Indians Prospect Insider

On a perfect night at Penn State University, Mahoning Valley played its best game yet against the State College Spikes. An exciting game which came down to the final at bat, Mahoning Valley's 9th inning rally fell just short when Jairo Kelly grounded out against Spikes' releiver Pat Ludwig to end the game. The Scrappers (2-5) ended their series with the State College Spikes with nothing to show for it getting swept in four outings.

The Indians kicked off their ten game road trip against the lowly Houston Astros, and were promptly kicked to the curb during a weekend in which Cleveland's weeknesses were firmly taken advantage of. The Indians were dominated by another left-hander, leaving many fans to wonder if there's much more to this season if the Indians can't address their right-hand deficient line-ups.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers got off to a quick start but failed to capitalize Saturday against the State-College Spikes. Geoffrey Davenport, who made his second start of the season, struggled again. The Scrappers failed to score more than two runs for the fifth straight game as they continue to try to figure out how to score and get on base.

It was a slugfest in Goodyear on Saturday night. Any hitting shortages seen in the season’s first two contests were forgiven after the AZL Indians mashed 19 hits, yielding 13 runs as the Tribe trumped the AZL Brewers. Ryan Battaglia, who really struggled in his previous 10 AB’s that included 6 strikeouts, bounced back in a positive fashion as he went 2-4 with 3 RBIs including a double a triple

The Carolina Mudcats (3-0) fell to the Frederick Keys (1-2) 5-0 in the series opener. The Mudcats were unable to get anything going off Keys starter Tyler Wilson, who faced the minimum through the first six and one third innings. Left fielder Bo Greenwell doubled with one out in the seventh becoming the first Mudcats’ batter to get into scoring position

The Clippers did not have a spectacular performance at the plate Sunday night, but they won anyway, thanks largely in part to a superb outing from T.J McFarland. The 23-year-old right-hander threw a complete-game shutout, propelling Columbus (37-40) to a 4-0 win against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in front of 8,505 fans at Huntington Park.

The Arizona League Indians began their season in earnest this week with some interesting debuts headlined by last season's second round pick, Dillon Howard. This team has some major prospects, and IPI's Sean Mahon will give Tribe fans an exclusive, on-site look at some of the most talented players in the system. Join Sean for unique take in our season debut of the Arizona League Indians notebook...

The Indians made lots of moves up and down the system from rookie level Arizona to the big league team in Cleveland, and Arthur Kinney is here to recap it all in his latest rundown of the transactions here at the IPI.

The Indians continue to struggle against left-handed pitching, and in his weekly Sunday notebook Tony takes a look at just how bad the Indians have been against lefties this year. He also takes a look at the Indians propensity to both draw and give up walks, gives several injury updates, talks about the better fan support for the Reds, looks at the Indians' best All Star hopefuls, and more.

After the Indians shutout Houston 2-0 on Friday night, the Astros returned the favor on Saturday afternoon as rookie left-handed starter Dallas Keuchel threw a complete game victory in just his second Major League start, defeating Cleveland 8-1. Tribe starter Jeanmar Gomez would take a perfect game into the fifth inning only to unravel and give up four runs in the frame, on his way to his third consecutive losing effort and seventh loss of the season.

The Fort Wayne Tincaps (2-0, 33-39) jumped to a four run lead early on the Lake County Captains (0-2, 31-40) and made it stick for a 4-0 win on Saturday night. Lake County sent lefthander Elvis Araujo (2-6, 4.67) to the mound and the Tincaps greeted him rudely with a four run first inning.

The Carolina Mudcats (1-0) took both ends of the double header against the Wilmington Blue Rocks (0-1) on Saturday to sweep the first series of the second half. While the Mudcats would fall behind quickly in both ballgames, they were able to capitalize on big hits and bigger mistakes to win 9-8, and 6-5.

Altoona shortstop Brock Holt had two extra-base hits and four RBIs Saturday night, as the Curve crushed the Akron Aeros 13-5 at People’s Natural Gas Field. The win snapped a seven-game winning streak against the Curve, and tied the series at a game apiece.

For much of the game, it looked like it would be another story of offensive struggles at Huntington Park. Luckily, the defense kept it close enough just in case the bats decided to heat up. And heat up they did. The Columbus Clippers (36-40) came from behind to beat the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (43-31) on Saturday by a final score of 3-2.

LaPorta must have really missed his time with one of the top spots here at ATF, because as sure as I'm an Indians fan, here's LaPorta again. Ronnie Rodriguez is really starting to turn a corner, and once he does, he may see Akron. Tonight's top spot at ATF goes to a guy that has seemingly lost his home-run power, or has he. Join Jim Pete as he uses Saturday Night's ATF to search for the elusive Chun Chen HR...

Has Justin Masterson finally emerged as the Cleveland Indians ace, or are his recent starts just a facade? Is it time to remove Carlos Santana from the clean-up spot, or is their still time for the Indians' slugger to heat up this summer? Is it time to make a change to the bottom of the rotation, or will Jeanmar Gomez figure things out? Join Adam, and find out if these statements are right on, or way off...