Pirates Acquire Josh Rodriguez

By Mike Axisa [June 21, 2011 at 12:24pm CST]

The Pirates have acquired Josh Rodriguez from the Indians for cash, reports MLB.com's Jordan Bastian (on Twitter). The infielder had been returned to Cleveland from Pittsburgh as a Rule 5 Draft pick back in April.

Baseball America ranked Rodriguez 24th among Pirates prospects before the season and suggested that he could become a big league utility player. In 364 plate appearances at Triple-A last year, he hit .293/.372/.486 and played shortstop. In 14 plate appearances for the Pirates this year, Rodriguez collected a single and a walk while playing second and short. His brief return to the Tribe resulted in a .193/.270/.316 batting line in 65 Triple-A plate appearances.

Indians did not try very hard to find a spot for Josh. He played most LF. Valbuena had SS with Phelps behind him. Phelps to Cleveland didn't open up much more for Rodriguez.

We've dumped Jordan Brown, Wes Hodges and Rodriguez from the Clippers this year; clearing out our over 25 year old draftees

Zach McAllister's ready. Wins his 8th, going 7 2-hit innings. allows 1 earned run, walks 3, fans 6. Offensive support from Carrera, Donald and Duncan with 2 hits each, Duncan a 3 run homer (would you have liked him up in the 9th last night instead of Kearns?)

Aeros win 10-8. McBride with 3 hits, Mills 2, both of Beaus were doubles, he's at 296. Weglarz 0-4 at 167.
Joe Gardner 5 1/3 4 earned runs, 6 hits. Chen Lee 1 2/3 3 K, 2 hits and a run.

Scrappers win 2-0. Danny Jiminez stumbles through 3 1/3, walks 2 and allows 5 hits but bad baserunning saves him. Then Cody Allen is perfect through 3 2/3, registering 6 K among the 11 outs. Bryce Stowell finishes with 2 shutout innings, why's he here?

Myles singles and doubles; Cody Elliott 2 hits.

All Star game appearances by Captains: Monsalve 0-2, Martinez 1-2

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Scrappers' hurlers silence Muckdogs

NILES, Ohio — A trio of Mahoning Valley hurlers combined for a five-hit shutout as the host Scrappers blanked the Batavia Muckdogs 2-0 Tuesday night in New York-Pennsylvania League action before 2,706 fans at Eastwood Field.

Starter Daniel Jimenez allowed four hits over 3 1/3 innings.

Cody Allen relieved and completely shut down Batavia. Allen didn’t allow a hit in 3 2/3 innings to get the win. He fanned six and didn’t allow a walk.

Bryce Stowell got the save for the Scrappers, tossing one-hit ball with three strikeouts over the final two innings.

Batavia had a good chance to score in the top of the first. Mike O’Neill led off the game with a double to left field. He moved to third on Daniel Stienstra’s groundout.

But Jimenez got out of trouble when Roberto Reyes lined out to center fielder Cody Elliott, who threw home. O’Neill was caught off the bag, got in a rundown, and was tagged out at home.

In the third, Kevin Moscatel singled to right and went to second when Virgil Hill reached on a fielding error.

After Cesar Valera was called out on strikes, O’Neill reached when no one caught his infield popup to second. Moscatel reached third, but Hill was thrown out trying to go to third.

Stienstra walked to load the bases, but Reyes struck out to end the inning.

Batavia had another chance in the fourth. David Medina walked with one out and went to third on a Romulo Ruiz double to left.

Allen then replaced Jimenez, and promptly fanned Moscatel and Hill.

In the eighth, Valera greeted Stowell with a double to right. But Stowell fanned O’Neill, then got Stienstra to ground out and Reyes to fly out.

Mahoning Valley scored its first run in the fifth. With two outs, Todd Hankins walked and came around to score on a Kevin Fontanez double to left.

The Scrappers got an insurance run in the eighth. Tony Wolters doubled with two outs and scored on a single to right by Bryson Miles.

