Charles York's 182 strikeouts in 1993

Thought I could remember all our minor leaguers for the past 40 years. Not him.

I'm not a very good sub for Hillbilly, I have to report 5 losses in 6 games. Only my local Scrappers with a win.

Columbus fell 11-10. Morimando was terrible, but his era won't suffer much: 1 2/3 innings, 8 hits, 9 runs, only 1 earned, 2 walks
Ronnie Rodriguez with a couple hits is at 299. Naquin tripled.

Akron drops a pitcher's duel 2-1. Esparza with his first good outing in ages, 6 innings, 1 run on 4 hits, 2 walks 5 K.
Chang walked and doubled but of course never singles. Bobby Bradley and Greg Allen both 0-4 with 2 K. Allen has not done much since his return.

Unlike Esparza, Hartson has been solid, but not last night. He can blame it all on his defense, like Morimando, with 4 unearned runs. 5 2/3 innings, 9 hits, 6 runs, 2 earned.
Castro with a single, Calica too.
HB's favorite Ben Krauth a scoreless inning, ERA 2.08

Talking about a turn of fortune, Brady Aiken with one of his occasional gems, although he still walked 3 in 6 innings, but only 2 hits, 1 run, 6 K.
7 of the 8 Captain hits were doubles, 2 by Chu, one each for Longo and Wakamatsu and others.

Francisco Perez 20 year old lefty with a good 6 innings earns the only win for a Tribe farm team. 1 run on 5 hits no walks, only a couple K.
In relief Kyle Nelson fanned 3 in 1 2/3, That gives him 35 in 25 innings.
Offense led by the 2016 top draft picks: Will Benson with a pair of homers, that makes 7. His line in August: 250.392/633.
Nate Jones his 15th double; his August line: 360/483/569. Meanwhile early season bats Oscar the G and Ulysses C have slipped back.

NYPL league leaders include:

Jones is 3rd in runs, 10th in hits, 2nd in doubles, 7th in rbi, 1st in walks, 3rd in OBP, 8th in slugging, 4th in OPS

Benson's No 3 in triples, No. 4 in homers, tied with Jones 7th in rbi, No. 6 in sluggins, No. 11 in OPS; and yes he's still No. in strikeouts, although the rate has dropped some from 40% of ab's in June to "merely" 35% in August; walks have increased dramatically

Will Benson showing a heartbeat. He has been much better of late.

I am glad I wasn't attending that Clippers game. 8 unearned runs. That must have been ugly.

Clippers beat Indy 3-2 today. ... Plutko waited to seasons end to get his head out of his ass I guess. 1 earned in 6.2 IP. ... Naquin 1-4 with a double.

Akron beat Erie 6-4. ... Chiang just has not done well since his promotion. Double A is make or break for alot of guys and he seems to be one that is break. 4 earned in 6 IP today. ... Chisenhall was 0-3 in his rehab stint. ... Allen was 3-4 with 2 doubles. ... F.Mejia 0-3. ... Bradley 1-4. ... Lugo starts tomorrow

Lynchburg lost to Wood Ducks 5-1 despite another great effort by DeMasi. 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K. Not sure what to make of him not striking out many guys. He's still doing very well. Might be a guy who gets batters to beat the ball in the ground. We'll see. ... Castro 1-5.

Captains beat Cubs 9-6. ... Hillman gave up 5 earned in 5.1. ... Ice 2-3 with homer. ... Tinsley 1-4 with double.

Scrappers beat Black Bears 5-2. ... Hentges was good again. 5 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K. ... Tati not shabby himself. 4 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. ... Benson 1-4 with double.

AZL Plays late.

DSL teams are all off again.

Shockingly, the Arizona guys wen. 8-6. Our 12th round pick Dante Mendoza in his pro debut, works 1 shutout inning. A 2016 pick Dakotty Clemmer rehabbing with his first inning of the year, too. A couple days ago we saw an inning from Anderson Polanco who last pitched a couple seasons ago. They keep these guys around rehabbing for years, I guess.

Freeman and Holmes were both 0-5. Jose Fermin, a SS BA likes, had a single and double.

A couple other notes from the other games:

Chang with his 23rd homer for Akron.
Calica had a pair of singles; Ka'ai Tom triple and walk for Lynchburg. They're outside chance OF prospects.

