Cleveland Sports Forum

TWINS BEST
Best Player: Max Kepler
Best Pitcher: Jose Berrios
Keep An Eye On: Trevor Hildenberger



Best Player: Max Kepler. For two years, Twins general manager Terry Ryan grew accustomed to answering questions about when Byron Buxton would be promoted to the majors. Now that he has, Ryan said, “it seems to me that we have transferred all those questions from Buxton to Kepler.”

Makes sense, though, because the 22-year-old native of Germany has blossomed into the all-around hitter the Twins foresaw when they signed him as a 16-year-old. Kepler piled up 32 doubles, 12 triples and nine homers entering the season’s final week at Double-A Chattanooga, and his 58 walks and 59 strikeouts prove he has a firm grasp of the strike zone. “Nobody here ever gave up on him” during five years of adjustment to the U.S., said Mike Radcliff, the Twins’ vice president of player personnel. “He can spray the ball to all fields. He’s got the talent to be a middle-of-the-order guy.”



Best Pitcher: Jose Berrios. The 21-year-old righthander has started two straight Futures Games for the World team; if he keeps developing this way, Berrios might as be attending the All-Star festivities every year. That’s the ceiling that the Twins foresee for the 2012 first-round pick, a skinny Puerto Rican who has sparked an interesting internal debate: Is the fastball his best pitch, or is it his changeup? “He’s always had velo, but now he’s matched his arm action with a change that dives,” Radcliff said. “He’s got two strikeout pitches before he even tries to spin the ball.” The 96-mph fastball and 86-mph change figure to produce, by season’s end, more than 90 strikeouts apiece at both Triple-A and Double-A. Looks like the World team will need a new starter next year, because Berrios will be in Minnesota.

Keep an Eye On: Trevor Hildenberger. The Class A reliever is like a homework project for his pitching coaches, few of whom have ever worked with a full-time sidearmer. Then again, Hildenberger doesn’t seem to need much coaching. “He has an unusual delivery that makes batters uncomfortable,” Ryan said, “but more important, he throws strikes.” Entering the season’s final week, Hildenberger had walked only six hitters in 63 innings, while striking out 79 in 63 total innings between low Class A Cedar Rapids and high Class A Fort Myers. Hildenberger had a conventional over-the-top delivery until his junior year at California, and the Twins drafted him as a 23-year-old senior in the 22nd round of the 2014 draft, a low-risk lottery ticket that paid off almost immediately. “A lot of young pitchers have problems repeating their delivery,” Ryan said. “That’s not a problem for him.”

I thought I posted the Twins report? maybe Ken got to it first

Ingraham wrote it but it seems reasonable any way

INDIANS BEST
Best Player: Bradley Zimmer
Best Pitcher: Cody Anderson
Keep An Eye On: Gabriel Mejia

Best Player: Center fielder Bradley Zimmer. Barely a year after being selected in the first round, 21st overall, of the 2014 draft, Zimmer has made such a seamless transition to professional baseball that his major league debut could be less than a year away. [well it was seamless until August when the offense fell off the table]

The 22-year-old left-handed-hitting centerfielder seems to be fast-tracking his way to Cleveland. In a combined 429 at bats at high-A Lynchburg and Double-A Akron this year, Zimmer produced a .289/.386/.480 slash line, with 16 home runs, 63 RBI and 41 stolen bases.

“It’s not hard to look at Brad’s numbers this year and see that it’s been a special start to his career,” said Indians director of player development Carter Hawkins. “He’s been extremely consistent with the quality of his at bats, has driven the ball to the whole field, stayed within his zone and handled left-handers better. He’s also made smart, aggressive decisions on the bases paths which adds another dimension to his game.”


Best Pitcher: Recalled from Triple-A Columbus at mid-season to be the No.5 starter in the rotation, righthander Cody Anderson made the most of his opportunity. In a combined 13 starts at Columbus and Double-A Akron Anderson was 4-3 with a 1.89 ERA.

Anderson, 24, wasted little time in impressing the big league staff, going 2-1 with a 0.89 ERA and .165 opponents’ batting average in his first four major league starts. He struggled in his next four starts, but not enough to dim the enthusiasm of Manager Terry Francona about Anderson’s future.

