In his first start of the year for Lehigh Valley, Carlos Carrasco was lights out going six shutout innings, yielding only four hits and didnt walk a batter. Carrasco threw 85 pitches, 60 for strikes, while striking out four. He left after six, and the ‘Pigs bullpen immediately blew the 1-0 lead. The game currently remains tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 7th.
–Lou Marson was pulled from the starting lineup on Friday, presumably because of the trickle down effect resulting from the strained oblique suffered in the Phillies game by Carlos Ruiz. The Phillies are calling Ruiz day-to day, but an oblique issue is extremely difficult for a catcher. One would believe the Phils would have to make a quick decision on the possibility of placing Ruiz on the disabled list because of the risk of having only one healthy catcher.
April 10, 2009 at 8:17 PM
Knapp and Savery both did great tonight.
Since I couldn’t watch the game, this is the first I heard about Ruiz. I hope he is okay, but if not I hope they bring up Marson right away.
April 10, 2009 at 8:24 PM
Knapp and Savery both did great tonight.
Since I didn’t see the game today, this is the first I heard about Ruiz. I hope he is ok, but if not I hope they call Marson up right away to split some time with Coste.
April 10, 2009 at 8:24 PM
Sorry about that double post.
April 10, 2009 at 8:28 PM
So far, all our pitching prospects look good. On Marson: I hope, I hope, I hope he gets a couple starts and impresses. That could be all it takes to keep him up in the Majors for good.
According to Scott Lauber, Marson is en route to Denver as we speak.
April 10, 2009 at 8:43 PM
NEPP- That’s great to hear. The delaying of some of these guys gets old.
April 10, 2009 at 8:46 PM
maybe we can bring carrasco and knapp and drabek along with marson. this team is playing dead.
April 10, 2009 at 9:14 PM
Naylor did well again
April 10, 2009 at 10:52 PM
What does Marson possibly staying up mean to the Catcher food chain below him?
Which catcher goes to AAA as backup ?
I’m guessing Tuffy Gosewisch ?
April 10, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Knapp says he was only average tonight with his 97 mph fast ball and mid 70’s breaking ball in striking out 10 in 5.2 innings of work. Gotta love it.
http://www.app.com/article/20090410/SPORTS/90410098/1002
April 10, 2009 at 11:14 PM
Savery only hits 88-90 mph but commanded the strike zone in his 8 strike out impressive outing:
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=133348
April 10, 2009 at 11:16 PM
“NEPP- That’s great to hear. The delaying of some of these guys gets old.”
Marson played a total of one game at AAA. I’m all for giving young players an opportunity, but they also shouldn’t have it handed to them.
April 10, 2009 at 11:34 PM
Let the LOUnacy begin.
I smell MarMania taking over the Rocky Mountains!
April 11, 2009 at 4:04 AM
Alan
Are you kidding Lou had a great season+ Olympics+ winter ball+ stick around in the post season. No one is hand Marson
anything. what do you want another bake sale? Maybe he could was Montgomery’s car. How about a proven failure like
Hoover.
Congrats to a lot of pitchers last night
April 11, 2009 at 5:45 AM
Knapp and Drabek are getting me excited, we need some of these kids to make the team next year, I figure myers is gone and carrasco or possibly happ take his place. If not we will be in trouble with salary. Wish that we had more position players ready triple a and double aa have only a couple in donald, marston, brown and taylor . And most scouts have donald and marston not high. If donald can play third its a cheaper alternative for big club,
April 11, 2009 at 6:02 AM
mikemike, you do realize that you just listed four prospects, which would constitute half of the field?
April 11, 2009 at 6:41 AM
I know but two of them are not consider starters by scouts, taylor is still a mystery, brown could be legit. and I am talking about two highest levels in minors. maybe this is what most teams have, I don’t follow and know as much as most on this site.
April 11, 2009 at 6:52 AM
You guys jumped on the pitching quicly. Carrasco, Savery, Naylor and Knapp all had fine outings. Maybe the best thing was when they weren’t K’ing the opposition the GO/FO ratios were pretty darn good.
Carrasco 8 – 6
Savery
April 11, 2009 at 6:53 AM
Taylor got two hits and game winner last night. That may be
more hits than he got the first month in Clearwater. Right on Mike . Since Ruiz is hurt and Feliz appears still hurting, two changes seem in the cards. If Myes does as well as he did last outing that may be three.
April 11, 2009 at 6:55 AM
Sorry, hit the submit button by accident: Go/FO
Carrasco 8 – 6
Savery 5 -5
Naylor 7 4
Knapp 5 -1
April 11, 2009 at 8:12 AM
fun to see Knapp pitch. He sat 92-94mph, he peaked at 97mph, but for most pitches over 94mph he looked like he was overthrowing and he was wild with it. His first few curves didn’t look especially tight, but after the second inning he really started to get a good feel for it and it got to be a nasty swing and miss pitch. He pitched with better control then I imagined he’d have. His fastball seemed to explode on hitters and combined with the 75 mph curve he overpowered the opposition. He started throwing an 80 mph changeup later in the game- his arm speed looked ok with it, but it didn’t have much fade or sink to it. His delivery isn’t ‘funky’, but he seems a bit long in front coming forward- it gives runners a lot of time to run on him- it may be something that puts a little stress on his shoulder.
April 11, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Great game by Savery last night. He really took control early in the game and was consistently ahead of the batters. His command was outstanding, as evidenced by his 8K’s against 1 IBB.
Reading didn’t hit much last night, with Taylor and Stavinsky (Sp) each going 2/4 with 1 RBI a piece. Mahar lead off the 2 run 8th with a single. He advanced to second on Berry’s sac bunt, and scored on Taylors RBI single. Stavinsky then drove in Harmon, who walked after Berry’s sac bunt.
