more on Valera:

Juice (Philly): Hey Ben. Over the last three years we've seen four toolsy outfielders (Robles, Acuna, Soto, Adell) explode from the lower levels into being premier prospects in the game during the course of a single season. If you were a betting man, who would you place your bet on for next season, if the trend holds?
Ben Badler: Jordyn Adams, Everson Pereira, George Valera would be ones to watch.

Tyler Freeman with a 3 hit night, including a pair of doubles. Leads the NYPL in average, hits, doubles, on base pct, slugging avg, OPS, total bases. That's all.

Impressive work by 17 year RHP Mike Garcia. 4 innings, 8 strikeouts, 5 hits 2 walks, 1 run. Well a lot on base but also lots of K. He has fanned 35 in 24 1/3 innings. 6-4 183.

Tuesday:

CLE AA Krieger, Tyler DH 3 0 0 0 .260 BB (31) [2 for his last 25]
CLE AA Mathias, Mark 2B 3 0 1 0 .222
CLE AAA Allen, Greg CF 3 1 3 2 .298 HR (2)
CLE AAA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 0 0 0 .250
CLE AAA Chang, Yu 3B 2 1 1 1 .255
CLE AAA Haase, Eric C 2 1 1 1 .238 HR (15)
CLE AAA Mercado, Oscar PR-RF 0 1 0 0 .200
CLE HiA Collins, Gavin C 3 0 0 1 .216
CLE HiA Jones, Nolan 3B 4 1 1 0 .200
CLE MAJ Gonzalez, Erik PR-DH 0 0 0 0 .307
CLE SS Freeman, Tyler SS 5 0 3 1 .388 2 2B (20)
CLE AA Civale, Aaron 6.0 4 2 2 1 6 4.09 L (5-6) [best start in awhile]

There were as usual plenty of impressive lines by the kids in the desert.

C: Levastida walk hitting 316
C: Naylor walk steal #5 .299
1B/dh: Cooper single double 308
1B/dh Jerez grand slam HR #10 leads the league
IF: Turner single single 308
IF: Rocchio triple 3 rbi 337 steal #9
IF: Delgado single 328 steal #8
IF: Marcos Gonzalez single single wlak 343
LF: Cardenas single single walk 310
CF: Billy Wilson double walk steal #13 241 [OPS 923]
RF: Johnathan Rodriguez single single 286

BA re-ranks each "organization" but I think they just mean the minors; otherwise San Diego wouldn't be first and Tampa second. You can tell the Padres have a rich farm system since our former No. 1, Mejia, is only No. 4 for them although he's still ranked No. 25 in all of baseball.
Which suggests that in a few years the Padres will be dumping all these young guys to rebuild again. Even more likely that Tamps will do so.

Meanwhile,


CLEVELAND NO. 25 

Last rating: 22

2017: 18 | 2016: 17 | 2015: 23 | 2014: 17 | 2013: 24

[DESPITE CONSTANTLY LOW RATINGS, THEY HAVE DEVELOPED MORE THAN THEIR SHARE OF HOMEGROWN MAJOR TALENTS]

1 Top 100 Prospect: RHP Triston McKenzie (29).


State of the System: After graduating Shane Bieber and trading Francisco Mejia to the Padres, the Indians have a thinned-out farm system. The best talent is still in the lower levels, including promising 2018 draft and international signing classes, but the organization is light on impact talent that could help in the big leagues within the next two seasons.

Over those last 5 years, in which the Indians' talent level never rated in the top half, they have developed:

starting pitchers Bauer [Cy Young candidate], Clevinger and Bieber. Closer Allen.
the best left side of the infield in baseball
also top talents Sheffield and Frazier who yielded Miller. top talent Mejia who yielded Hand.
extra infielder Gonzalez
a whole bunch of OFs who routinely rated toward the top of the rankings and who have been pretty close to useless
some miscellaneous other talent that yielded gap fillers like Guyer and Bruce and Martin.

I'm impressed.

