2011 Tony Awards: Rookie of the Year

Cody Allen (Photo: Jesse Piecuch) Today we kick off the IPI’s year end awards with the announcement of the Rookie of the Year. In the coming days the Defensive Player of the Year, Biggest Disappointment, Biggest Breakthrough, Reliever of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year and All-Tony Team will be announced. The Rookie of the Year Award is given to the Indians minor leaguer who had the best professional stateside...

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Around the Farm: Instructs & AZPL 9/28

Jake Lowery Around the Farm (ATF) takes a quick look at some of the daily performances by Indians prospects. This is a special Instructional League version of ATF that recaps each of the 13 Instructional League games the Indians minor leaguers will play this fall as well as games played in the advanced Instructional League (Arizona Parallel League, AZPL). The positions listed below are where the player was playing in the game. Here are the game reports for both the Fall...

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Minor Happenings: Year end discussion with Ross Atkins

Ross Atkins (Photo: IPI) The Major League Baseball season officially came to an end with a wild finish last night, but the minor league baseball season has been done for some time now. Earlier this week I had a chance to sit down and talk to Indians Vice President of Player Development Ross Atkins about the 2011 season, what happens next for him and his staff, and about several players in the system. I did not focus on the typical names or top prospects when talking about...

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Around the Farm: AZPL 9/27

Carlos Moncrief Around the Farm (ATF) takes a quick look at some of the daily performances by Indians prospects. This is a special Instructional League version of ATF that recaps each of the 13 Instructional League games the Indians minor leaguers will play this fall as well as games played in the advanced Instructional League (Arizona Parallel League, AZPL). The positions listed below are where the player was playing in the game. Here is the game report for the Arizona...

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Around the Farm: Instructs & AZPL 9/26

Tyler Cannon Around the Farm (ATF) takes a quick look at some of the daily performances by Indians prospects. This is a special Instructional League version of ATF that recaps each of the 12 Instructional League games the Indians minor leaguers will play this fall as well as games played in the advanced Instructional League (Arizona Parallel League, AZPL). The positions listed below are where the player was playing in the game. Here are the game reports for both the Fall...

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Instructs Spotlight: Jake Lowery

Jake Lowery (Photo: IPI) The “Instructs Spotlight” is a weekly feature piece on a player from the Cleveland Indians farm system that is participating in the Fall Instructional League out in Goodyear, Arizona from September 14th to October 14th. Week number three starts today for the month long Instructional League out in Arizona. Right about now some of the players will be departing that are attending just for strength and conditioning or to get a few games in will. One...

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Around the Farm: Instructs 9/24

Ronny Rodriguez Around the Farm (ATF) takes a quick look at some of the daily performances by Indians prospects. This is a special Instructional League version of ATF that recaps each of the 12 Instructional League games the Indians minor leaguers will play this fall as well as games played in the advanced Instructional League (Arizona Parallel League, AZPL). The positions listed below are where the player was playing in the game. Here is a review of the third game in...

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2011 Columbus Clippers Season Review

Governors' Cup Champions. Triple-A National Champions. Mike Sarbaugh and his team did it again. Wire-to-wire dominance. Whether the team had Lonnie Chisenhall, Jason Kipnis and the like or not, the Clippers were winning ballgames all season long. In fact, they won the most games in all of minor league baseball (postseason included). They lost just one playoff game, putting their overall record on the year at 95-57, good for a .625 winning percentage. While Columbus was...

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Smoke Signals 9/26: Rounding third and heading home edition

Paul Cousineau and I are back on the cyberwaves tonight for some Cleveland Indians baseball talk with another edition of "Smoke Signals" from 11:00 - 11:30 p.m. EST. The Indians are down to their final three games of the season and have been left to fighting for a .500 or better record and second place in the AL Central Division. While both look very possible at this point, everyone has bigger goals for next season. With the final two episodes of Smoke Signals...

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Tribe Happenings: Putnam could impact next year's bullpen

Putnam has the goods to be an impactreliever in the big leagues (Photo: AP) Some news, notes, and thoughts from my Indians notebook… Putnam’s future is now Welcome to the big leagues Zach Putnam. Putnam, 24, was called up to the Indians a little less than two weeks ago and made his big league debut in Texas against the Rangers on September 13th. In that debut he allowed two runs on three hits and a home run, and in six appearances so far is 1-1 with a 6.35 ERA. Since...

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Kinston Indians 2011 Season in Review: The End of the K-Tribe Era

It's been a great 25 years Kinston! (photo: Jim Pete/IPI) On a rainy night on September 17th in Kinston, North Carolina, a baseball season came to an end. It was a nondescript play, as Casey Frawley swung at a pitch outside the strike zone, popping out to the catcher in foul territory. Losing a championship on a foul-out isn't how you write the script to end a season, let alone a franchise. For the Carolina League, it was an end to their 66th season of play. For the...

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