Cleveland Indians: Way-too-early reactions to minor league performances

Way-too-early reactions to minor league performances for the Cleveland Indians

The minor leagues began play on May 4 and have now completed their first round of games for the 2021 season. The affiliates of the Cleveland Indians, along with the rest of the MiLB, will play Tuesday through Sunday throughout the season, having Monday off each week. The stretch of games each week will either be entirely on the road or entirely at home, making for an interesting season. The plus side for fans and major league clubs is that the new schedule for the year will make week-by-week evaluations simple in terms of call-ups and send-downs.

This season, the affiliates for the Cleveland Indians are the Triple-A Columbus Clippers, Double-A Akron Rubberducks, High-A Lake County Captains and Low-A Lynchburg Hillcats. Overall, the teams performed well with a combined 18-4 record over the first group of contests with just two games postponed for the weekend showers.

The Columbus Clippers began on the road with six games against the Louisville Bats on the schedule. The series finale was rained out, but the other five games saw the Clippers collect four wins while outscoring the Bats by a margin of 24-16, including a 10-0 shutout to begin the season with a record of 4-1.

As for the Akron Rubberducks, they began at home with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, winning the first five games of the year before a rain out on Sunday to carry a 5-0 record into the second week of the season. While they didn’t record a shutout like the Clippers, the Rubberducks were able to outscore Binghamton 31-11 over the five matchups.

Moving down to High-A with the Lake County Captains, the results were still good, but not as great with a 3-3 record against the Lansing Lugnuts on the road. Lake County saw a roller coaster of results that resembled their major league affiliate, losing by seven and getting shutout in the series while also scoring seven runs and six runs in different games.

Finally, the Lynchburg Hillcats started the season with a perfect 6-0 record at home against the Fredericksburg Nationals, beginning the series and the season with outbursts of 16 and 19 runs in the first two games, respectively.

While records and scores are important, individual progress is the focal point of the minor leagues as players are brought along to get a shot at the major leagues. With that being said, what players helped or hurt their progress over the first week of the season? These are our way-too-early reactions to the first week of the minor league season.