Cleveland Sports Forum

Logan Allen "Sr" working for Columbus today; Tanner Tully for Akron-- amazed he's still around 26 year old lefty with 4.44 ERA in 2019.

Lynchburg, Virginia – The Lynchburg Hillcats somehow topped Opening Day’s sixteen run performance, piling on nineteen runs in a 19-3 blowout victory over the Fredericksburg Nationals in game two of a six game series.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Nationals struck first, adding two runs against first round draft pick Daniel Espino. The Hillcats hurler allowed singles from Geraldi Diaz and Kevin Strohschein, but fanned Jeremy Ydens to end the frame and limit the damage.

Down 2-0, Lynchburg’s offense answered the call and then some in the bottom of the first. With the bases loaded, Jonathan Rodriguez tied the game up by smacking a double to right. Behind four doubles and a triple from Korey Holland the Hillcats racked up a 7-2 lead after one inning of play.
The Nationals cut the lead to four in the top of the fourth inning, The Hillcats made a pitching change, sending righty Eric Mock to get the final out of the frame.
The Hillcats added twelve more runs over the course of the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings, including a solo-homer from Will Bartlett, to lock down a sixteen run win.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

Angel Martinez and Korey Holland each earned four RBIs, career highs for both players.
The Hillcats racked up seven extra-base hits, including seven doubles.
WHO'S NEXT

The Hillcats and the Nationals return to action Thursday at 6:30pm from Bank of the James Stadium.

I';ll start with the lowlights:

Logan Allen The Elder was even worse in this Columbus debut than in his Cleveland farewell: 1 1/3 innings 7 runs 6 hits 2 walks
Bobby Bradley is the only starter on any of the 4 teams who has a perfect OOO ops after 3 games. He's 0-13 with 6 strikeouts.
Nolan Jones with his first hit, a double, is 1-11 with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts
Mercado and Zimmer are each hitting 100

Not much exciting in the Columbus box, which happens when you lose 9-0 but Gabriel Arias drew a walk; Ernie Clement doubled; Kyle Nelson pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings. [even Owen Miller was hitless 0-4 with 2 K]

Aeros won 9-3 helped by errors and wild pitches. Tanner Tully with 5 solid 1 run innings.
Richie Palacios who debuted in 2018 with 963 OPS over two levels and due to injury and COVID hadn't played since had a single and double and is 5-11 in his first 3 games
Jose Fermin single and double and 3 rbi
Will Benson walked twice and struck out once and stole his 2nd base
A name to remember, somehow, Nick Mikolajchak, 2 perfect innings, fanned 5 . Supposed to be another fast tracked reliever with a quality fastball following in the footsteps of Cody Allen, James Karinchak Nick Sandlin and others.

Captains rallied late for a 7-6 victory
Rocchio singled and doubled
Tena singled singled again and doubled
Lavastida with 2 singles and 2 walks and a steal [2nd in 3 games for the catcher]
Valera singled and K'd 3 times
3 1/3 solid innings of relief by another Eastern European-named reliever Jared Janczak; but he's 25 in A ball and Mikolajchak is 2 years younger in AA

Hillcats held to only 8 runs after scoring 35 in their first 2. They did it on 5 hits
By hit by 3B Christian Cairo was a 3 run homer; his father was a big leaguer Miguel Cairo; also drew a walk and stole a base
Johnnathan Rodriguez back in RF, walked and hit by a ptich, for an OBP of 500 in 3 games.
Will Bartlett doubled; IF's Angel Martinez and Yordys Valdes each drew a walk
A gentleman named Jordan Jones 16th round pick in 2019 started 4-3-1-1-2-5
And the last innings pitched by a familiar sounding name Andrew Misiaszek, 2 0 0 0 1 5. It was Polish closer day I guess

Misiaszek in a Northeastern grad; in the tradition of Aaron Civale.

In 2019 Mikolajchak was an 11th round draft pick in Arizona and Mahoning Valley he totaled 36 strikeouts 3 walks in 25 innings. Sounds like one of our guys.

