Eric Stamets has participated in a triple play before. He has seen his team hit into one. On Tuesday, the ledger shifted to two in the plus column.

The Cleveland infield prospect combined with Erik Gonzalez and Richie Shaffer on Triple-A Columbus' first triple play in two years, though the Clippers fell to the Toledo Mud Hens, 6-1, at Fifth Third Field.
In the fourth inning with the score tied, 1-1. Columbus starter Adam Plutko surrendered a leadoff double to Jason Krizan and walked Dominic Ficociello. Matt den Dekker lined the first pitch he saw from Plutko toward the gap between second and first base. Stamets moved to his right from second base and made a diving catch on the ball. Krizan had taken off with the pitch, allowing the 25-year-old to flip to Gonzalez at second for the easy forceout.

"I was kind of in between whether I was going to dive or try to take a deeper angle, and then I just ended up diving," Stamets said. "Because [Krizan] was stealing, I knew we probably had a double play, but I didn't really see what [Ficociello] was doing."

To Stamets' surprise, Ficociello had wandered a good distance off first. He had begun retreating by the time Gonzalez got the ball, but the throw from the Clippers shortstop arrived to Shaffer just in time as Ficociello was diving back into first.
After finishing the play, Shaffer immediately pointed at Stamets and Gonzalez, then jogged to the dugout for a round of high-fives from the rest of his teammates. Stamets took a moment to process the historical moment before joining them.

"At first, I was like, 'Well, that's three outs. That's pretty sick,'" he said.

The Clippers turned a triple play on Sept. 11, 2015 in a 6-1 loss to Norfolk in Game 2 of the International League semifinals. Before then, the club had last accomplished the feat in May 1994. Tuesday's triple play marked the first in the International League and ninth in the Minors this season.

Lake County prepared to slip to 28 games below .500. Ice has 2 hits including his 9th homer; Isaacs 2 hits, but Micah Miniard [rated about No. 27 on the preseason list ] was blasted for 7 runs in less than 3 innings and his ERA climbs over 7,
Aiken, Hillman and Miniard along with Civale and Bieber were supposed to be our best minor league pitching staff, all 5 on the prospect list. the college guys have moved on up, but Aiken and Hillman and Miniard are all nearing the end of rather terrible seasons.

Cameron Mingo, recently promoted from Mahoning Valley, will pitch the nightcap. Or the mid-afternoon cap to be more accurate.

Yet another home run for Eric Haase, that makes 26. I'd be willing to bet that he leads all backup catchers in homers this year. Still only has 35 singles among his 81 hits in 350+ total plate appearances. He's No. 2 in the EL in homers and he leads the league in slugging average and is No. 2 in OPS.
Yet he's never mentioned as a prospect?!

Krieger and Paulino both having forgettable seasons each has two hits.
Chang, another no-singles hitter, with his 20th double. He has 39 singles among 86 hits, in about 445 total plate appearances.
2 runs off Lugo in 5 2/3. Akron trails 5-3 after 8

Captains quickly off to another loss; in the first Capel singled and Chu drove him in with his 15th homer. But Mingo gave up 5 in the next two frames.
With Tapia leading the league in homers, Capel at 20, Chu, etc. the Captains are far and away the league leaders in homeruns. I don't recall Legends Park always being a homer haven? they've hit 138; their pitches have allowed 112 which is second worst but far below the hitters' success. But the homers don't keep LC from being near the bottom in runs scored.
Unlike typical Cleveland farm teams in recent years, they don't walk, last in the Midwest. Last in triples. 2nd last in doubles. worst in on base pct. 3rd worst in steals. This is a homer or nothing offense.

Ah man, Lake County's web site had Plesac listed at starter for game 2. I was looking forward to that more than anything, bummer. Guess I'll just look forward to Kluber tonight instead.

Clippers lose to Toledo again 8-3. ... Merryweather was shelled, 8 earned in 4 innings. ... Naquin 2-5 with a double. ... Papi got a call up again, went 1-3 with a double and a walk.

Akron lost to Harrisburg 6-3. ... Lugo 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. ... Allen 0-4 with a walk. ... Bradley 1-4 with a walk. ... Frankie 0-1 in a pinch hit spot.

Hillcats lost to Astros 7-3. ... Brady was smacked around a bit, 4 earned in 4 IP. ... Castro 0-3 with a walk. ... Calica 1-4 with a 3 run homer. ... Gavin Collins back from injury, 0-3.

Captains dropped both ends of the DH'er to Fort Wayne.
Lost 8-1. ... Miniard was killed, 7 earned in 2.2. ... Longo 0-2 with a walk. ... Chu 0-3. ... Ice 2-3 with homer. ... Isaacs 2-3. ... GMejia 1-2 with walk.
Lost 5-3. ... Henry Martinez 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K. .. 3.10 ERA now. ... Siri with another shutout inning, 2.11 ERA now. ... Chu 2-3 with homer. ... Isaacs 1-3.

