Cleveland Sports Forum

The MLB.com list really stuffs in the kids who have just been drafted and/or have hardly played as pros.

No.3 Hankins No. 4 Naylor No. 9 Torres No. 13 Delgado No. 17. Palacios No. 18 Sandlin all from this year's draft
No. 5 Valera No. 12 Bracho last year's international signings; combined they have about 20 at bats this year
No. 11 G. Rodriguez, a 16 year old signed this July.

I like a lot of those kids quite a bit, but they're all promise and virtually no performance.
Last year Holmes was a lot higher than after he actually played a little.
Benson has floated down to the bottom of the list.

Outside of Karinchak we don't see any of the interesting young relievers like AA Martinez or Brown or Kaminsky.
No J C Mejia who's tearing up the Midwest League [last 2 starts: 14 IP, 0 runs, 20 strikeouts, I think 5 hits]

No Indians draft pick got off to a faster start than second baseman Richie Palacios, who hit the ground running following his selection in the third round out of Towson.

The 21-year-old Palacios zoomed to low Class A Lake County after a 20-game stop at short-season Mahoning Valley, where he hit .411/.477/.589 with two home runs, 11 walks and 12 strikeouts. He led the New York-Penn League in average, on-base percentage and slugging.

The lefthanded batter has been a quick learner while playing both middle infield positions. Palacios collected a hit in all but one NYPL game and graduated from the circuit with a 17-game hitting streak.
Palacios’ debut almost seemed like a continuation of his junior year at Towson, where he hit .316/.463/.542 with a career-high eight home runs.

"He has really good bat-to-ball ability," scouting director Scott Barnsby said. "He controls the strike zone, and he’s got quick hands.”

Palacios comes from an impressive baseball gene pool. His father Richard reached Triple-A in the Tigers’ organization, his uncle Rey played with the Royals, and his brother Josh was a fourth-round pick by the Blue Jays in 2016.

Barnsby said coming from a baseball family can only help Palacios in his transition to pro ball.

"He has an understanding of the game. He’s got instincts, which certainly show up with Richie,” Barnbsby said. "It helps, but it starts with the player. It starts with the tools and the ability on the field.”

Palacios played shortstop at Towson, but he has played almost exclusively second base at Mahoning Valley.

"We can see him at shortstop or second base. He’s athletic enough to move around,” Barnsby said. "He’s a plus runner, and he’s shown instincts, with his brother Josh and the whole family having some history in baseball. We’re excited to get Richie.”

Why should Sandlin be 7 spots ahead of Karinchak? G Rod be 10 spots of Johnny Rod? Anyway time will tell.

Yeah, I said the other day when YOU posted BA’s rankings that I don’t agree with guys like Hankins being rated so highly before ever throwing a pitch. But it’s what ALL the publications do so we live with it. It’s their opinion of where the guys potential ranks.

I do love MiLB.com and MLB Pipeline though. They follow all the games and know their stuff. As far as guys who haven’t played much or at all we will see. The rankings will fluctuate as they go.

Dowdy going to Akron rotation (see Articles folder for Antonetti interview)

McKenzie with another great outing tonight.
7(IP) 5H 1R 1ER 1BB 5SO (89 pitches 61 strikes)
Last 6 outings- 35.2(IP) 21H 9R 7ER 12BB 34SO 1.77 ERA

Andrew Miller, pitching in back-to-back games for the first time with Clippers, retires both batters he faces with one strikeout.

We seem to be collecting SP's at Akron. Must be moving some guys to pen for good.

They have McKenzie, Paulson, Civale, Brady, DeMasi, Whitehouse. Now Dowdy.

Chiang, Peoples, Mingo, Plesac have all spent time there too. Plesac and Mingo were just spot starters though. .... Chiang and Peoples have been moved up but both getting shelled in Columbus. .... But I am pretty sure DeMasi and Whitehouse will stay put in pen now. Whitehouse has been good there. DeMasi not so much.

Tyler Krieger is hot as a pistol right now. 4-5 tonight with 4 RBI to extend his hitting streak to 24 games. (Yet has only raised his average to 270+. Had a horrible start)

Yeah, Krieger is looking really good, although not sure what his value is now that he's become an outfielder without a lot of power. Maybe a top utility man.

One of those 24's is impressive; the other less so.

Looking around the Eastern League, you'd be hard-pressed to find a hotter hitter in July than Tyler Krieger. Coming into the month's final day with the circuit's longest hitting streak, the No. 29 Indians prospect outdid himself.

Krieger collected four hits and matched a season high with four RBIs to lead Double-A Akron to a 7-4 victory over Bowie at Canal Park on Thursday. With three singles and a triple, the 24-year-old extended the league's longest hitting streak of the season to 24 games.

The Clemson product added a single to right off the southpaw in the fifth before ripping another base knock to right two innings later against right-hander Tanner Chleborad.

