Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:52 pm
Chang had three homers for the week, but not too much more: 250/250/625
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Minor Matters
Page 476 of 910
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 2:11 pm
Who would want a pitcher named Blewett!
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 2:43 pm
You got that right, UD! 
Definitely not a reliever, that's for sure!
Definitely not a reliever, that's for sure!
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 2:45 pm
BA Chat:
Casey (Morgantown): Is Brady Aiken doomed to be the biggest former #1 overall flop? Or is it still to early from his return from Tommy John to write him off?
Kyle Glaser: No matter what happens, Brady Aiken won't be the biggest No. 1 overall flop because he got hurt. Brien Taylor hurt himself, and Mark Appel just flat out isn't very good. But Aiken should serve as a reminder that not all TJ guys recover. We celebrate the ones who do and ignore the fact that most don't. It's a mistake. It is a major, major surgery and one that has killed a lot of promising careers. Aiken's is on life support, we'll see if he can turn it around
Casey (Morgantown): Is Brady Aiken doomed to be the biggest former #1 overall flop? Or is it still to early from his return from Tommy John to write him off?
Kyle Glaser: No matter what happens, Brady Aiken won't be the biggest No. 1 overall flop because he got hurt. Brien Taylor hurt himself, and Mark Appel just flat out isn't very good. But Aiken should serve as a reminder that not all TJ guys recover. We celebrate the ones who do and ignore the fact that most don't. It's a mistake. It is a major, major surgery and one that has killed a lot of promising careers. Aiken's is on life support, we'll see if he can turn it around
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 2:45 pm
Tom (Ohio): Bradley Zimmer has has a nice start to his mlb career. The strike out are still an issue, but how good a player can he be?
Kyle Glaser: Zimmer can definitely be a solid everyday player. An All-Star caliber one would be a reach given the expectations big league pitchers will eventually poke the holes in his swing, but an everyday CF in the major leagues is nothing to sneeze at
Kyle Glaser: Zimmer can definitely be a solid everyday player. An All-Star caliber one would be a reach given the expectations big league pitchers will eventually poke the holes in his swing, but an everyday CF in the major leagues is nothing to sneeze at
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 2:46 pm
So DO NOT sneeze at Bradley Zimmer
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 3:34 pm
Blewett, Jose MWho would want a pitcher named Blewett
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:28 pm
Indians Prospective @indiansPro
Mahoning Valley transacations
RHP Luis Araujo assinged yo Arizona Rookie League
RHP Jean Carlos Mejia assigned to Arizona
Columbus Clippers transaction
Adam Moore placed on 7-day DL (Right Quad)
Jerremy Lucas activated
Mahoning Valley transacations
RHP Luis Araujo assinged yo Arizona Rookie League
RHP Jean Carlos Mejia assigned to Arizona
Columbus Clippers transaction
Adam Moore placed on 7-day DL (Right Quad)
Jerremy Lucas activated
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:37 pm
Venezuelan turmoil motivates Hillcats pitcher
Mark D. Robertson The News & Advance 6/22/2017
The man didn’t want to rob Argenis Angulo’s mother.
He told the woman as much as he held a pistol on a street in Araure, Venezuela in March. But it didn’t stop him from taking what she had.
As economic conditions worsen in the South American nation, where many everyday supplies are either unavailable or so expensive that middle-class families like Angulo’s cannot afford them, more people each year turn to violent crime as a last resort of getting the things they need. So while the $100 bonus for making the roster for Tuesday’s Carolina League all-star game was a drop in the bucket for most players in the High-A circuit, it was worth much more to the Lynchburg Hillcats pitcher’s family.
Players in the Carolina League typically earn $1,500 per month before taxes, so there isn’t much left after bills are paid. But Angulo sends what he can — at least a couple hundred dollars a month — back to his family in the small city of Araure in northwest Venezuela. So does fellow all-star and Salem Red Sox left-hander Dedgar Jimenez, who grew up on his family’s farm outside of Araure.
“Sometimes I feel sad because I come to the Walmart or something to get my food, and I see everything. And in Venezuela when you go to the supermarket, you can’t get anything,” said Jimenez, who returns to Venezuela in the offseason. “Sometimes I feel like, what did we do wrong? Why does it [have to] be like that?”
Neither Angulo nor Jimenez grew up in poverty. Jimenez’s parents farm 500 acres’ worth of corn, tomatoes, onions and other crops in the nation’s breadbasket region. Angulo’s father is a civil engineer, his mother a schoolteacher.
