Sunday box scores:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140706

Red Hot Nellie Rodriguez who gets into these streaks from time to time went 3-5 with his 17th double; in his last games he's 7-14 with two doubles, 3 homers, 7 rbi. Recently turned 20; his line is 246/331/451/782. Has been walking less lately but maybe that's led to more offensive aggressiveness.

Levon Washington two hits.

Pitching:

Mahoning Valley: Sean Brady 6-3-1-1-1-3
Carolina: Adam Plutko 2-6-6-5-1-2 in a big slump since I branded him our No. 1 starting pitcher prospect
Akron: Gabriel Arais 8-5-2-2-1-4 7-2 3.13 He's 24 years old so not all that old, and he missed some time in the past with injuries so he could be a prospect, but doesn't appear to get any consideration, He and Joe Colon are both pitching well at Akron but don't know if either projects.
Columbus: Bryan Price with a shutout inning of relief; impressed in spring training, then set down with injury. Done well in his return.

Zach McAllister for the Clippers: 6-8-2-2-2-5 5-0 2.25. Why is he staying in the minors? I thought he was an established major leaguer? Although I'm not sure who he'd replace in the Tribe rotation; the most shaky is Masterson and he's not being demoted, although I suppose he could be traded.

BA highlights:

CLE AA Lindor, Francisco SS 4 0 3 1 .279 2B (10)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Ronny 2B 3 1 2 1 .247 BB (14), CS (3)
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 2 1 1 0 .279 2B (15), 2 BB (38)
CLE AAA Moncrief, Carlos RF 4 0 1 0 .264 2B (18)
CLE HiA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 0 1 0 .277
CLE LoA Frazier, Clint DH 5 2 2 2 .249 2B (10), HR (7)
CLE LoA Rodriguez, Nelson 1B 5 1 3 1 .246 2B (17)
CLE R Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 2 3 .351

CLE AA Armstrong, Shawn 1 1 0 0 0 1 1.83
CLE HiA Plutko, Adam 2 6 6 5 1 2 4.83 L (1-4)
CLE LoA Lugo, Luis 4.1 8 6 6 4 6 5.57 [at least he's racking up the strikeouts]
CLE SS Brady, Sean 6 3 1 1 1 3 2.92

So checking on how NellieRod ranks among the Midwest League sluggers; I find he and teammate Eric Haase are tied for 4th in the league with their 13 homers. The top three are all 2 or 3 years old than Rodriguez.

While looking I also found that Haase is 3rd in the league in slugging average; Frazier is unfortunately 5th in strikeouts

BA revisits its top prospect list at mid season. Lindor moves up from No. 13 to No. 6 with these all positive comments:

6 Francisco Lindor ss Indians. Rare safe and elite prospect as a plus defender who can hit at the top of the order.

42 (up from preseason 48) Clint Frazier of Indians
Season has been less than one would hope for a top-five draft pick, but he has shown flashes in his first full year.

Mike Papi supposed to join Mahoning Valley today.

Not that I am a huge Mcallister fan but I also wonder why he stays down. House is being kept because he is a lefty starter, but it would have been better to try to resign Kazmir.....that is not hindsight he came on pretty strong at the end of last season.

We sort of have a 7-man rotation now with McAllister clearly ready for the majors and Salazar just about. I cannot imagine Zach is happy with his continuing stay in AAA.

AZL #Indians LHP Justus Sheffield's final line in his pro-debut: 1.1IP 3H 1R 0ER 1BB 2SO & 2 wild pitches

Pro-rate that to 9 IP and ... Well ok it's not Nuke Laloosh territory, but I was reminded all the same.

Monday highlighted lines:

CLE AA Wolters, Tony 2B 4 0 1 2 .258 2B (13) [working more in the IF now with Wendle hurt, Lavisky hitting]
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus DH 4 0 1 0 .278 BB (39)
CLE HiA Gonzalez, Erik SS 5 0 1 0 .276 2 SB (13) [back to Carolina with Lindor back on the field]
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Luigi RF 4 1 1 0 .261 SB (9)
CLE R Bradley, Bobby 1B 5 1 2 3 .357 2 2B (6) [keeps hitting]

CLE AA Anderson, Cody 5 6 1 1 2 3 4.88 W (3-8) [better, but not great]
CLE AAA Lee, C.C. 1.1 2 1 1 1 3 3.18 [first run allowed in weeks]
CLE HiA Morimando, Shawn 4 7 4 3 2 4 3.10 L (8-3) [so maybe he's not ready for Akron]
CLE MAJ Crockett, Kyle 1 1 0 0 0 1 2.19 [let inherited runners score]
CLE R Haley, Trey 1 0 0 0 0 1 2.70 [once again rehabbing]
CLE R Shane, Casey 4.1 4 2 2 2 4 2.33 [4 shutout innings to start, pitching well]

Boxes:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20140707

Some lines not noted by BA:

Columbus:
Urshela single, walk.
Tyler Sturdevant, missed all of 2013, 1-0-0-0-0-2 in AAA now has 7 2 hit shutout innings with 7 K; he's 28 RH

Akron:
No. 3 catcher Jake Lowry single, triple, 2 walks, 228; playing almost exclusively at 1b
G. Soto 2-0-0-0-1-2

Carolina:
Ben Heller promoted from LC; 1-1-0-0-0-2 Stats with the Captains impressive: 37-19-10-10-16-64 6-3 RH

Mahoning Valley:
Greg Allen two singles, walk, caught stealing
Brad Zimmer walk and 2 strikeouts. For the season: 5 bb vs 7 K

Arizona:
18 year old SS/3B Yu Cheng Chang 2 singles, walks avg: 355 OPS 893
18 year old SS Alexis Pantoja single, 2 walks, avg 298, OPS 718; supposed to be a great gloveman

Dominican:
18 year old CF Gabriel Mejia 2 hits, steal no. 35, caught stealing no. 8 5-11 160 switch hitter
Jose Medina 19 year old LH iB-OF double, 2 bi: 302/390/453 13 walks vs. 12 strikeouts
Jose Rodriguez 19 year old RH 5-4-1-1-2-7 2.35

Tony's Torrent of Words relative to Monday's games. I can't post this without editing out the content about players who are not even remotely prospects and the pointless speculations.

