Around the Farm: July 29

Around the Farm takes a quick look at some of yesterday's performances by Indians prospects throughout the system. The positions listed below are where the player played in yesterday's game.

Matt McBride-1B, Columbus: 4-5, HR (1), 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R, K.

Welcome to Columbus, Mr. McBride. Just promoted from Akron and batting 5th between former Akron teammates Jared Goedert and Cord Phelps, McBride struck out in his 1st at bat. From there though, he went HR/2B/1B/1B for a wildly successfull AAA debut. There are plenty of 1B/OF prospects in this organization right now, so McBride will need to keep this up if he wants to get ahead of guys like Jordan Brown, Wes Hodges, Andy Marte etc.

Alex White-RP, Columbus: 5 1/3 IP, 7 H, 5 R (1 ER), 8 K, 2 BB.

Piggybacking on Kerry Wood's one inning "start," White continued his recent trend of missing lots of bats with 8 K's in less than 6 innings of work. White has now struck out 29 batters in his last 25 1/3 innings pitched. He gave up 4 ER in the 2nd inning and then settled down after that, suggesting he may have been a little uncomfortable with a new routine coming in as a relief pitcher to get starters work. The one knock on White's spectacular AA season had been his low strikeout rate, but with 7 or more K's in his last 4 outings, that seems to be a thing of the past.

• David Huff-SP, Columbus: W, 7 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 6 K, BB. Not exactly a dominating line, as 3 of the hits Huff gave up were home runs.
• Michael Brantley-OF, Columbus: 2-3, HR (4), RBI, 2 BB, 3 R, 2 SB. Power, patience, speed...now lets see it in Cleveland as well.
• Josh Rodriguez-SS, Columbus: 3-5, 2 HR (10), 3 RBI, 3 R, K. The versatile Rodriguez continues to fill the stat sheet, this time while playing SS.
• Cord Phelps-2B, Columbus: 0-5, K. A rare O-fer for Cord.
• Lou Marson-C, Columbus: 2-4, HR (3), 2 RBI, R. Lou Marson is over the Mendoza Line! Big day for the catcher, showing some rare pop in addition to his OBP skills.
• Nick Hagadone-RP, Akron: 1 2/3 IP, H, 2 BB. Two walks and no K's make Nick a dull boy.
• Lonnie Chisenhall-3B, Akron: 3-4, 3B, 3 RBI. Big day for the Chizz as he now has a 4-game mini hitting streak going. Average up to .277 on the season.
• Jason Kipnis-2B, Akron: 1-4, 3B, 2 RBI, BB, R, K. Also turned a 4-3 doubleplay. Average at .323 for Akron.
• T.J. House-SP, Kinston: W, 6 IP, 2 H, 4 K, 2 BB. Has allowed 1 ER and struck out 9 in his last two starts (12 IP).
• Cory Burns-RP, Kinston: S, IP, 3 K, BB. The Kinston closer struck out the side for his 18th save. Righthander with a deceptive, almost Hideo Nomo-like delivery has 62 K's in 40 IP between Lake County and Kinston this year.
• Matt Packer-SP, Lake County: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 7 K. Packer's ERA 1.60 for the season, and 1.14 over his last 10 starts. Given up more than 1 ER just once in his last 10 starts.
• Casey Frawley-SS, Lake County: 0-3, 3 BB, R, K. West Michigan afraid to pitch to Frawley after the prior day's 2 HR.

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