Scrappers lost to Batavia again, 6-4. ... This guy is worth keeping an eye on methinks. RHP Gregori Vasquez 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K. .. 1.98 ERA. He is only 19 and had a pretty decent year in AZL last year too. ... Jones 0-3 with 3 walks. ... Cantu 1-4 and a walk. ... Benson 1-4 with a walk, a triple, and a stolen base. Finally showing some potential of late.

AZL Tribe lost in 10 innings to Rangers 7-6. ... Juan Mota was smacked around but did get 4 strikeouts he needed to break the Indians single season record for K's in the AZL. ... Holmes 1-4 with a walk. ... Freeman 1-5 with a double. ... Cooper 1-3 with a walk.

DSL teams played each other tonight so somebody had to win!! And the main DSL team beat the coop team in both ends of a DH'er.
7-4 game one ... M.Gonzalez 1-4. ... Cespedes 2-2 with a double. ... De Oleo 1-3. ... M.Ramirez 1-3 a double.
4-1 Game two ... Sanchez 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K. 2.29 ERA now. ... Diaz 2-2.

BA notes:

CLE AA Allen, Greg CF 4 1 0 0 .258 BB (22)
CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 1 1 .248
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 3 1 1 0 .216 2B (20), BB (47)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler DH 3 0 2 0 .229 BB (39)
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco PH 1 0 0 0 .305
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie DH 2 0 0 0 .164 2 BB (46)
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 3 1 0 0 .292 BB (25)
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 3 1 2 1 .223 HR (9)
CLE MAJ Diaz, Yandy DH 3 0 0 0 .186 BB (7) [well, he got on base once]
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley PH 1 0 0 0 .244
CLE R Fermin, Jose 2B 4 0 1 0 .235
CLE R Freeman, Tyler SS 5 1 1 1 .303 2B (9)
CLE R Holmes, Quentin CF 4 2 1 0 .198 BB (7)
CLE SS Benson, Will RF 4 1 1 1 .226 3B (5), BB (22), SB (4)
CLE SS Jones, Nolan 3B 3 0 0 0 .294 3 BB (37)
CLE AAA Merryweather, Julian 4 12 8 8 1 7 6.65 L (3-5)
CLE LoA Miniard, Micah 2.2 8 7 7 2 1 7.26 L (4-12)

Even without Yandy, Gonzalez, Armstrong and Urshela the Clippers still win easily, 8-1, tonight. ... Naquin 0-4 with 2 walks. ... Papi 2-4.

Akron loses 5-3 to Erie. ... Allen 2-4 with a double. ... Frankie 0-4. ... Bradley 0-4. ... Da Biebs pitches tomorrow.

Hillcats beat Astros 5-1. ... Civale with another great effort. 7 IP, 5 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. ... Castro 0-2 with 3 walks.

Captains beat Fort Wayne 2-1 on another great start by Plesac. 4.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. .. 1.02 ERA now. ... Longo 1-4. ... Chu 0-3 with a walk.

Scrappers beat Batavia 2-0. ... 3 pitchers combine for 4 hit shutout. McCarty 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. .. 1.61 ERA on year now. ... Jean Carlos Mejia 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. .. 0.00 ERA through 8 games and 16.1 IP since his call up from AZL, where he was sporting an ERA of 3.14. ... Jones 1-4. ... Oscar 0-4. ... Lucas 1-4. ... Morgan pitches tomorrow.

AZL Tribe lose to Padres 8-3. ... Holmes 1-5 with SB. ... Rodriguez 1-4.

DSL Indians beat the DSL Indians/Brewers coop 6-4. ... De La Cruz 3 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. ... Gonzalez 2-4 with a walk. ... Lopez 2-4 with a walk. ... Cespedes 0-0, he walked in all 4 of his at bats. Don't see that very often. ... Yainer D 2-5. ... They were supposed to play a double header again, to make up for a rain out. But the second game was rained out.

BA lines: Not much interesting here except for Diaz

CLE AA Allen, Greg CF 4 0 2 0 .262 2B (11)
CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 0 0 .246
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 1 0 .216
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 1 1 2 .229 3B (2)
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco C 4 0 0 0 .302
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 1 1 0 .166 2 BB (48)
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 2 0 0 0 .290 3 BB (28)
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 2 1 1 0 .224 BB (36)
CLE MAJ Diaz, Yandy DH 4 4 4 2 .230 2 2B (3), 3B (1), BB (8)
CLE MAJ Gonzalez, Erik SS 1 0 0 0 .259
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 2 1 1 0 .246
CLE R Fermin, Jose SS 4 0 0 1 .229
CLE R Holmes, Quentin CF 5 1 1 0 .199 SB (4)
CLE R Rodriguez, Johnathan RF 4 0 1 1 .234
CLE SS Clement, Ernie 2B 4 0 2 1 .291 SB (6)
CLE SS Gonzalez, Oscar RF 4 0 0 0 .278
CLE SS Jones, Nolan 3B 4 0 1 0 .293

Hillbilly already cited these two as the best of the night:
CLE HiA Civale, Aaron 7 5 1 1 1 6 2.59 W (10-2)
CLE SS McCarty, Kirk 3 2 0 0 2 4 1.61

None of our prospects did anything of particular note this week, so appropriately we are again shut out on the Hot Prospect list.
Most interesting player of the past month is Plesac. I would like to know more about what pitches he is effectively employing.

