Indians Prospect Insider

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.

The Indians still have several unsigned 2012 Draft picks, and while the bulk of them have already signed, there are still probably five to seven players that will still sign before the July 13th deadline. Tony gives a quick update on what the Indians can do with top picks McClure and Hamrick as well as news on one player that signed today and two others that are expected to soon officially sign on the dotted line.

The Indians' rookie level Arizona Indians affiliate got their season started last night, but lost to the Reds by a score of 11-6. The IPI's very own Sean Mahon was there to take in the action, and will be at all of the AZL Indians' games the next two months to document what happened in the game and provide quotes from players and coaches.

The Indians finished off the sweep of the Reds on Wednesday night with a convincing 8-1 win, and in the process got pay back for the sweep and thumping the Reds put on them last week in Cincinnati. The Indians got a complete game gem from Justin Masterson who looks to have turned a corner, and also got big hits from Asdrubal Cabrera, Johnny Damon and Lonnie Chisenhall. Charlie Adams shares his "second thoughts" on the series win (sweep)...

After a long winter and, for many guys, an extended stay in Arizona, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers finally got to experience their own opening day majesty as they won an exciting extra inning affair 2-1 over the Jamestown Jammers. Toeing the rubber for the Scrappers was Luis Dejesus, recently assigned to Mahoning Valley after a short stint in Lake County.

he Aeros split their second double-header in two days with Binghamton on Wednesday night at Canal Park, winning the first game 2-0 and dropping the second 5-1, ending the team’s 13-game home win streak. The Aeros won the first game with Binghamton 2-0, thanks in large part to a two-hit shutout by starting pitcher T.J. House (5-2), who picked up his fifth win of the season for Akron.

T.J. House had a big start on Wednesday, rebounding from his worst outing of the season. Tim Fedroff went 4-for-4, reminding Tribe brass that there is certainly a fourth outfielder in the system that just continues to perform. Some kid named Matt LaPorta is back and hitting...big surprise. The top slot of ATF goes to some kid with a strang last name? Join Jim for the Naquin-edition of ATF...after the jump...

The Columbus Clippers won their second game in a row Wednesday night, but it took them extra innings to do it. Columbus (35-38) defeated the Charlotte Knights, 5-3, in ten innings in Charlotte, to take a 2-1 lead in the four-game series between the two clubs.

The Carolina Mudcats are halfway home, and trying to find their way. After a first half in which they got stuck int he mud, the Mudcats will be looking forward to a second half resurgence. Will the Muddies get some fresh blood moving forward, or will they continue to hunt for that right combination with the players they have? Take a look at the first half top fives, as Jim Pete goes fishing with the mudcats...

In this week's IPI Stock Watch, with the first half of the season coming to close Tony reviews the season to date and notes which players have improved or hurt the stock they had at the start of the season. In today's piece he makes note of several players at every level of the Indians' system, namely Cody Allen, Corey Kluber, Tim Fedroff, Steven Wright, Nick Weglarz, Tony Wolters, Will Roberts, Jordan Smith, Robel Garcia, Felix Sterling and many more.

Left-hander T.J. House has come back this season and rekindled his prospect status. It all started with his offseason workouts and his commitment to conditioning and nutrition, and it carried over from there to getting his mechanics in line and his command back on track. The result to date has been impressive, and Nathan Kemp recently had a chance to sit down and talk with him about his comeback season.

Wow, what a ballgame last night. The Indians got a much needed win and shot in the arm when Asdrubal Cabrera deposited a two-run homer into the right-center field seats to give the Indians a stunning 3-2 win in extra innings over the Reds. With the win and a White Sox loss, the Indians are now back in first place in the AL Central. Charlie Adams has his "second thoughts" on the game...

Juan Romero hit his third homer in his first two ball games with Mahoning Valley, announcing his presence with authority. Corey Kluber continued to rise up the rankings with another dominating performance for the Clippers. Nick Weglarz is up to .251 on the season, and Bryan Price grabbed his fourth save. Won't you come cycling with tonight's top player on ATF? Find out who got out their bike for the Clippers...after the jump...