Minor League Ball Gameday, May 5

Good morning prospect watchers. I am feeling much better today, but I'm two days behind on my baseball reading and need to catch up. I am also planning a trip to Iowa this week to see Byron Buxton and Cedar Rapids play. However, the weather forecast is very questionable, with a 40-50 percent chance of rain each day. I am not wild about the idea of driving 10 hours just to get rained out, so I'm going to have to monitor the forecast closely before making my decision.

***Yesterday's Minor League Ball gameday thread has the minor league highlights you need to know.

***I'm a big fan of Atlanta Braves second base prospect Tommy La Stella. He gets discounted for his tools but all he does is hit, and he's doing it again this year with a .625/.750/.875 mark in his first six games for High-A Lynchburg. He'll continue ripping A-ball pitching and the real test will come when he gets to Double-A, hopefully later this year. He was an eighth-round pick in 2011 from Coastal Carolina.

***Cleveland Indians prospect Francisco Lindor is 6-for-11 in his last two games and is now hitting .367/.430/.532 in 28 games for High-A Carolina. I'm a huge fan.

***Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Garrett Gould threw six shutout innings for High-A Rancho Cucamonga yesterday. This was his first good start of the year: his previous five starts were rough and even with the good start he has an 8.06 ERA. He does have a pleasant 20/8 K/BB but has given up 36 hits in 26 innings.

***Today's schedule of minor league games.

***Lee Troncinski takes a deeper look at plate discipline.

***Matt Garrioch's regional draft summaries will continue tomorrow morning with a look at talent-rich California.