Indians Prospect Insider

Canzler can hit the ball a ton, and continued that with his tenth homer on Friday Night. Thomas Neal is beginning to officially dominated Double A pitching. Kyle Bellows is finding his bat, and Jeanmar Gomez had a spectacular return to Columbus. The top of the heap for tonight's ATF is a prospect in Carolina who has exploded since an April swoon. Join Jim Piascik to find out who that is...after the jump...

After a dramatic come from behind win on Thursday, the Scrappers once again found themselves in a ballgame with the State College Spikes. After waiting out Mother Nature for a little over an hour before the game, the Scrappers once again found themselves tied in the eighth inning. This time, they didn’t need a hit to push across the winning run.

Like the game itself, the Clippers’ bats took a little while to get started Friday night, but when they did, it resulted in another Columbus victory. The Clippers won for the sixth time in seven tries, defeating the Norfolk Tides, 9-4. Heavy rain and strong winds delayed the game’s start time of 7:05 p.m. by an hour. With the win, Columbus took the four-game series, 3-1, in front of 7,227 fans at Huntington Park.

The Carolina Mudcats’ bullpen gave a strong effort in a 9-6 triumph over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans on Friday night at TicketReturn.com Field. Dale Dickerson (5-2), Shawn Armstrong and Grant Sides combined to hold the Pelicans (6-3, 42-37) to two runs over the final seven innings. Dickerson entered the game in the third, and allowed one run on one hit over three innings to earn the win.

The Lake County Captains (4-4) could not provide a precursor to Friday night’s fireworks at Classic Park. The club continued its offensive struggles, mustering just two runs in a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the West Michigan Whitecaps (4-4).

In today's week ending edition of Minor Happenings, Tony touches on the power binge that Double-A Akron outfielder Thomas Neal has been on and what that may mean as far as value and a promotion is concerned. In addition to that he provides some recent comments from Ross Atkins on some big league pitching options at Triple-A Columbus, and provides updates on several players at each level from Triple-A Columbus to rookie level Arizona, namely Tim Fedroff, Jeremie Tice, Jesus Aguilar, Rob Nixon, Juan Romero, Jorge Martinez, and more.

The AZL Indians scored in five of their eight innings last night as the offense was in full swing in a 14-8 victory. Dorssys Paulino crushed a two-run homer in the bottom of the 1st to put the Tribe on the board early and gave them a lead they would not lose.

The Indians short season affiliate the Mahoning Valley Scrappers are in full swing and just completed their second week of the season. Site columnist Andrew Zajac recaps the week that was by looking at the good, bad, and okay, as well as recapping recent transactions.

The 2012 Draft signing deadline is two weeks away from today on July 13th....that is Friday the 13th for the superstitious folks out there. Will Friday the 13th bring bad or good luck to the Indians with more signings? We will see, but in the meantime Tony has several more signing updates on players and where they stand in the negotiation process with firsthand updates on Nelson Rodriguez, Joshua Pigg, Joshua Lester, and Anthony Hawkins. One of those players has already agreed to sign.

The Indians had lots of great highlights up and down the system last night. Jerrud Sabourin supplied the dramatics with a walkoff three-run homer, Dorsyss Paulino continues to show why he is one of the best Latin signings by the Indians in recent years, Thomas Neal continued his torrid month of June, and much more. Join Tony as he takes a trip "Around the Farm" and highlights all of the Indians' minor league action from last night.

Battling record-high temperatures and the Norfolk Tides, the Clippers found a way to win for the fifth time in six games Thursday night. Playing in front of 7,488 fans at Huntington Park, and amidst 100-degree temperatures—the hottest day in Columbus in more than a decade—the Clippers beat the Tides, 6-3. Columbus has now won two of its first three games in its four-game series against Norfolk.

The Carolina Mudcats received another terrific start from southpaw Mike Rayl, but could not capitalize on the opportunity in a 3-2 loss to Myrtle Beach on Thursday night at TicketReturn.com Field. Rayl tossed seven innings for the fourth time this year, allowing two runs and scattering five hits. He walked two and struck out four. It was his sixth quality start in 16 outings for the Mudcats (5-3, 37-41).

When you’re mired in a slump, the bat can feel like a lead pipe in big situations. The Scrapper offense must have been collectively swinging what felt like a thirty pound lead pipe, and they must have exchanged the lead for an old fashioned piece of lumber Thursday, though, as the big hits finally came multiple times, and helped give the Scrappers a big come-from-behind 6-5 win against the State College Spikes.

An ugly baseball game ended beautifully for first baseman Jerrud Sabourin and the Captains on Thursday night. Sabourin’s walk-off, opposite field three run home run that landed in the left field bleachers propelled Lake County (4-3, second half) to a 9-7 win over West Michigan (4-3).

Right fielder Thomas Neal had two extra-base hits, including a home run, as the Akron Aeros eased their way to a 7-1 comeback win over the Erie SeaWolves at Canal Park. The Aeros (48-31) ended a three-game losing streak and picked up another game on second-place Harrisburg, who lost at home against Altoona. The Aeros now lead the Eastern League Western Division by 7.5 games.

The Indians ended their season high five-game losing streak on Thursday night with a 7-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. With the offense struggling, a lefty starting for the Orioles, and the team on a long losing streak, it did not look good for the Indians going into the game; however, Zach McAllister gave the Indians a very good start and the offense came through with some big hits. Jason Ruggiero chimes in with his "second thoughts" on the game...