52 thoughts on “June 25th Discussion”

  1. Garrett Atkins is about to get released. Minor league insurance?
    The Riz two hit and an error. It is up to him to develop Utleylike commitment to defense.

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  2. You can also throw in a loss in the VSL yesterday.

    Harold Garcia has hit in 27 straight.

    Kevin Angelle had the pitching line of the night.
    8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 8 K and a BB. He’s given up 1 ER in 14 IP. He had a 1.89 ERA in the GCL last year. He’s 22 and a 6’2″ lefty. Don’t know what he throws but he’s been successful.

    Good hitting lines are harder to find after Garcia’s feat. Mayberry had a HR. Rizz was 2 – 3 with a BB. Gosewisch was 2 – 4 with a 2b and 3b. I guess that was the best.

    Beltre in the GCL went 0 – 4 with 4 Ks. That was pretty ugly but he had 2 OF assists. Diekman’s premier in CLW was pretty ugly. He walked 4 guys to give up a run. He did have a K and got the last guy he faced to hit into a DP. Oh yeah, Garcia had a hand (or should I say glove) in 3 DPs.

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  3. Bellman, I remember reading about Angelle last year. The scout that signed him really liked his ability and saw him put it all together in a JC playoff start. So based on that they made the push to get him signed. The scout’s belief in him gives me hope that perhaps there is something more to his success than just age and experience. I guess we’ll see as the season progresses…

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  4. Not to go too crazy on Angelle, but I found the post (from poster “bc”) from last year that had the article on Angelle and the comments from the Phillies scout:

    Angelle righted a somewhat erratic season when he had his best outing in a Southland Conference Tournament elimination game May 22 against UT-Arlington in Corpus Christi.Angelle gave up five hits and one run in 6 2/3 innings of a 4-3 victory. He also struck out five and walked one.

    “That’s when he became the Kevin Angelle we always thought he could be,” said baseball scout Steve Cohen, who followed Angelle since before his senior season of high school at Bridge City.

    With a fastball in the 90-92 miles per hour range, a changeup, curve and a slider developed this season, the 6-foot-3, 195-poundAngelle said he feels confident to join the professional ranks.

    That confidence showed against UTA.

    “He took ownership of the game and really competed,” said Cohen, in his sixth year as the Phillies regional scout. “He wasn’t going to give in. It was must-win for the team to go on. A great effort when they needed him.”

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  5. Anyone know where Cespedes is? He’s not on W-Port or GCL rosters. Also, any word on when Sampson will pitch?

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  6. This Rizzotti development is so interesting (assuming that what we’re see is, at some level, a reflection of his true abilities), entirely unexpected, and a bit odd, because, frankly, even if he’s great hitter, what can we really do with him other than trade him? I haven’t seen him in person, but he does not look like a guy who could play left field competently. I’m a big fan of young player-for-young player trades. Perhaps we can trade him to a team that really needs a slugging first baseman or DH and get some interesting middle infield or starting pitching talent in return – alternatively, I’d be fine if we just got a good rent-a-slugger for the strech run and post-season – I cannot bear to watch another WS where Ben Francisco becomes a starter in an American League park.

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  8. VSL- Willians Astudillo- (had formerly been spelled Williams on milb.com and Willans on the other ) had his name changed on his milb.com bio and his position is now listed as 3B. He changed back to playing 3B on the field as well from a couple of days of playing his originally listed position of catcher and went 2-4 to bring average to .364 over 88 AB’s. Seemed like the only days he did not in the season were the 2 days he caught for the season in the last 3 games, and maybe they did not like his defense either, prompting the listing of him as 3B.

    Some of the 17 year olds seen action Jose Mayorga DH’ed (also no longer listed as a Catcher, but DH) 1-4, and Ronald Mendez started and Audrys Mora relieved without much noteworthy accomplishment.

    GCL- Maikel Franco , 3B, 2-4 with 2B in team leading 15 AB’s raising BA to .267, 2nd in team Batting Average behind College Signee Patrick Murray at .385 in 8 AB’s.
    Positional movements- Geancarlo Mendez played 2B 1-4 with a triple. Luis Beltre , continues in RF 0-4 with 4 Strikeouts, Chris Duffy played 1B 1-4 with a double, Francisco Diaz back catching , it appears Chachee Numata took over later in the game 2 official AB’s for Diaz- none for Numata.
    LHP’s Lino Martinez (starter), Neil Davis, and Orlando Garces appear to have been bombed.

