Cleveland Sports Forum

Wouldn't be a big surprise. But behind the seven in the majors our minor league teams are not especially deep in outfielders. Greg Allen in Akron is about it until you get down to the two high school draftees from the past two drafts: Benson and Him Whose Name I Don't Recall. It is possible that Chang could be converted to the OF, I guess, although BA says his defense at short has vastly improved.
So the front office might like to hold on to Naquin although I'm sure he's not happy about this season at all.

I wouldn't be happy either if I were Naquin. This whole situation has me pissed off, can't imagine how he feels.

After batting .296 or whatever last year and providing a spark at bottom of lineup what do they do this year? Give him all of 20 at bats before deciding he needs to go back down. Then after injuries they wise up and bring him back and what do they do, give him like 5 more at bats before sending him back down.

Guyer did a fine job for us last year but he's hitting .207 in almost 90 at bats. Why let a guy like that stand in the way of a former 1st round pick with 5 tools who has already proven he can produce and has nothing left to prove in AAA?

It is stupid.

He and Zimmer should both be playing every day and let them finish off their learning and adjustments. Let Jackson spell them here and there against lefties. It isn't like Naquin would do worse than .207 against lefties. And our OF defense would be superb with 3 great arms.

It's all about money and options. Guyer is owed money and out of options and Naquin has options.



And.......Don't f*ck with a winning streak.

Absolutely. Totally agree. I don't make the move today. But a week ago we were begging for offense.

I doubt Guyer finishes the season with the Tribe.

If Chisenhall were available they're be no role for Naquin and they do expect Lonnie back reasonably soon. He's a better RF than Naquin now, I guess, and he has finally had the long-awaited breakthrough at the plate.

If we were the Yankees I'd be saying trade Naquin for a lefty reliever. Or in a package for a stud starter. But we are Cleveland. And we always have to look at what not only helps us now but what helps us down the road. And no way in hell I stunt the development of a prospect like Naquin for dime a dozen guys like Chisenhall and Guyer.

Or stunt Yandy Diaz for Urshela.

Naquin and Yandy can be really good every day players for a long time. Chisenhall is a journeyman type who hit above his weight for a couple hot streaks this year. He's always been hot and cold. Mostly cold. This year he was hurt during the cold stretches.. LOL

Clippers lose to Tides tonight 8-5. ... Plutko and Crockett both got smacked around. ... Yandy 2-3 with a double and a walk. ... Naquin 2-4 with a homer and 4 RBI.

Akron rained out. They were supposed to finish a suspended game tonight. There is a double header scheduled for tomorrow. Not sure when they make up suspended game now. Maybe Sunday.

Lynchburg was rained out too.

Captains beat Cubs 7-3 despite the fact that SP Garza gave up 7 walks and 2 hits in 5 innings. ... Chu 1-5. ... Ice 1-4 a double.

Scrappers beat Williamsport 12-2. ... Francisco Perez with another fine outing. I should probably start mentioning him here. 6'2" lefty who has pitched well this year. 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K tonight. 1.10 WHIP and 2.97 ERA this year in 7 starts. ... Kyle Nelson, our 15th round pick this year, pitched a shutout inning, 2 K's. 2.00 ERA this year out of pen. Has only allowed a run in 1 of his 7 outings this year. ... Samad Taylor, our 10th round pick last year, was 4-4 tonight with a walk, double, and 5 RBI. Hitting .302 this year. ... Berardi 2-5 with a double. Hitting .345 now. ... OscarG 1-5. ... Rivera 1-2 w/ walk.

AZL Tribe lost to Padres 7-4. ... Holmes 1-4 with a SB. ... GabeM 1-5.

DSL Indians were off tonight.

DSL Indians/Brewers beat Dodgers 14-3. ... L.Garcia 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K. ... Jiminez 4-6 with a homer.

