Cleveland Sports Forum

Cody Anderson continues to excel after a down year in 2014. Promoted from Akron where he recorded an ERA of 1.69 and WHIP of 1.06, Anderson's AAA debut was terrific: 7-4-1--1-1-9. Offensive supplied by Jesus Aguillar with two doubles and a homer; he's having a poor season, AVG is only 233, OPS 688. Both well down from last year.
Lindor with two hits, but struck out the other 3 times up and caught stealing for the 7th time.

Morimando 6-5-3-0-3-4. 2.63 ERA, but the walk and K totals are just about his standard rate.

Now its Nellie Rodriguez' turn to ignite at Lynchburg. single, double, homer and 5 RBI. Over his last 10 games, the 1B has a slash line of 455/538/909. Our guys continue to dominate Carolina League sluggers: LuigiR and Zimmer lead the league with 9 homers; Nellie is one of two at 8. Frazier back a step with 6. Yesterday LRod singled, doubled and stole his 13th

Greg Allen has been in a cold spell but yesterday singled, doubled walked and stole his 18th.
Chang singled and homered, his 5th. 16th error.
Bradley added his 7th homer to match his 7 errors.
2 singles for Paulino. Mejia 0-5

I see the Dominica League has been underway a week. No familiar names. I guess we'll see Gabriel Mejia, the stolen base king of baseball in 2014, in the Arizona League. A fellow named Elvis Perez is hitting 333 and a Francisco Perez pitched 4 shutout innings. A reliever named Araujo; perhaps related to our other former Elvis, now successfully working in the Philadelphia bullpen.

Speaking of international play, Vlad Guerrero's son turns 16 on July 2nd and is going to be signing with a team. I sure wish the Indians would pony up for once and sign a guy like this. He has outstanding power from the right side. From all accounts he is going to be better than his 9 time all star dad.

Clippers face new problem: uninspired sloppy defender taking over at 3rd for Urshela.

Urshela singled and drew a rare walk on his get-away day.
Walters single double walk and only one K in his Clipper farewell
Not-ready Lindor singled and doubled
3 singles for Aguillar and 2 for Moncrief, still hitting 183, surpasses Papi as worst avg for Tribe 2015 prospect [see below]
2 shutout innings for Crockett, scoreless streak reaches 6 2/3.

Not-sure-why-he's-still-in-Akron Naquin singles twice, doubles, hitting 338, although his walks have dropped back down again; maybe that's why?
Yandy Diaz 3rd baseman with zero power finally hits his 1st homer of 2015.
Clevinger: 5-6-2-2-2-8

3 hits again for Zimmer, adds a steal but also caught he's 23/26
Mike Papi 3 hits gets him at last to 200--- his 3rd 3-hit game in the last 8 in which he's 10-23
Nellie Rodriguez stays hot with single and double

3 singles for Bobby Bradley

Baseball America report for Sunday, while they wait for the draft:

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 0 1 0 .267
CLE AA Naquin, Tyler CF 4 1 3 0 .338 2B (11)
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 6 0 3 2 .240
CLE AAA Lindor, Francisco DH 6 1 2 0 .271 2B (10)
CLE AAA Moncrief, Carlos RF 5 0 2 1 .183
CLE AAA Urshela, Giovanny 3B 4 1 1 0 .275 BB (3) note the walk total vs 12 strikeouts in 80 at bats
CLE HiA Papi, Mike LF 3 2 3 1 .200 BB (37)
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 1 2 0 .275 2B (17)
CLE HiA Zimmer, Bradley CF 5 1 3 0 .320 SB (22), CS (3)
CLE LoA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 1 3 0 .254
CLE LoA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 1 1 0 .243 2B (11)

CLE AA Clevinger, Mike 5 6 2 2 2 8 3.03 L (3-3)
CLE MAJ Adams, Austin 1.2 1 0 0 1 4 0.96 that's a good looking line!

Performances of guys drafted in previous years:

CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus DH 4 1 2 1 .245 3B (1), BB (15)
CLE AAA Lindor, Francisco SS 5 1 2 1 .274
CLE LoA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 0 1 0 .256 BB (21)
CLE LoA Paulino, Dorssys PR-SS 4 0 2 0 .242 2B (8) [first time at SS this year; Chang removed after HBP]

CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 1 3 2 2 0 1 4.19

And a couple more ...

