Question posted at BA:

Jim in KC: What's your take on Gabriel Mejia CF Clev (DSL), Li-Jen Chu C Clev (AZL), and Yu Cheng Chang SS Clev (AZL)- these 3 are a long way off, but are putting up some crazy stats (also Bobby Bradley 1b AZL- who is lights out). Is Cleveland starting to garner some position players in the minors worth dreaming on? (In addition to Clint Frazier, Tyler Naquin, Bradley Zimmer, Francisco Mejia, and James Ramsey)

But it was not answered.

I have tried asking about GMejia and Chang too, but no reply either. BA q/a is generally limited to a) The Top Prospects; and b) Cubs prospects. Except during the winter when each team gets a few hours to discuss anyone and everyone.

Everybody loses, outscored by total 38-18. We lost small, Carolina 1-0, we lost big Lake County 11-1. We gave up 10 runs, Akron, 12 runs Mahoning Valley. The box scores:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140830

Highlights?

Aguillar doubled; Urshela singled; and highly touted prospect Branyan two singles and a double
3 pitches hoping to come to Cleveland pitched well:
Shawn Marcum 3 scoreless, Austin Adams and Bryan Price 1 scoreless each

Erik Gonzalez singled twice, doubled, tripled, batted in 3, made an error.
Former prospect Cody Anderson stunk again, 6 innings, 8 runs on 8 hits and 17th homer in 125 innings.

LeVon Washington doubled and walked. Luigi Rodriguez tripled.
Dylan Baker is back in form, a bit late in the year 8-6-1-1-3-2 headed to the Arizona Fall League for more work

Clint Frazier singled and hbp; Zimmer promoted to LC goes hitless

Taylor Murphy 2 doubles and hbp; F Mejia 2 hits, .281 for the 18 year old catcher.
three awful Scrapper pitchers with awful outings

BA's noted lines from Saturday:

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 5 2 4 3 .360 2B (6), 3B (3)
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 4 1 1 0 .303 2B (31)
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Luigi LF-CF 4 0 1 0 .246 3B (3)
CLE LoA Frazier, Clint CF 3 0 1 0 .267
CLE LoA Paulino, Dorssys LF 4 0 1 0 .248
CLE MAJ Ramirez, Jose SS 4 1 1 0 .260 3B (1), BB (6)
CLE SS Armendariz, David LF 2 1 1 3 .130 HR (1)
CLE SS Mejia, Francisco C 5 1 2 0 .281
CLE SS Murphy, Taylor RF 3 2 2 0 .258 2 2B (9)
CLE SS Patterson, Steven 2B 5 1 1 2 .260 HR (2)

CLE AA Anderson, Cody 6.1 8 8 8 3 6 5.30 L (4-11)
CLE AAA Adams, Austin 1 0 0 0 1 1 2.50
CLE LoA Kime, Dace 3 7 6 6 2 2 5.22 L (7-14) [ending the season the way he began it; he was OK midyear]
CLE MAJ Bauer, Trevor 5.2 4 0 0 5 6 4.14
CLE MAJ Crockett, Kyle 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 1.82
CLE MAJ Lee, C.C. 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 3.27

Good games by Zimmer and NRodriguez and Lugo and Frazier and Loopstock, and others, as Captains eke out an 12-0 win on Sunday

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... x&sid=milb

Luis Lugo had an up and down season as a 20 year old 6-5 Lefty in Low A. But he sure finished on a high.

6 shutout innings today; and for the month of August 33 2/3 IP 25 H 8 ER 5 walks, 29 homers. Overall 10-9 4.92.

At bat:

Zimmer's second game in Eastlake included double, homer, steal, two walks.
Rodriguez with his 22nd homer and a single; RBI total 87; and a walk
Frazier's 13th homer
Loopstok 3 singles and a walk. I assume he'll be playing winter ball to make for lost time; hit well after he finally returned, only got into 14 games.

