Cleveland Sports Forum

HB and others who follow the minors, here's a challenge:

BA is posting revised midseason Top 10 lists for each team. Can't include anyone on a major league roster as of today, so Lindor, Anderson, Urshela, Perez and Adams are out. Can't include 2015 draftees to The Three Amigos are unavailable for the list. Which leaves Brad Zimmer, Justus Sheffield and a lot of underproducers among the preseason top 15 and some good producers among the next 10 or so. How would you rate the top 10 with those restrictions: Do you include Mejia and Naquin and Chang and Ramsey all of whom are hitting under 250? Does Frazier stay at No. 3 since no one else is doing better. Do NRod and LRod and Clevinger and Plutko push up to the upper reaches? Does Greg Allen soar from not among the top 30?

I'm just going to do this by the seat of my pants here so don't beat me up too bad. But probably something like ...

Zimmer
Allen
Sheffield
Papi
Naquin
Plutko
Gabriel Mejia
Rodriguez
Rodriguez
Bradley
Feyereisen
Santander
Pannone
Kime
Merritt

Damn, this is tough... I dunno, something around that. If I thought about it longer I'd probably adjust it some.

Well, one thing I already see I did wrong was leave off Hentges. I like him. He'd be in the middle of that list.

I agree it is tough, just not enough good players. I assume you didn't mean to leave out Frazier altogether? Here was the preseason Top 10+

1. Lindor
2. Frazier
3. Zimmer
4. Sheffield
5. Papi
6. Naquin
7. F. Mejia
8. Gonzalez
9. Bradley
10. Anderson
11. Urshela
12. Ramsey
13. Chang

I'll try my own list when I find more free time, but I still think F. Mejia belongs on there since he's only a teenager in full season ball and he seems to be doing OK with walks and strikeouts although not with base hits! I guess his defense is pretty decent, although I haven't much about him recently.

Clevinger seems worthy of fairly high rank. He seems to have the ability to be a major league starter which few of our other minor leaguers are.

Grant Hockin was drafted ahead of Hentges last year but he's on the shelf in his first full season.

I'm sure a lot about my list will leave you ashamed to know me, but yes, I left Frazier off on purpose. I've just never shared people's affinity for him. I give him no shot to ever be a solid major leaguer.

There's a couple guys on my list who I hope will improve their BB/K ratio as they get a little more mature or I will take them off my list entirely too.

To me it's basically a two-man farm system with a lot of long shots. Although Brady Aiken may increase that tally by 50%

There's no bats that are going to scare anyone on the big club and nothing in the minors either. This organization couldn't develop a big bat even if it knew what one looked like.

Indians promote Zimmer to Double-A

By Tyler Maun / MiLB.com

Tuesday, Jul. 14 2:30 AM

Bradley Zimmer left Class A Advanced Lynchburg over the weekend for his trip to Cincinnati and a starting slot in Sunday's Futures Game. It turns out his return journey to the Minor Leagues will be much shorter.

After a stellar first half, Carolina League All-Star honors and a Futures Game selection, Zimmer is headed to Akron. The Indians promoted their No. 3 prospect to Double-A, where he'll join the Rubber Ducks after the Eastern League All-Star Break.

The 21st overall pick in the 2014 First-Year Player Draft, Zimmer posted a .309/.401/.488 slash line with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs in 77 games with Lynchburg to start the year. The University of San Francisco product stands tied for the Carolina League lead in stolen bases (32) with Adam Engel of Winston-Salem. Zimmer also lashed 16 doubles and three triples.

Hentges was rocked for 11 hits in 4 innings last night.

Damn VT'er. The Vermont team has been kicking the crap out of Mahoning Valley last couple days. You get to a game?

Sorry, no.

My niece got married in WV on the weekend and we drove down (~ 12.5 hours), leaving early Thursday morning so we couldn't even manage the Wednesday night game. Kind of a bummer also because the Thursday game was the only day game in the Lake Monsters' home schedule this year.

in limited action Monday:

CLE HiA Frazier, Clint CF 5 1 1 0 .254
CLE HiA Papi, Mike RF 5 2 1 0 .247 2B (24)
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 1 2 0 .280 2B (26)
CLE LoA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 0 2 1 .238 SB (2) [entered the game 3 hits in his last 39 AB]
CLE SS Haggerty, Sam DH 4 1 2 2 .429 2B (1), 3B (1) [who cares]
CLE SS Marabell, Connor RF 5 2 3 0 .259 2B (1) [something like 30th round draft choice]
CLE SS Mathias, Mark 2B 5 1 1 0 .224 2B (5)
CLE SS Salters, Daniel C 5 1 1 0 .179 2B (2)
CLE SS Tom, Ka'ai LF 4 1 1 0 .242 BB (12), 2 SB (7)

for some reason they decided to list all this year's picks
CLE HiA Brown, Mitch 6 5 4 4 3 3 5.66 W (5-8)
CLE R Colegate, Ryan 2 0 0 0 0 1 11.12
CLE R Wyatt, Jonas 1 0 0 0 0 2 0.00
CLE SS Perez, Ryan 1.2 1 0 0 3 1 9.35 [ambidextrous pitcher doing badly]
CLE SS Stewart, Devon 1.1 2 1 1 0 1 3.38

And that is why I totally left Hentges off my list totally on purpose!

Nice debut by Wyatt tho!

If I have to list kids as high as 3rd, 4th I can't do it. Maybe the list for Cleveland should be something like:

1. Zimmer
2. Sheffield
5. Frazier
6. Gonzalez
7. Plutko
8. N Rodriguez
8.5 F Mejia
9. Clevinger
9.5 L Rodriguez
10. Bradley

Transactions recently:

Cleveland Indians
Draft pick signed: SS Luke Wakamatsu (20)
Released: OF Brian Ruiz [just off the drug suspension list]
Recalled: LHP Kyle Crockett
Option transferred: OF Carlos Moncrief (Triple-A to Double-A) [soon leaving the 40 man roster]
Placed on 7-day DL: RHP Trey Haley, C Tony Wolters, 3B Justin Toole [Haley has resurfaced in Columbus this week]
Placed on 60-day DL: LHP Brady Aiken [is he on the 40-man roster? Otherwise why worry about the 60-day DL?]
Reinstated from DL: C Jake Lowery, 3B Justin Toole, SS Audy Ciriaco

About two weeks after signing first-round lefthander Brady Aiken for a bonus just north of $2.5 million, the Indians placed the 17th overall pick on the 60-day disabled list. He had Tommy John surgery in March, so the move was a mere formality.