Bastardo finished the game with a scoreless 8th and 9th, often hitting 92-94 on the radar gun. He was aided by a game ending 6-4-3 double play.
Reading looks to take the series in today’s rubber game.
April 11, 2009 at 9:01 AM
exciting start to the season for our top prospects. i got a really good feeling about our prospects this year.
knapp is special. simply special. he obviously has a lot to work on. but at 19, he appears to be dominate for the A level due to his raw stuff. as i said last year, you can’t teach a 97 mph fastball. the rest is teachable.
good to see taylor get some hits and donald looks good too. it looks like they are training bastardo to be a lefty reliever. if he really is in the 92-94 range, with his movement, he will be in the show this year out of the pen. good opening start from savery too. great peripherals. not worried about the 88-90 speed as it is still early in the season. 1-2 months in if he is still sitting there, it is a cause for concern. but for now, let’s celebrate a good start.
finally, set your expectations low for marson in the bigs. let’s not be a typical Philly fans here and set unrealistic expectations on the kid. that being said, it would be good to see him get a cup of coffee.
April 11, 2009 at 9:29 AM
PP Fan, good post.
April 11, 2009 at 9:39 AM
For all of those ready to put myers back in the minors…he was our best starter over the last week
April 11, 2009 at 9:47 AM
PP fan: Knapp is only 18 and doesn’t turn 19 until August 31. He’ll be pitching this entire season at age 18 in A ball (hell, could move up if he pitches like that).
April 11, 2009 at 10:24 AM
With Drabek’s strong performance on Thurs. plus Knapp, Carrasco, and Savery outings equals four dominating starts to open the season. Chuck LaMar on yesterday’s Phils pregame radio show said he watched Drabek throw 93-94 with what he described as a “major league” curve and change up.
April 11, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Those GO/FO ratios aren’t really that alarming. Usually to be considered more of a GO pitcher, the ratio is roughly 1.5-1.0, IIRC. Anything over that shows great consistently in keep the ball low and forcing groundouts.
April 11, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Knapp could be really good if he stays healthy (a tall order for a kid that is that young throwing that hard). I’m impressed to hear that type of velocity this early in the year…I also love that we’re finally drafting hard throwers instead of guys that toss 88-90 with great location…you can teach location a hell of alot easier than pure stuff like a high 90’s fastball.
April 11, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Knapp had incredible presence for an 18 year old. A couple times there was some questionable pitch selection, but the mark of a great competitor is to be able to regroup, attack, and execute- and Knapp was able to do it. You can see the fight in his on field persona.
Pretty good body- strong legs, big calves. His upper half has room to firm up, but man, what a package at 18 years old.
April 11, 2009 at 12:31 PM
I’m loving this— I don’t want to be overly optimistic but I just have an awesome feeling about this season…. its going to be a breakout year for the Phils minor leagues as a whole.
April 11, 2009 at 1:09 PM
The Fish:
That physical description of Knapp read too much like Mark Prior. Gulp. Please avoid. LOL. Next you’ll be telling us he uses the “inverted W” arm configuration during his delivery. Seriously, love the scouting report.
April 11, 2009 at 3:18 PM
love the start for phillies pitching prospects (Drabek, Carrasco, Knapp, Savery) etc. but for me to get truly excited i hope they can sustain this type of pitching on a consistent basis. For example last year Carrasco had one great start than one bad one almost every time at reading last year
April 11, 2009 at 5:41 PM
3 innings into the game tonight, but Worley is absolutely lights out so far. 9 up 9 down, 5 K’s. He’s thrown 5 balls so far. I’ll have a complete write up after the game.
April 11, 2009 at 6:09 PM
You jinxed him Matt!
April 11, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Sorry Ducky
. I’m normally good for that.
He’s recovered nicely though after giving up a run in the 4th. He’s very aggressive with his fastball, which you’ve got to love at this level.
April 11, 2009 at 6:28 PM
I think someone brought this up the other day, but does anyone think it’s going to be more fun to watch the Minors this year than the big club? So far, I’m feeling this way.
April 11, 2009 at 6:46 PM
Final line for Worley – 5 2/3, 4H, 2R (both earned), 6K’s, 2 BB’s. Ran into trouble in the 6th and ran out of gas. He left the game after walking in a run with the bases loaded. In my opinion, he ran out of gas and Roadcap left him in for 1 batter too long.
April 11, 2009 at 7:00 PM
“Horsehide Says:
April 11, 2009 at 1:09 pm
The Fish:
That physical description of Knapp read too much like Mark Prior. Gulp. Please avoid. LOL. Next you’ll be telling us he uses the “inverted W” arm configuration during his delivery.”
hmmm, i took some video, i’ll check it out and submit it and we’ll see.
April 11, 2009 at 7:17 PM
Ohhh, yeah, inverted W for Knapp.
April 11, 2009 at 9:06 PM
Ok, this is Anthony Gose at bat in the first.
April 11, 2009 at 9:08 PM
And Jason Knapp pitching in the first.
April 11, 2009 at 9:11 PM
Actually, Knapp’s delivery looks better there than he did in his scouting bureau video. Front leg is still a bit stiff on the landing, but its not that bad.
April 11, 2009 at 9:18 PM
Yeah, looks like they’ve cleaned it up a bit…hope he stays healthy.
April 11, 2009 at 10:08 PM
He comes down really hard on a stiff front leg and really accelerates from the point where the foot lands. Smoother than HS, but still a lot of stress on his body.
If he doesn’t get injured he’ll probably smooth out his mechanics even more as he gets older. Looking forward to seeing him live.
April 13, 2009 at 8:57 AM
The Knapp delivery does look smoother, but still I wonder if he will be groomed as a future closer. Hopefully they can smooth it out some more, especially as his legs get stronger.