Where's Longo? He's been out a few days. I thought maybe he'd show up in an Akron box score but not there either.

I think we have another Mejia because Gabe; one of the pitchers I cannot distinguish on Mahoning Valley may be Juan Carlos Mejia, unless its Jose Mejia and the other guy is Juan Carlos Mota. Or something like that.

Richie Palacios breaks out of the longest hitless streak of his career, one day, and is 2-3 with the Captains so far tonight.


Will Benson with his 7th hit of July, also his 4th homer, a grand slam, brings the average back to 170. With the 15homers and 60 walks is 675. Still lousy but that's pretty good for a 170 batting average. He's cut his K/BB rate from 2.6/1 last year to 1.7/1 this year. This is called looking hard for a silver lining in a pretty dark cloud.

Vazquez holding the 8-1 lead in the 5th. Gregori has allowed only 5 runs in 28 innings over his last 5 starts. Does not have a real strikeout pitch, 66 K in 99 innings.

Found a surprising fact while checking out all our 2017 draft picks stats to date this year. Quentin Holmes got into one game in June and went 0=2. Hasn't appeared since.

Our second pick Freeman at age 19 in the NYPL is hitting 358/404/463. 9BB/12K
Our third rounder Jo. Rodriguez at age 18 is back in Arizona hitting 294/414/388 17BB/20K
Our 4th rounder Ernie Clement at age 21 starting in LC, moved up to Lynchburg and is hitting better at the higher level.
With the Captains 267/337/356 23BB 21K
With the Hillcats 330/410/396 13BB 4 K !
One 5th rounder Austen Wade age 22 Lake County but DL half the season 266/394/391 25BB 37 K

May have noticed one think they all have in common: good to great K/BB numbers. that's something the Indians have been stressing for years.

Ha! Well what took Palacios so long!

I would have to check to make sure but I think Longo just missed one game. He came in as a late game defensive replacement.

You are right about Jean Carlos Mejia!

Clippers 5 RailRiders 3 (10 Innings)

Chiang 5(IP) 6H 3R 3ER 0BB 5SO
Haase 2-4 2R 2B HR 2RBI BB ( Walk-off HR)
Allen 1-5 R 2B SB
Rosales 1-4 R 2B RBI

-

RubberDucks 4 Flying Squirrels 1

Paulson 7(IP) 2H 1R 1ER 1BB 6SO
Tom 1-4 R 2B 2RBI Ice 1-4 RBI
Haggerty 0-2 R RBI 2BB

-

Hillcats 6 Mudcats 5

Hentges 5(IP) 5H 4R 2ER 4BB 9SO
Chu 3-4 R HR 2RBI
Collins 2-4 2R 2B 3B 2RBI
Brooks 2-4 2B RBI
(Longo did not start again, but came in late again, as a pinch runner. Not sure what is wrong with him. Mast be from waist up tho)

-

Captains 11 Bees 3

Vasquez 6(IP) 5H 1R 1ER 1BB 5SO
Benson 1-3 R HR 4RBI BB
Palacios 3-5 3R RBI SB
Eladio 3-4 2RBI

-

Scrappers 7 Muckdogs 3

Mingo 5(IP) 4H 1R 1ER 0BB 1SO
Reeves 4-5 2R 2B RBI
Freeman 2-5 2R 2B 3B RBI
Lopez 2-4 2(2B) 2RBI

-

AZL Indians (1) 2 Reds 1

Gutierrez 6(IP) 4H 1R 1ER 0BB 5SO
Lingos 2(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 0BB 3SO
Alfonseca 2-4 R HR RBI SB
Jerez 2-2 R HR RBI

-

AZL Giants 7 Indians (2) 6

Delgado 1-4 2R 2B BB SB
Diaz 3-5 R RBI
Rocchio 3-4 R BB
Naylor 2-5 R RBI

-

DSL Indians 8 Cubs 4

Peguero 3(IP) 0H 0R 0ER 1BB 1SO
Montero 2-4 R RBI BB 3SB
Peralta 1-4 2R 2B RBI SB
Flores 1-4 R 3B 2RBI

-

DSL Red Sox 5 Indians/Brewers 1

Made 1-3 BB
Contreras 1-4 2B
De La Cruz 0-3 BB
Paulino 0-3 BB

The one thing Rocchio is not too good at is stealing bases; he tries a lot but he's a combined 11/19 in Dominican and Arizona. But hey he's a 17 year old kid having fun. 5-10 150. Full name is interesting: Brayan Hommy Rocchio

Now that Mejia's gone, catchers throughout the system are hitting up a storm: Haase, Ice, Chu, Y.Diaz, Naylor.

Indians Prospective @indiansPro
Columbus Clippers (C) Eric Haase leads all minor league catchers since the beginning on the 2017 season in HR's with 41 during the time period.

