olson placed on the 7-day DL (cut finger)
RHP Cole Sulser promoted from Akron

Akron #RubberDucks transactions
RHP D.J. Brown activated from the 7-day DL (Oblique)

Lake County #Captains transactions
INF Alexis Pantoja placed on 7-day DL (hand)
INF Kevin Bradley promoted from extended spring training

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#RubberDucks LHP @ThomasPannone has allowed just 29 hits in 57.2 Innings Pitched for a .148 AVG against which is best in all MiLB. #Indians

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DSL Astros 9 #Indians 3

L. Garcia 5(IP) 1R 1ER 3BB 0SO
Celesten 1-4 R HR RBI
Torres 1-4 2RBI

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DSL Dodgers 19 #Indians/Brewers 7

Kelkboom 2-4 2B 3RBI
Cabrera 2-3 R 2B RBI
De La Rosa 1-3 R BB

Clippers lose to the Bats 5-3. Is it just me or have we been playing Louisville for like two weeks in a row now? ... Anyway, Yandy was 1-5 with a double. ... Papi 0-3.

Akron was rained out. Have to wait one more day for Pannone.

Lynchburg loses to Salem 7-3. ... Bieber was murdered then burned on a cross in Salem. 5.1 IP, 11 H, 7 ER, 1 BB, 7 K. That Salem team should be arrested for assault. How can you have a minor league team in Salem and not call them the Witches? I mean Red Sox? Wow, how creative and fun. Pbbbt .... Castro 2-4. ... Marabell got a hit to extend his hit streak to 12 games.

Lake County won 2-1 on some damn fine pitching by the former Buckeye Tully and the Legend Ben Krauth. ... Tully 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. ... Krauth 2 scoreless to drop ERA to 1.62. ... Chu 0-4.

Merritt pitching for Clips tomorrow.

Pannone for Duckies.

TBD for Hillkitties.

Jimenez for El Capitans.

Somehow I'd missed all those Mirabell doubles. Assuming you were providing some creative fiction, I looked it up and my gosh Hillbilly is right again. Last year Mirabell had 32 doubles in 338 at bats for Lake County. Then 13 more in 128 AB with Lynchburg. Pace has actually slipped a bit this year, with 9 total in 141 AB between Lynchburg and a brief visit to Columbus, Ohio.

So did 45 doubles lead the minors in 2016? Anyone with spare time can research it.

Here's a guy to keep an eye on:

Ryder Ryan, Columbus RH reliever, 21 1/3 innings, 8 hits, 9 walks, 27 strikeouts. He allowed 2 runs in 5 innings over his first 3 outings and has been scoreless since, over 16 1/3 innings surrendering 5 hits, walking 5, and whiffing 23.

BA noted he has the best fastball among our 2016 draftees, where we loaded up on good control arms like Bieber and Civale.

BA lines from Tuesday:

CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy LF 5 0 1 0 .308 2B (5) [a double!!!!]
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 2 1 .283
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 1 1 2 .275 HR (4) [batting 6th, his highest to date in the majors]
CLE HiA Bieber, Shane 5.1 11 7 7 1 7 4.58 L (0-1) [good strikeout total at any rate]

From September of last year ....

Indians Prospective @indiansPro

#Indians OF prospect Connor Marabell w/ 2 more Doubles tonight now is 2nd in all Minor League Baseball with (45) on the year! @CMarabell2

Connor Marabell w/ (45) Doubles in 2016 has hit the most in a season by an @Indians Milb player since Dick Zwainz (49) in 1950. @CMarabell2