Aiken missed a chance to match the minor league leaders with a 9th loss. His 2-8 record stills put him at the top of the loss-leaderboard in Low A ball.

Morimando has taken a very nice turn for the better after a handful of terrible starts back in April. He entered the season about 10 places above Merritt on the BA prospect list, since he has a better fastball. His key is command which seems to be improving. His K's are way down but so are his BBs

[yep, I enjoyed the Pannone piece you posted recently. the newer one was about him as a person, not a pitcher. interesting to read both]

BA lines from Thursday:

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 1 2 1 .245 [becoming a much more prolific singles hitter; his avg is up to 2016's]
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 3 2 1 0 .222 2B (12), BB (20) [he is much more power or nothing this year than Bradley]
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 0 1 1 .231
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco DH 4 1 1 0 .363 3B (2) [only one hit but his OPS for the day was still 1.000]
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 1 0 0 0 .144 3 BB (24) [good to see increased selectivity]
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 0 0 .291
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 3 0 0 0 .199 BB (23)
CLE MAJ Gonzalez, Erik 2B 4 1 1 1 .269 HR (1)
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 3 0 1 1 .265

CLE AAA Morimando, Shawn 9 5 0 0 3 2 3.97 W (5-5)
CLE LoA Aiken, Brady 5.2 6 2 2 4 7 4.03 [best strikeout total of the season; maybe his fastball is picking up? can hope so]

CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 1 0 0 0 .144 3 BB (24) [good to see increased selectivity]

What an eye !

Almond had a game a few nights back where he had 3 walks for Columbus.

Akron's Francisco Mejia keeps getting hotter: Cleveland Indians Minor Leagues
Posted on June 16, 2017 at 9:56 AM


By Elton Alexander, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Francisco Mejia continues to blaze and amaze with the baseball bat for the Akron RubberDucks this season.

He is now leading the league hitting .365 on the season going into Thursday's games and also leads the league in slugging (.622) and has a mind-boggling .410 batting average with runners in scoring position producing three homers and 21 RBI.

Left-handed pitchers must shudder at the site of 5-10, 180-pound Dominican catcher as Mejia is hitting .514 against lefties this season. Still just 21-years-old Mejia is in the midst of a 10-game streak where he's hitting .475 (19-for-40) with 14 RBI and five home runs.

That's more than half of his homers (8), more than half of his RBI (27), and nearly one third of his hits (58) on the season coming in the last 10 games.

Hit the wall: Clearly infielder Tyler Kreiger has hit the wall a bit with the Class AA Ducks after hitting .313 at Lake County and .282 at Lynchburg last season. He is now hitting just .231 with the Ducks. He does not have an over abundance of strikeouts, just 48 in 54 games, but he just can't seem to find any holes for more hits.

The 6-2, 170-pound product of Clemson (4/2014) does get his share of walks (17), and of his 54 hits on the season one third of them (18) have been doubles. Kreiger also leads the team in stolen bases with 10 and has yet to get caught.

Late bloomer: At 23-years-old and a ninth-round draft pick (2013) left-handed pitcher Thomas Pannone is the Indians poster child for a late bloomer. His numbers as a starter have been stellar since moving up to the Ducks from Lynchburg earlier in the season.

Pannone (2-1), from that baseball hotbed state of Rhode Island, has a 1.75 ERA in six starts for the Ducks covering 63.2 innings for the 6-0, 195-pounder. He has 69 strikeouts and 19 walks allowed in 62.3 innings pitched going into his Saturday start at home against Portland.

Pannone (2-1), from that baseball hotbed state of Rhode Island

You don't think he was being facetious, do you?

Mejia only managed a 1.395 OPS this week. Dropped a few spots ion the Hot Prospect List


6. Francisco Mejia, c, Indians (21)
Double-A Akron (Eastern)

Mejia has been as hot as an minor league hitter in June. He’s hitting .452 this month with seven multi-hit games. Mejia hasn’t put together any mammoth hitting streak this year, but he’s actually been even more productive this year than he was last year when he fashioned a 50-game hitting streak.

From Indians Prospective ...