The Muckdogs pitched well. Javier Avendano pitched two-hit ball over three innings.

Iden Nazario took the loss. He allowed one hit and one run over two innings.

Corey Baker pitched one-hit ball over two innings, and Travis Miller allowed two hits and a run in the eighth.

The two teams are in action again tonight at Eastwood Field. Game time is 7:05 p.m.

fORGOT TO include Arizona League team, made 4 errors, lost the game. Felix Sterling who looked great last summer is back at Goodyear, not such a hot debut 4 runs in a couple innings. Henry Dunn and Mark Brown shared the one Norte Americano spot in the lineup and each registered a hit. Someone named Josh McKeon pitched an inning; perhaps Marlins' manager's great-grandson?

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Mckeon was only recently signed as an UDFA. Apparently has only pitched for 2 years after playing mostly as a catcher.

Midgame reports. Corey Kluber looks awful today, 4 walks in 2 innings. Chisenhall returns from a DL stay and has singled and tripled in 2 trips. For the Aeros hot and cold Matt Packer is hot, with 5 1-hit shutout innings and 6 K. For the Scrappers Joseph Colon also with 5 shutout innings. Kinston and LC still on midseason break.

Lonnie Chisenhall more than made up for lost time Wednesday.

Chisenhall, MLB.com's preseason No. 36 prospect, was 4-for-6 with a homer and a career-high six RBIs as Triple-A Columbus rallied past Toledo, 13-7.


· Chisenhall's player page
· Gameday box score
· Catch the Clippers in action
· Complete Indians affiliate coverage
The Indians' 2008 first-rounder started his night by tripling in a pair of runs in the third inning and hitting an RBI single in the fourth for the Clippers. He stepped to the plate with two on and one out in the eighth with the game tied, 7-7, and promptly delivered a three-run blast.

"I was looking to stay up the middle and drive the ball hard somewhere," Chisenhall said. "I wasn't trying to drive the ball out of the park. I got a good piece of it, and I guess the wind played a part in it a bit."

Chisenhall suffered a concussion while sliding into third base June 11 in Buffalo. After missing 10 days, the North Carolina native was anxious to get back on the field.

"I've been itching to get back, I was definitely really ready to get out there," he said. "I didn't expect that, but my swing was feeling good in the cage, and I had a few days to nitpick my swing."

Chisenhall had previously driven in five runs several times, most recently on Aug. 14, 2010 in Double-A Akron's 12-2 win over New Britain. The 22-year-old third baseman entered the game in the midst of an 0-for-13 skid and had been 5-for-38 in his previous nine games.

"I can't remember the last time I had a multi-hit game, so it was nice to get up there and feel like I put a good night up," he said.

The home run came as a source of pride for the left-handed hitter, as he's struggled against southpaws. Entering the game, Chisenhall was batting .174 with two homers against left-handed pitchers before taking Matt Hoffman's first pitch of the at-bat deep to right-center field.

"It's been up-and-down against lefties. I feel like I haven't been seeing the ball well against them," he said. "So to get a home run and put my team ahead there felt good."

Overall, the former first-rounder is batting .262 with six homers and 36 RBIs, but he admits he has more work to do before reaching the Majors.

"Facing lefties, I have to put together a good at-bat," Chisenhall said. "Defensively, I have to make the plays and just be a well-rounded ballplayer. [That's] what I'm trying to do down here."

Luis Valbuena slugged a three-run homer and Ezequiel Carrera was 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Jerad Head had two hits, including a double, scored twice and stole a base for the Clippers.

Here's the Columbus box score. Miserable start for Kluber, 6 runs, 6 walks in 3 innings. All the rest of the Clipper starters may be ready for a big league shot, not Corey.