Sean Brady (SP, Lake County): W (4-3), 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 5 K. Brady just continues to put up solid start after solid start. That consistency is a byproduct of his advanced pitch ability and stuff for his age, something the Indians have identified over the last two drafts as vital for any prep arm they may take in the draft. He just continues to add to his resume, gets better with each outing and over the course of each season, and is a pitching prospect that is on the rise. While he likely will spend the entire season at Low-A Lake County, if his performance continues into late July, he could force the Indians to give him a late season look at High-A.

Greg Allen (CF, Lake County): 3-for-5, R, 2 2B, 2 K, CS. After a tough spell at the plate, Allen looks to be coming out of it as he has multi-hit games in two of his last three games. Even though he is only hitting .249 you have to love a 28-22 strikeout to walk ratio and 18 stolen bases in less than half of a season. Maybe the most interesting number from him this season is his .116 isolated power number. While it is poor by industry standards, it is much higher than expected from the likes of Allen. That ability to occasionally drive the ball and pound the gaps is something that will make him more dangerous as a hitter, but to be that kind of hitter he has a long way to go with his consistency.

Brady's numbers haven't looked all that exciting, but I'm glad to hear their interpretation is better than I guessed.

Looking at Brady's game logs, the last two have been excellent, the previous three were unimpressive:


4 2/3- 8-5-3-2-3
5-6-4-4-1-2
6-8-3-3-2-0

He's one of those classic little lefties, so doesn't impress me a lot unless I see he's able to register big strikeout numbers. [officially 6-0 170, which might mean he's smaller than that]

MV Scrappers is a NY Penn league team. Rookie ball. Opening day for them is still a few weeks away.

Oh, I am aware of this. Was just trying to line up my scouts in advance.

Zimmer and Papi played there last year.

But not in the game that I saw.


And now it looks like I may miss this year's visit as I have a niece's wedding to attend in WVa. Maybe I can catch one of the games, though.

Todd Paquette ‏@IndiansAccounts · 12 minutes ago
#Indians OF prospect Tyler Naquin has been promoted from (AA) @AkronRubberDuck to (AAA) @CLBClippers. Naquin 2012 1st Round pick #15 overall

Tyler Naquin has been under a mound of pressure since being drafted in the first round by the Cleveland Indians in 2012. He's also been stuck at the Double-A level since he started there in his first season in the organization, but he's finally getting the call-up to the final hurdle before the majors.

Naquin saw an excellent 2014 campaign cut short by a broken wrist that he suffered chasing down a ball hit by Bryce Harper last June. When that injury happened he was slashing .313/.371/.424 with four home runs in 76 games. It was arguably his best season in the minors since being drafted, but thanks to his second metacarpal bone being broken in four places, he was sidelined for the rest of the year.

With the injury set back firmly behind him, Naquin has had a great season at the Double-A level this year, as he's sporting an impressive 151 wRC+. His .338 average leads the entire Indians organization, and its finally been deemed enough to get him a call-up to Triple-A to play for the Columbus Clippers and potentially work his way into the majors.

When he joins the Clippers for his first go-round in Triple-A he'll be splitting time in an already crowded outfield that also includes Jerry Sands, Tyler Holt, James Ramsey and Carlos Moncrief.

The 24-year-old was the first of the "big three" outfielders picked by Cleveland in the first round of consecutive drafts. Following Naquin being chosen 15th overall in 2012, Clint Frazier was drafted 5th overall in 2013, and Bradley Zimmer 21st overall in 2014. Naquin is rated as the #5 prospect in the Indians organization according to MLB Pipeline.

Naquin has had a good 2015 cutting down the strikeouts, getting on base and looking like a top of the order hitter, although not a big basestealer. He should have no trouble getting playing at time with the Clippers; for one thing Moncrief, a long-time favorite of mine, can't get his average up to 200, and is a good choice to be DFAd when Lindor is added to the 40 man roster. Holt has been out of the lineup recently with an injury.

This promotion also opens up a spot in the middle of the Akron outfield that would nicely fit Brad Zimmer.

CLE AA Rodriguez, Ronny 2B 3 0 1 0 .333 2B (1) [where's he been hiding all spring? his season debut]
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 6 0 3 1 .252 2B (13)
CLE AAA Lindor, Francisco SS 5 0 1 0 .272 BB (25)
CLE AAA Naquin, Tyler CF 6 2 3 1 .500 HR (1) [great AAA debut; for some reason Naquin always starts well at a new level, and then levels out]

CLE AA Merritt, Ryan 6 9 4 4 1 2 3.75 L (3-5) [won't stay on the 40man roster long]
CLE HiA Lugo, Luis 4.1 7 9 3 5 4 4.74 L (3-4) [poor season continues]