Continuing with Friday games:

Mahoning Valley won a 7-0 shutout behind Carlos Vargas' best performance, 6 innings, 2 hits, 2 walk, 6 K. Well regarded prospect hadn't pitched well at all, his ERA now drops to 6.82; in his last 2 starts he totaled 8 1/3 innings and 14 runs.

Yainer Diaz finally promoted from Arizona; in his second summer in the AZL he was hitting an absurd .451 with 5 homers.
George Valera, the thinking man's No. 1 Tribe prospect, well mine anyway, hit his 7th homerun. That makes the league leader. Also tops in OPS. The obvious NYPL MVP at this stage of the short season.
Rocchio with a pair of singles.

Checking AZL stats leaders:

YDiaz no. 2 in slugging no. 1 in batting average no. 5 in on base pct and No. 2 OPS
Bracho slugging #5 OPS #5
Escobdedo OBP #2 SLG #9 OPS #6

Lake County managed 8 runs on only 6 hits; the No. 1 picks Holmes and Naylor both were hitless. Holmes drops to 190; Naylor had been on the rise, but back down to 230. Cardenas with a single, two walks 2 rbi: 299/850

Tyler Freeman with a not unusual 3 hit day for Lynchburg; his 10th double; 366/885. at 2 levels he has hit 26 doubles.
Oscar Gonzalez had been kind of quite lately, but he slugged his 8th homer with 2 men on.

Hillbilly favorite Jose Mota with a fine High A debut, 5 3 2 2 1 5

Thanks Civ. Good news on Diaz!

I read one game story from Arizona in which it sounded like Diaz was really having a terrible time managing his defensive role. Anyway he'll get a bit more of a challenge as a hitter and we'll see where it goes.

When I look at the awful offensive lines for Valdes and Cairo I do keep trying to remind myself of the miserable hitting record for Omar when we dealt for him. At least Valdes was rated an outstanding defender before the draft. Maybe he can learn to hit. Cairo just needs to ask his dad for lessons.

checked in on Omar's minor league stats. He wasnt' very much of a hitter but he never had an OPS below 623; it will take a big surge for Valdes or Cairo to come anywhere close to that lofty level.

Finally reaching the end of this; by now today's games are ready to get going.

Akron yesterday: Ernie Clement two singles and a walk. He's hitting 289, but adds little more, with an OPS of 705. Jones singled and walked; he's hitting about the same 294 but OPS an impressive 944. So maybe he does stay as No. 1 prospect with Valera at 2 and Freeman 3? I like them all and wouldn't trade any.

Logan Ice 2 hits; always valued as a superior defender but not much of a hitter; he's hit well recently, in 8 games 11 for 27 with 2 walks and 2 doubles. That makes a short-term line of 407/445/481. For the season 192/OPS 570

Robert Broom 2 shutout innings of relief, no K. 0.93 at his second stop of the year.

And Dennis Johnson singled in a run, Sac fly for another. Hitting 314 with 913 OPS. All he's done in the extra base hit dept this year is smack out 24 doubles, 6 triples and 15 homes. If BA is right and he's our No. 18 prospect, I sure would not agree with their other rating that puts the organizational rating at No. 16. [BTW, Padres are rated No. 1 so plenty of trade pieces available there as some of our have already noted.]

Remember Shawn Morimando? Indians had to send someone to break into his apartment and get his passport so he could join the team in Toronto for an emergency start. Only one other appearance for the Indians. Now on Mets' Buffalo team. Clippers beat him yesterday.

Aaron Civale's setback was brief. He was back out for a short evening: 3 2/3 3 0 0 3 4
Cameron Hill with 1 1/3 more shutout innings. ERA remains 0
Dennis Johnson 1-5. Chang 1-4 and a walk. Tom triple 2 bi; 388/985; not a prospect?

Otero crushed in Akron, 3 runs in 1 inning. Flop of the year Hu isn't much better in Akron than he was in Columbus, 2 runs in a short 3 1/3 inning start.
Clement two singles, [Isolated power as Bill James called it a woeful 074; that's due to 11 doubles 3 triples 1 homer in 270 AB] Jones a walk.

Great start for Juan Hillman 7 innings, 10 strikeouts 1 walk 5 hits 1 unearned run. Freeman 0-4 Gonzalez and a walk [after a walkless April he's drawn 12 since]

Royalty meanwhile was shelled for 7 runs in 4 innings in Lake County. Naylor with his 8th homer and a walk. Holmes 10th double.
Tim Herrin a 6-5 lefty reliever promoted to LC debuts with 2 2/3 scoreless innings. Matches his Scrappers 0 ERA over 17 innings [10 K in those 17 IP does not impress]

Herrin-less Scrappers lost to the MuckDogs. Only 2 hits for our guys by debuting Yainer Diaz, a pair of singles; his .500 average is just a bit better than his 451 in Arizona.

Arizona guys got satruday off.

Dominicans lose their game too; 2 hits [one a triple] by newcomer Wuilfredo Antunez, a 17 year old OF, 4-10 in his first few games. Gabriel Rodriguez and Angel Martinez singled once.

Sunday games all done except for Arizona; and Lynchburg was rained out.

Columbus won 6-3. Danny Salazar 3 1/3 IP 3 hits 1 walk 6 K no runs.
Kaai Tom single and double; Johnson 1 single; Bradley 1 single 3K

Akron lost 4-1. Tully OK 6 4 2 2 1 3. Clement 1 single; Jones 0-4

Lake County won 7-0. Draper 7 4 0 0 3 5. Holmes single walk steal; Naylor double; Cardenas walk and his 10th homer, 2 RBI

Mah Valley won 5-4. Rochhio single; Delgado 2 singles and a steal; Valera walk sac fly and steal. Catcher Lavastida, the leadoff hitter, doubled and tripled, 20 year old 15th round pick 2018; hitting 282/364/482. 11 k = 11 bb

HB - did you see the Salazar outing? Sure sounds better than that mediocre crap we saw during the previous one at Akron.

No TFIR, but 6 K in 3+ reads promising.

let's hope against hope that there is no further "setback" to use the medical term

Sunday lines from BA which now print horizontally

CLE AA Clement, Ernie SS 4 0 1 1 .291 BB (18), CS (7)
CLE AA Jones, Nolan DH 4 0 0 0 .244
CLE AAA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 1 1 1 .287
CLE AAA Johnson, Daniel DH 4 1 1 0 .318
CLE LoA Holmes, Quentin CF 3 2 1 0 .186 2B (11), BB (25), SB (18)
CLE LoA Naylor, Bo DH 4 1 1 1 .232 2B (12)
CLE MAJ Mercado, Oscar CF 4 0 1 1 .293
CLE R Bracho, Aaron 2B 5 2 2 2 .300
CLE R Velazquez, Andrew CF 3 0 1 0 .429 2B (2), BB (2) [24 year old acquired from Tampa on rehab assignment]
CLE SS Delgado, Raynel 2B 5 0 2 1 .267 SB (4)
CLE SS Rocchio, Brayan SS 4 1 1 1 .231 BB (10)
CLE SS Rodriguez, Johnathan LF 4 0 0 0 .198 [hmm, this is getting disappointing]
CLE SS Valera, George RF 3 0 0 1 .260 BB (25), SB (6)

interview with Daniel Johnson, our No. 18 prospect:


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