Cleveland Sports Forum

With the two A leagues on break most of the week, the competition for the Hot Sheet was a little thin, so perhaps our two winners get a bit lucky, but also put up good performances:

15. Ronny Rodriguez, 2b/ss, Indians

Double-A Akron (Eastern)
Age: 23
Why He’s Here: .500/.480/.750 (12-for-24), 1 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 5 RBIs, 0 BB, 2 SO, 2-for-3 SB

The Scoop: A broken hamate bone in his left wrist during spring training [first I'd heard that] kept Rodriguez off the field until this month, and much of the middle infielder’s action has come at first base since his return. Usually with broke hamate bones, power takes a while to come back, but Rodriguez already has three home runs and a .350/.385/.567 batting line in his first 16 games.

20. Mike Clevinger, rhp, Indians

Double-A Akron (Eastern)
Age: 24
Why He’s Here: 1-0, 1.64, 11 IP, 7 H 2 R, 1 BB, 11 SO

The Scoop: Acquired from the Angels for Vinnie Pestano last August, Clevinger’s velocity spiked to 97 mph when he started coming more over the top. He flashes solid-average grades on his other three offerings, and he’s pared back his walk rate to 2.7 per nine innings this season.

Bradely with his 12th homer and a single and 3 rbi. He's #2 in the Midwest League in homers.
Greg Allen with a pair of singles and his 23rd steal, moving him to a tie for 3rd in the Midwest.
Sean Brady 4 2/3--5--4--3--2--4

Zimmer back in the lineup in Lynchburg, I hoped he'd be in Akron after the All Star game. !st at bat he doubles.
2ndBaseman Claudio Bautista had a great first half in Lake County get his promotion to Lynchburg. 33/349/465 [19 doubles, 7 homers]
LRod single and 17th steal. I'd like to see him in Akron too. The Akron OF is full of very replaceable parts.

[who combined to go 0-10 today] Erik Gonzalez' 3 hits left him to 282, include his 18th double. Yandy Diaz with a pair of hits, but naturally both are singles. The 6-2 190 strongman has 4 doubles, 2 triples and 2 homers in 300 plate appearances. Tony Wolters single and triple. RRod tripled.
Adam Plutko with a gem: 7--3--0--0--0--5 2.25 3-1 in AA after 4-2 1.25 in Lynchburg.
0.89 WHIP for Akron; it was 0.70 for Lynchburg.


Fine outing for 33-year-old irrelevancy for the Clippers. Jerry Sands with 3 hits. Chisenhall 0-3 with 2 strikeouts; who cares about him?

For those who may be interested, Toru Murata has been a pure organizational pitcher for years. He bounces back from Akron to Columbus as demand calls for an extra starter. His major league career will very likely reach its zenith on Sunday.

Lots of rain outs; highlights from completed games:

CLE AA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 0 3 1 .287 2B (18)
CLE AA Rodriguez, Ronny 1B 4 1 1 0 .338 3B (2)
CLE AA Wolters, Tony C 3 1 2 1 .211 3B (2)
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 3 0 1 1 .268
CLE LoA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 1 2 3 .273 HR (12) [this kid can hit!]
CLE LoA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 4 1 1 0 .243 missed a couple weeks after hit by pitch
CLE LoA Mejia, Francisco C 4 0 2 0 .217

CLE AA Plutko, Adam 7 3 0 0 0 5 2.25 W (3-1) [his ceiling is only back of rotation starter, but he's going to get his chance in the majors pretty quickly, after his 2014 drafting]
CLE AAA Armstrong, Shawn 2 1 0 0 1 3 2.67 Sv (10)

@IndiansAccounts:
Another superb outing by @LCCaptains @Topsheff42 today vs South Bend with 7 more strikeouts.
- 6IP 4H 3R 2ER 1BB 7SO #Indians

Sheffield entered today leading all pitchers in the Indians organization in K per 9 innings, with over 10. It just went up too.

I might have mentioned it but I just love last years draft. Zimmer, Sheffield, Bradley, and Allen all have legit shots at being regular contributors in the majors. And I'm probably a fool but I ain't giving up on Papi yet either. Has too good of an eye to keep hitting his weight.