But several years of economic crisis have brought skyrocketing inflation and severe food and medicine shortages to Venezuela, which has been rocked by violent anti-government protests calling for the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro, considered a dictator by opposition leaders.
The country’s widespread unrest swelled higher than ever last month, when Maduro unveiled a plan to rewrite the constitution, and just this week the U.S. government announced it would expand its already-stringent sanctions on Venezuela.
For Venezuelan families like Angulo’s and Jimenez’s, the difficulties are more critical. Items as simple as groceries, toothpaste and Ibuprofen have to be purchased under the table at significantly higher prices because the corrupt government agency known Local Committees of Supply and Production, or CLAP, stockpiles supplies and refuses to sell them legitimately.
“Even though they’re making good money for Venezuela,” Angulo said of his parents, “… it’s just, like, hard to get anything. If you want to get anything, you’ve got to go under the table to get it.”
He sends money to each of his parents, who are divorced, and to his grandmother, for medication. Even then, sometimes the drugs just aren’t available.
“You can’t go to any pharmacies there,” Jimenez explained. “They don’t have anything, so you need to go on the streets and find somebody.”
Despite the turmoil, both players returned home in the offseason last fall. They were wary of danger. They altered their workout locations and varied the vehicle they drove to stave off kidnapping attempts.
The 2011 kidnapping of Venezuelan ballplayer Wilson Ramos isn’t far from anyone’s memory in the baseball world. Kidnappings increased 88 percent in the country between 2016 and 2017, according to investigative media outlet Runrunes.
“It might be crazy,” Angulo said of their tactics. “It might be psycho, but we’re trying to just take care of us.”
Venezuela hasn’t always been such a rough-and-tumble place. With a petroleum- and manufacturing-based economy, it had the highest standard of living in South America from the 1950s through the early 1980s when oil prices fell, causing widespread inflation.
When former president Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, oil prices again soared, and he used the nation’s new wealth to springboard his socialist revolution. The Angulo’s family of professionals got along, as did Jimenez’s fold of farmers.
“Five, seven years ago, if I wanted to go to the mall and told my dad I wanted the more expensive toy, I would get it,” the 23-year-old Angulo said. “My parents were able to afford whatever they wanted. They could fly wherever they wanted on vacation. But right now, nobody can do it.”
Amherst County native Buddy Bailey, who manages the Carolina League’s Myrtle Beach Pelicans, began managing in the Liga Venezuela — the country’s winter league — in 2002 and has returned each winter since.
“When I first started going down there, [Venezuela] was one of the most awesome places you were ever going to go,” Bailey said. “I mean, the beauty, the people are nice and friendly. Anything you needed, it was like America. You could go get it.”
But amid Chavez’s death in office and 2013, Maduro’s assumption of power and the coincident crash of oil prices, Venezuela again fell into widespread poverty. Inflation again skyrocketed, this time to more than 1,600 percent, and it’s yet to recover.
The government partially subsidizes baseball, Bailey said, because it’s a peacekeeper. Riots quiet in the winter months, he said, and they resume after the Caribbean World Series in late February and early March.
Bailey also said he’s changed his routine to avoid being targeted by criminals. He doesn’t walk the streets at night anymore; on his way out of the country, he stops in Miami to put many of the winter’s supplies on a ship bound for Venezuela. It takes three weeks for the shipment to arrive, but he’s set for the cold season.
But for those who don’t have the luxury of coming back to the U.S. in February, things look more bleak.
“People have been pinned against the wall, and now I think they’ve realized this may be their last stand,” Bailey said of recent protests in Venezuela.
Hence the outspoken Major League stars such as Miguel Cabrera and Jose Altuve, who publicly expressed heartbreak at their homeland’s current situation. The hundreds of other Venezuelan professionals who haven’t achieved stardom, though, see baseball as their family’s best hope.
After all, baseball has long been the hope of the nation. Venezuela has produced 365 big leaguers dating back to 1939, and there are hundreds of Venezuelans currently playing pro ball in the U.S. Five of them, including Angulo and Jimenez, were on the Carolina League’s all-star roster.
“That’s the biggest motivation,” Angulo said of his career. “You know that if you make The Show, you can help more than your family. You can create a foundation to help people around your state, and that’s a huge motivation for us. But right now, we can’t afford that.”
So, he said, “we keep grinding to get our dream to come true.”
For Jimenez, that would be returning to his family’s farm in Venezuela after his baseball career ends.
“Right now, it’s not good, but in Venezuela, it’s your home, and you feel the best you can [when you’re there],” he said. “But at the same time, if nothing happens with that government, and my dream comes true to make it to the big leagues, I’d bring my family here.”
