It’s a pretty gloomy Friday morning here, but morale is high after the Phillies top drawer win last night. I’ve kind of been slacking a bit here, but others have helped pick up the slack, and once things slow down at work, I’ll have more time to write. I’m planning a few player profiles and some other things as well, so that should be interesting. If you have any suggestions, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do. In fact, I’ll do a little mailbag type deal if you’d want to. Send me questions to the e-mail addy provided on the right, and put “Mailbag” in the title. I’ll answer as many as I can over the weekend and post them Monday. Now, on to the business…

* I was pretty excited when Jason Donald was promoted a while back. The Phillies under Ed Wade were extremely pragmatic in terms of in season promotions, and in general just kind of went 1 year at a time in all but a small handful of cases. Gillick, for all of his faults, seems willing to push guys through quicker, and while not everyone is ready for the jump, it’s good to move guys when you think they are ready and see how they react. Donald was destroying the ball at Lakewood, and was probably on the upper end of the age spectrum for Low A, so I was pretty excited to see how he’d handle Clearwater…..well, so far so good.

65 AB: .300/.400/.585 — 9.3% BB — 22.7% K — 50% XBH

That’s quite solid, no? You’d like to see him cut down the strikeouts, but he’s in the right neighborhood in terms of walk rate, and he’s hitting for power. In fact, he’s hitting for a lot more power than he did at Lakewood

193 AB: .316/.416/.456 — 12.6% BB — 16.5% K — 26% XBH

I’ll take 6% more K’s in exchange for 25% more extra base hits.

* I’ve been getting a lot of questions on Antonio Bastardo, lefthanded pitcher for the Blueclaws. Here’s what I can tell you about Bastardo. He’s 21 years old (turns 22 in September), and is in his second pro season in the US. He’s only 5’11, 165 lbs, but he reportedly has a very good fastball. I can’t speak to his secondary pitches, as I’ve never had the chance to see him pitch, so maybe someone can chime in there. I graded him as a C+ prospect last year, based on his small sample size in the GCL, and the fact that he was old for his level. Jumping to Lakewood this year is definitely good in relation to the latter, and his numbers are pretty good right now

25 IP — 5.04 H/9 — 3.96 BB/9 — 11.16 K/9 — 0 HR

The obvious thing to watch is the walks. If he can knock a walk per 9 off his total, watch out. The hit rate and strikeout rate are excellent, and he’s not allowing home runs, which is somewhat odd considering he doesn’t have real strong GB tendencies. He’s definitely a guy to watch going forward.

* Lou Marson has quietly elevated his prospect status this season, and is definitely a guy to put on the radar and keep an eye on. Marson just turned 21 yesterday, has been playing well at Clearwater, and should reach Reading next year, where he’ll play part of the season at age 21, young for AA. I gave him a B- based on a decent performance in his age 19/20 season. So let’s look at his numbers so far…

227 AB — .282/.362/.366 — 10.4% BB — 18.8% K — 26.6% XBH

The walks are good, not a ton of K’s, but you’d like to see the extra base hits jump up. One bright spot, he does kill LHP to the tune of .391/.444/.522, and the .522 slugging % makes you believe he can drive the ball a little bit, as he has 6 XBH out of 18 hits against lefties, compared to only 11 XBH out of 41 hits v RHP. Marson is definitely a guy to watch next season. He’s handled some of our best pitching prospects this year, and he’s shown he has some promise with the bat. He still has a ways to go, but 2007 has been a step in the right direction.