his 9 steals are in 9 attempts. the two guys ahead of him in steals have been caught two or three times.

Deficits: 17 strikeouts are 6th in the league, although they trail Frazier and Nellie Rodriguez.
Besides the 4 homers, he has only one extra base hit, a double.

Nellie Rodriguez.
He's a utility player at best. I can tell by the way he trims his beard, and that is just not a big league bubble.

Hey he's just a kid, give him some time to learn those skills. That's what the minors are for.

Monday highlights. Lake County had the night off.

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 0 1 1 0.26
CLE AA Naquin, Tyler CF 5 2 2 0 0.313 2B (2), SB (1)
CLE AA Wolters, Tony C 4 0 2 1 0.216 3B (1)
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 3 0 1 0 0.224 BB (6)
CLE HiA Papi, Mike LF 1 1 1 2 0.169 2B (3), 2 BB (12) and a sac fly
CLE HiA Zimmer, Bradley RF 3 1 1 0 0.323 2B (2), BB (8) [I asked for doubles, I got doubles]
none of our pitchers listed. It was more of an organizational pitchers, not a prospect pitchers' night

Prospects Mike Clevinger [2.30 ERA with Akron] and Adam Plutko [1.53 ERA with Lynchburg] on the mound today.

Something's up with Mitch Brown. After pitching 6 shutout innings last week, yesterday was his turn but he didn't pitch; but is not on the Hillcats DL.

Zimmer continues his strong push for Prospect Hot Sheet, single and double in his first two AB today. For the current week, he's now 9-16 with 2 doubles, a walk and two steals. His slash line: .567/.588/.688.

Papi making his slightly weaker case: two more walks in his first two appearances. Since the "week" for the Hot Sheet began last Friday, he's 4-10 with a double and 6 walks. Slash: .400/.625/.500.

Luigi Rodriguez drove them both in with 3rd homer. Season avg is .348, as a result of a big of a slump. His season OPS now is back over 1000.

Meanwhile Adam Pluko has hurled four shutout innings, fanning 5. His ERA is now 1.25 and he has 18 K vs 3 BB in 22 2/3 IP.

Columbus also holding a 5-0 lead. Tyler Holt's 3 hits lift his avg to 352. Urshela single and double, he's at 429. Hot Prospect Nick Swisher singles and doubles and is hitting .583

Shaun Marcum with 4 shutout innings, ERA 1.13

Akron as usual trailing 1-0 despite single and double [and caught stealing] by Naquin: hittng .389 since his reactivation.
Mike Clevinger drops his ERA to 2.14 but on this crappy team he's still winless

Bradley continues out of action for Lake County giving Sicnarf Loopstock his debut at 1st base/ 3B Taylor Murphy has his 3rd double and 2nd homer as Captains trail 2-1 mid-5th

Indians report
Indians report: Top prospect Francisco Lindor heating up at Triple-A as Jose Ramirez cools down in Cleveland
Tribe fans might not have to wait too long for Francisco Lindor

By Ryan Lewis
Beacon Journal sports writer

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Published: April 28, 2015 - 07:38 PM
CLEVELAND: Shortstop Francisco Lindor’s offense at Triple-A Columbus, along with the anticipation of his long-awaited debut, is starting to pick up steam.

Lindor, the top prospect in the Indians’ system and a consensus top-10 prospect in all of baseball, got off to a slow start this season but has heated up recently. He got 10 hits in a four-game span last week and raised his batting average nearly 75 points, to .284. He’s also raised his on-base percentage to .360 and has stolen six bases.

Lindor is a switch-hitting, smooth-fielding shortstop who can hit for average, steal bases and has shown some power for the position. He projects to be a top-of-the-order hitter and at a Gold Glove-level player on defense.

He’s also only 21 years old and won’t be 22 until after the season, so he’s always been younger than the players he’s faced throughout his minor-league career. But his talent has warranted high rankings and lofty expectations, and he’s produced at every level.

When Lindor got off to a substandard start to 2015, it was easier to allow him time to develop. Last season, that was true as well because Jose Ramirez played well enough to hold the position down. But now Lindor is hitting well and Ramirez isn’t doing much of anything to block Lindor’s ascent to the big leagues. Ramirez entered Tuesday’s game hitting only .185 and has committed four errors, the most on the team.

Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti met with reporters Monday but wouldn’t give any specifics on what Lindor still needs to accomplish at the Triple-A level.

“There’s a litany of things, a number of things that we’ve talked with, not only Francisco, but each player has a specific developmental plan that we talk with them about,” Antonetti said. “I can tell you that Francisco is committed to that plan and has worked extraordinarily hard to continue to improve and get better as a player.”

Barring an injury, it’s more a matter of when than if Lindor is called up this season. The Indians, while not being able to say as much, certainly were going to start Lindor at Triple-A in order to push his service-time clock back and add a year of organizational control. They will also surely be mindful of Lindor’s possible Super Two status if he’s called up sooner rather than later, which would give him a fourth year of arbitration eligibility.

Those are two aspects and two decisions that will have real financial consequences down the road. As for the 2015 season and what happens on the field, Lindor is getting closer to forcing his way up I-71 to Cleveland. As Lindor waits for that day, the team has maintained a high level of conversation with him to limit any possible frustration.

