In case you hadn't noticed, a player-development obsession helps to ease the pain of MLB post-season disappointment.

Adam Miller and David Huff led the Surprise Rafters to an Arizona Fall League win today.  Read all about it here:  http://www.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071023&content_id=2279705&vkey=news_mlb&fext=. jsp&c_id=mlb

Here's a link to a national story:  http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ap1xVN6BKJsc0lWRGuacvRsRvLYF?slug=ap-playoffnotebook&prov= ap&type=lgns

Not a single word, of course, about how he overcame paralysis in his left side.  How typical!!!

And now for the sake of the character count:

Not a single word, of course, about how he overcame paralysis in his left side.  How typical!!!

Not a single word, of course, about how he overcame paralysis in his left side.  How typical!!!

The rest of you guys can get all excited about the post-season and stuff, but here in kenfromalexandriaville, the prospect watch never sleeps.

Chris Kline is reporting in BA that the Indians are among the active suitors of Edward Salcedo, a 16-year-old Dominican mega-prospect (according to his agent, Scott Boras).  Kline says the asking price is #3.5 million.

Here's a link.  http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=599

Looking for some positive news about the Tribe? Yeah, me, too.

Here's a morsel.

Baseball America is reporting that the Indians have signed fourth-round pick (#137 overall) T.J. McFarland, LHP out of Illinois. They say he got $285,000. Slot would have dictated $189,000. Here's a link to the BA blog following developments on the brink of the deadline for signing 2007 draftees.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/

There has been a lot of money thrown around today, but no news as to whether any of it has been cast in the direction of Cole St. Clair, the LHP out of Rice U who fell to the sixth round because of injuries this season.

As for Mr. McFarland, one assumes that he will head for Winter Haven and the Tribe's team in the Gulf Coast League, which is a nice segue to a piece by Tony Lastoria posted on the channel called Swerb's Blurbs, which is also where Steve Buffum is leading the league in gallows humor.

Here's a link to Lastoria's piece, which has some nice pics of Chris Nash, Jason Smits, and others.  http://www.swerbsblurbs.com/article_detail.php?id=2128

My personal favorite is RHP Santo Frias, who clearly has been endowed by his Creator with the Fausto Carmona Starter Kit, and who has pitched well since his recent promotion to Lake County.

This is a little redundant given ASP's diary on the Bisons' game tonight, but Stephanie Storm reports on Asdrubal Cabrera's promotion here:  http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/aeros/.

Droobs has had a great first half at Akron, and if he ends up playing some 2b at Buffalo, it gives us an alternative to Mike Rouse while giving us a number of middle IF options down the road.

Hubba hubba Droobs, reach that character limit!

I don't know about you, but when the parent club isn't performing well, I tend to focus on the farm.  As therapy goes, it's not great, but the price is right.

I've noticed what appear to be changes in pitching roles.  At Lake County, it looks as if Carlton Smith has been moved to the bullpen.  He's had three short relief stints since July 21.  Kinston's Ryan Edell, who has had a good season as a starter, was used twice in relief last week.  At Akron, Reid Santos pitched an inning of relief yesterday.

Is there something system-wide going on here?  Are they trying to protect guys by limiting their innings without actually shutting them down?  Is it a coincidence that these guys are all lefties (our system is rich in lefties)?

Then, speaking of lefties, there's Ryan Morris:
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Ryan%20Morris&pos=P&sid=milb&t =p_pbp&pid=502047

Small sample size, I know, but Morris was drafted in the 4th round out of a NC high school in 2006, and they seem to be treating him like an elite prospect.  Has anyone seen him pitch?

Terry Pluto fans will enjoy his review of a book by Frank Deford (title above), the story of a Cuban baseball player who becomes a star--in Cleveland, natch.

Here's a link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602937.html

Character limit, character limit.  Okay, I'm a Terry Pluto fan, and have been since his college days, a while back.  I was his freshman writing instructor.

Buffalo beat Ottawa this afternoon, 8-3.  Adam Miller was just okay, though he made it through 6 innings.  Juan Lara, Mike Koplove, and Brian Sikorski combined for 3 hitless innings, 3 K's.  The Bisons banged out 14 hits, including a HR by Hector Luna (!), who also stole a base (!!).  Luis Rivas, playing SS, had a triple and a single, but also made 2 errors.  Here's the box score: http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2007_04_09_ottaaa_bufaaa_1&t=g_box&a mp;did=milb

Here is a link to a piece by David Hall and Chris Kline that provides some insight into Rule 5 clubhouse culture.

Re Warden, sidearmers seem to be a different breed, and some have made pretty good careers for themselves after a late start. (Think Matt Miller.  Or, for us old-timers, Kent Tekulve.)

http://www.kinston.com/onset?id=37360&template=article.html

In today's Washington Post, Jorge Arangure, Jr. has a kind of interesting piece on Rob Bell and Jeremy Guthrie, who played for the Buffalo Bisons last year, and who are now competing for a job in the Baltimore Orioles' bullpen.  Both have had excellent springs.

Here's a link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001854.html.

Meanwhile, over at the Nationals' camp, it looks as if Billy Traber will be starting at AAA.  Because the Nats have a huge commitment to Christian Guzman at SS, they might be cutting Josh Wilson, who might look a whole lot better as the utility infielder on the Tribe's bench than, say, Hector Luna.

I made the pilgrimage to Prince William County expecting to see Chuck Lofgren yesterday.  Instead, it was Thomas Cowley, who pitched very well.  Maybe I just miscalculated.  Jordan Brown remains hot as the season winds down.  He has inconspicuously driven in 85 runs.  Jose Constanza looks good as well.  It seems he can do it all, though he's undersized and left-handed.  If he were a righty he'd be a top-flight middle infielder prospect.

How pathetic is it that the highlight of our season so far is a late June (too little, too late) roster shuffle?

Anyway, here are two questions having to do with Sowers. First, how concerned ought we to be about the number of innings he's thrown this year?  This is a guy not far removed from Vanderbilt who has never (to my knowledge) pitched after Labor Day.

Second, what exactly are the contract implications of calling him up now.  I suppose this is a question for Jay, Master of the Rulebook.  Is it the calendar or the number of innings pitched that will affect his contract status at the end of this season?

Here's a scouting report from Bowie, MD, where our #1 prospect, Adam Miller, faced the Orioles' #1 guy, Adam Loewen, in Eastern League action. The good news is that Miller looks completely healthy. His fastball sat at 93-94, topping out at 96. He threw a 95 mile per hour fastball in the sixth. The bad news is that he throws about 80% fastballs, and the other pitches appeared to be very tough mid-80s sliders. He seems to have no off-speed pitch at all. Left-handed batters in particular seemed to be able to pick up the fastball and drive it after they had three or four in a row. That's how Bowie scored 4 runs in 6 innings. The other bad news is that Brad Snyder looked helpless against Loewen. Granted, Loewen is a very tough lefty, but even so....