Cleveland Sports Forum

In my cursory first half summary, I forgot Tyler Freeman who HAS played up to his expectations at Akron, but who's been hurt and out of the lineup for a couple or more weeks. Not sure the cause. I think he could be ready to move up to AAA where he'd join Arias and Giminez and Miller among a crowd of middle infielders.

Arizona kids won 8-5.

CF Luis Durango drew 3 walks and stole 4 bases. Anyone remember Gabriel Mejia basestealing superstar in AZ never did much after
22 Pastrano 2 doubles
LF S. Rodriguez 2 hits
home runs from Jr. Sanquintin and Frias, his OPS now 1.432

Thursday:

CLE AAA #2 Nolan Jones, 3B 4 0 0 0 0.227
CLE AA #5 Bo Naylor, C 4 1 1 1 0.194 2B (8),
CLE HiA #6 George Valera, OF 1 0 0 0 0.253 appeared as a pinch hitter
CLE AAA #7 Gabriel Arias, SS 3 1 1 1 0.249 HR (6), BB (26), E (9),
CLE HiA #8 Brayan Rocchio, SS 5 1 2 0 0.254 SB (12),
CLE HiA #11 Aaron Bracho, 2B 2 0 0 1 0.192 BB (19), CS (1),
CLE MAJ #22 Bobby Bradley, 1B 2 2 2 1 0.216 HR (18), 2 BB (19),
CLE AAA #30 Yu Chang, 3B 4 0 0 0 0.183 he's dropped a few more spots on the Cleveland IF depth chart

Saturday games were pretty bad across the board; 1 win and 5 losses. A few positive lines

Remember Owen Miller the Offensive Savior? He has not done much in his return to Columbus but yesterday he homered and singled twice
Adam Scott returned from injury for season debut in Akron. 3 innings, 8 baserunners but only 1 scored
Victor Nova the last of the many pieces of the Clevinger deal with his 5th homer and a singled and 3 rbi for Lake County
Petey Halpin OF in Lynchburg with 2 hits including his 3rd double out of 6 hits; and his 2nd and 3rd steals in 25 plate appearances
Gabriel Rodriguez also for the Hillcats double and 2 rbi
Jhonkennsy 1B/3B who was having a breakout start in Lake County before injuries got a couple AB in Arizona
OF Jorge Burgos for AZ team with 2 hits is batting 450 and 1210 OPS in early play
IF Pastrano 2 hits.

On the other hand
Logan Allen Sr. continues to get worse and worse with even less success against AAA hitters than major leaguers: 2 1/3 7 7 7 7 4 4 2 HR
Gose was supposed to be ready to break through to the majors but continues to struggle 1 2 1 1 2 2 5.68
highly regarded Lenny Torres not doing much for Lynchburg 3 1/3 3 2 2 4 3 5.40'

Naylor went 0-1 in the futures game.

in another pitcher's duel in the desert, our Ariizona team lost 14-12

the big hitting star was a 23 year old playing with teenagers, so I won't mention him.
of the prospects:

Jr. Sanquitin 2 singles
Isaiah Greene OF from the Mets in the Lindor deal 2 singles 2 walks hitting 391 with 1124 OPS
Jordan Luplow and Jhonkennsy Noel rehabbing

EVery one of the 5 pitchers had a terrible line.

Yikes Mejia and Peacock lit up!!

https://www.milb.com/gameday/clippers-v ... ame=651644

4-4 for Brayan Rocchio. For a young guy in High A he's hitting just fine. Not a league leader so not getting extensive press but much more positive stat lines than his similarly lauded teammates George Valera and Aaron Bracho.

(Lansing, MI) – The Lake County Captains (33-28) needed fewer than six offensive innings to drive home eight runs and slam seven extra-base hits in a rain-shortened win over the Lansing Lugnuts (29-32) on Tuesday night at Jackson Field. Brayan Rocchio led the offense with a four-hit night and starting pitcher Alex Royalty spun five shutout innings to beat Lansing, 8-0. The game was called in the top of the sixth due to inclement weather.

For the second time in the last five games Will Brennan led off the game with a home run. Following the Brennan blast, Rocchio punched a soft fly ball to shallow left center. Left fielder Lazaro Armenteros dove for the ball but it snuck under his glove and died in the grass allowing Rocchio to get to second with a double. He moved to third on a wild pitch, then Brayan Lavastida walked to put runners on the corners. Lavastida swiped second base with George Valera at the plate, but Valera struck out and José Tena flew out, unable to drive home two runners in scoring position. But with two outs, Joe Naranjo delivered an RBI single to right field that brought home Rocchio and Lavastida to put the Captains on top 3-0 in the first.