In the BA chat:


Jon (Philadelphia): What's a reasonable expectation for Anthony Santander moving forward?

J.J. Cooper: The Orioles work the Rule 5 draft very well. With Santander, his DL stint works out well for him sticking in Baltimore long-time. He won’t get enough time to meet full Rule 5 requirements this year, but he will not need to be on the active roster for very long to start next year and with a stint in winter ball this winter, he shouldn’t be all that far away from being able to compete for a bench spot as a bat on his own merits by 2018.

I noticed that not only is Bieber and Morgan pitching tonight but McKenzie is too. He wasn't listed on their site last night when I looked. Merritt on hill against Royals too. So should be fun night to follow some pitching prospects.

Civ, I won't be around next couple nights. So you gotta man the ship without your first mate.

Subbing for the boss, I'm here to report on big nights for our two top minor league pitchers: Triston McKenzie [new nickname provided by Baseball America: the Blade]:

Triston McKenzie, rhp, Indians. The Blade was mowing through batters again Friday, fanning 11 for high Class A Lynchburg in a 3-2 win over Down East (Rangers). The 6-foot-5, 165-pound Brooklyn native has struck out 176, which leads the minors, while walking 45 in 136 innings. While McKenzie lacks the physicality teams crave in starters, his fastball and curveball are both potentially plus pitches. [They did not bother to mention that he struck out the 11 in only 6 innings, and that he allowed only one hit and one walk.

Meanwhile, Shane Bieber [the Bieb?] with an off night, for him: he walked a batter, but on the positive side he also struck out 8, allowed 2 runs on 8 hits in 6 2/3.

The pitching lines cited by BA:

CLE AA Bieber, Shane 6.2 6 2 2 1 8 2.83
CLE HiA McKenzie, Triston 6 1 1 1 1 11 3.57 W (11-6)
CLE MAJ Merritt, Ryan 6.2 7 0 0 1 3 1.76 W (1-0)

Hitters on their radar:

CLE AA Allen, Greg CF 4 0 0 0 .257
CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 1 1 1 .246
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 3 0 0 0 .215 BB (48)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 3 0 0 0 .227
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco DH 4 1 1 0 .301
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 0 1 0 .167
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 1 1 0 .290
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 3 0 0 0 .222 BB (37)
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 0 0 0 0 .246
CLE R Fermin, Jose 2B 5 1 1 0 .228 2B (8)
CLE R Freeman, Tyler SS 5 2 3 0 .316 SB (4) OPS 825
CLE R Rodriguez, Johnathan RF 4 0 1 0 .235 3B (2) OPS 703
CLE SS Benson, Will RF 1 2 0 0 .225 3 BB (25), SB (5) OPS 749, BUT 922 IN August
CLE SS Clement, Ernie 2B 5 0 0 0 .281
CLE SS Gonzalez, Oscar LF 5 0 1 0 .276
CLE SS Jones, Nolan DH 2 0 0 0 .290 3 BB (40), SB (1) OPS 856 1048 in August
CLE SS Wade, Austen CF 2 0 0 0 .222 2 BB (12)

Also notable:

for Mah Valley, Elijah Morgan 4 shutout innings 1 hit 6 strikeouts; as promised his stuff overwhelms low A hitters, we'll see what happens as he progresses.
his teammate for the day, Josh Tomlin was OK for 3 innings, but fell apart in his 4th inning, wound up allowing 5 runs on 8 hits and one homer

Luke Wakamatsu hit his 11th homer for Lake County, Conner Capel his 7th triple.

Gavin Collins with a pair of singles for Lynchburg. Andrew Calica drew a walk and stole 3 bases. 1 hit for Willi Castro.

Thanks, Civ. And here is a little of this and that from Indians Prospective Twitter account...

After his 11 strikeout performance last night #Indians RHP prospect Triston McKenzie's 176 (SO) leads @MiLB accomplished in just 136 (IP)

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Lynchburg #Hillcats RHP Triston Mckenzie now w/ 5 games of 10 or more strikeouts in 2017.

5/9 (14)
6/8 (13)
7/4 (11)
7/21 (10)
8/25 (11)

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Over the last 25 years in #Indians @MiLB history only LHP Charles York's 182 strikeouts in 1993 had more than Triston McKenzie's 176 in 2017

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Triston McKenzie's 176 strikeouts in 2017 is 35 more than 2nd most in the organization Shane Bieber's 141 done in 17.2 less innings pitched.

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Akron #RubberDucks RHP Shane Bieber has been outstanding over his last 5 starts:

- 30.1(IP) 31H 8R 8ER 2BB 28SO 2.38 ERA #Indians

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#Scrappers RHP @eliimorgan is 2nd on the team in Strikeouts w/ 49 despite throwing 23.1 less (IP) than team leader Felix Tati's 52 #Indians

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AZL #Indians (SS) Tyler Freeman is currently on a 7 game hitting streak:

11-27 9R 2(2B) 1HR 4RBI 3BB 1SB .407 AVG .484 OBP