Guardians Baseball Insider

Image credit: Joe Bojc/Courtesy Lake County Captains

Scoreboard

Triple-A: Columbus Clippers 3, Gwinett Stripers 0
Double-A: Akron RubberDucks 5, Richmond Flying Squirrels 1
High-A: Dayton Dragons 4, Lake County Captains 1
Low-A: Salem Red Sox 17, Lynchburg Hillcats 2
Arizona: ACL Reds 8, ACL Cleveland 3
Dominican: Red 8, Blue 2

Highlights

Daniel Espino (SP, Lake County): 5.2IP, H, ER, 10K – Easily the best start of Espino’s young career. No walks and his longest outing of his career. His command was on all night except for one pitch. He sat 98-99 and hit 101 and 102 into the sixth inning.

Alexfri Planez (DH, Lynchburg): 3-5 – Three singles for Planez doesn’t seem like a special line but usually this year he’s been all or nothing with homers and strike outs, so it was nice to see him put the ball in play for hits three times without striking out once.

Jorge Burgos (RF, Lynchbug): 2-3, 2B, 3B, BB – The 19 year old OF has very quietly tore up Low-A pitching since his arrival. He and Planez came to play on Saturday night but the rest of their team didn’t.

Columbus bullpen 9IP, 3H, 0R, 2BB, 9K: Robert Broom pitched three scoreless innings and JC Mejia has apparently been exiled to the Columbus bullpen with one inning. Matt Koch threw two innings and Cam Hill fanned two in two innings for his best outing of the year. Kevin Herget followed with one inning.

Brayan Rocchio (SS, Akron): 2-4, SB – At age 20 and still a little slight of size in terms of weight, it’s impressive that Rocchio has continued to hit better at Akron after his promotion and hasn’t slowed down in the season’s final month. His line in August was still good but in Sptember it’s .326/.396/.558 so far.

Bo Naylor (C, Akron): 3-4, SB – The second three hit game for Naylor this year. He had a tough August and was in a tough stretch again befor this weekend.

Best of the rest

Steven Kwan (CF, Columbus): 1-4, HR, 2 RBI – This was Kwan’s third homer with the Clippers and 10th of the year now, continuing to show surprising pop.

Richie Palacios (2B, Columbus): 2-4 – Thankfully the IL stint for Palacios didn’t slow his bat down. However it looks like since he’s back Cleveland has him focusing on playing second base more, maybe to not aggravate the hamstring injury,

Oscar Gonzalez (DH, Columbus): 1-4, HR, RBI – 27 homers on the year for Gonzalez now. He’s 13th in all of qualified hitters in the minors this year in homers.

Will Brennan (CF, Akron): 2-4, BB – Three more times on base for Will Brennan, who was moved into the three spot with Victor Nova leading off for the ‘Ducks.

George Valera (LF, Akron): 1-3, HR, 2 RBI – After a good start in his Double-A debut, Valera has kind of slowed down, getting walked less and having to hit his way on base more. But he came through with a homer here, an impressive opposite field shot.

Thomas Ponticelli (SP, Akron): 5.1IP, 3H, ER, BB, 2K – Not a line that will blow you away, but the RubberDucks pitching has been hit a little much this weekend so this was a needed start for them. Also Ponticelli went from being a starter, to being forced to the bullpen when the RubberDucks ended up with more talented, priority pitching prospects. But he’s starting again and looks good, not missing a beat.

Jose Tena (SS, Lake County): 1-4, 2B – Tena just missed a homer with his double.

Julian Escobedo (CF, Lake County): 1-4, 2B, RBI – Escobedo hasn’t hit much since getting to Lake County, and has moved to the bottom of the order so it was good to see him get into one here and drive in the Captains only run in a loss that was tough for their playoff hopes.

Luis Durango Jr. (RF, ACL): 1-4, HR Not known for his power, Durango popped his third homer of the year.

Skeiling Rodriguez (LF, ACL): 1-3, HR – Meanwhile Rodriguez is known for power and has five now.

Will Bartlett (1B, ACL): 0-2, 2K – A less than good or notable line but Barlett has been out since June with an injury and is finally back rehabbing.

Will Dion (SP, ACL): 3IP, ER, BB, 5K – Dion looks like a good control college arm dominating a bunch of teenagers in the complex league. He has 18 strikeouts in nine innings so far.

Fran Alduey (DH, Red): 2-4, 2B – Alduey was hitless for three games so it was good to see him make some good contact.

Junior Caminero (2B, Red): 1-3, HR, BB – There’s some real swing and miss in his game, but Caminero has some good bat speed and is one of the more interesting prospects in the Dominican complex for Cleveland right now.

Alan Romero (C, Blue): 1-3, HR – The 19 year old backstop hit his first career homer.

Bienvenido Polanco SP, Red): 4IP, 3H, ER, BB, 4K – Not often we get many good pitching lines in the DL but Polanco has 19 strikeouts in 24 innings with just nine walks, to that’s solid.