A couple awful outings by relievers [we thought were] on the rise:

Henry Martinez 5 runs in 1/3 inning; James Karinchak 2 runs in 1 inning

In AAA, 3 games: Martinez has this interesting line 1 inning 11 hits 10 runs, earned 1 walk 2 k ERA 90.00
in AA 2 games, Karnichak is much better than that 2 1/3 innings, 4 hits 3 runs, earned 5 walks [not so good] 3K ERA 10.13

Not quite to that level, Sandlin allowed the winning run to score when he entered with a man on 3rd for Lynchburg.
in High A 3 games Sandlin's OK 2 innings, 1 hit, 1 run earned, 1 walk, 4 K ERA 4.50

CLE AA Krieger, Tyler DH 3 0 0 0 .258 BB (32) slump continues
CLE AA Mathias, Mark 2B 3 0 1 0 .223 2B (19)
CLE AAA Bradley, Bobby 1B 3 1 0 0 .222 BB (1)
CLE AAA Chang, Yu SS 4 0 1 0 .255 2B (26) decent not terrific year
CLE AAA Haase, Eric C 4 0 2 1 .241
CLE AAA Mercado, Oscar CF 2 0 0 0 .176 BB (3) I'm really excited about picking him up
CLE HiA Jones, Nolan 3B 4 1 2 1 .250 2B (1), BB (3) our No. 1 position player
CLE LoA Benson, Will RF 5 1 1 0 .162 SB (8) a SINGLE!
CLE LoA Gonzalez, Oscar LF 5 2 3 1 .286 2B (19), HR (13) hot again
CLE LoA Palacios, Richie 2B 5 2 4 1 .263 SB (2) Line of the Day. Yeah Richie.
CLE SS Freeman, Tyler SS 5 0 2 0 .388 2B (21) Just a typical day for Freeman

and the pitchers:

CLE HiA Hentges, Sam 4.0 4 4 3 5 6 3.46 not getting anyone excited
CLE HiA Sandlin, Nick 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 4.50 a rather dull line
CLE LoA Scott, Adam 2.0 3 2 2 1 5 3.60 another reliever with an off night but the K's are impressive

BA did not include Naylor who made his 3rd base debut yesterday. Some scouting reports suggested that would be better fit for him, citing his no better than average defensive skills behind the plate and adding that with his top quality bat it would be advantageous to have him at a position that's easier to master so he'd reach the majors all the faster

Thought this might be of interest to you guys:

Blue Jays recalled LHP Thomas Pannone from Triple-A Buffalo.

Pannone opened the season on an 80-game PED suspension and has posted a 5.36 ERA in 50 1/3 minor league innings since returning to action in late June, but the 24-year-old southpaw was once a pretty good prospect.

He'll presumably work in long relief in his first taste of the majors. Aug 9 - 3:43 PM

Bradley’s brief hot streak is over. Back to 0-4 with 3 K. ... Yandy 2-3 with double and Haase with 16th homer in a pinch hit appearance. ... Merritt 4 earned in 5+, ERA of 5.05 now. ... Olsen and Marshall continue good work out of pen.

and Ben Taylor finished it up. Those 3 are all on the 40 man roster and I suppose will all join the Indians' bullpen in September. We have a full core of LH relievers [unless someone gets hurt again] but I could still consider Marshall or Taylor as a longshot addition to the post season roster. Of course, one of the starters will have to be moved to the pen so I guess there's no room. But Otero is certainly replaceable.

Friday starters:

old timer Mitch Talbot; AA veteran Jake Paulson; 10-game loser Tully; surprise talent J.C. Mejia; and not so hot Juan Mota

Thursday:

6 singles for Akron in a shutout loss. Kyle Dowdy was good this time: 7-6-2-2-2-6
BTW they recently released once a prospect Dorsyss Paulino

2 singles for Lake County in a shutout loss. But red-hot Benson extends his streak to 3 games. Oscar Gonzalez with the other one.
Hot and cold Francisco Perez was lukewarm 5 1/3-5-4-4-1-7

Scrappers got a win. Kyle Draper 5-6-0-0-0-9
Freeman with only one single and not any doubles.
Fermin singled, walked as usual and a sac fly.
Henry Pujols stays aflame single and homer and 2 rbi. Hitting 263 in his last 12 games: 47-4-21-11 3 homers 5 doubles but 1 walk/13K
His line in the streak is 447/458/745

Lynchburg and Arizona were off