Tony%20Lastoria Archive

The minor league season may have ended, but that does not mean there are no more games to report on this year as Instructional League is in full swing and the first games were played yesterday. Tony recaps how every player did for both the Instructional League and Parallel League teams in today's ATF, and provides the stats and information from the games you won't find anywhere else.

The minor league 2012 season officially ended for the Indians over the weekend with Double-A Akron winning a league title, but the beat goes on with Instructional League already in session and other fall and winter leagues set to start in the next few weeks. Today, Tony checks in with another Minor Happenings piece and takes a deep look into first baseman Chun Chen's future with the Indians and also provides tons of comments from the Indians front office on the likes of guys named Salazar, Guilmet, Urshela, Radeke, and more. Also, be on the lookout for the first Instructional League game recap later today or first thing tomorrow.

Tony continues with his fourth piece of his six-part series recapping all six of the Indians' stateside affiliates. In Tony's review of the Indians' short season Single-A affiliate the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, he sat down with the Indians front office earlier this week and discussed their season, the exciting debuts from Tyler Naquin, Joey Wendle, Jacob Lee, and others, the big strides made by Charlie Valerio, Luis DeJesus, Luis Morel, and others, and the inconsistent years from Robel Garcia, Jake Sisco, and others.

Smoke Signals is back on the cyberwaves tonight from 10:00pm – 11:00pm EST. The Indians season is winding down, but the minor league season is already over after the regular season ended two weeks ago and the playoffs wrapped up over the weekend. Tonight, Jim and Tony step away from the big league team and recap the minor league season for all six stateside affiliates and discuss the biggest movers at each affiliate, the prospects rising and falling in value, and lots more.

Today, Tony continues with his third piece of his six-part series recapping all six of the Indians' stateside affiliates. In Tony's review of the Indians' rookie level affiliate the Arizona Indians, he sat down with the Indians front office over the weekend and discussed their season, the explosion onto the prospect scene of several players like Dorssys Paulino, Anthony Santander, and others, the encouraging first year for players like Mitch Brown, Dylan Baker, Kieran Lovegrove, Nelson Rodriguez, and others, and the disappointing seasons for Dillon Howard, Jairo Kelly and others.

The Indians season is (finally) winding down as there are only two weeks left in the season. Tony checks in with his weekly Sunday notebook and explains how the Indians need to blow up the rotation this offseason and rebuild it from scratch, and how they need to make some key decisions with the lineup. He also touches on how this is the worst season in over two decades, their race for a top five pick in next year's draft, injury updates, and more.

Tony is back with another edition of "The Radar Report" that has lots of gun readings on several Indians' prospects in the system. This is a premium site feature which posts about once a month and provides the fastball and secondary velocities of players in the Indians' organization that he sees. This week's report includes information on several arms from short season Single-A Mahoning Valley all the way up to Double-A Akron like Jake Sisco, Danny Salazar, Fabio Martinez and more.

In today’s Minor Happenings, Tony takes a look at the positive strides that Alex Lavisky has made this season and how he has legitimized himself as a catching prospect. In addition to that he discusses and breaks down how right-handed pitcher Cole Cook is back on the prospect radar, how first baseman Jesus Aguilar has solidified his prospect status this season, and provides tons of comments from Ross Atkins on the Lake County team.

Jim Pete posted his High-A Carolina notebook earlier today with some stuff on the top prospects there, and Tony goes a step or two deeper in the second piece of his six-part series recapping all six of the Indians' stateside affiliates. In Tony's review of the Carolina Mudcats, he sat down with the Indians front office this week and discussed their season, the strides made by several of the players in the field and on the mound, and how encouraged they are about some of the showings in Carolina.

The Indians 2012 Fall Instructional League kicks off on Thursday out at their spring training and player development complex in Goodyear, Arizona. Camp runs for four weeks and time will be split between on-field workouts, intra-squad games, and games between other local Major League organizations before concluding on Friday October 12th. Tony gives the 411 on what Instructional League is...

Triple-A Columbus missed the playoffs for the first time in two years, but they still had a winning record at 75-69 and had several bright spots from a player development standpoint. In the first piece of a six-part series recapping all six of the Indians' stateside affiliates, Tony recently sat down with the Indians front office and discussed Columbus' season, some of the promising developments made by several players, and some players that could be in the Major League mix next season.

Another minor league season has wrapped up and summer is turning into fall here at the IPI. Once Akron and Lake County end their playoff run the 2012 season will officially end, but Tony explains how there is no offseason for a site that covers the Cleveland Indians from the big leagues to the minors. He provides an update on all of the activities that the IPI will be involved in this fall and winter, and the tons of coverage that is to come this offseason.

In his weekly Indians notebook, Tony provides an update on the return of Carlos Carrasco, how he has looked, and what the plan may be for him next year. He also chimes in with his thoughts on the recent callups from the minors and makes sense of the players that were called up and those that were not, he talks about Chris Perez being out of line, he looks at the underwhelming season of Casey Kotchman, and more.

The minor league season may be over, but there is no end in sight for Minor Happenings or the minor league coverage here on the IPI. In this week’s Minor Happenings, Tony takes a look at the emergence of Low-A Lake County second baseman Jose Ramirez and what kind of prospect he really is, the strong finish from Lake County catcher Jake Lowery, and the good year but unfortunate injury to short season Single-A Mahoning Valley lefty Geoff Davenport. As always, he has lots of quotes on players like Matt Langwell, Carlos Moncrief, Matt Packer and others provided by the front office, and lots more.

The 2012 Fall Instructional League gets underway next week out in Goodyear, Arizona. Over a span of a month around 50 players will participate in weight training and conditioning drills, on-field instruction, and play in 14 games until it wraps up on Friday October 12th. Tony has the details on what players are going out there and the schedule the next four weeks. Be sure to follow the IPI all fall for updates on the happenings in "Instructs".

The 2012 Minor League Baseball playoffs get underway tonight, and two Indians’ affiliates Low-A Lake County and Double-A Akron are a part of the postseason fun this year. Tony provides a brief preview for Lake County and Akron with the pitching probables for each series, the game schedule for the duration of the playoffs for both teams, some recent additions to both rosters, and more.