Lake County added another run against Lugnuts starter Seth Shuman to give them a 4-0 advantage. Victor Nova walked to open the frame, then with one out moved to second when Brennan got hit by a pitch. With runners on first and second Rocchio smacked a single up the middle to drive in Nova for the fourth Captains run.

A long ball extended the Captains’ lead in the fifth. After Rocchio doubled for his third hit of the night, Lavastida cracked a two-run shot over the 20-foot high wall in center to give Lake County a 6-0 lead.

More extra-base hits pushed the Captains’ advantage to 8-0. Nova started the rally with a triple to the right-center field alley and Quentin Holmes hammered a double off the base of the wall in right-center to score Nova. Later in the frame. Rocchio delivered his fourth hit of the game, an RBI single to left field, that plated Holmes to give the Captains an eight-run cushion.

The game went into a rain delay shortly after Rocchio’s RBI single. Lavastida walked and Valera took a first-pitch ball before home plate umpire Jen Pawol called for the Lansing grounds crew to roll out the tarp at 8:48 p.m. The game was later called due to inclement weather at 10:02, following a one hour and 14 minute delay.

Royalty (1-0) earned the win and picked up a rain-shortened complete game shutout. The right-hander pitched five innings and held the Lugnuts scoreless on just four hits. Royalty struck out three and walked one. [N.B. Royalty was recently demoted from Akron when Logan Allen Jr. got his promotion]

Shuman (1-3) took the loss. The Lugnuts’ starter allowed a season-high six runs on seven hits across five innings. Shuman struck out four and walked two.

Xzavion Curry starts for the Captains in game two of this six-game series at Lansing. First pitch at Jackson Field is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

The Logan Allen Jr. express keeps rolling. His debut in AA was just as good as his work in High A where he began his career in May.
Low pitch cap saw him removed after 4 shutout innings, 2 hits, no walks, 6 strikeouts.
By the end of the summer he may have switched team assignments with his older namesake so is looking worse and worse.

Meanwhile Breakout Star of 2021 Will Benson keeps at it. homer, double and walk. for the season he's hitting 265, his OPS is 976
All he's done in July is hit 469/564/909

Another Akron OF Steven Kwan singled and doubled, hitting 300/OPS 872

Benson makes contact now?

strikeouts have dipped a little

% of K per total plate appearance
2016 32.6%
2017 33.9%
2018 30.0%
2019 29.3%
2021 29.4%

but big improvement in K per BB

2016 2.73
2017 2.58
2018 1.85
2019 2.22
2021 1.50

"Midseason Minor League Players Of The Year For All 30 MLB Teams" from BA

Our candidates would have to Logan Jr. and Oscar G; with Rocchio and Benson getting good marks, too.
For a breakout bat it would be Angel Martinez; breakout pitcher the X man Xzavion Curry


And the winner is:

Cleveland: Tyler Freeman, SS
Double-A Akron • Age: 22

Freeman kept doing his thing in his first taste of Double-A, hitting .327/.377/.469 to push his career average to .320. He also saw time at second base and third base as he nears Cleveland.

I keep forgetting about him since he has been out a few weeks.

BA top prospects Tuesday include:

Brayan Rocchio, High-A Lake County (Indians)—Rocchio extended his hit streak to seven games in a shutout win over Lansing, with a 4-for-4 day including two doubles, two runs scored and two RBIs. The 20-year-old shortstop is putting up solid numbers in his full-season debut and has shown more pop, with seven home runs through 51 games, surpassing his previous career high of five over 69 games at the short-season level in 2019. He's hitting .271/.330/.438 with 25 RBIs and 13 stolen bases, but he's also shown more swing and miss, with a career-high 49 strikeouts.

CLE AAA #2 Nolan Jones, 3B 4 0 1 0 0.224 2B (20),
CLE HiA #6 George Valera, OF 3 0 0 0 0.250
CLE AAA #7 Gabriel Arias, SS 4 0 1 0 0.245
CLE HiA #8 Brayan Rocchio, SS 4 2 4 2 0.271 2 2B (12),
CLE AAA #19 Owen Miller, SS 3 0 0 0 0.269 BB (20),
CLE LoA #28 Yordys Valdes, SS 3 0 0 0 0.201
CLE LoA #29 Angel Martinez, SS 4 1 1 0 0.283
CLE AAA #30 Yu Chang, 3B 4 1 2 1 0.205 HR (3),

CLE AA #21 Logan Allen, LHP 4.0 2 0 0 0 6 1.46 this is JR.
CLE AAA #23 Sam Hentges, LHP 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 8.04

Nice to see Bo Naylor gaining momentum.

https://www.milb.com/gameday/rubberduck ... ame=645968

Big day for our minor leaguers, lots of offense from lots of guys with bright futures including Rocchio, Valeria, Palacios, Bracho.
Another excellent start by Xzavion Curry.
I note that Daniel Espino has been promoted to Lake County.

Details to follow