BA Prospect Report

Brayan Rocchio and Jose Tena, High-A Lake County — The Indians have a collection of super young, super talented middle infielders prowling their system. In fact, five of the 10 youngest players in the High-A Central can be found on the Captains' roster. Tena and Rocchio—Nos. 3 and 6 on the list, respectively—combined for five hits on Thursday, including a pair of doubles.

CLE AAA #2 age 23 Nolan Jones, 3B 3 0 0 0 0.091 BB (1),
CLE HiA #6 age 20 George Valera, OF 5 1 1 0 0.231
CLE AAA #7 age 22 Gabriel Arias, SS 2 0 0 0 0.222 BB (2),
CLE HiA #8 age 20 Brayan Rocchio, SS 5 0 2 0 0.286 2B (1), CS (1),
CLE AAA #19 age 24 Owen Miller, SS 4 0 0 0 0.364
CLE AAA #22 age 24 Bobby Bradley, 1B 4 0 0 0 0.000
CLE AAA #24 age 25 Ernie Clement, SS 4 0 2 0 0.250 2B (2), E (1),
CLE LoA #28 age 19 Yordys Valdes, SS 3 1 0 0 0.000 BB (2), [kid can't hit but supposed to be an excellent fielder]
CLE LoA #29 age 19 Angel Martinez, SS 3 1 0 0 0.500 BB (1), he can hit; his father was a major leaguer too, forget who]
CLE MAJ #30 age 25 Yu Chang, 3B 2 0 0 0 0.140 [his prospect ranking has dropped steadily over the years for obvious reasons]

LE MAJ #1 Triston McKenzie, RH P 5.0 2 0 0 4 5 4.94 W (1-1)
CLE AAA #14 Logan Allen, LHP 1.1 6 7 7 2 1 12.71 L (1-5)
CLE MAJ #15 Emmanuel Clase, RHP 1.0 2 0 0 0 1 0.00

More great starting pitching:

Scott Moss 4 innings shutout 1 hit 1 walk 4 strikeouts; Columbus
Tanner Burns, last year's supplemental 1st round pick, 4 innings shutout 3 hits no walks 6 strikeouts. Lake County
Josh Wolf, part of the Lindor deal, 4 innings 1 run 3 hits 1 walk 7 strikeouts
Akron delayed by rain, just started Alex Royalty 1 shutout inning

Akron scored 3 in the 1st of their game, lots of people walked, including Benson with his 4th in about 8 at bats

Columbus now up 6-0. Bradley got his first hit of the season, of course a 3 run homer
Mercado a two run single. Zimmer sinks to 083 with 2 more strikeouts

Lake County up 3-0. HR by Austen Wade. Bracho in his first game at 2nd base, a walk an rbi. Rocchio a single. CF Brennan double and walk.

Lynchburg bats cooling off even further today, only up 6-2 in the 9th.
Johnkensy Noel his 2nd homer a single 2 rbi. Angel Martinez single, two walks. G Rodriguez single and double.

There are lots of good players on these Class A teams!
The infielders are rotating around 2nd SS and 3d. Since they all started as SS.

Hey civ - thanks for the update.

BIG PICTURE yes there are tons of good kids in the system now and that's not just ours and the front office's opinions.

So....that's why you cut salary drastically and plan a one year "re-trench" where you get the kids on the big team more experience and give the kids in the system one more year as well.

Then you start launching those kids - with some veterans still around - and the next run begins.

oops I missed Owen Miller, 3 singles, playing FIRST BASE

Nice!

combined record after 4 days: 14 wins 2 losses. Lots and lots of good pitching lines with the sole exception of Logan Allen Sr.
Plenty of solid hitting, Jhonkensy Noel showing plenty of power at Lynchburg and of course Owen Miller [nearly all singles] the best

On the other hand, Nolan Jones has one hit and 9 strikeouts. Brad Zimmer, also I believe rated as a Tribe No. 1 prospect in the past, tied with Jones for the AAA-East K lead.

Mr. Wolf from the Mets with a gem last night. Also Mr. Moss from the Bauer deal. And Mr. Burns from last summer's draft.