Cleveland Sports Forum

Naquin has a habit of doing things like running into walls and missing lots of time. Clippers OF is going to feature lots of appearances by Jose Ramirez and Zach Walters while he's away. All they left among "official OFs" on their roster are Jerry Sands, Ramsay and Gallas, who is finally reaching AAA well past his 27th birthday.

Todd Paquette ‏@IndiansAccounts · 7 hours ago
With his 2 HR performance last night #Indians 1B prospect @b_bradley_44 now has 26 HR's & 107 RBI's in the first 117 games of his career.

Means leads Prospect Team of the Week


By Jim Callis / MLB.com | 12:38 PM ET

MLBPipeline.com's Prospect Team of the Week honors the best performances from the previous seven days. Any player currently on an organization Top 30 Prospects list on our Prospect Watch is eligible, including big leaguers.

....

1B: Bobby Bradley, Indians (No. 7 prospect)
6 G, .381/.500/1.048, 9 R, 2 2B, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 6 BB, 9 SO

A year after winning the Rookie-level Arizona League Triple Crown in his pro debut, he leads the low Class A Midwest League with 18 homers and a .486 slugging percentage. Bradley has a sweet left-handed swing that should translate into hitting for average as well, though he'll have to cut down on his strikeouts (113 in 79 games). He's batting .253/.343/.486 overall.

....

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/140872526 ... am-of-week

Chang and Mejia have both been hitting very well for Lake County, too, of late. They and Bradley and Sheffield [who may have the leagues best K/IP ratio] are quite a fine collection on teen agers playing full season ball.

Chang hit his 9th homer, and singled and batted in 5 yesterday. In his last 8 games: 36-5-13-12 double, 2 homers;
361/361/583. No walks you;'ll notice and 10 strikeouts. Not perfect, but coming along. Lots of offense for a SS, may wind up at 3rd.

Mejia yesterday singled and walked and drove home two. He's better than Chang with the BB's and K's; for the year 31/54 ratio of the good to the bad. In fact lately he's been all about bat control and getting on base; in his 9 last games: 37-5-17-7. Just one double; 4 walks and 4 strikeouts. 459/512/486

Todd Paquette @IndiansAccounts:
AZL #Indians 17yr old RHP @jonaswyatt22 has yet to allow a RUN over his first 4 professional appearances: - 7.0(IP) 1H 0R 0ER 1BB 7SO

From a scout tonight - #Indians 6th Round Pick RHP Jonas Wyatt was hitting 95 tonight on his radar gun. @jonaswyatt22 is just 17 years old.

@IndiansAccounts:
AZL #Indians LHP Sam Hentges has been terrific over his last 3 starts:
- 15.0(IP) 10H 6R 2ER 6BB 16SO 1.20 ERA @SamHentges

@IndiansAccounts:
AZL #Indians OF Gabriel Mejia has reached base now in 30 straight games:
46-117 32R 5(2B) 1(3B) 14RBI 18BB 30SB .393 AVG .474 OBP

Not so sure if Hentges' start yesterday was so good; only 1 earned run in5 innings, but 5 runs total. The errors started this mess but the double and the homer were real:

Julius Gaines walks.
Patrick Brady lines out to left fielder Todd Isaacs. Julius Gaines advances to 2nd, on a throwing error by left fielder Todd Isaacs.
Dalton Kelly called out on strikes. Julius Gaines steals (11) 3rd base.
Jose Leal reaches on a fielding error by second baseman Jorma Rodriguez. Julius Gaines scores.
Gareth Morgan doubles (7) on a ground ball to left fielder Todd Isaacs. Jose Leal scores.
Augustus Craig homers (1) on a fly ball to right field. Gareth Morgan scores.
Angel Jimenez flies out to left fielder Todd Isaacs.

That was steal No. 30 for Mejia yesterday. He's closing in Greg Allen for organizational leader, in about 1/4 as many games as the full season guys have played.

The double and homer were real, but also the only two earned runs he's given up his last 3 starts.

You're just upset at yourself for not have the foresight to put him on your top prospect list like I did....

@IndiansAccounts: #Indians fans looking toward the future 2015 1st Round Pick RHP Triston McKenzie will be making his pro debut tonight in the AZL. @T_eazy24

@SportsTimeOhio: #Indians prospect Bobby Bradley named Midwest League Player of the Week http://t.co/rxCKXVeQId http://t.co/WlbLiwdE5R

Well I'll let you be right about Hentges as long as being right means that he winds up being good.

That 2014 draft class looks real good.
But there's one more kid I'm waiting for, now that McKenzie will be getting out there: Grant Hockin who was picked one round ahead of Hentges last year. Any report on him, Hillbilly?

I have bad news to report regarding Harmon Killebrew's grand son...

Grant Hockin ‏@grant_hockin · Jun 17
My meeting with Tommy John went well

Here is another young man we need to add to our prospect list. You know how I love young'uns with a great eye and plate discipline...

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It’s Time to Start Learning About Yandy Diaz

Danny Madden | On 04, Aug 2015

The Indians may have something special brewing at third base in Akron.

