Other articles have described Diaz' defense much more uncertainly. If he's superb in the field, I'm happy with it!

Civ- How can someone not root for a player named Yandy?

"Yandy is Dandy"

" A dandy play by Yandy"

etc, etc.........

That being said I love Urshula's glove and arm.

You make some pretty impressive points,Lou. Unless someone can offer some Gio rhymes to match Yandy's I may have to switch my allegiance.

civ ollilavad wrote:You make some pretty impressive points,Lou. Unless someone can offer some Gio rhymes to match Yandy's I may have to switch my allegiance.

Urshela is the fella! Gio is Thermal with the glove! GiO-Hio

Yandy ain't the dandy? Maybe he's just too blandy. Or just plain randy. Or hurricane sandy.

Zimmer and Bradley rank 6th and 7th respectively in MLB.com's top OF prospects list.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/162979688 ... =151437456

Good article on Bobby Bradley by Todd Paquette.

http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2016/ ... tely-need/

Indians In Depth ‏@tpaquette_IID · 2 hours ago

Michael Clevinger #Indians 2015 organizational ranks

1) SO 145
2) FIP 3.02
2) ERA 2.73
2) WHIP 1.06
2) AVG .215
3) SO% 22.7%
5) SO/9 8.26

MLB TOP 100 PROSPECT LIST
26 BRADLEY ZIMMER

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27 CLINT FRAZIER

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93 BOBBY BRADLEY

Two in the top 30 is more than our quota, but would be more impressive to have someone in the top 10. Zimmer Frazier and Brantley could make a very good outfield: all capable of playing center field, all basestealers, all homerun hitters. 3 20-20 guys would fit in nicely behind Lindor and Kipnis and Gomes and all those quality pitchers.

Here are the mini write-ups from the top outfielders listing posted above:

6. Bradley Zimmer, Indians
After dominating the Class A Advanced Carolina League during his full-season debut in 2015, Zimmer struggled a bit in Double-A. He deserves a mulligan, however, as it turns out he was playing with a hairline fracture in his foot. The University of San Francisco product's 44 steals last season were a bit of a surprise and there should be more power coming, so future 20-20 seasons seem entirely feasible.
Bradley Zimmer's average-or-better tools across the board allow him to impact the game in a variety of ways

7. Clint Frazier, Indians
The second of two Indians outfielders on this list, Frazier didn't join Zimmer in the climb to Double-A, but he certainly looked like he figured some things out in the second half of 2015. He's always had as much bat speed as just about any prospect, but an overly aggressive approach was often his downfall. Frazier started doing a better job of working the count and continued having success in the Arizona Fall League, setting him up for an exciting jump to the upper levels.

CIV: Have you ever considered doing this?

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ss ... al_feature

It certain has always sounded like a great idea and I met a local bank officer in Youngstown a few years ago who had photos of Victor Martinez plastered on his cubicle walls and he explained that he had hosted Victor when he played for the Scrappers. We have plenty of room with the kids grown and gone, but we also travel a lot in the summer and wouldn't be around to feed the players.

I was going to post a link to that series in the Plain Dealer on the life of minor leaguers. It's very interesting. The kids make no money and sacrifice a number of years of their lives for a baseball dream. And a dream of striking it rich. [If a guy reaches the majors he makes the minimum on a per diem -- not sure if it's 1/162 per game he's on the Indians, or 1/365 of each day he's on the roster]. I believe that once a guy has some major league time he also somehow qualifies for a bump-up in minor league salary, so I think minor league free agents may earn real wages, like $25,000 or so.

Got my BA Prospect Handbook in the mail today. We've already seen their Top 10 a month or two back and hints at other ranked players from the on-line chat. As I find time I'll post some of their other 20 write-ups. The two players who are surprising by their absence are Gabriel Mejia, whose on-base ability and baserunning apparently aren't considered enough and Sam Hentges big lefthander from the 2014 draft who pitched rather well last summer. But to a degree their absence is a tribute to the system's depth. More surprisingly to me is that the system is still rated only No. 17 among the 32 teams. If either two of last year's 3 top draftees [Aiken, McKenzie and Hillman] take off I think that rating should soar.