The only way to be able to make that choice is to climb up the ladder in the baseball world. Both Jimenez and Angulo said they block out what’s happening at home when they pitch.
The rest of their days are different.
“Outside the lines,” Jimenez said, “I start thinking if they are OK, if they need anything else. Because sometimes my mom will text me saying, ‘Oh, we’re good,’ and I know they are not.”
And for Angulo, the same.
“Sometimes I get worried,” the Hillcat said. “Have they eaten yet? I don’t know if they’ve gotten any food today. That’s my motivation here.”
Mark D. Robertson The News & Advance 6/22/2017
The man didn’t want to rob Argenis Angulo’s mother.
He told the woman as much as he held a pistol on a street in Araure, Venezuela in March. But it didn’t stop him from taking what she had.
As economic conditions worsen in the South American nation, where many everyday supplies are either unavailable or so expensive that middle-class families like Angulo’s cannot afford them, more people each year turn to violent crime as a last resort of getting the things they need. So while the $100 bonus for making the roster for Tuesday’s Carolina League all-star game was a drop in the bucket for most players in the High-A circuit, it was worth much more to the Lynchburg Hillcats pitcher’s family.
Players in the Carolina League typically earn $1,500 per month before taxes, so there isn’t much left after bills are paid. But Angulo sends what he can — at least a couple hundred dollars a month — back to his family in the small city of Araure in northwest Venezuela. So does fellow all-star and Salem Red Sox left-hander Dedgar Jimenez, who grew up on his family’s farm outside of Araure.
“Sometimes I feel sad because I come to the Walmart or something to get my food, and I see everything. And in Venezuela when you go to the supermarket, you can’t get anything,” said Jimenez, who returns to Venezuela in the offseason. “Sometimes I feel like, what did we do wrong? Why does it [have to] be like that?”
Neither Angulo nor Jimenez grew up in poverty. Jimenez’s parents farm 500 acres’ worth of corn, tomatoes, onions and other crops in the nation’s breadbasket region. Angulo’s father is a civil engineer, his mother a schoolteacher.
But several years of economic crisis have brought skyrocketing inflation and severe food and medicine shortages to Venezuela, which has been rocked by violent anti-government protests calling for the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro, considered a dictator by opposition leaders.
The country’s widespread unrest swelled higher than ever last month, when Maduro unveiled a plan to rewrite the constitution, and just this week the U.S. government announced it would expand its already-stringent sanctions on Venezuela.
For Venezuelan families like Angulo’s and Jimenez’s, the difficulties are more critical. Items as simple as groceries, toothpaste and Ibuprofen have to be purchased under the table at significantly higher prices because the corrupt government agency known Local Committees of Supply and Production, or CLAP, stockpiles supplies and refuses to sell them legitimately.
“Even though they’re making good money for Venezuela,” Angulo said of his parents, “… it’s just, like, hard to get anything. If you want to get anything, you’ve got to go under the table to get it.”
He sends money to each of his parents, who are divorced, and to his grandmother, for medication. Even then, sometimes the drugs just aren’t available.
“You can’t go to any pharmacies there,” Jimenez explained. “They don’t have anything, so you need to go on the streets and find somebody.”
Despite the turmoil, both players returned home in the offseason last fall. They were wary of danger. They altered their workout locations and varied the vehicle they drove to stave off kidnapping attempts.
The 2011 kidnapping of Venezuelan ballplayer Wilson Ramos isn’t far from anyone’s memory in the baseball world. Kidnappings increased 88 percent in the country between 2016 and 2017, according to investigative media outlet Runrunes.
“It might be crazy,” Angulo said of their tactics. “It might be psycho, but we’re trying to just take care of us.”
Venezuela hasn’t always been such a rough-and-tumble place. With a petroleum- and manufacturing-based economy, it had the highest standard of living in South America from the 1950s through the early 1980s when oil prices fell, causing widespread inflation.
When former president Hugo Chavez took office in 1999, oil prices again soared, and he used the nation’s new wealth to springboard his socialist revolution. The Angulo’s family of professionals got along, as did Jimenez’s fold of farmers.
“Five, seven years ago, if I wanted to go to the mall and told my dad I wanted the more expensive toy, I would get it,” the 23-year-old Angulo said. “My parents were able to afford whatever they wanted. They could fly wherever they wanted on vacation. But right now, nobody can do it.”
Amherst County native Buddy Bailey, who manages the Carolina League’s Myrtle Beach Pelicans, began managing in the Liga Venezuela — the country’s winter league — in 2002 and has returned each winter since.
