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.