With the bases full in the eighth, Krieger battled with righty Christian Binford until the count reached 2-2. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, the California native cracked a hit into center to clear the bases with his second three-bagger of the season.

"[Bowie] had been throwing me some sliders, and I was just trying to stay through the middle of the field and not pull off," he said. "I was just trying to take the fastball the other way and the off-speed to right field. I was just trying to stay within myself and not try to overswing."

Krieger's streak is the only one on the circuit this year that has lasted at least 20 games. Current Mets infielder Jeff McNeil racked up a 17-game run from April 30-May 18. The outfielder's mark is also eight games better than MLB.com's top overall prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s streak of 16 games compiled from April 21-May 10 with New Hampshire

Admittedly, Krieger is happy to be in such strong company, but he added he's trying to not to harp on the streak. His plan is to make strides in all facets of the game as he closes out his third professional season.

"I think there are areas to improve on at the plate and there are areas to improve upon defensively, especially with arm strength and just knowledge of the situation in the outfield," he said. "And on the bases, when to get aggressive, when to shut it down, when to pick my spots. Those are just some areas that I've been working on."

Top Indians prospect Triston McKenzie (6-2) matched his longest Double-A outing with seven innings, allowing one run on five hits and a walk. He struck out five.

Yesterday

in Arizona, 2 more wins.
Jo Rod 2 walks. Naylor 2 walks.
Marcos G 2 singles and a steal [367]
Conner Smith plays 2b/3B with a doubles and single [292]
Billy Wilson 2 walks, 2 steals [11 total]
Rocchio 2 singles [333]
Delgado 2 singles [354]
Pablo Jiminez homer #5, has 5 doubles, 1 triple, 6 singles 261 avg; 882 OPS. But only 1 walk and 26 K
G, Turner, another 2B, is at 305 after adding a double and triple yesterday.

Y. Yannuzzi 4 2/3 5 1 1 2 5
Tahnaj Thomas surprisingly rated No,. 30 on the MLB pipeline 2 0 0 0 2 3
Wilmer Mejia [that makes 3 Mejias left] 4 3 1 1 2 6

For the Scrappers:
Juan Mota 6 6 2 2 0 6
Tyler Freeman 2nd homer of the week and of the season, and a single, hitting .372

For the Captains:
Kirk McCarty 5 6 2 2 2 9 He'd be on my Top 30 ahead of some of the newbies
Sandlin 1 0 0 0 0 1

For the Hillcats:
Plesac 6 2/3 6 1 1 0 5
Longo 2 hits .299

And Will Benson concludes a pretty strange July. He managed 9 hits all month in 74 At Bats, but 5 of the 9, including one yesterday, were homers, and one triple. So he had 3 singles for the month. Another good note, he walked 17 times, and cut his strikeout total although still high to the lowest since April, with 24. And stole 3 bases on 4 tries.
So all he has to do is figure out how to hit some singles and he'll be on the way to stardom. Or at least to Lynchburg.

James Karinchak has (finally) been promoted to AA Akron.

38.1(IP) 22H 7R 4ER 24BB 65SO 0.94 ERA on the year.

65 K in 38 innings. I think he's ready for some better competition.

-

I think McKenzie finally found a feel for his curveball. His last 6 outings ...

35.2(IP) 21H 9R 7ER 12BB 34SO 1.77 ERA

Karnichak on his third team of the year. Unless things go wrong, he will be with the Indians sometime next summer. Potential closer??

BA lines for Tuesday:

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 0 0 0 .217 BB (45)
CLE AA Ice, Logan C 1 3 1 1 .250 2 BB (4)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler CF 5 0 4 4 .272 3B (2), SB (17)
CLE AA Mathias, Mark 2B 3 1 0 0 .219 BB (48)
CLE AAA Chang, Yu 3B 4 1 0 0 .259 2 BB (36)
CLE AAA Haase, Eric C 5 0 1 2 .243 2B (20), BB (28)
CLE HiA Collins, Gavin C 3 1 0 0 .225 BB (10)
CLE LoA Benson, Will RF 4 1 1 1 .164 HR (16)
CLE LoA Gonzalez, Oscar LF 4 0 1 0 .282
CLE LoA Jones, Nolan 3B 4 0 1 1 .273
CLE MAJ Allen, Greg CF 4 3 3 0 .224
CLE R Gonzalez, Marcos SS 4 0 2 0 .367 SB (2)
CLE R Naylor, Noah C 2 0 0 1 .327 2 BB (7)
CLE R Rodriguez, Johnathan RF 2 1 0 0 .289 2 BB (19)
CLE SS Freeman, Tyler SS 3 2 2 1 .372 HR (2), SB (6
CLE AA McKenzie, Triston 7.0 5 1 1 1 5 2.77 W (6-2)
CLE LoA Sandlin, Nick 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 1.74