Indians Prospect Insider

With a tough road schedule facing the Indians, a series win against the Twins was a must. With staff ace, Justin Masterson, taking the hill, the Indians looked to have an advantage. Unfortunately, it's 2012, and not 2011. Kevin Dean returns for his Sunday "Second Thoughts" on Sunday afternoon's game.

The Lake County Captains ignited a late-inning rally on Sunday to overcome the Fort Wayne TinCaps as Francisco Lindor fought his way through a recent slump and Elvis Araujo tossed another solid outing. Araujo (2-4, 3.19), who struggled in his last start against Lansing as he gave up five runs in three innings. On the bump for the TinCaps was righty Ruben Mejia (1-1, 4.74) who was making his second start of the season.

The first-year MLB player draft begins tomorrow, and with it, Indians Prospect Insider is kicking into full gear getting ready for the best coverage in the baseball universe. At the root of all this is our very own draft-guru Jeff Ellis, who has forgotten more about prospects in most drafts than many ever know. Join Jeff for his final mock-draft heading into this week's festivities. Will the Tribe acquire more pitching, or will corner power dominate the early rounds?

In Tony's weekly Indians notebook, he takes a look at the legend that is Travis Hafner and wonders if his long career with the Indians may be coming to an end. He also expounds on some of the roster mismanagement of late by the team, the Indians poor outfield defense, gives an update on the return of Carmandez, has the details on how Santana is recovering from his concussion, and lots more.

The Indians dropped game two to the Twins on Saturday night by a score of 7-4. Right-hander Josh Tomlin struggled in yet another start, and left-hander Tony Sipp continues to have his problems pitching in relief. Also, Johnny Damon is temporarily leaving the team and Matt LaPorta is joining the team. Jim Berysz gives his "second thoughts" on the game.

Matt LaPorta is finally officially heading to Cleveland. After several weeks of speculation on when he would get his call, Tony broke the news on Twitter last night that LaPorta had been called up and was on his way to Cleveland. LaPorta dominated Around the Farm the first two months of the season, so we say good-bye to him (for now) and also note all the other highlights for other players in the system on Saturday night.

The Akron Aeros saw their four-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday after they fell to the Binghamton Mets, 5-4. Right-hander Paolo Espino took his second loss of the season for the Aeros. In his five innings on the mound, the starter saw 24 batters and allowed five runs off seven hits, one of which was a home run.

The Lake County Captains (26-29) fell by a score of 3-1 to the Fort Wayne TinCaps (27-29) on Cleveland Sports History Night at Classic Park. For the second consecutive night, post-game fireworks were cancelled due to windy conditions. However, on Saturday, Lake County failed to provide the in-game fireworks to replace those cancelled after the contest.

The Columbus Clippers split a doubleheader with the Rochester Red Wings on Saturday night losing the first game 3-0 but winning the nightcap 1-0. The Clippers started right-hander Corey Kluber (4-5) in game one and Rochester jumped on him early with two runs in the first inning.

The Winston-Salem Dash blanked the Carolina Mudcats 3-0 behind a great start from Jake Petricka on Saturday night at BB&T Ballpark. A partisan crowd of 6,963 watched Petricka (4-4) deal seven scoreless for the Dash (33-21). He scattered three hits with six strikeouts.

With injuries to Jack Hannahan and Travis Hafner along with a need for a right-handed bat, infielder Jose Lopez has stepped up and been a solid contributor for the Indians this season. In his latest, Adam McGavin talks about Lopez's renaissance this season and how much he can help the Indians this year.

With visions of Belle, Baerga on Lofton dancing in my head, the Indians begin a series against the Twins looking to regain a first place position lost. It's a long season, but with players like Jason Kipnis, Lonnie Chisenhall, Michael Brantley, and yes, Johnny Damon, it just might be the season that the Indians overtake the equally flawed Tigers and White Sox. Join Jim Pete at the Corner of Carnegie and Ontario for a nostalgic weekend series...

The 2012 MLB Draft is only two days away. As we get set to cover the draft inside and out here at the IPI, Jeff Ellis took some time to put together his "Big Board" and ranked out the best 35 players heading into the draft. Jeff, Tony and the rest of the crew will be all over the draft this week with lots of news and information on every player the Cleveland Indians draft.

The Indians lost five of six games against the White Sox and Twins in the past week, but thank goodness for the schedule gods as the Twins pulled into town on Friday for a weekend three-game set. The Indians took advantage of what may be the worst team in baseball by thumping them for a much needed 7-1 win last night. Jim Berdysz provides his second thoughts on the game.

Center fielder Tim Fedroff went 4-for-5 with three runs batted in, and first baseman Adam Abraham and left fielder Nick Weglarz each homered Friday as the Akron Aeros defeated the Binghamton Mets, 10-2. The Aeros (33-19) won their fourth straight game to improve to a season-high, 14 games over .500. The win over the Mets (25-27) extended Akron’s lead in the Eastern League Western Division to six games as Harrisburg lost 10-3 at New Britain.

The Winston-Salem Dash and Carolina Mudcats went back and forth all night, but the Dash had the final say in an 8-7 triumph at BB&T Ballpark on Friday night. A crowd of 5,524 saw the teams swap the lead four times throughout the night. Chris Bassitt (1-1) picked up the win in relief, despite allowing a two-run homer in the eighth. Shawn Armstrong (0-2) takes the heartbreaking loss after bringing the go-ahead run on a hit-by-pitch.