Guardians Baseball Insider

Scoreboard

Triple-A: St. Paul Saints 8, Columbus Clippers 0
Double-A: Akron RubberDucks 2, Harrisburg Senators 0 (Suspended, Top 2 – Rain)
High-A: Lansing Lugnuts 7, Lake County Captains 6
Single-A: Fredericksburg Nationals 11, Lynchburg Hillcats 5
Arizona Complex League: Indians 3, Reds 2
Dominican Summer League: Indians Blue 11, Indians Red 2

Highlights

Bryan Lavastida (DH, Lake County): 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI – There isn’t a hotter hitter in the system than Lavastida right now. There’s no room for him to go to Akron this year but he has taken major steps forward offensively and defensively has grown, too. His bat may end up dictating where he goes but this has been a good win for Cleveland’s draft decisions as of now.

Petey Halpin (CF, Lynchburg): 3-5, HR – Halpin struggled out of the gate but it looks great that he’s broken out as of late with a ton of doubles and a homer in this one, the first of his pro career.

Will Benson (CF, Akron): 1-1, HR – Benson took advantage of his one at bat before the RubberDucks game was suspended. He kind of had a slower week or so after being on fire, so it was good to see him blast one here. Especially after a left hander.

WIll Brennan (CF, Lake County): 3-5, 2B, 3R – Like any first year player (for the most part) and in High-A, Brennan cooled off some after a torrid start but he’s coming back around as a doubles machine again.

Jhonkensey Noel (3B, ACL Indians): 2-4, RBI – The rehab trains continues for Noel who is mostly playing third base during the rehab, interestingly enough.

George Valera (RF, Lake County): 1-2, HR, 3 BB – Valera continues to be a consistent offensive force. The 20 year old found a way to get on base three time and puts runs on the board. He hit eight homers in 180 at bats in 2019 and has six this year in 108 games. And he skipped Low-A, and the NYPL and the league formerly known as Midwest are not hitters or power parks.

Erickson Sarita (LF, DSL Indians Blue): 3-5, RBI, 3R, SB – The 5’7 left handed outfielder was a catalyst for the Indians Blue DSL squad playing against the Red Indians DSL squad.

Angel Contreras (2B, DSL Indians Blue): 2-3, 2B – Yet another, 5’7 hitter on the Indians Blue roster with a nice night.

Best of the Rest

Jose Tena (SS, Lake County): 2-5, 3 RBI – Tena has also had his ebbs and flows as a young, young HIgh-A hitter but he’s been on the upswing again lately.

Oscar Gonzalez (RF, Columbus): 1-4, 2B – Gonzalez hasn’t hit a ton since getting to Columbus, which isn’t a surprise. I’ve been low on him, but I won’t say this is a big deal. He took a while to adjust to Double-A. He may not even hit as well as he did in Akron at Columbus the rest of the year, but that’s to be expected.

Nolan Jones (3B, Columbus): 0-2, 2BB, 2K – Jones has been a bit up and down so far, also not unexpected. Two of the three true outcomes in this one. His strikeout rate is probably going to be an issue, but he will offset it with walks like this a lot of the time, hopefully against left handers. But you’d like to see more of the power shine through often.

Francisco Perez (RP, Columbus): 1.1 IP, 2BB, 3K – On the other side of the extreme, Perez was a true outcomes pitcher in this one. He struck out three of the four batters he retired but also walked two. Very normal for an outing for him. His control isn’t all that good but he has good enough stuff to be an effective reliever to erase those mistakes. However, the margin for error living this way as a reliever in the majors. Or you have situations like Bryan Shaw on Friday.

Robert Lopez (DH, ACL Indians Red): 1-3, HR, 2 RBI – The left handed hitting backstop hit a homer in his first career pro game. He and Genao seem like special hitters you should expect to hear a lot about here.

Thomas Ponticelli (SP, Akron): IP, 2K – Like Benson, Ponticelli took advantage of his one inning he got to pitch. He has a shorter arm swing recently too, which is a trend. It has helped him.

Hunter Gaddis (SP, Lake County): 5IP, 6H, 4R (1ER), 6K – Two errors by Raynel Delgado led to three unearned runs hitting Gaddis’ line but he had six strikeouts and no walks. His control is sometimes either locked in or not good at all some nights.

Johnathan Rodriguez (RF, Lynchburg): 2-5 – Rodriguez has had an up and down first year in Lynchburg as well but he’s had some encouraging offensive spurts as well.

Korey Holland (LF, Lynchbug): 2-4, HR – Holland remains a sleeper favorite as a hitter and outfielder with raw tools and a raw swing. Not much of a power hitter, he hit his second homer of the season.

Micah Pries (1B, ACL Indians): 1-3, 3B – Great to see Pries back on the field and tripling, which was actually the even that led to his hamstring injury and why he’s there rehabbing in the first place. But he’s on the field and hitting, which is a good sign. Given his hamstring issues this year I wonder if he might see more time at first base and not as much back in the outfield.

Isiah Greene (CF, ACL Indians): 0-2, 2BB, SB – Greene walked and took advantage to steal a base despite not getting a hit. He’s had a nice start to the complex league season, for what that’s worth. As the stats mean nothing.

Raymond Burgos (SP, ACL Indians): 1IP, BB, 2K – Burgos finally is back on the mound after another bout of elbow soreness. He’s going to be a reliever coming back which makes sense at this stage.

Hugo Villalobos (RP, ACL Indians): 2IP 4K – The short 19 year old had a nice outing and has missed bats well enough in the complex league despite other rougher numbers. But numbers are just numbers in the complex league, as always.

Diego Navarro (SP, DSL Indians Blue): 4IP, H, 4K – Not a bad first career start for the 18 year old 5’7 pitcher.

Angel Genao (SS, DSL Indians Blue): 1-5, RBI – Not a big night for Genao but he got another hit and expect to see an update on him almost every night as he seems like he could be s special hitter.