DeMasi is 24 and still in A ball. If they like him, and they must since they've moved in to the rotation, they should let him try Akron. It worked for Bieber, it hasn't for Esparza, but we need to see him give it a try.

As a 6-5 200 lb lefty, Lugo has always been looked at as a kid who could add strength and a few mph to his fastball. Doesn't seem to have happened yet and he continues to post very mediocre numbers, hasn't had an ERA below since 2013. His K's per inning has dropped as he's moved up each level.
He's currently on a hot streak, won four of his last five starts; made it through 30 innings, 25 strikeouts, only four earned runs, so the ERA is 1.20. But even now his control has been nowhere near Bieber territory, 12 free passes is still nearly 1 every 2 innings. No homers during the "streak" is why the runs are low; by contrast in his previous 5 starts he allowed 9 bombs in 27 innings.

Clippers beat PawSox again today 5-2 to split the 4 game series. They are 63-58 on the season and 4.5 games behind Indi in IL West. ... Yandy 1-2 with a double and 2 walks. ... Naquin 1-4 a 2 RBI single. ... RonRod 1-4. If I remember correctly he was 0-4 last night. He's dropped back down to .296 after briefly hitting 300 a couple days ago. ... Clip Show off tomorrow.

Akron beat the Rumble Ponies 4-0 today to take the series 3 out of 4. They are 61-58 on season and 0.5 games out of 1st in division. ... Whitehouse was great today. 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K. ... Allen 1-4. ... Chisenhall 1-3 and scored from 1st on a double, so leg must be better. ... F.Mejia 0-4. ... Bradley 1-4 with a 2 RBI double. ... Akron is off tomorrow too.

Hillcats beat Dash 9-5 to take 2 out of 3 in series. Lynchburg is 71-48 on the season now, and of course have already clinched a playoff spot. ... Civale got the win today. 7 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. ... Loopstok 2-5. ... Carter 1-4. ... Haggerty 2-4 with a walk and his 43rd steal. ... * McKenzie pitches tomorrow *.

Lake County beat Lansing 7-0 to take 3 out of 4 in series, and I still don't give a damn about the whole state of michigan. Captains are now 49-69 on the season and 32.5 games out of 1st place. But they still opened up a can of whoop ass on that team up north this weekend. ... Zach Plesac, and for the benefit of those who just started following folder, is the nephew of Dan Plesac and a talented young SP who just recently got back from TJ surgery and has been doing awesome. Today he did, well, awesome again. 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R 0 BB, 4 K. ... Longo 3-3 with a walk and 2 steals. (Eat that Seagull ! ... G.Mejia 1-4 with a SB.

Scrappers are in middle of their game, and AZL are yet to start. Update later.

DSL teams are off today.

Cool

Scrappers score 6 runs in last 2 innings but still fall short, 10-7. They fall to 29-23 on the year.

30th round draft pick Zach Draper out of College of Idaho was just promoted from the Arizona league, and first outing pretty good. 2 scoreless innings.

Jean Carlos Mejia, who was also promoted from AZL not long ago, also pitched a scoreless 1.1 IP, 2 K. He has now had 5 outings and 8 innings in NYPL and has yet to allow a run. Both Mejia and Draper are faring better at the higher level.

24th round pick, Riley Echols, is not doing as well, giving up 3 runs today in 1.2 IP, and has a 5.32 ERA on year now.

Nolan Jones had a day to forget. 0-5 with 2 K.

Oscar Gonzalez 1-4. ... Lucas 1-4.

Former 1st round pick Will Benson was 1-3 with a walk and 2 RBI.

Catcher Michael Rivera, 6th round pick from Florida this year, 2-4 with a double and a walk.

HB and Civ

Thanks for all the updates.

I do not post much because you cover all the updates so well -- I do post things that I find are different. I do read the posts

BTW -- just a comment from me. Amazing that 3 draft choices in the last 2 years after the the 6th round got 2 major leaguers. The draft has got much better.

And here the lines noted by BA from Sunday games:

CLE AA Allen, Greg CF 4 2 1 0 .251
CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 1 2 .238 2B (19)
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 3 0 1 0 .218 BB (44) [they reported that his defense has picked up a lot this year; all good but the batting avg]
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco C 4 1 0 0 .307
CLE AAA Diaz, Yandy 3B 2 2 1 1 .349 2B (16), 2 BB (58), CS (2)
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 0 0 0 .171
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 2 0 1 2 .226 BB (35) [BA really likes his defense; his offense is somewhat improved in the second half of the season]
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 3 0 0 0 .253 BB (23)
CLE R Fermin, Jose SS 5 0 1 0 .220 [teenager rated a potential longterm possibility, made the end of the preseason Top 30]
CLE R Holmes, Quentin CF 4 1 1 0 .194 SB (3) [this year's Benson]
CLE SS Benson, Will RF 3 1 1 2 .238 BB (19) [last year's Holmes, he's been improving over the course of the short season]
CLE SS Gonzalez, Oscar LF 4 1 1 0 .299 [last year he was a power hitter, this year a singles hitter]
CLE SS Jones, Nolan DH 5 0 0 0 .282
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 1 1 0 0 1 1 2.88 Sv (10)
CLE HiA Civale, Aaron 7 7 4 2 0 4 2.80 W (8-2) [69K/8 BB, which looks pretty impressive until you see Bieber's numbers]

The AZL team played late and went into extra innings so I didn't get to give a rundown. But one little piece of worthless trivia. A 21 year old starter for us named Juan Mota had 9 K in 5 innings last night. That puts him 5 K away from tying the club record for K's by an Indians pitcher in an AZL season.

The record was set by Thomas Pannone in 2014. 62 K.

Man I hated trading him.

Sam Hentges is 2nd on list with 59 in 2015.

So what else do we know about Juan Mota?

He's leading the AZL in K's with those 57, 8 ahead of runner up.
He's pitched 44 1/3 IP, so that's about 1.3 per inning.
Nothing impresses in his other stats; ERA of 5.28 WHIP 1.44
Impressive size: 6-4 190
Last year in the Dominican summer league, his K's were far fewer, 41 in 60 innings.
At age 21, he's as much as 3 years plus a little older than some of the rest of the pitching staff.

All of which adds up to ??

I found near the top of this folder a classic Tony Lastoria post on one of the great past 2nd basemen of the future I always fall back on when thinking of Class A successes who are not going to pan out. Of course Tony saw only great things ahead for CORD PHELPS. As is/was typical of Tony this goes on and on and on and I wouldn't expect anyone to read the whole thing.

Strengths: Phelps is one of the most complete players in the Indians system. He does not have any one great tool, but he is well balanced across the board and can impact a game in almost every area. He is an above-average offensive player with great instincts who maintains a consistent, patient approach at the plate that results in a good ability to put the bat on the ball and get on-base at a very good rate. He is an extremely disciplined and intelligent hitter who has a good plan when he goes to the plate and a very strong understanding of the strike zone. He consistently gets on top of the ball and swings at good pitches. He has a good feel for contact and squares the ball up well, and he has some developing power where he has started to drive the ball with more authority to all parts of the field. He has average speed and shows excellent instincts on the bases, runs them hard, and makes good decisions.

Phelps is an overachiever who gets the most out of all his skills and plays them up because of how consistent and disciplined he is with his preparations and approach day in and day out, his incredible intelligence, and his exceptionally strong instincts. He is a hardnosed, serious player who is very mature, driven, has a great attitude, understands the game, and is as committed as anyone as far as his work ethic is concerned. He is the very definition of a “baseball player”, and his patient, polished approach at the plate, decent speed, and switch-hitting ability profiles him as a #2 hitter in the big leagues and potentially a leadoff hitter.

Phelps is often under-rated by national pundits as a defender at second base. He has exclusively played second base in his two and a half years in the Indians organization, and over that time period he has played a very good, consistent second base. He is a fundamentally sound, solid defender who moves around well and displays very good instincts and gets good reads on the ball. He can make all the routine plays and the occasional exceptional one, and shows a very good ability to cover the hole between second and first well. He has made strides with his pivot where he now turns a good double play and displays a solid, accurate arm. He is considered a slightly above average defender with some room for growth still where he could be an above average defender at the big league level.

Though Phelps has only played second base in the minors, he does have experience at third base and shortstop in college. While he cannot play shortstop at the big league level except in a pinch, he has the ability to play third base. The Indians experimented with him at third base in the AFL last fall to find a way to get his bat in the lineup and liked what they saw from him. He struggled initially – which was to be expected - with seven errors in 11 games, but had just one error in his last eight games. More importantly, the subjective evaluations of him from Indians staffers were positive as they felt he settled in nicely, looked comfortable, and improved as he went along. Overall he showed good range and got good jumps on balls and his arm was more than adequate there. They believe he is an option for them this coming season at both third base and second base, and maybe potentially even in left field down the road.