Back to the 2017 draft. We picked 3 pitchers at the bottom of the top 10 rounds:

7: Kirk McCarty age 22, Lake County 4.67 ERA 1.36 WHIP 98 innings 109K 28BB and much better of late
8: Eli Morgan age 22, LC 1.83 0.88 44 innings 56K 8 BB
Lynchburg 2.83 0.93 60 innings 68K 12BB
9: James Karinchak age 22, LC 0.79 1.32 WHIP 11 innings 20K 7 BB
Lynchburg 1.11 1.15 WHIP 24 innings 40K 15BB

Outside the top 9 rounds, not many surprises but here are some good 2018 reports:

13th round C Alvarez age 21 Mahoning Valley 250/365/409 in a mere 44 at bats; was 278/409/500 in 18 AB in Lynchburg
15th round LHP: Kyle Nelson age 22 0.54 ERA 0.75 WHIP 33 innings a ridiculous 47/2 K/BB but mysteriously he stays in Lake County
16th round RHP Gallager age 22 Lake County 4.10 1.44 WHIP 43 innings 42K 14 BB
21st round Friis IF age 22 Lake County 279/376/358 25k exceeded by 31BB

Sundays action. Let's hope it's better than what the major league club did.

Clippers beat the RailRiders, 5-0

Plutko 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K
Miller 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Allen 0-3, BB
Chang 1-1, HR, R, RBI, 3 BB

--

The Rubber Ducks beat the Flying Squirrels 9-8 in 10th inning, when Castro lays down a sac bunt and a throwing error allowed winning run to score.

Bradley 1-3, HR, R, 2 RBI, 2 BB
Marabell 3-5, 2B, 2 R, RBI
Castro 2-4, 2B, RBI

--

Lynchburg loses to Carolina 6-5 in 10 innings, and after long rain delay.

My boy Krauth got touched up after I bragged on him. 2 earned in 1.2 IP
Clement 3-6, 2 2B, R, RBI, SB. ... Hitting .336 now.
Longo 1-6 RBI
Collins 1-4, 2B, R. ... He played catcher tonight. He’s always been a 3rd baseman. Pretty sure this was new.

--

Captains lost to Bees 5-1

F.Perez 6 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 9 K
Palacios 1-4
OscarG 1-3 RBI
Jones 1-2, 2 BB
Benson 0-3, BB, K Batting .168

--

Scrappers beat MuckDogs 16-8

Couple of our draft picks finally got roughed up

Royalty 3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Scott 2.1 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Santos 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K
Fermin 2-4, 2 BB, 3 R, SB
Nelson 3-5, 2 R, 4 RBI

--

AZL Indians 1 beat the AZL Padres 6-3

JoRodriguez 1-5, CS
Lopez 3-4, 2B, R
Santiago 2-4, 2B, RBI

- -

AZL Indians 2 lost to AZL Cubs 2, 8-7

Rocchio 1-5 R
Naylor 2-5, 2 R
De Oleo 2-5, R
Delgado 2-4, BB, R

So Hillbilly posts the highlights and I get to do commentary. I'm OK with this division of labor. And then of course Hillbilly comments on my commentary. Anyone else may join in too!

Bobby Bradley's homer was his 21st. He needs leads all AA leagues in long balls. He's never going to hit for average and don't know if he'll ever make it to the majors, but he's just 22 and certainly has the "power tool" although no other one of big 5.
Splits:
April 114/202/228 strikeouts in 31% of at bats
May 235/345/546 K 17% of AB
June 237324/516 K 31% of AB
July 257/299/577 K 24% of AB

Gavin Collins was a catcher in college, but has been mostly 3rd baseman in the minors.

My favorite site IBI said about him on draft day in 2016:
Jeff Ellis: Gavin Collins is the third college catcher for the Indians in this drafted who are focused on the position. He was a bigger name as a high school kid, who if not for an ankle injury in his first game at the start of his senior year might have been drafted. He is a solid catcher, who is projected to stay at the position. As a freshman he was the first All-SEC freshman catcher in Miss State’s long history. Collins finally played a full season this year for Miss St. and did not disappoint. He exploded with ten home runs after just having three his previous two years combined. He had a near one to one walk to strikeout ratio, 1.14. A solid defensive player, who has struggled with injuries he is certainly another interesting player for the Indians.

Indians used him behind the plate 7 games in 2017 and now 9 games this year. It doesn't look he's heading back there permanently, but keeping their options open.

Thought I'd look at comparative stats of Yu Chang and Willi Castro, one of whom may well be traded in the next week.

Chang 22 in AAA 255/330/419 31 BB 100 K range factor 4.07 6 errors 50 doubleplays
Castro 21 in AA 249/306/356 38 BB 82 K range factor 3.98 13 errors 49 doubleplays

Really? I had never noticed him at catcher before. Weird, cause I have kept an eye on him as a little bit of a sleeper. But last night was first time I noticed him at catcher. My powers of observation know no bounds.

The Mejia trade may have reverberations all the way down. Might need to play him there more now.