Indians Prospect Insider

With the recent acquisition of Lars Anderson from the Red Sox, the Indians have stockpiled an amazing nine players from Baseball America's 2009 Top 100 prospect listing. But not all nine of those players have panned out and it just goes to show that prospects, even the highly touted ones, are simply just lottery tickets. Jeff Ellis breaks down all nine players in his latest.

Okay, this is starting to get a little scary. Whatever can go wrong, is going wrong for the Bad News Indians of late as costly errors and poor pitching by Chris Perez sealed the deal on their 11th straight loss, 7-5, to the Twins. The carpet has been pulled right out from under the season, and Adam McGavin is here to provide his second thoughts on another frustrating loss for the Tribe.

While the big league Indians are as painful to watch as the old Sylvester Stallone/Dolly Parton flick, Rhinestone right now (maybe more painful), the minor league system continues to showcase an abundance of talent. Is Scott Barnes the next great lefty reliever? Is Tony Wolters a top ten prospect? Can Ronny Rodriguez hit 20 home runs in a season? Check out who climbed the ATF mountain on Tuesday night, after the jump...

he Lake County Captains (24-20. 55-58) used a clutch homerun by first baseman Leonardo Castillo in the bottom of the eighth inning to win the matinee on Tuesday afternoon by a final score of 7-5 over the South Bend Silver Hawks (22-22, 57-57). Lake County is now two games ahead of South Bend in the chase for the final wild-card spot.

After getting swept in Troy by the ValleyCats, the Scrappers hoped the home turf of Eastwood Field would provide some much needed momentum. It wasn’t friendly Tuesday, however. The Scrappers only gathered six hits in contest, losing their fourth straight game after dropping Tuesday’s opener with the Williamsport Crosscutters 6-2.

Giovanny Urshela and Ronny Rodriguez provided the offense to back Mike Rayl’s effort in a 6-2 win over the Salem Red Sox on Tuesday night at LewisGale Field. The infield duo cracked a pair of three-run homers, and Rayl pitched his 11th quality start of the season as Carolina improved to 23-21 in the second half and 55-59 overall.

Portland third baseman Marquez Smith had two runs batted in while four Sea Dogs pitchers combined to throw a four-hitter, as Portland defeated the Akron Aeros, 3-1, Tuesday. Mike MacDonald, Jason Urquidez, Brock Huntzinger and Michael Olmsted kept the Aeros quiet in the series opener at Canal Park, allowing just four hits and one run.

The Clippers struggled at the plate for the fourth-straight game Tuesday, but behind a solid effort on the mound and some clutch hitting, Columbus scathed by the Bulls on way to a victory. Columbus beat Durham, 2-1, in extra innings, to take game two of the four game series in North Carolina.

This is part two of a five-part series of post-draft pieces that Tony is posting to the site over the next few weeks. This series of articles touches on all 26 drafted and signed players from the 2012 Draft with a small writeup from Tony on each player and then a comment on every player from Indians Amateur Scouting Director Brad Grant. In today's piece Tony provides comments from Grant and a quick summary on Tyler Naquin, Joe Wendle, Logan Vick, Cody Penny and Richard Stock.

Your Akron Aeros struggled a bit on the road this past week, losing three of five games and falling out of the top spot in the Eastern League. Luckily, the Aeros are still 67-46 and have an 11 game cushion in their quest for the playoffs. So if you can't bear to read more negativity about the big league club, check out Launching Off With The Aeros for more on one of the winning teams in the Indians' organization.

The Indians offense righted the ship on Monday evening as they put together 11 hits and scored 8 runs in an 8-4 win against the Mariners. More importantly, the Arizona squad did not commit an error in the contest, the first time since July 26—over the course of 11 games.

Smoke Signals is back on the cyberwaves tonight from 10:00pm – 11:00pm EST. The Indians are in a rapid downward spiral, one where just a week and a half ago people believed they might get back into the division race to where now people have completely given up on the season. Tonight, Tony and Jim will talk about and try to find out just where things went wrong, who might be to blame, what can be done to fix things, and if the Indians can truly get this thing righted and win next season.

As Keith Jackson used to say...."Whoa Nelly!". That's the feeling many have as this Indians slide continues to get worse and worse with every game played. The Indians lost last night to the Twins 14-3 thanks to a 10-run second inning, and lost for the 10th straight time. Adam McGavin chimes in with his "second thoughts" on another bad night at the ballyard for the Tribe...

Despite a solid start from Jacob Lee, the Scrappers were left licking their wounds Monday afternoon, as they fell victim to a three game sweep at the hands of the Tri-City ValleyCats with a 5-1 loss. That start from Lee was, albeit short, almost flawless. He pitched four shutout innings, allowing only one hit and two walks while fanning five.

The Lake County Captains edged their way past the South Bend Silver Hawks due to some extra-inning hustle from Jordan Smith to secure a 4-3 win on Monday night. Right-hander Mason Radeke (5-5, 3.67) manned the mound for the Captains against South Bend lefty Keith Hessler (1-1, 2.78).

Poor weather caused the game between Columbus and Durham to get called early, but the Clippers weren’t playing well enough to win or mount a comeback anyway. Columbus fell to the Durham Bulls, 4-1, in North Carolina in a shortened seven-inning contest that had three rain delays.