“His first three starts were more than we could have expected,” Francona said. “Then in his next few he left the ball up and paid for it. But he competes really well. He’s still learning. He’s got a good changeup. It’s exciting anytime a young guy starts to make a breakthrough (to the major leagues).”

Keep An Eye On: OF Gabriel Mejia. He’s very young and very raw, but his numbers are very gaudy. For example: his 72 stolen bases in 70 games in the Dominican Summer League last year, or his .357 batting average, .438 on base percentage and 34 stolen bases in 43 games in the Arizona League this year. Mejia’s performance in Arizona earned him a late-season promotion to short-season Mahoning Valley.

He’s a 20-year-old, 5-11, 160-pound switch-hitting center fielder, who in his first two years as a professional has hit .337, with a .434 on base percentage, and 108 stolen bases in 117 games.

Waiters homers, doubles, drives in a pair; Erik Gonzalez a pair of hits and Will Roberts go five shutout innnigs for Columbus taking a 2-1 lead in IL semi-final series.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... x&sid=milb

Lynchburg's out already, losing 2 games to none in round one.

Clevinger with a very nice start

Columbus Clippers
Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Mike Clevinger 7.2 0 0 0 2 10 0 0.00
Shaun Marcum 0.1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00
Totals 8.0 1 0 0 2 10 0 2.72

From the Dispatch

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KYLE ROBERTSON | DISPATCH
The Clippers' Audy Ciriaco heads to the plate after hitting a home run against Norfolk's Terry Doyle.
By Jim Massie
The Columbus Dispatch • Tuesday September 15, 2015 5:15 AM
321 58 456
On a night when Huntington Park rocked with the energy of free baseball and 10,734 fans, Mike Clevinger rolled through his triple-A debut by pitching 7 2/3 innings for the Clippers without allowing a hit against the Norfolk Tides.

After the Clippers stopped the Tides 5-0 on two hits and moved into to the championship series of the International League Governors’ Cup playoffs, the view from cloud nine wouldn’t have felt as spectacular to champagne-soaked Clevinger.

“Oh, I’ve been waiting on this my whole professional career,” he said. “This is my first time in the playoffs, so I’m definitely excited. There were definitely some nerves out there. But I go off my nerves a lot. Everything felt like it was working. My main goal was to stay within myself and not try to be more than I am.”

***

FREE BASEBALL: Tickets for Games 1 and 2 of the Governors’ Cup championship series at Huntington Park are free. They can be reserved by calling the team’s ticket office at 614-462-2757 after 9 a.m. today.

***

He did a nice job on both counts in his first performance since being promoted from double-A Akron. Clevinger fashioned six perfect innings and issued only one walk over the first seven. He walked Junior Lake to open the eighth and exited with two outs and 102 pitches.

The pitch-count did him in, not the Tides.

The Clippers will play the Indianapolis Indians in the first game of the best-of-five Governors’ Cup championship series at 6:35 tonight at Huntington Park. The teams tied for the regular-season West Division title, with the Clippers winning the season series 11-10. Indianapolis served as the wild card in the playoffs and swept Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the other semifinal series.

Like the Monday game, the Clippers will offer fans free tickets for tonight and a 6:35 p.m. game Wednesday. The series shifts to Indianapolis after that.

The big crowd came alive in the finale against Norfolk when Audy Ciriaco hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning to break up a scoreless tie. Erik Gonzalez added a two-run homer in the fifth for a lead that seemed larger because of Clevinger (1-0).

“This was the first time I’ve seen (Clevinger) pitch,” Ciriaco said. “That was outstanding. We knew that they called up some guys from double-A that had pretty good years. But the way he pitched today was unbelievable.”

Clevinger was locked in a tight duel with Terry Doyle (0-2) when Ciriaco broke the scoreless tie. Asked if the home run relaxed the Clippers, Ciriaco shook his head.

“Actually, I think the way Clevinger was pitching relaxed everybody,” he said. “We knew he could hold them. I got a pretty good pitch to hit, and I hit it out.”

Clippers manager Chris Tremie expected the boos that he received when he came to the mound to remove Clevinger in the eighth and more when Shaun Marcum gave up a hit to Michael Almanzar.

“It was a great crowd,” he said, smiling. “I’m glad they came out.”

