Ahhhhh! Too many tiny faces! These are the AA prospects of the Cleveland Indians. I could caption them for you, but the code is sooooo unwieldy. I'll examine them in turn in the coming months (ooh, prospect evaluation, how original) and I will remind/reveal them to you at such a time.
Now why the eff are they of relevance today? The Clippers hosted the Aeros in an exhibition game at scenic Huntington Park this afternoon. So much chocolate covered wonderful to describe about today, so let's get the nuts and bolts out of the way. AA Akron defeated AAA Columbus 10-4. The game was, in many ways, sloppy, but it was a true intrasquad as illustrated by the strangest occurrence that I have ever seen in a pro game.
The Impressive: Akron CF Jordan Henry (top left) can flat out fly. Henry reached base four times and scored on three. While he didn't steal a base proper, his baserunning instincts are top notch. Jordan was aggressive in going first to third, while his antics dancing off of any base were disruptive to the Columbus staff.
Jason Kipnis cah-rushed a first inning home run to dead center. I mean, you cannot hit the ball any better. The bomb cleared the 400 ft sign in the deepest part of the ball park and had drive to continue had the batter's eye not knocked it out of the sky.
Luis Valbuena looked slick at the hot corner. Coming off of the dissapointment of being left off of the big league roster, Valbuena has displayed a much healthier attitude thus far and his play has reflected his positivity. Luis made a sliding stop of a ball destined for the left field corner to start the force play to get the first out of the game and followed that with a picture feed to start an inning ending double play. He then made a spectacular grab on a foul pop, looking over his left shoulder just in front of the stands, to help end the nightmare 5th.
Akron SS Juan Diaz put down the best bunt that I have seen a good long while, deadening the ball about 20 feet down the 3rd base line in a place where no one could possibly make a play. And I think it was supposed to be a sacrifice. Wicked.
The Depressing: Yohan Pino allowed the first 6 to reach in the 5th en route to surrendering 5 earned in one inning.
Jerad Head struck out all three times.
Matt McBride hit the double play ball to end the first, popped out with the bases juiced in the 3rd and looked hopelessly unable to pick any ball in the dirt at first.
The Unbelievable: The game was free. Seriously. You had to grab a ticket from the sales window before going in, but it cost $0. Additionally, all seating was general admission. No, really. You could probably count the attendance in the three digits so you could sit right behind the plate if you got there first. Personally, I prefer the first row just past the third base dugout. That's me, so there I sat. Awesome.
There were no vendors walking around and, for the first couple of innings, no ball boys. The outfielders had to corral foul grounders before play could continue.
Score this one, Tito. Leadoff man walks. On a 1-0 pitch he breaks for second. The hit and run is on and the right handed batter bounces the ball through the hole vacated by the second baseman. The second baseman is visibly frustrated at not being out of position to field the gimme grounder. The speedy runner makes third standing. The right fielder returns the ball cleanly to the second baseman. Still agitated over the hit and run, the second baseman proceeds to inspect the ball and toss it from glove to hand and back, all of this with his back to the infield. Alert at third, the runner breaks for the plate. Shocked, the second baseman sends a two hopper to the catcher, not nearly in time. Meanwhile, the batter takes second on the throw. I would have to imagine that one could certainly not give an RBI to the batter. I am inclined to give the second baseman an error. Although the ascribing of errors for mental mistakes is frowned upon, I'll mitigate my decision by charging the E-4 on the lousy throw home. My guess, though, is that the almighty official scorer would just say everything happened "on the throw." No RBI. No error. No doggone nothin'. I hate official scorers.
One would think that to be the oddest occurrence of the day. Wrong-o. With the Clippers trailing 10-4, the Aeros sent reliever Connor Graham (middle row, far left) in to start the bottom of the 6th inning. After falling behind Jordan Brown 3-1, Graham became visibly injured. The catcher, trainer and manager all headed to the mound and, following a brief discussion, left the field again with Graham. Momentarily, the entire infield followed suit. After a beat, the outfield did the same. Then Brown walked towards the Clippers dugout, flapping his hands as if to say "forget about it." Having lived through the 2.5 inning magic of the Clippers and Indians, I expected the game to be called right then. But, no, oh no. The Clippers took the field. What? The Aeros went down in order and the Clippers came out to bat in the bottom of 7. Really? Eric Berger, who had just started warming when Graham went down, entered to finish the game. Best part: your leadoff hitter in the 7th? Yep, Jordan Brown. It was as if the bottom of the sixth simply never happened, didn't exist. Without a doubt the most baffling thing that I have ever seen in any game. I suppose that the thought process was to avoid the delay of Berger warming up on the infield mound. Weird.
Now, nothing stranger could possibly have happened. You might think so, but, personally, I beg to differ. Today, after 33 years of futility, I snatched a foul ball. This post is long enough, but, soon, I will treat you to a recounting of the three most embarrassing instances of my foul ball failures. They're like watching a small boy hit his dad in the nuts with a wiffle ball bal, you will laugh.
On top of the ball, I was able to track down a pair more outside of the stadium, snare all of my signatures (all 12 above) and enjoyed a beautiful spring day at the ballpark. It takes quite simple, yet incredibly specific things to make me happy. Baseball, as pure and childlike as it was today, does exactly that.
Cheers.
P.S. The big Indians won again, three in a row. Mitch Talbot couldn't get through five, but the bullpen was excellent, the long ball was flyin' and the Tribe even got a little luck. Find the highlight (I'm working on it! MLB is preposterously proprietary) of Michael Brantley's fielder's choice in the 6th. It, too, will boggle your mind. Also, Vinnie Pestano throws some nasty stuff.
