Cleveland Sports Forum

Columbus box:

https://www.milb.com/gameday/clippers-v ... ame=649789

Oscar Mercado might be ready to return; he's having a great June: 32-8-13-11 with 4 singles; 5 doubles; 3 homers; a triple. 5 walks/6K, 2 steals;
406/513/906

Daniel Johnson with a good night, his 5th homer, 2 singles; hitting 211 OPS 707
Clippers held on for a win; they used 5 pitchers all with ERA's over 5

Nolan Jones walked twice, struck out twice, 0=2 hitting 202 OPS 666
He's got a long way to go

Logan Allen with 6 innings allowing only 1 run. They stretched him out into the 7th, loaded the bases, struck a guy out and reached 90 pitches. then unwisely replaced him with a terrible pitcher named Wisely who promptly cleared the bases. Allen's final line isn't all that impressive but he pitched very well:

6 1/3 5 4 3 4 8

[Wisely a 5-9 184 pound righty, 34th round pick; ERA of 16.88 over two levels; roster filler who screws up other pitchers' stats]

lake County hitters:
Bracho who rarely singles didn't. He hid double and walk
Rocchio and Tena each with a single
3 years older Will Brennan with his 12th double and first triple. Send him to Akron and see what he can do. An OF 309 avg 878 OPS

for Lynchburg, Gabriel Rodriguez 2 singles; Planez and Y Diaz doubles. My friend JohnRod remains out after a good start

Friday's stars:

Tanner Burns, 2nd round RH from 2020 draft, 5 shutout innings.1 hit 3 walks 6 strikeouts
Quentin Holmes 2nd round OF from 2018 draft, 5 2 3 2 and a homer; a day after going 4-4. and his 3rd steal. Speedster has never hit higher than 182 in a previous season

Quentin Holmes with another mulit-hit game: today a triple and a single. 9-13 in last 3 games; with a homer and triple and a steal. 3 games is not much of a sample but it certainly is promising

Lynchburg sent two of its top three pitching prospects out on the mound today.
Lenny Torres 3 2/3 innings 5 hits 2 walks 2 runs 5 strikeouts
Josh Wolf much sharper 4 innings shutout 2 hits 1 walk 3 strikeouts he's the young guy from the Mets

others at Lake County:
Brayan Rocchio 5th homer, 2 walks; that's a lot of power for a single guy
Bracho single and walk
Brennan 2 doubles: he's up to 15 in 128 total at bats.

Dug this up:

Indians RHP prospect Josh Wolf struck out three over four scoreless innings for Low-A Lynchburg.


Wolf, 20, allowed just two hits in the contest, and he issued a single walk.

Acquired in the deal that sent Francisco Lindor to New York in January, the right-hander has been shaky thus far in his first season in the Cleveland system with a 4.66 ERA, but it's been over a total of 19 1/3 innings as he's being treated with kid gloves.

The 53rd pick of the 2019 draft, Wolf has two plus pitches potentially in his fastball and curve, and he he can mix in a cutter/slider and change that get solid grades, as well. There's a lot of work to be done, but Cleveland has developed this type of prospect very well in the past, and he could be a member of that rotation in the next couple of seasons.

I didn't realize he was picked that high in the draft. Definitely ain't chopped liver there.

He's made some lists of Indians prospects as high as number 10 or so.
One more acquisition in the Lindor deal is OF Isaiah Greene. Also a high draft pick, No. 69, i.e. supplemental second round

https://elitesportsny.com/2020/06/13/ne ... ah-greene/
Hit grade 55
Power 50
Speed 65
Arm 50
Defense 55

Key line in that assessment is:

"Like with all of Greene’s tools, the talent is there, but it’s raw. The hope is that the Mets will get him into the system and teach him the mechanics."
Indians are not very good at developing high school outfielders, see Will Benson and Quentin Holmes, although maybe his COVID year was a turn around for Holmes. Add Greene to the pool

Sunday lines, again stupidly, the avg is combined for all levels; Ernie Clement e.g. is not hitting 286 for Cleveland

CLE AAA #2 Nolan Jones, 3B 2 2 2 1 0.214 2B (12), HR (2), BB (23), OPS 7235
CLE AAA #3 Andres Gimenez, SS5 1 1 1 0.202 HR (4),
CLE AA #4 Tyler Freeman, SS 3 0 1 0 0.319 OPS 797
CLE AA #5 Bo Naylor, C 4 0 0 0 0.148 OPS 513
CLE AAA #7 Gabriel Arias, SS 5 1 1 0 0.216 OPS 662
CLE HiA #8 Brayan Rocchio, SS 3 2 1 2 0.236 HR (5), 2 BB (8), E (6), OPS 699
CLE HiA #11 Aaron Bracho, 2B 3 0 1 1 0.200 OPS 671
CLE LoA #12 Gabe Rodriguez, SS 5 0 1 0 0.208 2B (6), OPS 532
CLE MAJ #22 Bobby Bradley, 1B 4 0 1 0 0.235
CLE MAJ #24 Ernie Clement, SS 1 0 0 0 0.286
CLE LoA #29 Angel Martinez, SS 5 0 1 1 0.261 3B (3), OPS 853

CLE LoA #25 Josh Wolf, RHP 4.0 2 0 0 1 3 4.66 Sv (1)
CLE LoA #27 Lenny Torres, RHP 3.2 5 2 2 2 5 6.75

Will Benson, No 1 pick a few years ago, is apparently never going to hit for average but he's among league leaders in walks and more than half than hits are for extra bases, so he's carrying an OPS among the top 10 in the Eastern League or whatever foolish name it has now.

Not including yesterday's game, his stats in May and in June

60 17 11 11 .193 395 450 2 doubles 1 triple 4 homers 20 walks 28 strikeouts
53 15 13 11 .245 414 491 4 doubles 3 triples 1 homer 11 walks 13 strikeouts

And his Akron teammate Oscar Gonzalez who has twice gone unprotected but undrafted in Rule 5 is having a great year

11 homers 10 doubles 327/360/603 He's 3rd in Slugging, 5th in OPS.
One of the guys he trails is Samad Taylor an ex-Indian farmhand traded a few years ago and has never done much until his mammoth breakthrough