We all know about Mike’s predominant first half v second half splits, but I think these splits tell an even bigger story;

2005 v LHP: .155/.269/.190
2006 v LHP: .191/.338/.300
2007 v LHP: .208/.266/.292

2005 v RHP: .306/.380/.550
2006 v RHP: .277/.371/.442
2007 v RHP: .270/.357/.546

2006, v LHP: 136 PA — 14.0% BB — 32.4% K
2007, v LHP: 79 PA — 6.3% BB — 34.2% K

2006, v RHP: 455 PA — 12.1% BB — 19.6% K
2007, v RHP: 199 PA — 11.1% BB — 31.2% K

He’s striking out a lot this year in general, but he’s still striking out more against LHP, and more importantly, isn’t drawing near enough walks off southpaws. We’ve already detailed his defense, so I think this makes him even more of a candidate for an outfield platoon. Couple him with a guy who can hit left handed pitching, and you might have a useful major leaguer.

Ok, so we’re putting the prospect cards on hold till the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a quick look at how the prospects in our system are fairing so far. Just a few quick notes. I won’t be looking at any of our new draftees, and I also won’t look at the new arrivals from the DSL and VSL, because we just don’t have enough data on them. Also, guys who are playing at Williamsport and the GCL now will be excluded, because a handful of games doesn’t mean a whole lot. With those qualifiers aside, let’s get started.

Continue reading Midseason Review, Part 1 →

This year’s Williamsport and GCL rosters feature a number of players from last year’s Latin American rookie squads.  This post will go through the new players on each team and summarize what we know about them.  This is not meant to be a scouting report of these players, however, as we have very few eyewitness accounts of them playing.  Hopefully we can fill in the blanks with live reports as the season goes on.  These players are important to the Phillies future, however.  They also tend to be slightly better prospects on average than the draft prospects because the lesser prospects do not get promoted from their home country leagues.  These prospects would probably all have been selected in the top 10-15 rounds of the draft if they had been eligible.

Continue reading New Players from the 2006 VSL and DSL Teams →

Some random thoughts this morning

* Carlos Carrasco and Pat Overholt are now at Reading. To be honest, I’m kind of worried about both guys. Overholt seems to have gotten away from what was working early in the season, that is, being a dominant groundball pitcher. In the last 8 or so starts he’s had, he’s been okay in that department, but not dominant. He does not have plus plus stuff, so he has to keep the ball down if he’s going to be effective, and I just don’t know that he was ready for AA, but maybe he’ll prove me wrong in the second half. As for Carrasco, I’m both excited and concerned. The last time the Phillies moved him aggressively, it was a disaster. Over the last month, he’s been locked in and as good as any pitcher in the minors. If he goes to Reading and gets bombed, what does it do to his confidence? I like seeing prospects moved aggressively for the most part, but there are some cases where it might not be a good idea. Cross your fingers that Carrasco continues to roll along. This also likely speeds up his ETA in Philly, with sometime next year looking more like a possibility.

Continue reading Wednesday morning musings…. →

If you remember back to this past winter, I have a bit of a soft spot for Brad Harman. He seems like a genuinely good kid, he made a bigtime impression 2 years ago, and he’s dealt with a ton of off the field adversity in his short time in the Phillies organization. His 2006 was marred by the death of his mother back in Australia, and he still played the season, despite clearly being in another place mentally. Because of all of these factors, I was very high on Brad entering this season, thinking this would be his bounceback campaign. Through April and May, it looked like maybe I was off my rocker. But in June, he’s turning things around. Could this be the start of him re-entering the prospect chatter? Let’s have a look.

Continue reading Reason for Hope: Brad Harman →

I wanted to give a proper writeup on our two short season affiliates, but with work and my moving to a new place in the last two weeks, I’ve kind of been spotty in my coverage here. The draft consumed quite a bit of my time, and now it’s time for the season to begin. So, in lieu of me writing up the work of others, check out these two discussions, one for the GCL team and one for Williamsport, which deal with the players assigned there and likely arrivals as well.

Some random thoughts….

* I think Jesus Sanchez should be in Williamsport, and I think he will end up there, hopefully sooner than later. He and d’Arnaud are the two best catching prospects we have at that level, they should get the bulk of the games behind the plate.

* Michael Durant really better destroy the ball in Williamsport, or his time as a prospect might be close to finished.

* Joe Savery’s assignment is probably going to be predicated on how much he pitches in the remainder of the College World Series. My solution? Send him to Lakewood, let him play 1B or DH, and have him throw side sessions with pitching coach Ed Hodge.  Savery’s bat is more advanced than any position player prospect we drafted, and he could provide some quality offense in the infield next to Cardenas. There’s no real need for him to put more innings on his arm in short season games, but it would definitely benefit him to work with professional coaching to get him ready for 2008.

Upon further review, I think I’m actually going to postpone the idea of mid season grades. I like the system I have in place, but I feel like me outputing these cards every day is going to take away time from me covering the current action, especially with the short season leagues starting. I’m going to just wait and do end of the year cards which will cover all of the 2006 and 2007 statistics. Instead of putting out grades, I just want to evaluate the progress of our prospects at a glance, and then do a comprehensive review at the end of the season. So, tomorrow, check back and I’ll begin a mid season review, just without all the bells and whistles. Sorry for the confusion there.

Check out the Crosscutters website, the roster is up. Not many surprises, except for this one. Freddy Galvis, a slick fielding 17 year old shortstop signed last summer, will make his US debut at Williamsport and not in the GCL. He must have had a good run of it in Extended and impressed. We’ll be fielding an impressive outfield of D’Arby Myers, Dominic Brown, Michael Taylor and Jermaine Williams, and some interesting arms in Brummett, Chapman, and Walter Tejeda.

Hats off to Joe Savery and Rice for their advancement in the College World Series. I saw bits and pieces of Savery’s start tonight, and I was pretty impressed. Nice velo on the fastball, decent secondary offerings. When he focuses on pitching full time, he’s going to get even better.

One more note. The categories on the left, I don’t know what happened and why they aren’t outlined in boxes anymore. I think it’s a WordPress issue, nothing I can control. I’m undecided yet whether I will keep this layout or move to something else. If the site looks weird when you check in at some point, don’t panic. I also looked at the Fidel Hernandez prospect card I posted the other day from a smaller screen resolution and part of the card is chopped off….I’ll fix that in the morning and post a few new cards.