“If we weren’t communicating with him, I’d worry about it. But, we are,” Antonetti said. “Francisco has got a very clear understanding of the things that we’ve partnered with him and talked with him about, that he can continue to improve as a player.”

Antonetti said the ideal scenario for calling up such a prized prospect is when the team is playing well, he’s playing well at Triple-A and a situation presents itself. That’s not the current situation.

The Indians might be inclined to give Lindor some more time. But as long as he produces and Ramirez doesn’t, and as long as the Indians struggle, being patient might become difficult.

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/abj.sports.

BA notes from Tuesday games:

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 7 1 1 1 .250
CLE AA Naquin, Tyler CF 6 0 3 0 .364 2B (3), BB (4), CS (1)
CLE AA Wolters, Tony C 5 2 1 0 .214
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 4 0 1 0 .225
CLE AAA Moncrief, Carlos RF 3 1 1 0 .224 BB (11)
CLE AAA Ramsey, James CF 5 0 1 0 .206
CLE AAA Urshela, Giovanny 3B 4 1 2 0 .400 2B (2)
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 5 1 3 3 .205 HR (3) [all his homers in the past five days]
CLE HiA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 2 2 1 .333 2B (3), BB (9)
CLE LoA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 0 1 0 .254
CLE LoA Paulino, Dorssys LF 3 0 1 0 .167 [not quite living up to his 3-years=-ago potential]
[OAK AAA Wendle, Joey 2B 3 0 1 1 .277 2B (5), BB (3), SB (1) kind of what he did for us]
[STL HiA Herrera, Juan SS 3 0 1 0 .259 traded him for Rpczynski while still in short season ball]
CLE AA Clevinger, Mike 6 6 1 1 0 3 2.08
CLE AAA Adams, Austin 1 1 0 0 0 2 0.00 Sv (2) [seems ready to return to the big club]
CLE HiA Plutko, Adam 6 2 0 0 1 6 1.14 W (1-1)

Sheffield leaves after 5 innings this evening. 8 K.

Wednesday games:

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.js ... d=20150429

Highlights:

Lindor singled and walked and made an error. No reason not to get him up to Cleveland soon. Ramirez is no big deal.
Gonzalez with a pair of singles for Akron.
Brad Zimmer keeps at it: 2 singles, a double a walk and his league-leading 10th steal in 10 tries.
Greg Allen with 2 steals, but he's now gone 2 for his last 31. Francisco Mejia and Dorsyss Paulino with their 1st homers.

On the mound last year's other first round pick [behind Zimmer] Justus Sheffield with his 3rd shutout outing in 4 starts; 5 innings, 2 hits, no walks, 8 strikeouts.
J.P. Feyereisen adds an inning to his scoreless streak.
Sloppy win for Mitch Brown: 5-10-4-4-1-4 2 homers
Ryan Merritt 6-7-5-3-1--2 for Akron.

BA's take on Wednesday:

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 5 0 2 0 .259
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 3 0 1 1 .230 2B (5)
CLE AAA Lindor, Francisco SS 3 0 1 1 .286 BB (9)
CLE AAA Ramsey, James CF 4 1 1 0 .209
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 0 1 0 .211 BB (9)
CLE HiA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 0 3 1 .357 2B (4), BB (10), SB (10)
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco DH 3 1 1 1 .167 HR (1), BB (5)
CLE LoA Paulino, Dorssys LF 3 1 1 1 .175 HR (1), BB (2), SB (3)
CLE MAJ Perez, Roberto C 3 3 3 2 .225 2B (1), HR (3), BB (6)

CLE AA Merritt, Ryan 6 7 5 3 1 2 3.00
CLE HiA Brown, Mitch 5 10 4 4 1 3 4.35 L (1-2)
CLE LoA Sheffield, Justus 5 2 0 0 0 8 2.60 W (2-1)

Ingraham writes in Baseball America; apparently before the start of the season:

CLEVELAND—The destination wasn’t a surprise, nor were the marching orders.

When the Indians sent No. 1 prospect Francisco Lindor to Triple-A Columbus at the end of spring training, the only uncertainty was when he would return to Cleveland.

Not if, but when.

Lindor is the Indians’ shortstop of the future, and the future could be just weeks—not months or years—away.

He has rocketed through the system, stopping at every level, but not spending much time at any of them. The final step is Columbus, where he headed after an impressive big league spring training. The Indians made it clear during the offseason that the plan was to start Lindor in Triple-A.

“He had a terrific spring with us,” big league manager Terry Francona said, “and people say, ‘How come you can’t take the kid with you when he’s leading the team in hitting?’ But if you picked your team based on spring training, you’d make a ton of mistakes.”

The Indians told Lindor to go to Columbus and keep doing what he’s been doing since Cleveland made him the eighth overall pick in 2011 from high school in Montverde, Fla.

“Like everyone else in our system, we want him to earn getting to the major leagues,” Francona said. “His future is really, really bright.”

For the time being, Jose Ramirez will start at shortstop, but it’s a given that at some point this season Lindor will make the transition to the big league club. “People forget this kid doesn’t have a lot of time at Triple-A,” Francona said. “There are some adjustments he’s still making.”

More than anything, Francona told Lindor to enjoy this phase of his career. “This should be some of the most fun times of his life, wherever he’s playing,” Francona said. “Some guys lose sight of that. They want to be in the big leagues so bad. We told him, ‘You’re only 21. Go down there and enjoy getting better.’ ”