Third base may be one of the shallowest positions through the Indians minor league system. They currently have Giovanny Urshela manning the hot corner, with Lonnie Chisenhall also able to fill that role, as he has been there on and off for the last five seasons. Aside from the two of them, there are bunch of guys that don’t really stand out as someone to fill that role if either Chisenhall or Urshela went down. Well, that was until Yandy Diaz started popping up this year.

Diaz, 23, is the current third basemen for the Double-A Akron RubberDucks. He stands tall at 6’2” weighing 185 pounds, batting from the right side of the plate. He was signed by the Indians out of Cuba, and is only in his second full season in professional baseball. He spent some time at High-A Carolina last season where he played in 76 games and hit a solid .286/.396/.367 with 7 doubles, 5 triples, 2 home runs and 37 RBI. He walked 49 times, and only struck out 35. He missed a good chunk of time last season due to a wrist injury.

Since he’s only in his second season in the minors, Diaz has relatively flown under the radar. Along with not having any power to speak of yet, he hasn’t blown anybody away as a top prospect in the Indians system. Obviously a wrist injury can sap a lot of power away, and take a bit of your timing away as you try and get your swing back in order. As big of a player as Diaz is, the power will eventually develop.

“I think he has it. He drives some balls,” RubberDucks manager David Wallace says. “He barrels it up and hits it hard, and he drives it. The powers there, and you just got to think it keeps showing up. Absolutely no concern that he hasn’t hit more home runs.”

This season, Diaz is hitting .303/.401/.372 with 14 doubles, 4 triples, 4 home runs, and 73 RBI. What’s surprising about Diaz is how much speed he has for how big he is. His 4 triples and 10 stolen basis are extremely surprising for someone with his build. What makes Diaz really stand out among the rest of the players in Double-A Akron is that he has 64 walks to 52 strikeouts. In Double-A, he’s leading the league in walks by a margin of 8 walks. The next closest guy is Brock Stassi with 56 walks.

“I’d start with his eye at the plate, his pitch selection and plate discipline is some of the best I’ve seen,” Wallace says about Diaz and all of his walks.

Looking through Diaz’ monthly stats, he’s batted over .300 for two months, and is near .300 in July. He’s one of the most consistent batters that the Indians have. You know, almost, exactly what you’re getting with Diaz comes to the plate. His eye at the plate is just as good as Carlos Santana, but his bat is much more consistent. Even though most of his hits drop down for singles, he almost always finds a way to get on base. He generally has been batting third in the lineup behind Todd Hankins and whoever is sliding into the two hole that day, with Bradley Zimmer batting behind him. He’s already totaled up 112 hits this season, but only 15 of those hits have dropped down for extra base hits.

“He just hits man. Some guys, you just look at him and you see the numbers and you try to break it down. I chuck it up to the guy can just hit. I’m glad he’s on our side,” Wallace says.

With how consistent he is at the plate, what makes him so successful is that he just doesn’t swing at bad pitches. This goes along with his discipline at the plate, but it’s more than that, which reaches out to why his power looks so non-existent.

While some guys will swing at pitches that are slightly out of the zone, but allows them to full extend and drive a pitch, Diaz will generally let that ball go. He also doesn’t have a “power swing” as some would describe it. He just swings for to hit singles, and that’s usually what it results in. His power will develop as he becomes more accustomed to the league, but he’ll need to work on his plate discipline and be able to determine when he can swing for the fences more often, instead of just hitting to get on base.

Diaz made his first Double-A All Star appearance this year with the RubberDucks. Alongside him, Anthony Gallas, Todd Hankins, Josh Martin, and Jeff Johnson were also All Stars for the RubberDucks.

As far as his defense is concerned, he got gold glove caliber defense. After being able to see Urshela man the hot corner for the RubberDucks last season, they get to witness another gold glover in the making with Diaz this season.

With the lack of right handed bats in the Indians system, and what little prospects at third base they have, Diaz should fly through their system with no problem. Right now, Urshela is going to be manning the hot corner for the foreseeable future. If it turns out that he may not be their guy next season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Diaz up in Cleveland at some point in 2016. He provides a lot of tools that the Indians could utilize from a position that has been generally weak for the last decade or so. If he can find his power swing, that will only make him more valuable to the team in the future. There’s no doubt though that Diaz will be contributing to the big league club sooner rather than later.

I may end up wrong about this dude ...

Todd Paquette ‏@IndiansAccounts · 7 hours ago Ohio, USA

Congrats to Lynchburg OF @ClintFrazierr on being named #Indians Milb player of the month!

21R 7(2B) 2(3B) 3HR 17RBI 16BB 6BB .363 AVG

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Todd Paquette ‏@IndiansAccounts · 8 hours ago Ohio, USA

Congrats to Akron #RubberDucks RHP Jeff Johnson on being named #Indians minor league pitcher of the month!

- 6SV 9(IP) 3H 0R 0ER 3BB 10SO

Yandy Diaz ... with that name in this organization I guess they'll be converting him to catcher.

Bradley hits a 3 run shot his first AB tonight. His 19th. He leads all of minor league baseball with homers for players under 20 years old. Next closest has 13.

I sure hope he can cut down on the K's cause young man has thunder in his bat. But if he doesn't he may be the next Branyan.