Cleveland Sports Forum

Jonathan Lopez is the kid in DSL that has caught my eye. A shortstop.

Clark Scolamiero is in the Scrappers lineup tonight. He will be our first 2017 draftee to make his pro debut.

And righty pitcher, Michael Letkewicz, has decided to hang up the spikes and has retired.

I just saw this thread on Twitter and thought I'd copy it here. Few interesting comments about some of our little known DSL guys.

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Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro
Arizona Rookie League transactions
INF Wilbis Santiago promoted from Dominican Summer League

Brian Hemminger‏ @TribeTimeLGT
Well deserved. He was their best hitter last year and was tearing it up to begin the DSL season.

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro
His bat is his best tool. Limited defensively. Older spec coming over to AZL defensive held back. My opinion AZL team thin in 2017

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro
Marcos Gonzalez their highest rated sign last year is the real deal so far as advertised. Kelkboom is Jurickson Profars cousin.

Brian Hemminger‏ @TribeTimeLGT
Gonzalez has been great, as has Kelkboom (at least offensively). What do you think about Jonathan Lopez? He's had some pretty huge games

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro
I don't know to much about Lopez to comment. Can't wait until Vargas is healthy enough to pitch. Up to 95mph at age 17. Heard a steal for $

Oh snap, a good night to peek in on box scores. Merryweather, Pannone, Bieber, and Aiken on the mound!

DSL Astros 9 Indians 6

Torres 1-4 R 2B 2RBI BB
Gonzalez 2-3 BB SB
Montero 0-1 3R 3BB

Columbus loses to the MudHens 5-3. ... Merryweather was, well, not good. 3.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. ... Almonte was 2-4 with a double and a homer. ... Papi 1-4. ... Erik Kratz hit yet another homer. 4 in 3 days now.

Ducks beat Reading 4-2 tonight. ... Pannone was at it again. 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. ... Frankie 0-4. That's two 0'fers in a row. In Frankie-World that is a slump. Bet it don't last long. ... Bradley 0-2 with a walk. ... Chang & Luigi homer again.

Lynchburg beats the Keys 3-0. ... Bieber was outstanding. His best yet. 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K. ... Jod Carter 1-3 a double.

Captains get a home run by Collins in 10th inning to beat Dayton 8-7. That must have felt good for Collins as it was his error in 9th that allowed Dayton to score 2 and tie the game. ... Aiken was the worst. 1.2 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 0 K. One step forward then 4 steps back. ... Everyones favorite super hero, Ben Krauth, was superb in relief. 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K. ... Chu 2-5. ... Tapia with two more homers. Leads the league now.

Scrappers beat Auburn 5-4 on a walk off double by Laureano that scored Oscar G in 10th inning. ... Oscar G 1-4 with a walk. ... Laureano 2-5 with a double. ... Jones 1-3 with a walk. ... Cantu 2-4.

Indians Prospective @indiansPro
#Indians RHP prospect @ShaneBieber19 in 110(IP) on the year has only allowed 7 walks & has recorded 101 strikeouts while sporting a 2.62 ERA

A few supplemental notes:

Bieber's last 3 starts: 19 2/3 innings, 1 earned run, 12 hits, 1 walk, 22 strikeouts.
Pannone for the season: 10 runs in 75 1/3 innings, half of the runs in one start.
Aiken actually pitched well his previous start, but regresses to as bad as ever last night.
Emmanuel Tapia 2 homers makes a total of 15 but his avg is lousy and his defense is atrocious.
Ulysses Cantu 2 hits again, stays at .500. Not a single strikeout by Will Benson along with his single. Nolan Jones singled and walked: he's shown zero power in his first season plus a week.

the same as noted by BA:

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 2 1 0 0 .245 BB (31), CS (3)
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 1 2 1 .225 HR (16)
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco DH 4 0 0 0 .358
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie PH-DH 1 0 0 0 .133
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 1 0 0 .271
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 4 1 1 0 .203 2B (6)
CLE MAJ Gonzalez, Erik LF 3 1 1 1 .314 HR (2)
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley PH-CF 0 0 0 0 .303 BB (11)
CLE SS Benson, Will RF 4 0 1 1 .125
CLE SS Gonzalez, Oscar LF 4 1 1 0 .353 BB (1)
CLE SS Jones, Nolan 3B 3 1 1 1 .200 BB (2)
CLE AAA Merryweather, Julian 3.2 6 4 3 1 4 4.85 L (3-1)
CLE HiA Bieber, Shane 8 3 0 0 0 11 3.32 W (3-1) [not good enough however to earn a player of the day writeup]
CLE LoA Aiken, Brady 1.2 4 5 5 3 0 4.59

How many player of the day's do they recognize, Civ? I'd like to see any pitcher who beat that. Must have hurled a no hitter.

