Indians Prospect Insider

Mahoning Valley's offense struggled again on the road against the second opponent they've faced this year. The result was a 4-0 loss on Friday night to the State College Spikes, the short season Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Scrappers' lost their second straight game due to a lack of offense, and for the fourth consecutive game the Scrappers' failed to score more than two runs against their opponent.

The Lake County Captains (0-1, 31-39) attempted a late comeback in the first game of the second half but were unsuccessful as the Fort Wayne Tincaps (1-0, 32-39) held on for the win, 4-3. The Captains sent right-hander Felix Sterling (3-6, 5.63) to the mound to begin the second half. He allowed two runs in the first inning.

The Akron Aeros won the first game of a four-game weekend series against Altoona on Friday night, riding another strong start from knuckleballer Steven Wright. Wright (6-4, 1.99) pitched six and two-thirds innings while scattering four hits and three walks.

As their recent nine-game road trip went along, it seemed as if the Columbus bats were coming alive. In the last three games against the Charlotte Knights, the Clippers went .483 with runners in scoring position. None of that improvement was apparent on Friday night, as Columbus (35-40) fell to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (43-30) by a final score of 9-4.

The Arizona League Indians fell to the Arizona League Angels in extras last night with a final of 3-2. The Indians battled the Angels in their second game of the season, but despite seemingly frequent opportunities in the late going, the young guns could not capitalize on their opportunities. Sean has the recap of the game as well as lots of comments from scouts...

The Radar Report is back with lots of gun readings on several Indians' prospects. This is a premium site feature which posts about once a month and provides the fastball and secondary velocities of players in the Indians' organization that I see. This week's report includes tons of information on Lake County pitchers and some of the new pitchers in Mahoning Valley.

As expected, the Indians made made several roster moves today throughout their minor league system. With the start of the second half for the full season Single-A teams and the start of short season leagues, this is usually a time where there is a lot of movement. Tony recaps the flurry of roster moves....after the jump...

The Indians short season Single-A affiliate the Mahoning Valley Scrappers have officially kicked off their 2012 season. Their season is only four games old, but "Scrapperbook" author Andrew Zajac touches on his first impressions of first round pick Tyler Naquin, some of the other notable Scrapper players, and more!

Binghamton’s Eric Campbell delivered a pair of RBI doubles, and collected three hits overall as the Mets edged the Akron Aeros, 4-2, in the series and homestand finale at Canal Park on Thursday night. Campbell, an 8th round pick of the Mets in 2008 out of Boston College, lauched a run-scoring double to center off Kyle Landis (4-2) in the sixth inning, tying the game at 2-2.

The second half of the High-A season officially got underway last night as Carolina was back in action, and with that it also meant big Jesus Aguilar was back at the plate ready to strike fear into opposing pitchers. Tony recaps the night that was in the Indians farm system from Triple-A Columbus down through rookie level Arizona and touches on Aguilar's big night, the emergence of Luis Lugo, and more.

The Carolina Mudcats (1-0) beat the Wilmington Blue Rocks (0-1) by a score of 7-3 on Thursday night to get the second half of the season started. The Mudcats took the lead by scoring two runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back scoring two in both the sixth and seventh and adding another run in the eighth.

The Columbus Clippers were able to contain eight hitters on the Charlotte Knights roster on Thursday night. Unfortunately, it was the ninth that proved to be deadly. The Knights (44-32) defeated the Clippers (35-40) in ten innings by a final score of 5-4.

It was a picture perfect night for baseball as the Scrappers looked to take the final game of their opening home-and-home series against the Jamestown Jammers Thursday. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t a sign of good things to come for the Scrappers, as they fell to the Jammers 6-2.

The Lake County Captains are currently in the midst of their four game All Star break. They finished the first half 31-38 and made lots of good strides as a team and as individuals after a tough April. Lianna Holub recaps the first half in her weekly notebook "On-Deck with the Captains". The second half starts up on Friday and the Captains begin 0-0 and will look to get into the postseason!

Today's Minor Happenings is stuffed with lots of updates from Tony on several players up and down the Indians minor league system. He talks about the red hot Russ Canzler and what his play of late may mean for a big league opportunity, the good pitching from Brett Brach, the pro debut of Tyler Naquin, and what is going on with Dillon Howard. He also provides several updates on the walking wounded in the system and updates on some of the things many other players are working on.

Low-A Lake County All Star right-handed pitcher Cody Anderson made a big impression in the first half. He quickly settled into the starting rotation and pitched well, and now he is working on the finer points of pitching because he is still very new to it. Tony recently sat down with the former 2011 14th round pick and talked about how things are going.