Cleveland Sports Forum

Here's what BA features today:

CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 4 0 0 0 .116
CLE AAA Zimmer, Bradley CF 4 1 2 0 .294 2B (11)
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 5 1 2 0 .228
CLE MAJ Gonzalez, Erik SS 1 0 1 0 1.000

Zimmer on International League leader boards:

Doubles, 5th
Triples, tied for 6th
Homers, tied with many for 10th
Total Bases 5th
Extra Base Hits tied for 1st
Slugging Avg 7th
OPS 8th
Steals 4th
Strikeouts 6th

Indians MiLB starters for Monday:
Columbus - Travis Banwart
Akron - D.J. Brown
Lynchburg - Triston McKenzie
Lake County - Aaron Civale

Civ, you get this article?

http://www.baseballamerica.com/internat ... MX2vLjO.97

If so, can you tell me what they say about George Valera. I hear the Indians are set to sign him when signing period begins.

Zimmer, McKenzie, and Armstrong all make the MLB Pipeline team of the week.

Clippers beat Indy tonight 5-4. ... Zimmer was off tonight and lineup was a bunch of nobody's.

Akron was finally able to play a game but lost 3-1. ... Krieger 1-4 a double. ... Papi 1-4. ... Chang 1-3 double. ... Bradley 0-4.

Lynchburg lost 3-2 to the Dash. ... Bieber 6 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K.

And Lake County lost 3-2. ... Civale 6 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K. ... Ben Krauth proved he was human tonight giving up 1 run and taking the loss. 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. ... Ice and Chu both 0'fer.

2016 12th round pick, pitcher Zach Plesac, threw his first live game action pitch today in an extended spring training game, as he has finally recovered from tommy John surgery.

Indians Prospective
#Indians 2016 3rd & 4th Round Picks RHP's Aaron Civale & @ShaneBieber19 have allowed just 4(BB) in 88.1(IP) w/ 89(SO) & 2.75 ERA 22.10 SO/BB

Akron #RubberDucks transactions
LHP Luis Lugo activated from the inactive list
RHP Argenis Angulo assigned to Lynchburg

Tomorrows starters

Columbus - Ryan Merritt
Akron - Pasquale
Lynchburg - Hartson
Lake County - Brady Aiken

Lots of unimpressive hitting lines here:

CLE AA Bradley, Bobby 1B 4 0 0 0 .196
CLE AA Chang, Yu-Cheng SS 3 0 1 1 .191 2B (5)
CLE AA Krieger, Tyler 2B 4 0 1 0 .265 2B (10), SB (9)
CLE AA Mathias, Mark 3B 3 0 0 0 .115
CLE AAA Rodriguez, Nellie 1B 3 0 0 0 .113
CLE HiA Castro, Willi SS 4 0 1 0 .229 CS (6)
CLE LoA Ice, Logan C 4 0 0 0 .241

And some pretty decent pitching as HB noted. Not overpowering but effective.
CLE HiA Bieber, Shane 6 9 2 1 0 3 1.50
CLE LoA Civale, Aaron 6 8 2 2 0 7 2.85

These are 10 of the top prospects to watch for July 2 and which teams are expected to sign them.

George Valera, of, Dominican Republic

A fluent English speaker born and raised in New York, Valera moved to the Dominican Republic and has trained with Alfredo Arias. Like Nationals outfielder Juan Soto two years ago, Valera is a sweet-swinging lefty who has developed into one of the elite game hitters in the class. Valera has a compact, pretty swing that stays through the hitting zone a long time, with good rhythm, timing and leverage. He controls the strike zone well and has above-average raw power. Valera is a corner outfielder whose value lies in his bat.

PROJECTED TEAM: INDIANS

Thanks, Civ!

He sounds good. Thanks for alerting us to him.

Should be ready to join the Tribe about when Brantley retires in 2023.

No problem at all.. I usually get pretty decent info on international guys we are interested in from guys I follow on Twitter. But I heard we were probably going to sign this kid and I had never heard anything about him. I noticed he was included in that BA article so hoped you could hook us up. He does sound interesting. I saw video of a batting practice of his on Twitter, he does have a pretty left handed swing. We will hope for the best.

Indians Prospective‏ @indiansPro

#Clippers transaction

OF Bradley Zimmer promoted to Cleveland
RHP Shawn Armstrong promoted to Cleveland
OF Yandy Diaz assigned to Columbus

Akron #RubberDucks transaction

LHP David Speer promoted to Columbus
RHP Matt Whitehouse promoted to Columbus

Lynchburg #Hillcats transactions

OF Conner Marabell promoted to Columbus
RHP Leandro Linares removed from 7-day DL

(I think that last couple lines was mistake. I think Marabell was promoted to Akron, but we'll see)

This is time of year when big league dreams come to an end. Upcoming draft. International signings. Only room for so many players. You have to dig pretty deep to find transaction reports of kids being released. Some see it coming. Some don't.

Well Columbus played a pair of 7 inning games today and lost them both by a combined score of 14-1. .... Yandy went 1-6 combined. ... Merritt got walloped. 6 Ip, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.

Akron won 6-1 on a good outing by Pasquale. ... 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K. ... Krieger, Chang, & Bradley all 0'fer.

Lynchburg won 8-6 despite a rare down outing by McKenzie. 6.1 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 8 K.

Lake County won 4-3 on a little better outing by Aiken. 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K. ... Ice 0-4. ... Chu 1-3 with a walk.

Indians Prospective @indiansPro
Since being converted to a RP last year current #Rubberducks RHP Mitch Brown has struck out 50 in just 31.2 innings (14.24 SO/9) #Indians

Over 107(G) & 211(IP) former 17th Round pick & current Akron RHP Cameron Hill sports a career ERA under 2.00 at 1.92 #Indians

#Indians MiLB starters for Wednesday:

Columbus - Adam Plutko
Akron - Luis Lugo
Lynchburg - Shao-Ching Chiang
Lake County - Justin Garza