Indians Prospect Insider

The Crushers continue to get men on base, still second in the league in hitting with a .280 batting average coming into Thursday night’s game against Evansville. The problem has been getting runs across the plate. The Crushers outhit their opponent, accumulating 11 base hits verses the Otters' eight, but ultimately lost 3-2 after wasting away late scoring opportunities.

The Fort Wayne TinCaps (41-24) jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings en route to a 4-1 win over the Lake County Captains (21-42) on Thursday night. Fort Wayne took two out of three games to win the series. Right-hander Luis DeJesus made the start for the Captains as he took on righty Walker Weickel for the TinCaps.

After the copious amount of draft coverage on the site over the last two weeks, it is time to get things back on track and back to normal. That means catching up on the Happenings in the minor leagues. In today’s only edition of Minor Happenings this week, Tony gets us caught up on a few things and talks about the strides lefty Shawn Morimando is making and the consistency that Cody Anderson is showing in Carolina. He also provides several comments from Ross Atkins on the significant delivery adjustment Trevor Bauer is making, how Lonnie Chisenhall looks in Columbus, talks of a position change for Chun Chen, and tons more.

The month of June continues to be a painful one for the Clippers who are now 32-34 after another losing week which saw the team go 2-4 in two series against Toledo and Gwinnett. The starting pitching has been throwing better as of late but if Columbus expects to contend for a playoff spot, the rotation will have to delve deeper into games to prevent late-season exhaustion in the bullpen. Ethan Day is here with his weekly Clippers notebook...

Yesterday the Indians officially inked four players to contracts, and more are coming as if you have been paying attention to the signing updates here at IBI several more players will be officially signed in the next few days. Tony gives a few updates on some of the Indians' top 10 round picks plus some new news on some other players previously unmentioned in these signing updates.

A series win! That’s something the Indians haven’t been able to claim in a three game series since the May 17-20 sweep of the Seattle Mariners. Ubaldo Jimenez made it interesting at times and there were still some issues at the plate, but a win is a win. Ubaldo made it through alright, the bullpen held it down, and the offense scored just enough. Join Michael Goodman as he gives his Second Thoughts on Wednesday's game.

As we near mid-June, we can begin to look back at some horrible early-season performances and what players have brought their stats up to a respectable level. Some of it will be simple regression, but sometimes there is something more, maybe a tweak to a batting stance or changing where you stand on the rubber. Two shortstops both made adjustments earlier in the season and are enjoying much better results in June. A coincidence? Maybe. But most importantly, things look good now. To find out who these players are and all you need to know about Wednesday in the minor leagues, join Jim Piascik and go Around The Farm.

A high scoring duel left the Carolina Mudcats in defeat Wednesday night at Five County Stadium. After several rallies, victorious comeback hits, and slack errors, the Potomac Nationals ultimately won the game 13-11. The Mudcats finished the game with 11 runs on 16 hits with 2 errors while the Nationals prevailed with 13 runs on 17 hits with 2 errors. Right-handed pitcher Mason Radeke took the loss for the Mudcats, tossing 2 innings and allowing six runs on six hits.

New Hampshire right fielder Brad Glenn emerged as the hero Wednesday night when he laced a run-scoring single to complete an improbable, five-run, ninth-inning comeback for the Fisher Cats in a 9-8 victory over the Akron Aeros at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

The Lake County Captains (21-41) used a season-high 10 extra base hits on Wednesday night to break two different streaks while defeating the Fort Wayne TinCaps (40-24) by a final score of 11-0. Lake County snapped a seven-game losing streak while Fort Wayne broke a nine-game winning streak.

The Cleveland Indians completed a nine-game road trip with their second-straight win as they topped the Texas Rangers 5-2 on Wednesday. Wednesday’s win keeps Cleveland as sole owners of the second place slot in the American League Central, as they remain five games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers and a half game ahead of the third-place Kansas City Royals. Join Stephanie Metzger as she recaps Wednesday's win.

Ricardo Lizcano delivered a special birthday present to his mother today, as his home run to lead off the fifth started a four-run rally that gave the Crushers the lead for good. It was his first home run of the year. Trailing 3-2 in the fifth, Lizcano’s solo home run tied the game and Andrew Davis’ three run shot to left gave the Crushers (10-13) the lead in a game they would go on to win 8-4 over Evansville (15-7).

The first batch of official 2013 Draft signings are now in the books as they have officially signed 8th round pick right-handed pitcher Trevor Frank, 20th round pick catcher Shane Rowland, 23rd round pick third baseman Grant Fink and 36th round pick second baseman Mike Giuffre.

The Indians completed the 2013 First-Year Player Draft on Saturday night with a group of 39 new faces. Tony takes a look back on the selections the Indians made from the 2nd through 40th rounds, looks at the strategy the Indians used, talks about some of the players that intrigue him the most, has some input by college coaches on the new draft setup, and more.

It was an ugly week for the Lake County Captains as they went winless since last Wednesday. The team dropped seven games and was rained out one evening, dropping their record to a league-worst 20-41. The offense continues to be problematic for the team and the starting pitching remains a nightly question mark. With the All-Star break approaching, perhaps a few days rest will be beneficial. Join Stephanie Metzger as she recaps the week in On-Deck with the Captains.

Another day, another update on the signing status of several of the Indians draft picks. In today's update Tony gives an update on Clint Frazier and has the day he will sign, discusses a few new players who are expected to sign, talks about some high leverage players that will decline to sign and go to or back to school, and more.