I officially have Bieber Fever!

It's a shame about Aiken. He had showed improvement over his previous few starts. Got a little better each time if I remember correctly. Then this...

They aren't officially "players of the day" but players who did something noteworthy. here are the pitchers who earned write-ups today as:

Newsmakers from Thursday's action'

Chance Adams, rhp, Yankees. With the Yankees’ rotation struggling, calls will begin again for their top righthanded starting prospect. Adams continues to impress, delivering six scoreless innings Thursday in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s 11-1 rout of Pawtucket (Red Sox). Adams allowed just one hit and struck out eight, lowering his ERA at Triple-A to 2.12 in eight starts. The former reliever at Dallas Baptist is 9-2, 1.65 overall this season with just 47 hits allowed in 81.2 innings.

Scott Blewett, rhp, Royals. A second-rounder in 2014 out of high school in New York, Blewett has methodically moved up the chain to high Class A. On Thursday, he struck out a career-high 12 in a game that got out of hand after he exited. Ultimately Salem (Red Sox) won 11-7, scoring nine runs in the eighth. But Blewett allowed just four hits over six innings, lowering his ERA to 3.92. The durable righthander pairs plus fastball velocity with a curveball that flashes average and projects to be solid-average.

Bieber was better than both of them.

These two are written up because of their promotions, not yesterday's work, apparently:

Jon Duplantier, rhp, Diamondbacks. Duplantier admitted to pitching with a chip on his shoulder after falling to the third round in 2016 on concerns about that shoulder. Pitching with a purpose paid off as the former Rice ace went 6-1, 1.24 at low Class A Kane County and now he’s been promoted to high Class A Visalia. Pitching coach Rich Sauveur said Duplantier has a fastball that sits 90-94 mph, with three secondary pitches—slider, curveball and changeup—that he grades already as above average.

Alec Hansen, rhp, White Sox. Post all-star games in the minors mean promotions, and that’s what’s happening for Hansen. The one-time Oklahoma ace is headed for high Class A Winston-Salem after going 7-3, 2.48 at low Class A Kannapolis. The 6-foot-7 righthander is striking out hitters at a prodigious clip—11.4 per nine innings—while walking just 2.8 batters and allowing just 57 hits in 72.2 innings.

The Biebs isn't used to not getting publicity.

(I sure hope he makes it, I can have a lot of fun with this Justin Bieber stuff)

That's pretty much the problem I've had with BA recently. They do their top prospect list and follow those guys, but anyone that didn't make their list they ignor. Don't want to admit when they miss the boat on a guy.

Bleacher Report "reranks the top prospects after the draft". Our guys are now listed:
19, McK 30. Mej 32. Zimm

Featured under "Stock Rising"

Few, if any, pitching prospects possess the combination of present stuff, future projectability and on-field results of Cleveland Indians right-hander Triston McKenzie. Still just 19, McKenzie is already pitching at the High-A level where he's posted a 3.28 ERA and 1.04 WHIP while striking out an impressive 91 hitters over 71.1 innings this season. He's already leapfrogged Francisco Mejia and Bradley Zimmer to take over top prospect honors in the Cleveland system, and if he keeps pitching the way he has, he'll be squarely in the conversation to be the top pitching prospect in all of baseball.


Bradley is among a couple dozen noted as "knocking on the door" to make the Top 100

BA is aware of Bieber. He gets 4th place on the Hot Prospect List.

4. Shane Bieber, RHP, Indians (22)
High Class A Lynchburg (Carolina)

Bieber, a polished righthander out of UC Santa Barbara, had himself quite a week in what has been an up-and-down season. The sinker-slider artist delivered dominant back-to-back starts to put a string of subpar outings behind him. The efforts brought his June totals to 3-1, 3.24, with 49 strikeouts against just four walks for the Hillcats.

Mejia misses the list for the first time in a few weeks. Not so awful "off week" for Francisco: .317/.350/.368.