Minor League Update: Gimenez Switching Positions?

Buffalo probably suffered the most roster shake-up yesterday as the Indians rounded out their rosters from the trades and Olympic vacancies.

Two of those new faces saw action last night.

An interesting note for you keep track of the catcher situation with Santana now in the fold.

Chris Gimenez started at catcher, but finished the game at third base. Could a full-time position switch be in order? I think so. It would let Toregas get called up and they could progress Santana to Double A if they wish. Boy what a team that would be at Akron once LaPorta gets back from the Olympics.

Anyway, the Herd lost despite John Halama’s seven strong innings. Michael Aubrey went 2-4.

Jon Meloan pitched and threw a scoreless inning.. He was added to the roster in place of Jeff Stevens who was placed on the Inactive list and Walter Diaz, who got the nod at shortstop, took Andy Gonzalez’s spot. Diaz is coming up all the way from Mahoning Valley. With Cord Phelps playing second, Diaz wasn’t needed because it looks as if Velasquez will be the backup at most of the infield spots.

Not LaPorta.. No Problem.. Ryan Goleski was called back up to Double A Akron to take his spot. Akron got a quality performance from one of his replacements. Stephen Head who will probably see everday time now that LaPorta is in Beijing went 2-4 with a two run home run.

However the hero in Akron’s win was Wes Hodges, who hit a walk-off solo shot in the bottom of the ninth inning in a tie ball-game. Wes also went 3-5 with a double and three total RBI.

Not a good debut for Carlos Santana. He went 0-4 with three strikeouts in his Kinston debut.. It was the exact opposite of what we’ve heard about him.. I’m sure it’s just nerves.. Kinston got shutout and Kelvin De La Cruz got roughed up for three runs, three walks, three hits in just 2 outs of the first inning.

It was a walk-off kind of day as Lake County got a single from Cristo Arnal in the bottom of the 13th to bring home the winning run in Mark Thompson. That’s two in a row for the Captains. Ron Rivas went 2-6 with three RBI and Matt Brown is probably feared. He went 1-3 with three walks. He also took home the SAL player of the week award. Catcher Adam Davis hit his third home run of the year and Josh Judy picked up win number NINE in relief.

A couple of Mahoning Valley favorites powered the Scrappers to a 7-6 win last night. Jeremie Tice came through big with a 2-5 night, including a two-run shot in the seventh inning. Lonnie Chisenhall went 3-5 with a three run shot.

Adam Abraham’s third home run of the year was the lone run for the GCL team in their defeat.

Minor League Update: New Additions Have Different Results

Well one piece to the C.C. Sabathia trade had a positive debut for their new organization. Hint hint.. It wasn’t Matt LaPorta.

Zach Jackson pitched two innings of relief allowing just one hit to pick up the win in the first game against Syracuse. All signs point to Matt Ginter starting the game for Cleveland on Saturday so they wanted to get him in and get him out.

The other new pitcher for Buffalo, Preston Larrison, picked up the two inning save, yielding just one walk. Asdrubal Cabrera had a solo home run and Chris Gimenez contributed with a two run shot in the 7th.

Gimenez also knocked in a run in the second game, while Jordan Brown hit a solo home run and had an RBI single for the Buffalo scoring.

Gain an outfield, lose another.. Trevor Crowe was named Eastern League player of the month.. then he celebrated by going on the DL. Truly a shame as he was healthy and hitting well. I wonder if we’ll ever see him. He has an intercostral strain (same thing Westbrook had). Wyatt Toregas as mentioned was named EL Player of the Week.

While it wasn’t a positive debut for Matt LaPorta, it certainly wasn’t negative. In fact it didn’t even happen. LaPorta’s flight was delayed on top of the fact the game got rained out. We had some crazy storms last night so I’m not surprised Akron got pounded as well.

The press conference still happened though and it must have been crazy for LaPorta. Nothing new for him though.

”[The last 24 hours] have been kind of crazy,” he admitted with an easy smile. ”On Saturday, I talked to our manager and he told me not to worry about anything going on with the trade, just play ball,” LaPorta said. ”So I did until my name wasn’t in the lineup. As the day went on I learned I wasn’t playing because the trade might go on. At the end of the game I walked in the clubhouse and there was a bunch of media people in there, so I was like, ‘Obviously something must have happened.’ ” (ABJ)

”I like new things in my life,” he said. ”And this is definitely a new task. But I’m enjoying it.” (ABJ)

You can watch an interview with LaPorta, conducted by Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com here.

You can also hear the presser he had with the media, via Terry Pluto and the Plain Dealer.

LaPorta also does a journal for MLB.com, here is his pre-trade entry before he learned of the move where he talked about being selected to the futures game.

More good news for Akron.. They are getting Chuck Lofgren back. Lofgren mysteriously went back to extended spring-training awhile ago. He will be pitching from the pen for the time being though. This team could make a serious EL Playoff run.

Minor League Update: The LaPorta Lowdown

Let’s face it at this point.. You don’t give a damn about what Buffalo did last night, especially since they got shutout. You probably don’t even care that Wyatt Toregas had five RBI.

I understand that.

You want to know all about Matt LaPorta, considering we just gave up the most beloved Indian of the past few years.

Trust me.. We’ve got information coming out of no where on LaPorta, that won’t be a problem. But, the Minor League teams are still playing ball.

Buffalo did get shutout with only four hits. The sad part is catcher Chris Gimenez had three of them. Mikey Aubrey had the other one.

Yes, Wyatt Toregas went deep with five runs batted in as Akron laid an absolute beatdown on Binghamton. Can you imagine this Akron lineup when they eventually do add LaPorta?

Lonnie Chisenhall went 3-4 with two RBI and now has that average up to .293.

Now.. Matt LaPorta, the prize in this C.C. Sabathia deal.

I’ve got plenty of thoughts on the deal as a whole, and I’ll break it down later when I factor in the rest of the pieces.. But here are three stories on LaPorta you should know.

Beyond the Boxscore says he could be the next Ryan Braun. There are good and bad with that though. Braun is a liability defensively as is LaPorta.

Last month, Prospect Corner compared LaPorta, fellow Brewers prospect Matt Gamel and Ranger Chris Davis.

Most sites.. Including Prospect Corner compare LaPorta to Lance Berkman and Paul Konerko. I think reading about his defense, Konerko seems like a better comparison.

Project Prospect has some quotes from LaPorta and details some of his story.

Minor League Update: Toregas Sent to AA

Well, he’s gone from a backup candidate to Kelly Shoppach, to Double A catcher.

Obviously, he wasn’t called up because of playing time, and the organizations desire for him to play everyday. Now, he will be playing every day at Akron.

The Indians made a switch of minor league catchers. Calling up Chris Gimenez to Buffalo and sending Wyatt Toregas to Akron.

A big reason for this move has to be Gimenez more than it is Toregas. Toregas was hitting .219 with 25 RBI, but Giminez has been on fire.

Gimenez has one more RBI but has 6 home runs and a .339 average in Akron. He went 1-3 in his Buffalo debut. Damaso Espina played for Akron.

Speaking of Akron, they swept Bowie yesterday. They now hold a 2 game lead on the division.

Kinston put a beating on Lynchburg last night to complete a sweep. They scored 13 runs in the second inning to win 13-8.

The Gulf Coast League Indians were supposed to start yesterday, but their game was postponed due to wet grounds.

All the boards will be updated later today, I’m in the process of updating the GCL Roster and all the transactions I’ve found.