Bobby Bradley (1B, AZL Indians): 2-for-5, R, 2 2B, 3 RBI. I will say it for the 500th time – you always take the numbers in Arizona with a huge grain of salt as they are often inflated by the poor pitching and desert air. However, Bradley is impressing in the early going and at least at the outset of his pro career is doing everything and then some that was projected of him coming out of the draft. You have to love when a high school player comes in and performs as that is something the Indians have not seen a lot of out of their high school players in recent drafts. In 10 games he is hitting .357 with a .997 OPS and 7 of his 15 hits have gone for extra bases.

•C.C. Lee (RP, Columbus): 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R/ER, 1 BB, 3 K. Lee had a streak of eight straight appearances where he did not allow a run come to an end on Monday. Even though he was touched up for three baserunners in 1.1 innings he also racked up three strikeouts.
•Tyler Sturdevant (RP, Columbus): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K. Sturdevant has carried over his early season performance at Double-A Akron into his promotion to Triple-A Columbus a few weeks back. In five appearances with Columbus he has thrown 6.0 innings and allowed no runs on 2 hits, 2 walks and has five strikeouts.
•Tony Wolters (2B, Akron): 1-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 K. It has not been the strongest of seasons offensively for Wolters, but he has maintained a solid approach all year and done a very nice job behind the plate.
•Cody Anderson (SP, Akron): 5.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R/ER, 2 BB, 3 K. Baby steps. That’s what this start was for Anderson. He only went 5.0 innings and threw 88 pitches (53 strikes), but he allowed just the one run and got the win. Hopefully he can build off this start.
•Giovanni Soto (RP, Akron): 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K. Soto is still a potential left-handed option for the Indians at the big league level, but injuries and inconsistent performance the last two years have prevented that from happening. He is pitching better of late throwing 10.1 innings and allowing 2 earned runs.
•Shawn Morimando (SP, Carolina): 4.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R (3 ER), 2 B, 4 K. You can’t be good every night. Even pitchers who go on to win a CY Young award in a season at the Major League level have a clunker here and there. For as much as Morimando struggled in this one he showed some toughness limiting the damage even with all the baserunners.
•Ben Heller (RP, Carolina): 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K. Heller was promoted from Low-A Lake County to Carolina on Monday and he did not skip a beat in his High-A debut with a shutout inning that featured 2 strikeouts. He now has a whopping 66 strikeouts in just 38.0 innings pitches this season (15.6 K/9).
•Greg Allen (DH, Mahoning Valley): 2-for-2, BB, CS, PO. That is two multi-hit games in a row for Allen as he is 4-for-5 over his last two games and has pushed his batting average over .300 in the process (.311). He has only played in 12 games (45 at bats) so as he gets more games and at bats it will be interesting to see where his numbers stabilize.
•D’Vone McClure (LF, Mahoning Valley): 1-for-4, 2B. The poor night offensively in the Indians system continued at Mahoning Valley as they were held to 1 run on 5 hits and had 9 strikeouts. McClure had the lone extra base hit, his third of the season.
•Yu-Cheng Chang (3B, AZL Indians): 2-for-4, 2 R, RBI, BB. Chang is one of the best prospects on the AZL roster and is going to rank highly in next season’s IBI Top 100 list. There is so much to love with the bat and the glove is interesting.
•Hector Caro (RF, AZL Indians): 1-for-4, R, 2 RBI, K. Caro was the Indians top International signing two years ago, but so far he is not looking like much as he had a poor pro debut in the DSL last season and so far is just 1-for-19 at the plate this season through six games.
•Casey Shane (SP, AZL Indians): 4.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R/ER, 2 BB, 4 K. A solid outing from Shane even though he failed to pitch at least 5.0 innings for the first time this season. He still has yet to allow more than 2 runs in any of his four outings this season and is off to a good start.
•Trey Haley (RP, AZL Indians): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. Haley is working his way through his rehab from an offseason shoulder injury and surgery. This was his fourth outing in the AZL and he has looked strong so may find his way back with another affiliate soon to test him out against some higher competition.

Pitchers working today who've been lately:

Ryan Merritt, good all year, is at 9-2 with ERA 1.65, working for Carolina. A soft tossing lefty.
Mitch Brown, improving steadily all year, has won his last 2 and ERA is 2.56 over last 10, 2nd rounder 2012
Kieran Lovegrove, small steps better from start 1 to 2 to 3, and then 5 no-hit innings last time. 3rd round 2012

None of the three had very good nights. Brown was stretched out one inning too far which makes his line look bad. Lovegrove was back to an exit in the 4th. Merritt allowed 3 runs before the rain came.

Good to see Roberto Perez getting the call to Cleveland. Fine defender suddenly has become a hitter this year, too. Could be a satisfactory major league backup which sometimes equals a long and undistinguished career.