“When I first started going down there, [Venezuela] was one of the most awesome places you were ever going to go,” Bailey said. “I mean, the beauty, the people are nice and friendly. Anything you needed, it was like America. You could go get it.”
But amid Chavez’s death in office and 2013, Maduro’s assumption of power and the coincident crash of oil prices, Venezuela again fell into widespread poverty. Inflation again skyrocketed, this time to more than 1,600 percent, and it’s yet to recover.
The government partially subsidizes baseball, Bailey said, because it’s a peacekeeper. Riots quiet in the winter months, he said, and they resume after the Caribbean World Series in late February and early March.
Bailey also said he’s changed his routine to avoid being targeted by criminals. He doesn’t walk the streets at night anymore; on his way out of the country, he stops in Miami to put many of the winter’s supplies on a ship bound for Venezuela. It takes three weeks for the shipment to arrive, but he’s set for the cold season.
But for those who don’t have the luxury of coming back to the U.S. in February, things look more bleak.
“People have been pinned against the wall, and now I think they’ve realized this may be their last stand,” Bailey said of recent protests in Venezuela.
Hence the outspoken Major League stars such as Miguel Cabrera and Jose Altuve, who publicly expressed heartbreak at their homeland’s current situation. The hundreds of other Venezuelan professionals who haven’t achieved stardom, though, see baseball as their family’s best hope.
After all, baseball has long been the hope of the nation. Venezuela has produced 365 big leaguers dating back to 1939, and there are hundreds of Venezuelans currently playing pro ball in the U.S. Five of them, including Angulo and Jimenez, were on the Carolina League’s all-star roster.
“That’s the biggest motivation,” Angulo said of his career. “You know that if you make The Show, you can help more than your family. You can create a foundation to help people around your state, and that’s a huge motivation for us. But right now, we can’t afford that.”
So, he said, “we keep grinding to get our dream to come true.”
For Jimenez, that would be returning to his family’s farm in Venezuela after his baseball career ends.
“Right now, it’s not good, but in Venezuela, it’s your home, and you feel the best you can [when you’re there],” he said. “But at the same time, if nothing happens with that government, and my dream comes true to make it to the big leagues, I’d bring my family here.”
The only way to be able to make that choice is to climb up the ladder in the baseball world. Both Jimenez and Angulo said they block out what’s happening at home when they pitch.
The rest of their days are different.
“Outside the lines,” Jimenez said, “I start thinking if they are OK, if they need anything else. Because sometimes my mom will text me saying, ‘Oh, we’re good,’ and I know they are not.”
And for Angulo, the same.
“Sometimes I get worried,” the Hillcat said. “Have they eaten yet? I don’t know if they’ve gotten any food today. That’s my motivation here.”
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 11:14 pm
Well let's see if anything on the farm can cheer me up.
Columbus was rained out. No, that won't do it.
Merritt pitches tomorrow.
The Rubber Duckies beat Richmond 9-6. Whitehouse was good. 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K. ... Krieger 2-5 with a double. ... Frankie 1-5. Coming out of slump. ... Bradley 3-4 with 2 doubles and a walk. Yes, that will cheer me up. ... Marabell 3-4 ... and Luigi hit 2 more homers. His brother Super Mario was in the crowd and was pleased.
Esparza starts tomorrow.
Lynchburg beat the Keys, whom they seem to play every friggin night, 7-6. You have to see how they scored the winning run. Sam Haggerty singles, then scores from 1st on a wild pitch. Kenny Lofton, eat your heart out. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cww2JV982NM ... Civale gave up 9 hits in 6 innings but only 2 runs, 4 K's. ... Angulo got the win. That was a great article about his home country I posted earlier. ... Loopstok 1-2 with a homer and 2 walks. ... Castro 2-4 with a double and 3 RBI.
McKenzie pitches tomorrow!
Dayton beats Lake County 8-3. ... Hillman wasn't too bad. 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. ... Chu 1-3 with a walk. ... Ice 0-4 and now hitting .197...
Jiminez starts tomorrow.
Mahoning Valley beat Auburn 5-4. ... Jonothan Teaney, our 20th round pick this year, gave up a couple runs in his debut, blew the save, but got the win. ... Oscar Gonzalez continues his hot hitting going 2-5 with 2 homers and account for all 5 RBI. ... Samad Taylor 2-3 with a double, triple, and a walk. ... Nolan Jones 0-2 with 2 walks. ... Cantu 1-4 with a double. ... Benson 2-4 with a double. ... Our 21st round pick, Tyler Friis, got his first professional start and went 2-3. I would retire a lifetime .667 hitter if I were him.