@TimsTakeCLE: Bradley Zimmer @Bzimmer5 hit a game-winning grand slam tonight for Lynchburg. His 10th dinger. Luigi Rodriguez hit his 11th. #indians

Sunday:

CLE AA Rodriguez, Ronny DH 3 0 1 0 .338
CLE AA Wolters, Tony C 2 0 1 0 .214 BB (20)
CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus DH 3 0 1 0 .267
CLE AAA Naquin, Tyler CF 2 2 1 1 .231 HR (2), BB (8)
CLE HiA Papi, Mike RF 2 1 1 2 .217 HR (1), 2 BB (50) [HomeRunNo.One]
CLE HiA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 0 1 0 .270 2B (20)
CLE HiA Zimmer, Bradley DH 4 3 2 4 .303 HR (10), BB (31), SB (28) [MVP returns to the lineup]
CLE LoA Paulino, Dorssys LF 5 0 1 0 .238
CLE MAJ Perez, Roberto C 3 0 2 0 .223 2 2B (6)
CLE MAJ Urshela, Giovanny 3B 1 0 1 0 .277

CLE LoA Sheffield, Justus 6 4 3 1 1 7 4.43 [the runs were very unearned, he pitched a good game]
CLE MAJ Adams, Austin 1 0 0 0 2 3 1.98

Beyond the big names, 2014 draft also has very high school pitchers who have promise too but are longer shots: Grant Hockin [who's not pitching this season yet] Sam Hentges [who is but not too well] and Micah Miniard are all real big kids who could develop.

SS Alexis Pantojas is supposed to have a real good glove and is hitting and running the bases well to start his second season.

Last year's draft will wind up being somewhere between excellent and superb.

For Arizona team, Gabriel Mejia with a single a triple and his 5th steal.

Roster movement: After a stellar week with Mahoning Valley, Anthony Santander moved back to Lake County and was 1-4 in his debut. 3B Gerald Bautista and power arm/no command pitcher Carmelo Melo both released.
Joe Sever, a superutility organizational player moves up to Akron.

Minor League Transactions of prior 10 days:

Cleveland Indians

Signed: RHP Jarrett Grube (Quintana Roo (Mexican))

Draft picks signed: RHP Matt Esparza (14), RHP Justin Garza (8), RHP Jonas Wyatt (6), LHP Brady Aiken (1), LHP Juan Hillman (2), 2B Mark Mathias (3), SS Tyler Krieger (4), OF Nathan Lukes (7), OF Connor Marabell (25), OF Ka’ai Tom (5)

Recalled: RHP Austin Adams, RHP Cody Anderson

Removed from 40-man: RHP Shaun Marcum (outrighted to Triple-A)

Optioned to Triple-A: LHP Kyle Crockett

Placed on 7-day DL: RHP Charles Brewer, RHP Jordan Cooper, 3B Grant Fink

Placed on 60-day DL: RHP Jordan Dunatov, RHP Grant Hockin [what's the injury?], LHP Kenny Mathews, SS Tyler Krieger

Reinstated from DL: RHP Julian Merryweather, SS Audy Ciriaco, OF Destin Hood, OF Anthony Santander

Erik Gonzalez moves up to Columbus, in the lineup today. Jose Ramirez switches over to second; Ramirez is batting 357. Happy to have him back in Cleveland, but I don't know if there's a role for him. Of course Aviles is playing OF now vs lefties to get Bourn out of the lineup so we could carry two utility infielders if we wanted to.

Loopstock behind the plate for Lynchburg. Hasn't done anything to earn a promotion from Mahoning Valley, either Monsalve or Haase must be hurt.

Lynchburg opening day starter Dylan Baker hasn't returned since his work in game 1. He's pretty good on the rare occasions when he's able to pitch.

in early going Nellie Rodriguez with a single and his 21st double. Nearing the end of June with an OPS of about 940. Of course he's also struck out for 26 of his 52 outs this month. 24 hits, 26 strikeouts, 26 in play outs.

Akron and Mahoning Valley both delayed by rain.