Dominican Summer League Indians
by Joseph Coblitz
August has been a general disappointment to this point for the DSL Tribe as they lost five in a row to start the month after winning last Saturday. As they were shut out in three of five losses and scored just once in another, there is little to talk about the offense. A new name to take note of on the pitching staff is Maiker Manzanillo who pitched twice this week out of relief, allowing one run in 4.1 innings. He has a 2.87 ERA on the season in ten appearances, striking out 11 in 15.2 innings with just four walks.
As for starters, Luis Valdez took his fourth loss despite throwing 4.1 innings and allowing just one run on August 2nd, Juan Mota threw five shut out innings on August 4th and Yeffersson Yannuzzi both threw in relief on July 30th, allowing just one run in 4.1 innings, then as a starter on August 5th, allowing one run in five innings. In his first season, Yannuzzi has 23 strike outs in 23.1 innings and a 3.09 ERA at 19 years old.
AZL Indians
by Joseph Coblitz
The AZL Indians clinched a play-off spot last week after a 20-8 mark kept them a slim one game ahead of the Dodgers. Since then, however, things haven’t been so hot as they lost five of their next seven. In addition, they lost arguably their most reliable starter in Jhonleider Salinas as he was traded to the Rays at the deadline.
Offensively, the AZL Indians never took a step back and Nolan Jones has lead the way. The third baseman had a hit in each game last week until Friday night when he walked twice, including multiple hits in three games. Jones is now batting .352 on the season. Untracked in basic stats is the fact that Jones is a tremendous fielder at third and has been making incredible plays from day one. He has great reflexes and has a solid arm as well. In all, he doesn’t look like the player typical of the AZL.
Will Benson has also been heating up after a rough start statistically. He hit in three straight games including an impressive home run on August fourth. Benson has a quick bat and serious power, but needs to make more consistent contact before the Indians could think about advancing him.
Mahoning Valley Scrappers
by Caitlin Boran
Onward and upward should be the Scrappers motto this week. The pups are now 22-24 on the season going 4-2 with a cancelation in their last six and have swept their last series against the West Virginia Black Bears. Also, there have been some moved made, sending guys like RHP Tristin Mckenzie to Lake County, and INF Yonathan Mendoza to Lynchburg. Mahoning Valley also gained some new talent in INF Jorma Rodriguez from AZL. Rodriguez played in his first game as a Scrapper Friday night, and went 0 for 4 with two LOB. In AZ, he hit a .357 with a .411 OBP, 1 HR, 15 RBI 8BB and 7 SB.
The Scrappers have continued to make progress towards the first place spot, now getting a hold of third place, putting them 9.5 games out of first behind State College and Williamsport. With only about a month left to go in the season, they have a lot of ground left to cover and a lot of emerging talent to help them.
In the coming week, they’ll be facing NYP McNamara first place team Hudson Valley Renegades for a three game series, and last place in their own division, the Batavia Muckdogs.
High-A Lynchburg Hillcats (26-16,2nd place Carolina League North division)
by Justin Lada
Last weekend it looked like C Francisco Mejia was going to take his hitting streak to the Brewers organization. Instead, Mejia is still an Indians prospect, maybe their top one now, and has a 47 game hitting streak, the longest in the minors in modern baseball history and even has ESPN talking about it. He needed a double in his last at bat Thursday to make it 46 but got 47 out of the way early Friday. The last time Mejia didn’t have a hit, the Cavs were still fending off the Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Low-A Lake County Captains (16-24, 7th place Midwest League East)
Akron Rubber Ducks (56-57)
The Ducks have lost 12 of their last 13 going into a weekend road series at Portland and just can’t seem to slow the downward spiral. The latest loss came with Michael Peoples on the mound, and he had not lost a game since July 8. The problem is there are very few hitters in the lineup. Nobody on the roster is hitting anywhere close to .300 and after newcomer Greg Allen, nobody on the team is hitting above .259. The power numbers are there for Nellie Rodriguez (19 homers), but he hasn’t homered since July 14. That’s a streak of 18 games.
Daniel Salters (2015, 13th round) has the prototype size (6-3, 210) but is only hitting .214 in 25 games with the Ducks. Jeremy Lucas (2012, 12th round) has the reputation for strong work with a pitching staff to go with his .253 average and occasional (10 homers) power.
Columbus Clippers (63-51)
by Mike Melaragno
Francisco Mejia is not the only streaker in the Cleveland Indians minor league system. Giovanny Urshela and Yandy Diaz are both on extended runs for the Class AAA Columbus Clippers. Diaz pushed his streak to 23 games with a two-run single in the Clippers’ 9-7 victory Thursday over Indianapolis.
Urshela had an RBI double in the game to extend his streak to 18 games. He had another double late in the game that drove in the winning run.Diaz is hitting .439 in his streak and has his season average up to .343 with 5 homers and 31 RBI in 72 games with the Clippers. He hit .286 in 26 games at Akron. He’s now played 34 games in the outfield with the Clippers after moving off third base when Urshela returned from injury. Urshela is hitting .333 in his last 10 games and has his season average up to .266. He has 7 homers and 40 RBI in 90 games.
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