BA lines:

CLE AA Allen, Greg CF 4 0 3 0 .261 2 2B (13)
CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 1 1 0 .244
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 1 1 2 .216 HR (23)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 3 1 1 1 .228 2B (23), BB (40), CS (5)
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco C 3 0 0 1 .298 [first time below 300 I think]
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 0 0 0 .165
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 5 0 1 0 .289
CLE LoA Ice, Logan DH 3 1 2 3 .227 HR (10), BB (38)
CLE MAJ Diaz, Yandy 3B 3 1 2 0 .241 2B (4), 2 BB (10)
CLE MAJ Gonzalez, Erik PR-2B 1 0 0 0 .256
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 5 1 1 0 .250
CLE R Fermin, Jose 2B 4 2 2 1 .235 2B (9)
CLE R Freeman, Tyler SS 5 0 0 0 .303
CLE R Holmes, Quentin CF 5 0 0 0 .191
CLE SS Benson, Will RF 4 1 1 2 .232 2B (8)
CLE SS Clement, Ernie SS 4 1 3 2 .293
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 1 1 0 0 1 2 2.86
CLE AAA Plutko, Adam 6.2 7 2 1 1 6 5.90 W (7-12) [races ahead of Hillman in ERA competiton]
CLE LoA Hillman, Juan 5.1 9 5 5 3 5 6.19 W (7-9) [faring far worse than Brady Aiken which isn't saying too much]

Clip show lose to MudHens 6-4. ... Merryweather still hasn't found his footing in AAA. 4 earned in 6. ... Naquin 2-5. ... Papi 0-3 with a walk. ... Almonte a single in 3 at bats in his rehab game.

Ducks lose to Senators 2-1 in pitchers duel. Lugo was very good again. 4.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K. ... Allen 0-5. ... F.Mejia 2-5 with a solo homer. Has average back to .300. ... Bradley 1-5 a double. ... Chang with a throwing error, his 23rd error. Hitting .216. I don't care if he hits some homers, I really don't view this guy as a prospect at all.

Lynchburg was off today.

Captains lose to Cubs 6-3. ... Micah Miniard gave up 6 earned in 4.1 innings. ... Longo 0-2 with 2 walks. And threw a base runner out at 3rd base from OF too. Hitting .362 now. ... Chu 1-3 with a walk. ... Ice 0-3. ... G.Mejia 1-4 with a SB, his 11th. ... * Plesac starts tomorrow. *

Scrappers beat Batavia 2-0 on yet another gem by draftee Zach Draper. 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K. .. 0.84 ERA now. ... Oscar 1-3. ... Jones 0-3.

AZL Tribe beat Royals 6-1. ... Holmes 0-5. ... Freeman 1-3 with a walk. ... Reeves had a day. 2-3 with a double, walk, 2 RBI, and a stolen base. Hitting .282 now. ... Cooper 1-3 with a double and a walk. ... J.Rodriguez 2-4 with a walk.

Only two games in Dominican today and neither of our teams were in one of them.

BA lines:

CLE AA Allen, Greg CF 5 0 0 0 .256 [afraid he'll be dropping out of our Top 10]
CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 5 0 1 0 .243 2B (23)
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 5 0 1 0 .216 2B (22)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 0 1 0 .228 BB (41) [afraid he'll be dropping out of our Top 20]
CLE AA Mejia, Francisco C 5 1 2 1 .300 HR (14)
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 1 1 2 .166 HR (16) [afraid he'll be dropping out of our Top 30]
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 3 0 0 1 .224
CLE MAJ Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 1 2 1 .254 2B (13), SB (17)
CLE R Fermin, Jose 2B 4 0 0 0 .229
CLE R Freeman, Tyler SS 3 2 1 0 .303 BB (7)
CLE R Holmes, Quentin CF 5 0 0 0 .185
CLE R Rodriguez, Johnathan RF 4 0 2 1 .247 BB (19) [this 17 year old is doing some good things, lots of walks, improving as summer goes on]
CLE SS Benson, Will RF 5 0 1 0 .231 BB (26)
CLE SS Clement, Ernie 2B 6 0 0 0 .282
CLE SS Gonzalez, Oscar RF 3 0 1 0 .278
CLE SS Jones, Nolan DH 3 0 0 0 .296
CLE SS Wade, Austen CF 5 3 3 1 .261 BB (13), 2 SB (3), CS (2) [suddenly decided to become a basestealer?]
CLE AAA Merryweather, Julian 6 8 4 4 3 3 6.60 L (3-6)
CLE LoA Miniard, Micah 4.1 8 6 6 1 4 7.46 L (4-13) [Aiken is bad; Hillman is terrible; Miniard is abysmal; Captains pitching has been a flop]
CLE R Cooney, Tim 1 2 1 1 0 1 3.00

Another game and another win for MV Scrappers, 6-3 in 12 innings. Nolan Jones had 4 hits including his 3rd triple. That got him up to .300 but he fell back to .296 after the nightcap.

