Minor League Ball Gameday, Wednesday, August 3rd

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Wednesday, August 3rd edition of the Minor League Ball Gameday discussion thread. Some items to consider today.

****One of the few bright spots in Minnesota this year is rookie outfielder Max Kepler, hitting .259/.342/.561 with a wRC+ of 135. He's hit five homers in his last 10 games while hitting .371 with seven walks and six strikeouts. Will whoever takes over as the new front office view Kepler as a lineup mainstay? I'd have to think so.

****Cleveland Indians outfield prospect Bradley Zimmer went 3-for-4 with a home run yesterday for Triple-A Columbus. In eight games since being promoted to the International League, Zimmer is hitting .345/.441/.448. Could he be positioned to help the Indians down the stretch run?

****Ex-Indians prospect Clint Frazier went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his first game for Triple-A Scranton in the Yankees system since joining the organization in the Andrew Miller trade. It will be interesting to see if there are any noticeable performance changes with Frazier, for good or ill, with a different set of coaching eyes on him.

****At Beyond the Boxscore, Henry Druschel looks at deadline deals that didn't happen.

****The strike zone has gotten smaller in 2016 according to Jeff Sullivan at Fangraphs.

****Your baseball math/sabermetrics lesson for today: Glenn Healey at The HardBall Times looks at the reliability of intrinsic batted ball statistics.