The solid hitting by all the 19 year olds in Mahoning Valley is really pretty impressive; most of the league is college kids and a couple years older. The average age of a NYPL player is 21. Samad Taylor is not a big kid, 5-9 165, and Class A 2nd basemen rarely make it but he certainly is hitting well. All that big 3rd baseman Nolan Jones can do is walk a lot, which is a good start: now he needs to start driving those pitches that he hits.

mlb.com has updated its Top 30 prospect lists, pumping them full of this year's draft choices. Here's their Tribe list

1. Mejia 2. McKenzie 3. Bradley obviously
4. Chang 5. Jones 6. Diaz 7. Holmes 8. Allen 9. Benson
10. Castro 11. Civale 12. Bieber 13. Merryweather: all probably belong up several spots
14. Capel [he does hit plenty of doubles and homers, his ratings: Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 50 | Run: 65 | Arm: 55 | Field: 55 | Overall: 45]
15. Ernie Clemens [really?] another 2B 16. Karinchak RHP 17. Morimando 18. Hillman
19. Freeman 20. Krieger 21. Ice 22. Merritt
23. Oscar G 24. JohnathanRod 17 year old OF 25. Aiken
26. Valera OF just signed in the DR 27. Rivera C 28. Wakamatsu 29. Bracho 16 year old SS from DR 30. Marcos Gonzalez 17 year old DR SS

This list omits pitchers Pannone, Esparza, Hartson; Hentges, Hockin; Scrappers Perez and Tati, Morgan and Plesac; relievers Siri,
AA hitters: Papi, LRod, Haase; AAA Stamets.

I started to post that MLB Pipeline list last week but the way they set the page up looked like it would be a chore to copy and paste. Thanks for taking the time.

I really do not understand these top prospect lists.

The only thing I can figure is the Indians are doing what the Braves and Yankees were infamous for. Touting and propping up weaker prospects so they can trade them for needed pieces. Just spitballin', might be crazy.

Chang 4, Jones 5, Holmes 8, Benson 10 ... No Pannone in top 30?

Some of this stuff is just ridiculous. If I'm wrong then they are crazy ones.

Akron doubleheader: the first game was tight but Bowie pulled it out 21-1 despite Bradley's last at bat home run. Bobby has 18, one behind Chang, his average has slipped down to 243 and his OPS is under 800. Chang's at 227 with OPS just over 800. If his defense has actually improved significantly as BA reported, I can see him at No 4 on the list or close to that; after the first there's an enormous drop off and you can juggle a dozen of them in nearly any order.

Pannone goes in the nightcap with a not too well rested bullpen.

Columbus was rained out tonight.

Chiang has a 5 inning no=hitter and Hillcats are up 1-0

Luis Jiminez going for Lake County. Grant Hockin for Mah Valley

No starter listed for the 7-19 Arizona team.

Well Chiang finished up his no-hitter, going all the 9 innings; he walked one and hit a batter and threw 106 pitches. He'd started the season well, going 7-2 I April and May but hadn't won a game since. He's a 23 year old 6-0 175 RH from Taiwan. Almost certainly not a prospect. But he had himself a big day!

Now this is rather amazing:

Luis Jiminez, a struggling 22 year old RH with the Captains leaves his start with his own no=hitter in 5 innings. But behind 1=0 on an error following a walk and hit baseman in the first.
Cesar Ventura who comes in with an ERA of 9 follows and has pitched no more hitless innings but has allowed 2 earned runs. How I don't know: he only walked one. I'll need to look this up. Walk; Hit Batter; sac bunt; wild pitch; sac fly. That's efficient offense!
Since the game is on the road and the typically woeful Lake County offense has not scored a run, there's probably just one more inning to go for the Indians' 2 Class A teams to score double no hitters. According to Elias Sports Bureau, that was last accomplished way back in 1932 [only time in the modern era] by the St. Louis Browns' teams in Elkhart IN and Amarillo TX.

I'm going to follow the bottom of the 8th pitch by pitch: It's 2-2 on the leadoff man. Got him.
Got the audio ----- long fly to LF, Tinsley gets there but the ball goes off his glove-- the official scorer calls it a triple. And there goes the excitement and we wind up with just another lake county loss. The announcer had fun with it.