Francisco Lindor and Clint Frazier on Baseball America's midseason top 50

While the Indians hover around .500, teasing us with the notion that they might put things together and contend all season, I find myself also keeping a closer eye on 2015, just in case the bottom falls out during the next couple weeks. Every Indians fan watching out for the future probably has the same name at the top of their list: Francisco Lindor. This week Baseball America has put out its midseason top 50 prospects, and Francisco has moved up even higher than he was before. After starting the year at #13 (lower than on pretty much every other major prospect ranking), Lindor is now #6 on the list.

BA's comment on Lindor: "Rare safe and elite prospect is a plus defender who can hit at the top of the order."

Lindor, still only 20 years old, has been playing for Double-A Akron this season. He's batting .275/.353/.394, with 6 home runs (after hitting only 2 all of last year) and 20 stolen bases. He was just named to the Eastern League All-Star team (the game is next Wednesday in Altoona, Pennsylvania) and has also been named to the MLB Futures Game for the third year in a row.

Clint Frazier was #48 on the preseason list, and has also moved up, coming in at #42 this time around. His climb might be a surprise, given that he's batting only .249 and has already struck out 93 times. He's only 19 years old though, and has hit 6 home runs since the start of June.

BA's comment on Frazier: "Season has been less than one would hope for a top-five draft pick, but he has shown flashes in his first full year."

As they say, he's not having the season we hoped for, so it's nice to see some of the most respected talent evaluators still very high on his future. It's been nice to see him hitting the ball better over the last six weeks or so.