    Clearwater- Notes on the semi-forgotten- all starting to play more regularly at this time: Joel Naughton C- up to .347 in 75 AB’s, Tim Kennelly – seems to be the regular at 3B now- raised his BA to .220 in 168 AB’s with 25 walks and 26 strikeouts, D’Arby Myers- up to .266 in 124 AB’s.

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  9. Cespedes is listed on the DSL Phillies roster, and his status is “reserve,” so he must be injured?

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  10. Williamsport- Jake Smith played 3B and went 0-4 with 4 swinging strikeouts. Carlos Alonso moved to DH for game, Team must have faced a good pitcher as team only got 2 hits (Jeffrey Cusick, 1B and Edgar Duran, SS).

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  11. Cespedes is not on the current DSL roster, he was sent to XST and not yet assigned to a roster. His MiLB bio list his status as Reserve (Minors) which seems to indicate he is still in XST and not yet assigned to a team. This may indicate some type of injury in XST, but , I believe he was originally listed on GCL roster, and then removed.

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  12. I know that he is unlikely to make the BA Prospect Hot Sheet later today but I will point out that by my calculations Rizzotti’s statistical week (Last Friday to This Thursday) was as follows:

    AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS
    .619/.667/1.238/1.905

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  13. I’m not sure if Garrett Atkins is any better then Cody Ransom at this point but I guess it wouldn’t hurt. Man did that guy’s career fall apart.

    27 game hit streak for Harold Garcia, longest in minor’s this season.

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  14. The Garrett Atkins fall from excellence is bizarre. After 2007, we were all hoping that we could somehow acquire him. He was a real star at that point. He’s also not old – I think he’s about the same age as Utley.

    I think they should sign him and send him to AAA. It’s possible (perhaps probable) that he’s just lost it, but, sometimes, it’s just finding one’s stroke again. I remember several players having their career nearly end only to have it resurrected with a vengeance (Andres Gallarraga is one example).

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  15. I wouldn’t waste my time. Atkins hit when he played in Coors Field. The only year he had real success on the road was 2006.

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  17. Picking up Atkins and assigning him to LHV seems like a move that makes a lot of sense to me as long as its done on the cheap, I’m pretty sure he and Utley were each the best man at one another’s wedding, and maybe being at least somewhat close to his best friend could help him right the ship. With the dearth of 3b prospects in our system bringing in a guy like Atkins seems like an apporpriate level of risk reward.

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  18. boston phan,

    When you say “push to get him signed” does that mean that Angelle isn’t under contract? Arren’t all the guys in the Phils system under some type of copntract agreement?

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  19. does anyone know anything about gauntlett eldemire he was listed on williamsports roster then removed now hes not on any roster

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  20. psujoe…he was talking about the push to get him signed last year after he was drafted. Yes, he is signed now.

    bill…I believe I read somewhere else on this site that Eldemire was hurt and required wrist surgery? Is that right?

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  21. gauntlett eldemire – believe there was talk a few weeks ago that he was having surgery on his wrist and will not play this year.

    Biddle making his first start today at noon – looking forward to following that

    MILB.com has Josh Zeid starting tonight for Lakewood. Odd, since he was the closer earlier in the year. Wonder what they’ve seen to make this change.

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  24. Wow, strong first outing from Biddle after not pitching in a game for a few weeks. Yes, that gets me excited…. Zeid might only be starting because of the rain last night and a double header to make up the game. Eldemire was to be back for the Instructional League in Sept. after surgery.

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  26. Uh oh. A star is born. Great performance from Biddle out of the shoot. Did not expect that from a raw NE pitcher.

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  27. So do you guys think Biddle will get a Sept call-up when rosters expand? Or will they be cautious and just have him end the year in AA?

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  28. A little positive feedback on Singleton on the BA Hotsheet chat.

    Todd (Greenville): As a consensus, which prospect(s) have surprised the most this year so far, and/or have made the biggest jump up the top-100 list? Thanks.

    Jim Shonerd: Trout and Jonathan Singleton for me. Maybe “surprise” would be the wrong choice of words, especially in Trout’s case, but those are the first two guys I think of when we’re talking about guys who’ll be moving up in the Top 100 next year (Trout was No. 85 this year, Singleton obviously didn’t make it at all).

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  29. cont….

    Peter (Wantagh, NY): Does Jonathan Singleton play any other position other than 1B? If the Phillies lock up Howard long term, who’s more likely to change positions (assuming Singleton keeps progressing and makes it to the majors)?

    Jim Shonerd: Singleton can move to the outfield. He wouldn’t be chasing balls down in the gap or anything like that, but they’d make it work. But as good as Singleton’s been, he’s still in low A. It’s too soon to start worrying about where he fits in the big league lineup. Let’s just let him perform for now.

