The predominantly teenage Tribe went 4-2 on the week and while their defense was stagnated with errors early in the week, they cleaned their act up later with a pair of errorless showings. The offense was rolling, per usual, though the bullpen and eventually dropped games to the AZL Giants and A’s late in the week.
The AZL Indians bullpen couldn’t throw the shutout innings they needed in a back-and-forth game on Friday night. After starter Kieran Lovegrove threw 3 shutout innings, each pitcher after him surrendered at least a run. However, from an offensive standpoint, second baseman Claudio Bautista kept his hot hitting up with two hits and his 4th homer of the season.
One thing the AZL Indians squad has rarely had an issue with is scoring runs. On Thursday night, they scored seven of them on 15 hits against the AZL Brewers in a 7-2 win. Sean Mahon was once again on-hand to take in the game with scouts, and has all kinds of nuggets on the pitch speeds and effectiveness of Mitch Brown, Joshua Nervis and others, and also some insight into the performances of Dorsyss Paulino, Anthony Santander, D'Vone McClure and others.
The defense wasn’t pretty, but the offense and pitching were incredibly solid on Wednesday night as the AZL Indians beat the AZL Reds 8-6. Centerfielder Tyler Booth got things going with an opposite field double and that continued to be the trend for Booth who went 3-for-4 with three opposite field hits.
There are lots of good things happening in the Indians minor league system and this week Tony touches on the hot pitching of late from Jeanmar Gomez and the incredible turnaround by Tony Wolters, has all sorts of comments from the Indians Player Development staff on players at Mahoning Valley, provides injury updates on several players like Tyler Naquin and LeVon Washington, and lots of stuff on Cord Phelps, Paolo Espino, Todd Hankins, Jerrud Sabourin, Jacob Lee, Nelson Rodriguez and more!
The Indians offense righted the ship on Monday evening as they put together 11 hits and scored 8 runs in an 8-4 win against the Mariners. More importantly, the Arizona squad did not commit an error in the contest, the first time since July 26—over the course of 11 games.
Dillon Howard started the first game of two seven inning ball games on Sunday night and pitched one of his better game in the AZL thus far. The Indians lost the first game 2-1 but rebounded in the second game to beat the Padres 7-3.
The AZL Indians pitching had some impressive starts this week, though the defense struggled throughout the week. The Arizona squad went 2-4 on the week and had their share of growing pains with 13 errors in the six games. Let’s run through the players and highlights of the week…
The AZL Indians made three errors on Friday night, but their offense was able to bury the defensive woes as they slugged 12 hits and defeated the Dodgers 9-6 with hit parades in the fourth and sixth innings.
Dylan Baker proved why he was one of the most highly regarded JUCO prospect in the 2012 draft on Wednesday night. The Alaska native threw 3.1 innings on the evening, struck out six—including striking out the side in the 2nd inning—and was absolutely owning the Cubs offense with a fastball
In this week's second edition of Minor Happenings, Tony takes a long, hard look at the Triple-A Columbus roster. He takes a look at the hot hitting Tim Fedroff, Ezequiel Carrera and Jared Goedert and provides insight and analysis on whether they are big league options for the Indians anytime soon, provides several interesting comments from Ross Atkins on how they handle players that are affected by trades as well as some thoughts on Vinny Rottino and J.C. Romero, and more.
With the trade deadline now in the past and my vacation but a distant memory, it is time to get back into the swing of things with Minor Happenings as we head down the home stretch of the minor league season. Today, Tony provides updates on the departing Steven Wright and incoming Lars Anderson, the recent impressive performances from lefties T.J. House and Danny Jimenez, all sorts of goodies from Farm Director Ross Atkins on some pitchers in the system, an update on the health of Jeremie Tice, and more.
Things started off on the right foot for the AZL Indians as they battled their next door neighbor in Goodyear and scored three early runs against the Reds. First baseman Nelson Rodriguez did the bulk of the damage as he crushed a 3-run homer over 410 ft. to centerfield after D’vone McClure and Jorge Martinez reached base on a HBP and single, respectively.
The AZL Rangers have one of the best teams in the Arizona Rookie League. The Indians found out why last night as they were pounded 11-2. The IPI's Sean Mahon was once again in attendance last night in Goodyear and shares firsthand observations from himself and from scouts on the performance of players like Lovegrove, Sterling, Cleto, Polanco, and more.
In today's Arizona League Indians notebook, Sean Mahon recaps the week that was and provides a ton of updates on several of the Indians young guns in Arizona like Kieran Lovegrove, Mitch Brown, Dylan Baker and others with velocities and pitch effectiveness. He also provides updates on others like Nelson Rodriguez, Tyler Booth and more. This is a must read piece with tons of comments from scouts and others on what may be the most talented team of the Indians six stateside affiliates.
GOODYEAR-The Indians offense struck early, but not often on Friday evening with a five run 1st inning off of the Brewers' Austin Hall. The remarkable thing about that 5-run 1st inning is the fact they did it all with two outs; the Tribe's outfield tandem of D'Vone McClure and Tyler Booth grounded out to start the game and then came the heavy lifting--Dorssys Paulino legged out a triple followed by a single and walk courtesy of Jorge Martinez and Nelson Rodriguez, respectively.
The 2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!