Gonzalez batted .476 for the series. He has flourished since the Cleveland Indians promoted second baseman Michael Martinez and he moved into the second spot in the lineup.

“I think when I’m hitting second, I see better pitches,” he said. “I try to hit the ball through the middle, and that’s happening right now. See the ball and hit it hard. It was a great series, but we’re waiting for more from Indianapolis in the finals. We want to win.”

Wow, what a AAA debut for Mike Clevinger. Pitching in the tie-breaking 5th game of round 1 of the playoffs, Clevinger went 7 2/3 0-hit shutout innings 10 strikeouts and no walks. On to the finals for the Clippers.

This is from MILB.com.

Mike Clevinger may have thought his season was over a week ago in Akron, but on Monday, covered in ice water and shaving cream, the 24-year-old could hardly believe what happened. "It's unbelievable," the Indians' No. 15 prospect said. "I couldn't have pictured it any better."

Clevinger took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of his Triple-A debut and Columbus got two-run homers from Audy Ciriaco and Erik Gonzalez to advance to the Governors' Cup Finals with a 5-0 win over Norfolk in decisive Game 5 on Monday night.

In his first International League start, the right-hander struck out a career-high 10 batters over 7 2/3 hitless innings before Major League veteran Shaun Marcum lost the no-hitter, but recorded the final four outs to seal the series and send the Indians' top affiliate to the Championship Series against Indianapolis.

"This is definitely my best outing of the season so far, definitely one of the best of my career," said Clevinger, who matched a career high in innings. "I felt fresh, I had a lot of days off, so I definitely felt good."

The Clippers will host the Indians in Game 1 of the Finals at 6:35 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The team, which drew a franchise playoff-record 10,734 fans Monday, will again offer free admission for its Finals games.

The 24-year-old Clevinger threw 65 of his 102 pitches for strikes, popping up Audry Perez for the second out in the eighth before Clippers manager Chris Tremie pulled his starter in favor of Marcum. The former Blue Jays righty lost the no-hitter when the next batter, Michael Almanzar, hit a line-drive single to center field, but Marcum struck out Andy Wilkins to finish off the game.

"It's great, it's always nice to win a series," said Tremie. "It was a tough series, they have a good ballclub. We grinded it out and had a good offense tonight and a great pitching performance, so we're on a high note right now."

Clevinger, who went 9-8 with a 2.73 ERA and 145 strikeouts in 158 innings over 27 outings at Double-A Akron this year, hadn't thrown more than 104 pitches in a start this season. The right-hander, who missed most of 2012 and 2013 following Tommy John surgery, admitted he was a little let down when he had to hand over the ball just four outs shy of a no-hitter. He entered the game with a 100-pitch limit.

"I mean I was a little disappointed, I wanted to keep it going, I felt like I had it," Clevinger said. "Pitch counts -- it's their call, whatever they feel is best, I'm with it."

"He went deep into the game and had done a fantastic job," added Tremie. "It was a situation where it was tough to do, but the guy put us in a position to win the game. He was great about it. He did his job and he was interested in the team winning He was very professional."

Clevinger was perfect into the fifth, when he walked David Lough with two outs. Junior Lake worked a leadoff walk in the eighth before the Jacksonville, Florida native struck out Lough swinging and retired Perez.

"It was a really strong performance, he commanded the fastball very well. He was low-to-mid 90s with good secondary pitches," said Tremie. "He had a great outing."

Ciriaco homered in the fourth and Gonzalez went deep in the fifth before Yandy Diaz capped the scoring with an RBI single. Tremie said he told his team afterward in the clubhouse that they still have more games to win.

"I told them, 'Hard-fought battle, hard series with a tough team. ... Enjoy this and come back ready to play.'"
It would have been the first no-hitter for Columbus since Tyler Cloyd pitched one against Louisville on July 30, 2014.

Tremie credited Columbus general manager Ken Schnacke on the ticket giveaway. The Clippers also offered 10-cent hot dogs to help draw fans out to Huntington Park for the must-win game.
"It was a great atmosphere to have that many fans. It added some electricity to the game and it was a very good move on our GM's part," said Tremie. "It's nice to play in front of a big crowd and win the game."