INF/OF Yandy Diaz placed on the 7-day DL (Right Quad Strain)

LHP Matt Whitehouse promoted from Akron to Columbus

LHP Tanner Tully promoted to Akron

RHP Cesar Ventura promoted from Mahoning Valley

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DSL Cubs 9 #Indians 2

Torres 1-4 R HR RBI
Lopez 1-4 RBI
Gonzalez 1-3 BB

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RubberDucks (1B) Bobby Bradley over his last 25 games:

28-91 16R 4(2B) 4HR 20RBI 10BB 1SB .308 AVG .376 OBP

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#Indians (C) prospect Francisco Mejia spray chart of every hit from beginning of 2016 season. #Hillcats #RubberDucks #Mejia
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Tribeinsider‏ @tribeinsider 59 minutes ago
Current look at the @mvscrappers roster

Season opens Monday, June 19

By the way, Pannone, Merryweather, and Bieber are all starting tonight!

10,100 was in attendance tonight at Huntington Park (which by the way, has just made the Final Four in a MILB fan poll for best minor league ballpark) to watch the greatest show on Columbus turf when it is not football season, The Clip Show, beat the Braves 7-6 on a walk off double by Colabello in the bottom of the 9th. ... Merryweather did not have his A game. 5 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 7 K. ... Tyler Naquin went 1-2 with a homer, a walk, and a stolen base. Welcome back... Guyer went 1-3. You too. ... And I usually don't mention him, but Eric Stamets hit a home run in each of his first 3 at bats tonight. cRaZy.

The RubberDuckies beat the Sea Dogs when Eric Haase hit a home run in the bottom of the 8th to break a 3-3 tie. He hit a walk off homer last night too. Then Tyler Krieger followed that up with an inside the park home run of his own to put the Ducks up for good, 5-3. ... Pannone not too shabby. 5.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K. ... Frankie was 2-3 with a walk and allowed a passed ball. ... Bradley 1-3 with a walk. ... Krieger had a stolen base to go with his inside the parker. He had his running shoes on tonight.

Hillcats beat the Keys 5-1 due to Bieber having the best pitching performance of the evening. 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. ... Loopstok 1-4 with a stolen base. ... Castro 1-4 with a homer.

Lake County beats the Cubs 6-5. ... Hillman 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. ... Chu 0-4. ... Ice 1-4

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 48 minutes ago

DSL #Indians 7 Cubs 3

Thomas 2(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 0BB 0SO
Lopez 2-3 R 2B 2RBI BB
Jimenez 2-4 R 2RBI

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Lopez name appears every day in the highlights...

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He posted this around the start of the season. ...

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro
#Indians sleeper back end bullpen arm to follow this season. 21yr old RHP Dalbert Siri. Mid 90's wipeout slider. Could move quickly.

He posted this tonight ...

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro 2 minutes ago
Indians Prospective Retweeted Indians Prospective (he retweeted his former tweet)
Good call to date. Siri a Midwest League All-Star for Captains 35 SO in just 18.2 IP w/ 5 SV and a 2.41 ERA.

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#Indians RHP @JacobLee870 pitched for first time since 2015 missing 2016 season (TJ surgery)
W/ Captains tonight - 2(IP) 1H 1R 1ER 2BB 1SO

These are my seats in for the Charlotte Knights, I believe the best minor league stadium

I love the way cities are building ballparks downtown with great views of the city skylines in the background. That is a great view, UD, all the way around. For baseball and of your fine city.

Unfortunately your BB&T ballpark did not make the finals for best ballpark. But it looks pretty damn good.

Huntington Park in Columbus is currently battling it out in the final round with El Paso's Southwest University Park. Down to the final two.

Huntington Park is currently ahead 53% to 47% with 2 days left of voting.

Jim Ingraham‏ @Jim_Ingraham
Indians C Francisco Mejia, at Akron, leads the Eastern League in hitting (.368) by 42 points and leads in OPS (1.035) by 50 points

Akron RubberDucks‏ @AkronRubberDuck 14 minutes ago
is that good

Columbus Clippers‏ @CLBClippers 13 minutes ago
High score, what's that mean??

Akron RubberDucks @AkronRubberDuck 12 minutes ago
Is that bad? Did I break it?

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Obviously the social media departments for our minor league affiliates stayed out late last night drinking...