Opportunities: Offense is going to dictate Phelps’ plate appearances as there are not a lot of players who are just solely defensive minded second baseman and primarily play just two positions. He is very strong and has good size, but his size and strength do not show at the plate as he plays smaller. Prior to his junior year in college he did not hit a home run in 278 at bats, but he hit 13 home runs in 259 at bats his junior year in 2008 and has continued to show improved power since coming into the Indians organization. Last year the Indians challenged him to use his discipline from both sides of the plate to his advantage to make sure he is taking advantage of mistakes and driving the ball. The results speak for themselves as he had a spike in his slugging percentage. Going forward he needs to continue to improve in this area and be more consistent driving the ball by being more aggressive at the plate and better understanding what to expect in certain situations. He also needs to make a few minor adjustments with his approach at the plate to be shorter to the ball and maintain a consistent bat path. He needs to continue to work on refining his defense, and adding some versatility should only help increase his value. He has been injury free in his career, but he had a minor bout with a wrist injury last
August which forced him to be in and out of the lineup for much of the rest of the year until the fall.

Outlook: Phelps saw his stock skyrocket last year as he went from a player viewed as a high on-base singles hitter to a guy who can not only get on base at a consistent clip but also drive the ball out of the ballpark. He is certainly in the discussion as far as infield options go for the Indians this year as he is an option at two positions of need and provides a lot of versatility. Since Brandon Phillips’ failure in 2003 the Indians have been searching a long time for an everyday second baseman in their system, but suddenly they have tons of immediate options at the big league level with Phelps, Jason Kipnis, Jason Donald, and even the widely panned Luis Valbuena. He will get a long, extended look this spring at second base and third base, but will likely open the 2011 season at Tripe-A Columbus, though is expected to be a quick call up sometime in May just like Donald was last year.

Hillcats beat the Astros tonight 3-2. ... McKenzie seems back on track now. 7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K. ... Loopstok 1-4 a double. ... Carter 0-3 with BB. ... Castro 0-4.

DSL Indians beat Pirates 3-2 today. ... Luis D. Garcia with another solid outing. 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. 2.11 ERA now on year. ... Gonzalez 1-4. ... Lopez 0-2 with 2 walks. ... Cespedes and Yainer D was both 0'fer.

DSL Indians/Brewers coop team lost to Cubs 5-4. ... Kelkboom 1-5 a double.

Captains and AZL update late.

To finish the daily update, Lake County loses to Bowling Green 7-2. ... Longo 1-4 to drop his average to a mediocre .379. ... Tinsley 1-3 with a walk. ... GabeMejia 0-2 with walk.

The awful AZL Indians get slaughtered by Giants 12-2. ... Dylan Baker a shutout inning with 2 K. ... Cooper 2-5 with a double. ... Rodriguez 0-2 with 2 walks. ... Holmes 0-4 with 2 K.

.

Indians Prospective @indiansPro
Most (Strikeouts) by #Indians @MiLB player last 20yrs

2001 Tallet 164
2006 Miller 161
1999 Pugmire 160
2000 Sabathia 159
2017 McKenzie 159

.

Columbus starter tomorrow... Grube
Akron - Bieber
Lynchburg - Hartson
Lake County - TBD
Mahoning Valley - TBD

2001 Tallet 164
2006 Miller 161
1999 Pugmire 160
2000 Sabathia 159

That quartet shows you where young players may wind up:

1 nearly Hall of Famer
1 decent major league reliever
1 career ended by injury
1 never got much farther

Although he's physically almost the antithesis of CC, I think Triston has a good chance to come closer to duplicating his career path. But you never know about injuries like those that sidelined Adam Miller.

Since McKenzie is sure to move to the top of that list, the next question is what's the most strikeouts by a Tribe minor leaguer in the past 40 or 50 years?
Colon? McDowell? Tiant? Siebert? someone like Pugmire who disappeared?

Colon's high was 152 in 1995
Tiant 207 on 1963, in the Carolina League 204 innings
Siebert 192 in 1962 in the Eastern League 204 innings
McDowell 156 in AAA in 1961. But he had almost no minor league career; made his big league debut at age 17

BA on yesterday:

CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 0 0 .291
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 4 0 0 0 .223
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 0 0 0 .249 BB (24) [at least he got on base once]
CLE R Fermin, Jose SS 5 0 2 2 .229
CLE R Holmes, Quentin CF 4 0 0 0 .186 [hurray] [ 3 walks; OBA 208; 7 extra base hits slugging 320]
CLE R Rodriguez, Johnathan RF 2 1 0 0 .183 2 BB (12) [all those walks give him a decent, sort of, OBA of 315; 3 xb hits no homers SLG 250]
CLE HiA McKenzie, Triston 7 7 1 1 0 9 3.44 [he'll win his league top pitcher award; near the top 10 in all baseball]

Chisenhall is in Columbus and is expected in their lineup today for rehab game.

McKenzie is now 3rd in all of MiLB in strikes, 9 behind the leader.