Columbus won its season series with Indianapolis, 11-10, and will likely face another tough series with the Pirates' top affiliate. "They have a good ballclub, we played them quite a bit," Tremie said. "It's going to be a good series

"Juan Hillman highlights the Indians’ instructional league roster." says BA. Not sure McKenzie or Hentges agree
Instructional League Roster


CLEVELAND INDIANS
PITCHERS Ht Wt B/T Age
Chen, Ping-Hsueh 6’2 195 R/R 21
Colegate, Ryan 6’5 195 R/R 21
Esparza, Matt 6’2 195 R/R 20
Hartson, Brock 6’2 200 R/R 22
Hentges, Sam 6’6 235 L/L 19
Hillman Jr., Juan 6’2 183 L/L 18
Linares, Leandro 6’2 195 R/R 21 a Cuban who might as well take the return raft
Lovegrove, Kieran 6’4 185 R/R 21 has had 4 awful summers in short season leagues
McKenzie, Triston 6’5 165 R/R 18
Marquina, Yoiber 5’10 190 R/R 19
Marte, Randy 6’1 175 R/R 18
Meister, Christian 6’4 215 R/R 21
Miniard, Micah 6’7 195 R/R 19
Perez, Francisco 6’2 195 L/L 18
Perez, Ryan 6’0 190 S/L 21
Robinson, Jared 6’0 190 R/R 20
Shane, Casey 6’4 200 R/R 19
Stewart, Devon 6’2 184 R/R 22
Strode, Billy 6’0 180 L/L 23
Wyatt, Jonas 6’1 185 R/R 17
Vasquez, Gregori 6’1 185 R/R 17

CATCHERS Ht Wt B/T Age
Chu, Li-Jen 5’11 200 R/R 20 power hitter; hurt much of this summer
Goihl, Jack 6’2 215 R/R 22
Gonzalez, Gianpaul 5’10 190 R/R 19
Lucas, Simeon 6’3 215 L/R 19
Salters, Daniel 6’3 210 L/R 22 pretty decent debut in NYPL

INFIELDERS Ht Wt B/T Age
Castro, Willi 6’1 164 S/R 18 everyday regular in NYPL. Note he's not the classic 5-9 midget prospect
Cruz, Grofi 6’2 175 R/R 19
Haggerty, Sam 5’11 175 S/R 21
Krieger, Tyler 6’2 170 S/R 21 injured when signed; did not play
Mathias, Mark 6’0 200 R/R 21 one of those 2B who look good in Mahoning Valley
Medina, Jose 6’1 185 L/L 20
Miller, Anthony 6’4 242 L/R 20
Pujols, Henry 6’3 195 R/R 16
Vicente, Jose 5’11 175 R/R 19
Wakamatsu, Luke 6’3 185 S/R 18 an even bigger SS with a more famous father than Castro [who's not related to Fidel]
Winfrey, Nate 6’3 210 R/R 20

OUTFIELDERS Ht Wt B/T Age

Garcia, Juan 6’3 195 R/R 18
Gonzalez, Oscar 6’2 180 R/R 17
Isaacs, Todd 5’11 180 R/R 19
Lukes, Nathan 5’11 185 L/R 21 hurt after a couple weeks
Marabell, Connor 6’1 195 L/R 21
Mejia, Gabriel 5’11 160 S/R 20 lots of singles and walks and steals
Sayles, Silento 5’9 185 R/R 19[/b] another speedy CF but hasn't shown as much as Mejia
Soto, Junior 6’3 172 R/R 18
Tom, Ka’ai 5’9 185 L/R 2 did a lot of good things offensively, except hit homers in his debut. Only played in Left

lines BA reports, NB: AAA averages are just for the playoffs

CLE AAA Aguilar, Jesus 1B 4 1 1 0 .353
CLE AAA Gonzalez, Erik SS 4 1 2 2 .476 2B (4), HR (1)
CLE AAA Ramsey, James RF 4 0 1 0 .100
CLE MAJ Lindor, Francisco SS 3 2 1 1 .309 3B (3), 2 BB (22), SB (8) I thought he was all glove, little hit??
CLE MAJ Urshela, Giovanny 3B 4 1 1 1 .224 HR (6)

The biggest moment of Audy Ciriaco's career was just the latest chapter of playoff magic for the Columbus Clippers.