Gregori Vasquez was not at his most efficient; 9 hits and 1 walk but only 3 runs in 6 innings.
RH Jonathan Teaney fanned 6 in 3 scoreless innings; that gives him 47K in 28 IP
LH Kyle Nelson whiffed 3 in 2 scoreless innings, his totals are 31K in 19 IP

I didn't notice the Scrappers played a DH'er. Thanks, good lookin out. I missed Teaney and Nelson doing their thing.

I'd read the game story in today's Vindicator. Here it is:


Cantu’s double helps Scrappers to sweep

BATAVIA, N.Y.

Ulysses Cantu hit a two-run double in the top of the 11th inning to lead the Mahoning Valley Scrappers to a 6-3 win over the Batavia Muckdogs in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader. In the night cap, the Scrappers blanked the Muckdogs 2-0 in a seven-inning game. The double by Cantu scored Nolan Jones and Oscar Gonzalez. The double came after an RBI single by Jones that gave the Scrappers the lead. Batavia had runners on first and third in the bottom of the 11th, but Terry Bennett struck out to end the game. Jones tripled and singled three times, driving in two runs in the win. Austen Wade singled three times, scoring three runs. Kyle Nelson (3-1) got the win with two innings of scoreless, one-hit relief while Travis Neubeck (0-2) took the loss in the New York-Penn League game. In the second game, Clark Scolamiero drove in both runs. Zack Draper (1-0) pitched five innings to get the win.

Clippers lose to MudHens 7-6. ... Naquin was 0-5 and has dipped below .300. He did throw a runner out at 2B from CF. ... Chisenhall 2-4. ... Almonte 1-4 with a walk.

Akron got a 2 run homer from Taylor Murphy in the 9th to beat Harrisburg 10-9. ... Allen 2-5 with 2 doubles. ... F.Mejia 1-5. Batting .298 now. ... Bradley 2-3 with a homer and two walks. ... Bieber starts tomorrow.

Lynchburg beats Potomac 9-3. ... Brady good again. 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K. ... Castro 2-5 with a solo homer and stolen base. ... Gavin Collins had himself a day. 4-5 with 2 doubles, a homer, and 5 RBI. ... Civale pitches tomorrow.

Lake County was actually off tonight so I read their site wrong yesterday. Plesac actually starts tomorrow. Good day to follow our young pitchers tomorrow. Morgan is starting for Scrappers too!

Speaking of Scrappers, Batavia got a measure of revenge for the shutout yesterday by blanking them 2-0 tonight. ... Jean Carlos Mejia had another great outing. 4 hitless shutout innings with 5 K's. His ERA is still 0.00 at M.V. ... Obviously not much offense here. Rivera had a double. ... Benson had a walk and a SB.

AZL Tribe allows White Sox to score 1 in 9th and 1 in 10th to lose 2-1. ... Some young'an I'm not familiar with, Adoni Kery, had himself a good day. 4 shutout innings, 5 K. .. 2.57 ERA now. ... Gantt 2-5. ... Cooper 2-3 with 2 doubles and a walk. ... Reeves 1-3 with a walk. ... J.Rodriguez 1-4. ... Civ mentioned that BA is high on this Fermin kid. Since that mention I've kind of watched him. He was 0-4 tonight, and 0'fer last night. Only hitting .223. I post updates on any kid in lower levels that do anything cause who knows which of these kids might end up doing something. But I personally have never had Fermin catch my eye. Not sure what they like about him.

Dominican League must be winding down. There were only two games scheduled today. And both were rained out.

I'll find the BA preseason report on Fermin and type it in, and if I forget remind me.

Arizona Fall League rosters announced and one surprise for the Indians:

Mejia is going to be trying out at third base. Also on the Glendale roster from the Indians: Bobby Bradley, Tyler Krieger, and Ka'ai Tom on the "taxi squad" for weekend games only.

"Mejia is listed as an infielder on Glendale’s roster, and the plan is for him to play the infield—primarily at third base—in the AFL. Mejia is the No. 18 prospect on our midseason Top 100 and the top-ranked catching prospect in baseball, and while the Indians will continue to keep Mejia behind the plate long-term, the AFL will give him exposure to a new position. The Indians have previously had internal discussions about getting Mejia experience at third base, though he’s only played catcher this year. He’s also a likely September callup"

"Indians 1B Bobby Bradley has some of the biggest raw power in the minor leagues, and with a hot streak in a league typically thin on pitching, he could easily go on a power tear in the AFL"


Pitchers are not, as they usually aren't, high prospects: Sean Brady is here for more innings after missing much of the summer -- and has pitched well since he returned. The rest are relievers: Argenis Angulo, Leandro Linares and for some reason Luke Eubank.