Indians Prospect Insider

As we hit the All-Star break, the 44-41 Indians have used 35 different players on their active roster. Obviously, some were better than others, but who was the best? Who was the worst? How high does Lou Marson's hot streak have him? How much has Ubaldo Jimenez improved his stock? As always, Jim Piascik gives his opinion as he sifts through all 35 players and ranks them from worst to first.

In today's special edition of Around the Farm will take a look at some of this season’s exceptional players in all of the extended levels of the system, from Low A Lake County through Triple A Columbus. Some of your old favorites will definitely be making an appearance, from that Quad A guy from Columbus, to some 18-year old in Lake County? Who else makes the ATF's mid-season banquet? Join Jim Pete in his journey around the farm, after the jump...

With the All Star break here for the big league team in Cleveland as well as Triple-A Columbus and Double-A Akron, Tony felt this would be a good time to take a look at some of the new Latin faces down at rookie level Arizona. In part one of this two-part piece, he looks at the Latin pitching talent there and gives all kinds of scouting information on all of them and provides the information on who are the better prospects with more upside.

Your Akron Aeros continued to fade a bit as we hit the All-Star Break, but they're still the class of the Eastern League with plenty of great players to watch and cheer for. As always, join Jim Piascik for Launching Off With The Aeros to get the scoop on the highs and lows from the past week. Plus, this week's edition includes plenty of quotes from one of the newest Aeros, Jeremie Tice.

Tonight the 83rd edition of the midsummer classic, MLB's All Star game, takes center stage. With the first half of the season for the Cleveland Indians now in the books, Adam takes a look at some of the performances from the first half and names his MVP, breakout player, comeback player, and more.

The Indians have announced today that they have officially signed 24th round pick right-handed pitcher Walker White and 36th round pick right-handed pitcher Benny Suarez.

Defensive woes, a lack of hitting and a tendency to give up moon shots triggered the AZL Indians’ troubles on Monday night as they were trounced by the AZL Dodgers, 13-3. Bladimir Franco and Tyler Ogle of the Dodgers made a home run derby of their own hitting mountainous home runs in the desert off of Jeffrey Cleto.

Smoke Signals is back on the cyberwaves today at a special time from 9:00am – 10:00am EST. Tony and Jim will briefly discuss the last homestand and Sunday's tough loss, and then do a first half review discussing the good and bad from the first half of the season. They will also talk about some guys in the minors that could be up in the second half and if the Indians have a realistic shot of making the playoffs.

The Lake County Captains (9-9, 39-47) overcame a late Bowling Green Hot Rods (10-8, 48-40) rally to win the series finale in extra innings. Lake County defeated Bowling Green 7-6 in 11 innings on Monday night. It was a right-handed matchup as Roberto Gomez started for the Hot Rods and Joe Colon toed the rubber for Lake County.

Matt Packer made his 2012 debut in Carolina a solid opening salvo to regain his status as a prospect by pitching three strong perfect innings. Joseph Colon continued his outstanding 2011 campaign with another quality start. Todd Hankins rolled out four hits and two stolen bases for Lake County. Tonight's ATF headliner is a former third-round pick who has really picked it up over the past month. Who? Find out...after the jump...

The Akron Aeros won the third and final game of their series with the Bowie Baysox behind some big-time hitting from first baseman Adam Abraham, who drove in three runs to pace Akron in a 4-2 win Monday afternoon at Prince George’s Stadium.

Nathan Karns held the Carolina Mudcats to one run over seven innings as the Potomac Nationals claimed the series with 2-1 victory on Monday night at Pfitzner Stadium. Karns (4-2) scattered three hits as the Potomac Nationals improved to 10-9, 41-48 overall. The Mudcats fell to 11-8, 43-46 overall.

The score was the same, but the results reversed, as the Scappers and Connecticut Tigers, for the second night in a row, played a game that ended 5-4. Again, the Scrappers led late, and blew a lead in the eighth inning. This time, though, the Tigers made the Scrappers pay for poor bullpen pitching, pushing across the go-ahead run in the ninth and winning the series finale 5-4 to avoid being swept.

Not only have we reached the All Star break in Major League Baseball, but it is also the All Star break in the minors as well for Triple-A Columbus. Andrew Holleran takes us "Sailing with the Clippers" in his weekly notebook on the Indians' Triple-A affiliate and recaps the week that was.

The AZL Indians capitalized on two of the Diamondbacks’ four errors in the 8th inning to salvage their sixth victory of the season, setting them only two games under .500 and in second place in the AZL Central standings.

The 2012 Draft signing deadline is but about 100 hours away this Friday at 5:00 PM ET. The Indians have officially signed 20 of their 40 draft picks, and two others have agreed to terms. Tony takes a look at the remaining unsigned 18 draft picks and catches us all up and reviews where the Indians are in the signing process with each player.