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Aeros fall 3-2. Matt Packer had 5 shutout innings, then lost it in the 6th. Adm Miller in relief let the final runs score although he's not charged with any in his 1 2/3. 3 hits apiece by SS Juan Diaz and C Jordan Henry. Nick Weglarz draws 3 walks, no hits; battin .158 as he preps to go back to AAA someday

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Scrappers win on a walk-off walk, 4-3, in 11. Joseph Colon started with 5 1-hit shutout innings. Kyle Petter finished with 2 shutout IP. For the offense: 2nd baseman Todd Hankins (15th round) with 3 hits; Jordan Smith with 2 (3rd baseman, 9th round, arrived in town just in time for the game), Cody Elliott (21st round OF) with 2; Siliga 2 hits, one a homer, an oldtimer from last year's draft, but younger than any of the other college guys, he's a high school pick.

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Hre are last night's games. Highlights are:

in Columbus, Jason Kipnis with his Ninth Triple
Jeanmar Gomez with 8 shutout innings.

in Akron, 3 hits by Jordan Henry; 2 by KSanchez, Beau Mills, Juan Diaz. Beau in about a month has 10 doubles, 1 triple, 4 homers. Nick Weglarz 0-3, hitting 146
Austin Adams earned runs in 4 innings.

in Kinston, Rob Bryson 2 shutout innings. Marty Popham 2 runs in 5 innings.

Lake County still on break.

for Mahoning Valley, Tony Wolters with 2 triples and Bryson Myles with a triple, too. Jordan Smith with the team's only non-triple hit.

Arizona Indians: Juan Romero who banged 7 homers for in the AZL last year as a 17 year old, hit two homers. Multiple hits by all your favorite Latin baseball names: Garcia, Martinez, Romero, Ramirez. Holmbert Holmbert inefictve 4 innings, 7 runs, although only 2 earned.

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Pomeranz, Kipnis selected for Futures Game

CLEVELAND -- A pair of highly touted Indians prospects will represent the organization in the annual XM All-Star Futures Game.

Drew Pomeranz, the club's first-round Draft pick in 2010, was selected as one of 10 pitchers for the U.S. team. Infielder Jason Kipnis will join him.

Pomeranz (2-2, 1.93 ERA), the No. 4-rated prospect in the Indians' organization, is currently pitching at Class A Kinston. The southpaw starter has 77 strikeouts in 60 1/3 innings.

, the club's No. 3-rated prospect, is batting .291 for Triple-A Columbus. He was the Indians' second-round selection in 2009.

The XM All-Star Futures Game features many of the top Minor League prospects in baseball. Indians who have participated in recent years include Fausto Carmona, Grady Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo.

The game will begin at 6 p.m. ET and can be viewed live on ESPN2, ESPN2 HD and MLB.TV. XM will provide satellite radio play-by-play coverage of the XM All-Star Futures Game on MLB Network Radio XM 89 in addition to its other comprehensive live coverage from Arizona. MLB.com will provide complete coverage before, during and after the game, and you can keep up to date by following @MLBFutures on Twitter. Fans can join the Futures Game conversation by tagging tweets with #mlbfutures. Taco Bell All-Star Sunday is the first of three days of All-Star events at Chase Field, culminating with the 82nd All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 12.

Major League Baseball, along with the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau, MLB.com, Baseball America, USA Baseball and the 30 Major League Baseball clubs, selected the 25-man rosters for each club. Each organization is represented, and the World Team features players from 12 countries and territories. Players from all full-season Minor Leagues were eligible to participate.

Usually each team gets one US and one World player. We're kind of short of non-Americans at this time. Chun Chen was there last year after Sanatana was promoted. I expected them to pick C.C. Lee, Aeros reliever.

BA's one-paragraph bios of our future games participants are rather impressive:

Drew Pomeranz Indians
High A Kinston (Carolina)

Pomeranz is a 2010 first-round college pitcher with power stuff who didn't pitch last year but has shown this season that he won't need a lot of minor league seasoning.

Jason Kipnis, 2b Indians
Triple-A Columbus (International)
Kipnis, a converted outfielder who has looked at home at second base, has the ability to hit for both average and power that could make him an all-star at the position. He should get to the big leagues soon.