Adam Miller returns to AAA for the first time since 2008. One scoreless inning. Clippers get reinforcements, Miller and Jordan Cooper, to replace Price and Adams for the playoffs.

Aguillar's two hits, so he finishes his AAA season at 304/395/511/906.
Lindor 2 hits include his 5th AAA homer.
Mighty Ryan Raburn 0-3 is 1-17 in his AAA rehab.

Sunday boxes: http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140831

Ronnie Rodriguez 2 hits, but he's only at 229 in his second AA season. 598 OPS. 665 last year wasn't much, this is far worse.
6 runs, 10 hits over Morimando in 6 1/3. Grant Sides promoted to help fill in the RDucks pen for their playoffs.

LeVon Washington's 2 hits put up at 290. Busiest season for former second round pick since 2011. But he's 23 now and still in Class A. Not much power. Not much speed. His defense must be limited, since he only plays LF.
Adam Plutko finishes with 6 1/3 innings, 8 hits, but only 2 runs, 6 K and 1 walk. ERA 4.08. Is he the best starting pitching prospect besides the 2014 draft picks? He probably has been bypassed by surging Mitch Brown.

Arizona wins the one-game first round of the playoffs. Yu-Cheng Chang raps two hits including a homer. Fellow Taiwanese Catcher Li-Jen Chu doubles twice and walks.

Thomas Pannone the starter allows one earned run in 5 2/3. Another Taiwanese, Ping-Hsueh Chen, finishes up.

In his four full seasons in the Minor Leagues, Colorado Rockies slugger Nolan Arenado never won a championship. His younger brother is one win away.

Jonah Arenado drove in two runs and Michael Santos pitched five scoreless innings Sunday night as the Giants beat the Mariners, 6-2, to return to the Arizona League Final.

The younger Arenado, a 16th-round pick in the 2013 Draft, delivered a run-scoring double in the fourth inning and capped a two-run fifth with an RBI single that gave the Giants a 4-0 lead.

That was more than enough for Santos (1-0), a non-drafted free agent who ranked fourth in the league with a 2.56 ERA during the regular season. He limited the Mariners to three hits and a walk while striking out six.

The Giants will defend their championship Monday night against the Indians, who defeated the Rangers in the other semifinal, 7-3.

Li-Jen Chu doubled twice and drove in two runs, while fellow Taiwan native Yu-Cheng Chang hit a solo homer, singled and scored twice for the Indians.

Both finalists received first-round byes after dominant second halves in which the Indians were a league-best 20-5 and the Giants went 20-8.

[I guess it's a one-game final too]

Regular seasons end elsewhere today. Then the 3 other playoff teams go back to work on Tuesday.

With one day left in the regular minor league season, here's a review of our starting pitching prospects preseason and how they've done. This group was not our strength, and still is not.

Baseball America rankings about Tribe Top 30 prospects:

No. 3 Trevor Bauer. After a rather unsuccessful 2013 season, detractors were already writing off the just 23 year old. "Skeptics who doubted he could hold up with is diligent throwing program at the professional level had some vindication in 2013.... He wore out his welcome in Arizona." All of which proves only that Arizona remains the worst judge of talent in its own organization.
2.15 ERA and WHIP of 1.087 in AAA
3.99 ERA and a WHIP too high of 1.403 with the Indians.
By any reasonable measure he's doing just fine for a still only 23 year old in the big leagues.

No. 5 Cody Anderson Rated that high in large part because there was little else worth noting in the Tribe system, and he had good 23 starts in 2013 at Carolina with a 2.34 ERA and 1.10. He ended last year apparently worn out and his WHIP with Akron in 3 starts was 1.97.
BA liked his downhill movement on his 95 mph fastball and "solid if unspectacular" slider and change.
Very unspectacular performance in 2014. 5.44 ERA 1.48 WHIP 17 HR in 125 innings.
he's 4 months older than Bauer.