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  30. From BA

    Peter (Wantagh, NY): Does Jonathan Singleton play any other position other than 1B? If the Phillies lock up Howard long term, who’s more likely to change positions (assuming Singleton keeps progressing and makes it to the majors)?

    Jim Shonerd: Singleton can move to the outfield. He wouldn’t be chasing balls down in the gap or anything like that, but they’d make it work. But as good as Singleton’s been, he’s still in low A. It’s too soon to start worrying about where he fits in the big league lineup. Let’s just let him perform for now.

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  31. the guy on the crosscutters radio network said that edgar duran reminds him defensively of omar vizquel.

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  34. Poor Lisalberto 2 games and he doesn’t have an ERA yet.
    What a fellow have to do?

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  35. Two other comments.

    I think we should just start calling Matt Rizzotti the human torch. What a hot streak he is on and what a year for him! I still have no idea what to make of him other than to say that I make a lot more of him now than I did before the season started. Wow!

    Second, the Trevor May walk situation is just ridiculously bad. Absent and immediate and large step forward, I don’t see how he starts next year at any place but Clearwater. Do you send him to winter ball to work on things? Do you leave him alone and hope the free pass thing just fades into oblivion? It’s a pretty big problem at this point – like a big boulder standing between him and a good major league career.

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  36. And, yes, I realize that May is, what, 20? Maybe he’ll grow out of it, but I don’t see signs that is happening. Of course, I’m not there observing his starts, so it’s difficult to know precisely what is causing the problem and how close or far he is away from a solution.

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  38. former farmhand schlitter just got called up by the cubs i believe… guy we traded to get Eyre

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  39. The cubs also got that kid spencer from oakland, we traded to them for blanton, he looks like he could also will make the cubs , nice average some power.

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  40. There have been some very successful pitchers with control problems that took several years to overcome. Koufax and Randy Johnson are two examples. Nolan Ryan never had good control.

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  41. Add Sandy Koufax to that list (from the old timer department).
    He was godawful in the beginning.

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  42. Koufax had two things working against him. He was a bonus baby, which meant he had to pitch in MLB from the start. A normal pitcher would’ve been developing in the minors and showing better numbers. Second, he pitched several formative years in the LA Coliseum. Imagine trying to pitch with control when you’re a lefty pitcher and it only takes a pop fly to hit a home run.

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  43. Aside from knowing the vague outlines of his season – slow start, hitting better lately, lots of CS, I hadn’t focused much on Gose’s season.

    But looking at the overall numbers, I’m really quite impressed. Even with the slow, start, he’s improved pretty much across the board. Not a breakout year by any means, but certainly a step forward.

    Refresh my memory – between Clearwater and Lakewood, which is the particularly pitcher friendly location (in terms of stadium and league)? If the former (my recollection is that it is), his performance this year is even more impressive; of course if the latter, less so.

    The CS are really inexplicable though, especially given his past outstanding performance in that regard (just under 80% base stealer prior to this year).

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  44. LarryM, the Florida State League is the more extreme pitchers’ league. This year the average runs/game is 4.24 and the league OPS is .689. The Sally League by comparison sees 4.57 runs/game, .699 OPS. Looking at Gose’s line, he is again batting higher than the league average OBP and slugging. He has increased his isolated power, takes more walks and hits into less double plays. The caught stealings are a concern but I’ll take the net gain in his game.

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  46. Thanks. Thought that was the case, makes his performance even more impressive.

    But actually his BB are about the same – well, a tiny bit better but not meaningfully better. But yes, more power, better BA, in a tougher environment, young for his league. And his fielding looks improved, with the usual caveats about raw fielding stats.

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  47. Oh, in terms of being young for his league – he’s 3 years younger than average for his league. I know that’s distorted by (among other things) the fact that there a lot of college kids in his league, but still, that’s darn impressive.

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  48. And not to beat a dead horse, but this also reinforces a couple of points that PP keeps bringing up – defensive spectrum and age/league. Rizzotti has (much) flashier numbers than Gose, but Gose is clearly the better prospect, by a significant margin.

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  49. Gose’s high strikeout rate and low walk rate are two areas of concern. I assume that his high pick-off rate and low SB % are correctable.

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  50. Didn’t know where else to ask this, but I notice Derrick Mitchell hitting third at Clearwater. What’s the story with him? I didn’t see a lot to get excited about looking at his past performance. Anyone have a scouting report or insight into the Phils’ thoughts on Mitchell?

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