Francisco Perez gets the start tomorrow. (can we please stop signing Francisco's for a bit. It will start getting confusing at some point)
DSL Indians beat the Astros 8-6. ... Marcos Gonzalez 1-4 with a walk. ... Lopez 0-4 with a walk.
Columbus was rained out. No, that won't do it.
Merritt pitches tomorrow.
The Rubber Duckies beat Richmond 9-6. Whitehouse was good. 7 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K. ... Krieger 2-5 with a double. ... Frankie 1-5. Coming out of slump. ... Bradley 3-4 with 2 doubles and a walk. Yes, that will cheer me up. ... Marabell 3-4 ... and Luigi hit 2 more homers. His brother Super Mario was in the crowd and was pleased.
Esparza starts tomorrow.
Lynchburg beat the Keys, whom they seem to play every friggin night, 7-6. You have to see how they scored the winning run. Sam Haggerty singles, then scores from 1st on a wild pitch. Kenny Lofton, eat your heart out. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cww2JV982NM ... Civale gave up 9 hits in 6 innings but only 2 runs, 4 K's. ... Angulo got the win. That was a great article about his home country I posted earlier. ... Loopstok 1-2 with a homer and 2 walks. ... Castro 2-4 with a double and 3 RBI.
McKenzie pitches tomorrow!
Dayton beats Lake County 8-3. ... Hillman wasn't too bad. 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. ... Chu 1-3 with a walk. ... Ice 0-4 and now hitting .197...
Jiminez starts tomorrow.
Mahoning Valley beat Auburn 5-4. ... Jonothan Teaney, our 20th round pick this year, gave up a couple runs in his debut, blew the save, but got the win. ... Oscar Gonzalez continues his hot hitting going 2-5 with 2 homers and account for all 5 RBI. ... Samad Taylor 2-3 with a double, triple, and a walk. ... Nolan Jones 0-2 with 2 walks. ... Cantu 1-4 with a double. ... Benson 2-4 with a double. ... Our 21st round pick, Tyler Friis, got his first professional start and went 2-3. I would retire a lifetime .667 hitter if I were him.
Francisco Perez gets the start tomorrow. (can we please stop signing Francisco's for a bit. It will start getting confusing at some point)
DSL Indians beat the Astros 8-6. ... Marcos Gonzalez 1-4 with a walk. ... Lopez 0-4 with a walk.
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 9:52 am
Tribe Insider @tribeinsider
System moves today
+Transfer OF Connor Marabell from Akron to Lynchburg
+Transfer OF Mike Papi from Columbus to Akron
2 more draft picks signed, total now 19
OF Johnathan Rodriguez (Rd 3, Beltran Baseball Academy)
LHP Matt Turner (rd 11, Miami Palmetto HS)
System moves today
+Transfer OF Connor Marabell from Akron to Lynchburg
+Transfer OF Mike Papi from Columbus to Akron
2 more draft picks signed, total now 19
OF Johnathan Rodriguez (Rd 3, Beltran Baseball Academy)
LHP Matt Turner (rd 11, Miami Palmetto HS)
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 10:34 am
Not a good omen for Marabell and Papi.
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 11:25 am
Papi had the best month or two of his career to start the season at Akron. Thought perhaps he would make something of himself.
Wonder of LRod will get the call to Columbus? He's had 8 homers in about 120 at bats, a terrific June. He used to be ranked among our top dozen or so prospects. Maybe he is again?
Wonder of LRod will get the call to Columbus? He's had 8 homers in about 120 at bats, a terrific June. He used to be ranked among our top dozen or so prospects. Maybe he is again?
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 1:23 pm
Indians Prospective
AZL #Indians opening day is today. Two rehabbing pitchers Erick Algarin & Luke Eubank will start the game then SP Luis Oviedo will come in.
AZL #Indians opening day is today. Two rehabbing pitchers Erick Algarin & Luke Eubank will start the game then SP Luis Oviedo will come in.
Re: Minor Matters
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 4:06 pm
Indians Prospective
#Indians 2017 7th Round Draft Pick Jr. LHP Kirk McCarty out of Southern Mississippi University has signed & will report to Mahoning Valley.
#Indians 2017 16th Round Draft Pick Jr. RHP Nick Gallagher out of the University of Iowa has signed & will report to Mahoning Valley.
#Indians 2017 7th Round Draft Pick Jr. LHP Kirk McCarty out of Southern Mississippi University has signed & will report to Mahoning Valley.
#Indians 2017 16th Round Draft Pick Jr. RHP Nick Gallagher out of the University of Iowa has signed & will report to Mahoning Valley.