No other starters showed on the Tribe list until:
No. 16 Dace Kime.
3rd round pick in 2013 he was OK with Mahoning Valley in his debut, 2.92, WHIP 1.42.
Comments noted "doesn't have much movement" with his fastball which "puts a premium on his fringy command" "Has the makings of a plus pitch with his curveball"
Spent all 2014 in Lake County with mixed results:
April ERA 9.95. WHIP 2.07.
May was better [could hardly be worse] and June his ERA was 2.65, WHIP still 1.44. Last two months, ERA back about 5.50.
He'll be 23 when next season starts and hasn't proven himself in low A yet.

No. 18 Adam Plutko.
UCLA grad didnt' pitch in 2013. BA said "his stuff may not make him more than a No. 4 starter at the major league level but he has a good chance to move through the system quickly"
One month older than Bauer, fellow UCLA grad, Plutko was 3.93 ERA with 1.158 WHIP with Lake County; and 4.08 with a decent 1.2056 WHIP with Carolina. Worked 150 innings, struck out 144. He'd have some great starts and some terrible ones. At least he didn't regress and could be ready for Akron, although his 11 homers in 97 Carolina innings is a concern

They crowded a lot of other starters onto the bottom of the list:

No. 21. Luis Lugo. First lefty of this group. Big 6-5 200 pounder pitched all year at age 20 with Lake County.
BA noted that he worked mostly at 89-91 mph but his size and strength allowed for some projection. Throws downhill. Needs to work on his curve, shows signs of a good changeup.
Another guy who was inconsistent in 2014,. Overall ERA was way up there at 4.98. WHIP fair at 1.298. 16 homers in 126 innings.
Dramatically improved his strikeout ratio: In 2013 44 in 64 IP. In 2014 146 in 126 innings. Monthly ERAs were:
6.00; 4.34; 3.95; 9.12; 2.14. Nice way to finish up.

No. 22 Shawn Morimando. A much smaller Lefty; 5-11 195. Wont' be 22 until the offseason and finished the year in Akron. Walked way too many in 2013. BA said his FB was generally 90-92, with a tight curevall. "He's athletic with a low effort delivery and his command should be solid in time.... Lacks a plus pitch but has a chance to have four average pitches:
Allowed only 72 hits in 96 innings returning to Carolina this season; command was little better 35 walks. ERA a fine 2.99, WHIP 1.11. Moved up to Akron for 10 starts. WHIP 1.42., ERA 3.83. Only allowed 2 homers in AA in 56 innings.
So I guess he's moving along roughly as anticipated.

No,. 23 Casey Shane. 6-4 200 pound RH drafted 6th round, 2013. Just turned 19 last week.
BA said "Shane has a smooth, repeatable delivery that portends a future as a solid strike thrower once he learns to repeat his delivery" Worked 29 innings in Arizona in 2013 with 6.52 ERA and 1.69 WHIP
2.72 ERA with 1.144 WHIP back at Arizona for 46 innings. Even better results against much older competition at Mahoning Valley: 0.82 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in two starts, 11 innings.

I'm tired. I'll get back later with No. 24 Mitch Brown who had a breakout final month or two this year, 20 year old worked all year at Lake County. No. 30 Sean Brady LH, age 20, spent the second half of the summer pitching pretty well at Mahoning Valley.

Others who didn't make the Top 30 but have probably improved their prospects this year are Dylan Baker who just missed the list and missed most of this season after an April injury; and Ryan Merritt who was listed far down the "depth chart" but won 13 games as a softish tossing lefty at Carolina. Also, just missing the list was T. J. House who was No. 31 and we all know what he has done.

And then of course there are the longshot high ceiling draftees of 2014, primarily Sheffield and Hockin.

5 shutout innings by former Angel LH Nick Maronde pitching for Columbus. He's on the 40-man roster already. Could see him in Cleveland after IL playoffs

Arizona Indians continue what they did all season and dominate the league championship game, 14-0 with a 12-run 6th inning icing it.

3B Yu-Cheng Chang led the way as he did in the semi final. 4 hits, including a double and his 2nd postseason homer.
Bobby Bradley had two singles.
C Li-Jen Chu tripled and walked twice.
4 others with a pair of hits apiece.

