Cleveland Sports Forum

Clint was hitless in 5 tries on Tuesday but cut the K's to 20% of his outs. Todd Hankins drew a couple more walks.

our dreadful pitching contribution to the Scottsdale Scorpions was dreadful:

Player IP H R ER BB SO
Perci Garner 0.2 4 4 4 3 0
Jacob Lee 1.1 4 2 2 1 1
Grant Sides 1.0 1 0 0 0 1

There is virtually no dominant pitching in the AFL. Hitters paradise. Good for building confidence but not much else.

I'm from the Earl Weaver school of hitting. A bunt, a bloop and a blast. Plenty of bunt and bloop guys in the Tribe system. Need more blast guys.

BA reports recent transactions:

Electing free agency: Shaun Marcum, LHP Michael Roth, C Brett Hayes.
Also becoming free agents are dozens of other players including: Vinnie Pestano, Aaron Laffey and one of Joe's favorites Matt McBride

I hadn't been checking the daily prospect reports, and without Joe we're not getting winter league stories. Here's yesterday's lines reported by BA:

CLE AFL Diaz, Yandy 3B 4 1 1 0 .227
CLE AFL Lucas, Jeremy C 3 0 1 1 .333 SB (1)
CLE DL Ciriaco, Audy 3B 4 0 0 0 .158 BB (3)
CLE VL Medina, Yhoxian PH-3B 2 0 1 1 .625 CS (1)
CLE VL Monsalve, Alex PH-C 2 0 1 1 .267
CLE VL Padron, Raul PH 0 0 0 1 .250 BB (5)
CLE AFL Romero, Antonio 0.2 1 2 2 4 2 5.79
CLE DL Grube, Jarrett 3.2 6 2 2 0 3 2.77 some old minor league FA we picked up in August
CLE DL Paredes, Edward 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 0.00

While the Angels let Pestano go, our return on his deal is looking better all the time:

CLEVELAND—Talk about finishing strong. Mike Clevinger finished the 2015 season virtually unhittable and demonstrably unbeatable.

After spending the season at Double-A Akron, the 24-year-old righthander moved to Triple-A Columbus for the International League playoffs. He started and won two Game Fives, including the one that claimed the Governors’ Cup trophy in the IL.



In those two games, Clevinger tossed 151/3 scoreless innings, yielded just five hits, with 17 strikeouts and three walks.

“It says something about a player’s routines when his best outings are at the end of the season,” farm director Carter Hawkins said. “And the fact that it was against Triple-A competition, in the highest of leverage situations, makes it even more impressive.”

Clevinger’s rousing finish came after a 9-8, 2.73 campaign in 27 games (26 starts) at Akron in his first full season with the Indians. He ranked second in the Eastern League with 145 strikeouts while yielding just 40 walks in 158 innings.

An Angels fourth-round pick in 2011 out of Seminole State (Fla.) JC, Clevinger missed most of 2012 and 2013 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Indians acquired him from Los Angeles in August 2014 for reliever Vinnie Pestano. Now he has emerged as one of the organization’s most intriguing prospects.

“His success at the end of the season was a byproduct of his continued work over the course of the full year,” Hawkins said. “He constantly was looking for ways to improve, whether it was with his delivery, his pitch mix or his mentality on the mound.”

Clevinger works off a 90 mph fastball that tops out at 95 with some movement. He mixes in an average changeup and slider.

“We’re excited about where this offseason may take him,” Hawkins said, “and his ability to impact us (at the major league level) in the near future.”

• Utility infielder Zach Walters had surgery on Oct. 2 to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He is expected to resume baseball activities in five to six months.

After a pretty lousy return season in AAA, throw in the injury and it might make sense to remove Walters from the 40-man roster. Although I suppose he could be attractive in the Rule 5 draft just because he could be stocked on the 90-day DL. But I was considering expendable even before I read about the injury

Todd Paquette has been giving daily updates on Indians players in Venezuela and the Dominican. But it's nobody I care about so barely been paying attention.

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@tpaquette_IID: #Indians in Venezuelan Winter League action: 10/29/15

Yoiber Marquina 1(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 1BB 1SO
Yhoxian Medina 0-4
Alex Monsalve 0-4

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@tpaquette_IID: #Indians in Arizona Fall League action: 10/29/15

Clint Frazier 1-4
Todd Hankins 2-3 2R 2B BB SB

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@tpaquette_IID: #Indians in Dominican Winter League action: 10/28/15

Audy Ciriaco 0-4 BB
Jarrett Grube 3.2(IP) 6H 2R 2ER 0BB 3SO

Monsalve looked a decent catching prospect for a couple years, but injuries have held him back. Grube and Ciriaco are retreads. I confuse Medina with a bunch of other Class A infielders but I don't think he's much.

Hankins' winter stats are good. Perhaps he could be a super-utility IF/OF. No more than that which is a stretch already.

CLE AFL Hankins, Todd CF 3 2 2 0 .400 2B (2), BB (10), SB (3)

Friday another fine day by Frazier, cracking his 3rd homer, stealing his 3rd base and walking twice. 356 does not rank among the leaders in this hitter-dominated league.
Yandy Diaz singled and walked. Hitting a pedestrian 269.
2 shutout innings from Grant Sides.

Saturday Frazier was off. Yandy 1-4.

On Monday Frazier went 0-5. Only 1K

None of our miserable pitchers got into the game; hence a shutout was thrown by the Scorpions.

Nellie getting ready to play some Winter Ball in Dominican. I will pay attention to him.

Indians In Depth ‏@tpaquette_IID

Indians in Dominican Winter League action: 11/2/15

Jose Ramirez 1-4 R 3B
Luigi Rodriguez 1-1 R

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Indians in AFL: 11/3/15

Clint Frazier 1-4
Yandy Diaz 2-4 2B
Todd Hankins 0-4
Antonio Romero 3IP 2ER 0BB 3SO
Perci Garner 1IP 0ER 1BB 2SO

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#Indians INF Ronny Rodriguez & Miguel Tejeda currently in Taiwan representing D.R. in the Premier 12 tournament.

Indians SS prospect Erik Gonzalez makes his winter league debut tonight for @EscogidoBBClub with his Tribe mate RHP Jarrett Grube starting.

Interesting that Luigi Rodriguez is playing in winter ball. He's not completed a 50-game US suspension for some prohibited substance use.

Todd Hankins homered [rare event] singled and walked. Jeremy Lucas a couple hits. Frazier had the day off. Typical crappy 2 innings by Grant Sides, 2 runs, 2 hits, a walk, a homer.