"This is unbelievable, I can't describe the feeling," Ciriaco said, moments before getting soaked in Gatorade by his teammates. "This is something awesome. This is the coolest thing I have ever done in my life."

One night after homering to send Columbus to the Governors' Cup Finals, Ciriaco slammed a go-ahead solo shot in the eighth inning to cap a late comeback and give the Clippers a 6-5 win over Indianapolis in Game 1 of the best-of-5 series at Huntington Park.

Ciriaco, a 28-year-old middle infielder, connected on a 3-2 pitch from reliever Josh Wall leading off the eighth after Columbus erased a 5-1 deficit with four runs in the seventh. The blast made a winner of Joseph Colon (1-0), who struck out four over the final two innings.

"We need to enjoy it," Columbus manager Chris Tremie said a night after his team nearly no-hit Norfolk in the decisive fifth game of the semifinals. "Last night was great winning, tonight was a big win again. [We need to] enjoy this and we gotta come back, refocus and win again tomorrow. A lot of exciting things happening right now."

Indianapolis took control early behind veteran starter Chris Volstad, who struck out seven and limited the Clippers to a run on six hits and walk over six innings. Gorkys Hernandez went 3-for-4 with an RBI as the Indians built a 5-1 lead by the seventh.

"Unfortunately, we gave up some runs in the top half of that inning, things didn't look too good," Tremie said.

But Columbus clawed back in the bottom of the seventh when Erik Gonzalez hit an RBI double, Zach Walters lined a two-run single and Adam Moore followed with a game-tying RBI double to right off Wall. Ciriaco, who went 2-for-4, followed an inning later with his third postseason homer.

"The guys, they just responded," Tremie said. "It was loud, it was quick, it was just exciting. It was an unbelievable inning right there. It was a great ballgame all-around."

Columbus again enjoyed a decided homefield advantage with a full house of 11,048 -- another playoff record -- after the team offered free admission.

"It's unbelievable. Every time you get a hit, you get an ovation. Make a play, you hear the crowd going nuts," Ciriaco said. "That just makes you want to do more for the team and do good things, so they enjoy the game and we can help the team win."

"Now that was exciting!!!" Clippers outfielder Tyler Holt tweeted. "Columbus let's do it again [tomorrow]. Pack this place. Last home game of season!"

as for prospect performances:

Holt and Yandy Diaz and Ramsey each had a pair of hits.
Ryan Merritt went 6 1/3 allowed 9 hits walked 2 and struck out 4. He left with 2 runs allowed and 2 on base, and
Trey Haley followed and was really horrible and among other things let the two runners score. While Haley was on the hill it went like this:

With Willy Garcia batting, wild pitch by Trey Haley, Gorkys Hernandez to 3rd. Steve Lombardozzi Jr. to 2nd.
Willy Garcia grounds out, shortstop Erik Gonzalez to first baseman Jesus Aguilar. Gorkys Hernandez scores. Steve Lombardozzi Jr. to 3rd.
With Josh Bell batting, passed ball by Adam Moore, Steve Lombardozzi Jr. scores.
Josh Bell walks.
With Keon Broxton batting, wild pitch by Trey Haley, Josh Bell to 2nd.
Keon Broxton singles on a line drive to right fielder James Ramsey. Josh Bell scores.
With Tony Sanchez batting, Keon Broxton steals (1) 2nd base.
With Tony Sanchez batting, passed ball by Adam Moore, Keon Broxton to 3rd.
Tony Sanchez walks.
Dan Gamache lines out to shortstop Erik Gonzalez.

Our old friend JoeZ's old friend Joe Colon finished up with 2 shutout innings to earn the win.

Whatever happened to Joe Z?

Dan Gamache lines out to shortstop Erik Gonzalez

Dan Gamache is local(RI) kid

2 run homer for Michael Choice, a typical solid outing by Toru Murata (6 innings, 1 run) lead Columbus to second win toward the Governor's Cup. Terrible relief pitching almost blows it (CC Lee 4 men on his 1 inning, luckily only 1 run scores), Carlos Marmol ( 3 walks and a hit produce 2 runs), Dustin Molleken ends it for the save.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.js ... x&sid=milb

Video of Tyler Holt amazing catch that won it for the Clippers despite the miserable work of the relievers. Save goes to Tyler, not to Molleken.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/m ... azing-win/