Pitching was led by 5 shutout innings from Shao-Ching Chiang, 20 year RH. Not sure if he's a prospect.
Justus Sheffield one of four to work a scoreless inning of relief.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... x&sid=milb

Chang's regular season xb hit totals were 9 doubles, 4 triples, 6 homers in 187 AB. Played SS and 3B. Made his share of errors. No idea how he rates as a defender. He sure did hit.

Final regular season box scores:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140901

Lindor singled to finish his AAA season at 273. He's trying too hard though. Caught stealing was his 7th in 10 tries!
Urshela's two hits and a walk and he finished at 276. OPS 804 at AAA.
If the Tribe wants to concentrate on IF defense, install Urshela at 3rd, Lindor at SS and Ramirez at 2B

Erik Gonzalez singled SB, finishes 357 at AA, 6/7 in steals after his promotion.

Possible OF prospects end with good days for Carolina: LeVon Washington singled, doubled, 294 OPS 795
Luigi Rodriguez singled, tripled, 250, 713. He's still only 21, 2 years younger than Washington.
Both should get AA debuts in 2015.

Rough Lake County debut for Sean Brady 2-6-6-4-4--2-2 2 homers
Brad Zimmers; 2nd LC homer in 3 games. Total for both levels: 6 homers, 892 OPS.
Nellie Rodriguez tripled 32 doubles, 3 triples, 22 homers, 786 OPS for 20 year old 1B
Frazier singled, finished 266. Mike Papi 0=2 with a walk, .176

Scrappers split a pair. Cameron Hill 5-5-1-1-0-4 1.76
18 year old catcher F Mejia doubled and tripled in the nightcap, AVG 282,. OPS 747. With bases empty he hit .207. With runners in scoring position he hit .319. Especially tough a man on first, he hit .383

BA game highlights:

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 1 1 0 .357 SB (6)
CLE AAA Lindor, Francisco SS 6 1 1 0 .273 CS (7)
CLE AAA Moncrief, Carlos RF 5 0 1 0 .271
CLE AAA Ramsey, James CF 5 1 1 0 .284 BB (13)
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Luigi LF 4 2 2 0 .249 3B (4)
CLE LoA Frazier, Clint CF 5 1 1 0 .266
CLE LoA Paulino, Dorssys LF 4 0 2 0 .251
CLE LoA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 1 1 1 .268 3B (3)
CLE LoA Zimmer, Bradley RF 4 1 1 1 .273 HR (2)
CLE MAJ Walters, Zach RF-LF 3 0 1 0 .182
CLE SS Allen, Greg CF 3 3 1 0 .244 BB (27), 2 SB (30)
CLE SS Armendariz, David LF 4 1 1 0 .140 [an insignificant 2014 draftee]
CLE SS Mejia, Francisco C 3 2 2 1 .282 2B (17), 3B (4)
CLE SS Murphy, Taylor RF 3 1 2 3 .262 3B (1), BB (26)
CLE SS Patterson, Steven 2B 5 1 2 3 .269 HR (4)
CLE SS Roberts, Drake DH 3 0 1 0 .175 [why list him?}

CLE AA Haley, Trey 2 1 0 0 1 2 7.02
CLE AAA Maronde, Nick 6 2 0 0 1 8 0.00
CLE HiA Clevinger, Mike 5.2 6 3 2 2 7 4.79 L (0-1)
CLE LoA Brady, Sean 2.2 6 6 4 2 2 13.50 L (0-1)
CLE MAJ Adams, Austin 1 3 3 3 0 1 14.54
CLE MAJ Crockett, Kyle 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 1.80
CLE SS DeMasi, Dominic 1 3 1 1 0 0 4.91
CLE SS Feyereisen, J.P. 1 1 0 0 0 1 0.00 finished his first year unscored on.
CLE SS Hill, Cameron 5 5 1 1 0 4 1.76