2007 Draftees Update

2007 Draft

Before we look at some of our draftees, I wanted to give everyone a heads up. Yesterday’s Bill Conlin post has prompted some great discussion. I feel like I should clarify a few things. I do stand by my description of Bill. He is an old, angry, bitter man. Just take a look at some of the responses he sent back to people who e-mailed him….what kind of professionalism is that? The reason I brought up the article yesterday is because it was focusing on Kyle Drabek, and failed Phillies pitching prospects. Drabek was unfairly labeled as being “finished” and tossed in the trash bin with guys like Pat Combs, and I felt that was grossly unfair. Conlin had an idea, he spouted off about it, but I have a feeling he didn’t even bother to look up the facts. So, over the next few days, I’m going to go through the first round of the June draft for every MLB team over the last 35 years and take a look at the fate of the pitchers taken first by their teams. Then we’ll see how “bad” the Phillies track record really is. And one more note; I don’t really write things just to get people to come here. I don’t have any ads on my site, I don’t make a dime off of this, I only do it because it’s fun. Over the last 4 months, I’ve been averaging about 2,000 hits a day. If someone links to me on another board, I get a few more, but I rarely even look at it. I enjoy writing about the Phillies minor leagues, I say my piece, and I’m grateful for those who come and read. However, I don’t try to create controversy to get more hits, and I’m not trying to sell anything, I just speak my opinion.

Now, let’s look at the performance of a few of our draftees…

I won’t cover everyone, but here’s a brief look

* Travis d’Arnaud: .257/.303/.352 — 2 BB — 9 K — 4 SB

You can’t really expect high school hitters to make a seamless transition, and Travis hasn’t lit the league on fire, but nothing too disastrous here.

* Travis Mattair: .240/.294/.310 — 4 BB — 28 K

Ouch…come on bro, you’re making me look bad here. However, his month to month splits show promise

June: .167/.184/.194
July: .298/.365/.404

* Jacob Diekman: 18.0 IP — 1.00 ERA — 16 H — 7 BB – 16 K

Not too shabby here. Less than a hit per inning, too many walks, but good strikeout numbers so far.

* Jiwan James: 8.1 IP — 7.56 ERA — 14 H — 2 BB – 3 K

His ERA is skewed by one awful outing, but the lack of K’s is kind of concerning.

* Tyler Mach: .326/.441/.587 –15 XBH — 20 RBI — 13 BB — 12 K

Mach got off to a sizzling start, but has cooled a bit. I’m still not as high on him as some, but we’ll see what happens going forward.

* Tyson Brummett: 25 IP — 2.88 ERA — 23 H — 3 BB – 15 K

The kind of numbers you’d expect from a polished college senior pitching in short season ball. Won’t know much until he plays full season ball next year.

* Matt Rizzotti: .308/.397/.490 — 15 XBH — 15 BB — 23 K

Not a bad debut, I’d like to see a few more home runs (2) but nothing to complain about here.

Still waiting for the debut of Joe Savery, should be interesting.

14 thoughts on “2007 Draftees Update”

  1. Not on topic for this thread–but do we know for sure that Outman was promoted to Reading? Does this mean anything for Carrasco? (Hurt? Demoted?) I doubt it, but the paranoia runs deep…

    More on topic–when is Savery expected to debut for the Cutters? Given how anemic their offense has been for a few weeks now, maybe they should forego the DH when he starts…

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  2. “I just speak my opinion.”

    Which is of course what Conlin does in all of his columns.

    Let go of him, young man.

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  3. I love what you do here and please keep it up. But take the advice of a writer who has gotten one or two bad reviews himself (me) and got this advice from a friend: “You can’t win a pissing contest with a skunk.” So, if Bill is behaving like a skunk, just get away.

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  4. I think people keep misinterpreting my problem here. My problem isn’t with Conlin having an opinion different than mine, my problem is that he doesn’t appear to be interested in the FACTS. I guess his job is just to write editorials, so he doesn’t have to be accurate. I try to support my opinions with facts, I guess maybe that standard doesn’t apply to guys who’ve been writing for newspapers for 30+ years.

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  5. Well, back to the more important news, no offense phuture phils. Outman will be making his first start with reading on Saturday night. It will be the 3rd game of a 4 game series against Trenton. The fourth being pitched by Carrasco

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  7. While Mattair has struggled offensively – that could be attributed to adjusting to a wooden bat (that old excuse), but his defense appears to be solid – only 2 errors in 24 games or so.

    – Jeff

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  8. I’ll be in Reading to see that double-header. I wouldn’t miss two of the Phils top pitching propsects pitching on the same day for the world.

    By the way, Conlin shot me back another e-mail saying:

    On days I am scheduled for Daily News Live I arrive at Comcast around 4:30 PM. I will be the 73-year-old man in the midnight green Mercedes E320 4-Matic. . .I’m sure you’re very tough.

    So I guess his rub it in your face comments now revolve around his car.

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  9. I post on beerleaguer sometimes and saw a link over to this site someone posted… was reading the comment thread and saw a question on Happ.

    Happ’s career minor league and college BB rate coming into this season was about 3 BB / 9. This year, its close to double at 5.4. His K’s remain about the same, and he’s given up a few more HRs than usual – a product of facing AAA rather than A hitters. One big difference from last year to this year : his BABIP is at .344. That, quite simply, is outside the range of normal variation. Combined with the fact that his control is, by his standards, very poor this year leads to the suspicion that he’s been pitching injured, and this was confirmed by his stint on the DL. If he’s given time to heal, his stuff and command should return to his previously established levels. Although there has to be some regression, since he’s pitching in AAA, if you split the difference – say, 4 BB/9 instead of 3, with 9 K’s, .8 HRs and a leage average BABIP would instantly put him back on the low-end major league radar.

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  11. No wonder Bill spends over 55K on a car-

    Mercedes E320 Interior specs:

    Hiproom (Front)
    57.2 inches

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  12. As one who has disagreements from time to time w James here, I’ve got to say that his using FACTS instead of a screed does impress me against such opinionated hand-wringing which may have been used to get controversy…as the only motive for Conlin’s dullard writing here.

    Glad you are doing that fact-check which will IMO expose him for the fraud he is in making such claims.

    Keep it up!

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  13. Very nice notes from Dave X. I wish the Phils would just shut Happ down till the end of August or even the rest of the season so he could get healthy again.

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