Hillcats won!

Plutko got the win. LOL .. Not kidding

Scrappers lost tho, 8-3.

So Hillcats win 7-1 to win their first championship since 2012. (as mentioned before, co champs this year due to storm cancelling last series)
Hartson got the start and did great again. 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K. ... Four relievers then combine to finish game off. Plutko, Krauth, Eubank, and Angulo.
Castro 3-5 with 2 RBI
Collins 1-4 with 2 RBI
Longo 1-4 with stolen base

.

Scrappers lose 8-3 to Vermont.
Hentges had a pretty good start, 4 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, but the bullpen let them down. Tati, Mejia and Lopez all allowed 2 runs apiece.
Clement 3-5 with RBI
Jones 1-5
Lucas 3-4 with a home run

Their web site is showing Game 2 on Monday at Mahoning Valley with Vazquez starting

Angulo and Eubank are both reading to the Arizona Fall League, both rack up plenty of strikeouts, power arms?

Angulo is that pitcher from Venezuala that I posted an article about a while back. Sad what's going on there.

He was originally a hitter with a great arm, but very slow. So at the age of 17 he was asked to switch to pitcher. He went to a small college in Texas and was rocked his first year, then did very well his second, and was drafted.

He's still very raw as a pitcher. He spent his first two seasons in AZL. Been in A ball last 2 years. Assuming he is getting a bit old for his level by now...?

I don't know what his fastball is topping out at now, although I do know he throws hard. But I do remember reading he has 4 pitches, 2 seam, 4 seam, slurve, and change up. I remember thinking at time I wish they would have told him to forget about changeup and concentrate on his fastballs and breaking ball.

BA posts their "all-classification" all star teams.

None of ours on the AAA team, but then again we had few prospects playing at that level.

AA: Mejia is not surprisingly the Catcher.

High A: McKenzie is of course one of the 5 starting pitchers.

I don't think Low A is posted yet. Not much chance we'll get anywhere here.

"We slant our coverage of the minors toward player development, and as such we reward the best performances by prospects on our all-star teams."
So Bieber and Civale while having good seasons line up behind the hard-throwers.

Scrappers lose to Vermont tonight 3-0. Thus ends their best of 3 series and their season. But it was a good one. A lot of talent on that team.

McCarty 2.2 shutout innings, 5 K.
JC Mejia 2 more shutout innings, 3 K.

Offense only had 1 hit, a single by Ernie Clement.

And that's it for the minor league season of 2017.

Upcoming will be various league prospect lists; and then the team prospect lists over the winter. And of course the annual excitement over the Rule 5 draft and who we have to protect and let loose. Should be an exciting winter. But an even more exciting fall over in the rest of the folders.

I was especially impressed with how well the Scrappers did with a surplus of younger-than-usual 2016 high school draft picks and other teenagers. I am pretty it was one of their youngest teams as well as one of the more successful.

As you know, Civ, I don't pay too much attention to age. I count on you to keep me straight in that regard. But I'm very happy with the talent there. It stunk to lose Samad Taylor, he looked really good. But Jones looks as if he is coming along nicely. Benson really improved as the season went. I thought last years draft was looking crappy but starting to like it. And Oscar has potential too, just needs to start working on plate discipline. His K to Walk ratio was terrible. Needs to walk more. K a tad less. Bradley and Benson did it, he can too.

But the strength of the team is pitching. Plesac, Morgan, Hentges, McCarty, Mejia, Teaney, Draper, Nelson, Tati ... gosh, just so many guys on one team that show potential.

Took a quick look at what Samad Taylor did after the trade.
he got a week in the Appy league and then moved out west to Vancouver, which is the same level as the Scrappers. His line there was 294/342/426. He's only 19. He and Pannone were a pretty good price the Blue jays got for Joe Smith.

while I was at it, I looked at the guys we traded last year fro Guyer"


OF Nathan Lukes Rays pushed him too far, to AA, and he finished with a 695 OPS

RHP Jhonleider Salinas pitched in the NYPL. Not bad, 1.15 K/IP was his best stat. 21 year old RH 6-7 215! Big guy, probably has promise.

2017 Cleveland Indians Instructional League Roster

September 13, 2017 By Vince Lara-Cinisomo Baseball America

Catchers

Angel Lopez
Micael Ramirez
Michael Rivera
Josh Rolette

Infielders

Jesse Berardi
Aaron Bracho
Ernie Clement
Michael Cooper
Marco Gonzalez
Tyler Freeman
Tyler Friis
Jonathan Lopez
Dillon Persinger
Brayan Rocchio

Outfielders

Pedro Alfonseca
Tre Gantt
Quentin Holmes
Mitch Reeves
Johnathan Rodriguez
Clark Scolamiero
Jhon Torres
George Valera
Austen Wade

Pitchers

Tommy DeJuneas
Zack Draper
Riley Echols
Ignacio Feliz
Luis David Garcia
Mike Garcia
Chandler Ferguson
Nick Gallagher
Michael Hendrickson
James Karinchak
Kirk McCarty
Dante Mendoza
Eli Morgan
Juan Mota
Josh Nashed
Kyle Nelson
Wilton Sanchez
Jordan Scheftz
Jonathan Teaney
Matt Turner

From Baseball America ...

DSL all star team. No shock, there are no Indians on it. No Indian on the AZL all star team either.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2 ... TA7vXeU.97

Short Season all star team. Nolan Jones only Indian.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2 ... uz5BHT6.97

Low-A all star team. No Indian on it.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2 ... eZbw8O0.97

High-A all star team. triston McKenzie made the team.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2 ... JxGD6EY.97

AA all star team. Francisco Mejia on it.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2 ... B88apMa.97

AAA all star team. No Indian.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2 ... uSuZSM4.97

Nolan Jones on the NYPL All star list as a SS, which is a little bizarre since he played 3rd, and not very well, although he hit like a pro