Before I get into the weekend wrapup, just a brief note on what things will look like going forward. Basically from here on out, Tuesday through Friday we will have a report on each affiliate, starting with Lakewood and ending with Lehigh Valley. There might be a few exceptions if we have to shuffle things around time wise, but this will be the general plan. The reports will give you a good idea what is going on with each affiliate and keep everyone in the loop, and hopefully we’ll come up with some other cool stuff to do. Because of the help of the generous folks who have volunteered, it will give me more time to add more features to the site, something I’ve been slacking on. I’m going to do a weekend wrap up every Monday, and I’ll also write new things periodically, and also post news items as they happen. But as I mentioned over the winter, this site is turning into more and more of a group effort, and I couldn’t be happier about that. So, all of that said, lets wrap up the first weekend in the minors…
We’ll start with Lakewood.
Friday; Loss to Lake County 6-4. Fringe prospect Michael Durant cranked a HR and a 2B, Freddy Galvis and Travis Mattair took the collar, D’Arby Myers and Dominic Brown each collected a hit and Myers also scored a run. Tyson Brummett allowed 3 runs, 1 earned, in 5 IP on 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3. Joe Rocchio was solid for 2 innings, but Chance Chapman struggled mightily and took the loss.
Saturday; Lakewood beats Lake County 7-6. Matt Rizzotti hit his first HR of the season and Chris Kissock got the save. Julian Sampson’s debut didn’t go too well, but we’ll chalk it up to nerves. Despite giving up 2 ER in 1 IP, Walter Tejeda got the win in relief. Dominic Brown was 3/5 with 2 R, and Travis Mattair went 1/3 with a 3 run 2B. Freddy Galvis also went 2/3 with a run.
Sunday; Loss to Lake County 5-1. Jacob Diekman’s debut, like Julian Sampson’s, didn’t go as planned, but we’ll again just attribute this to nerves. Dominic Brown was 1/4 and finished his first week in full season ball hitting .389. Moises Melendez and Chance Chapman both pitched well in relief, neither allowing a run.
Clearwater
Friday; Clearwater beats Dunedin 4-2. Adrian Cardenas was 1/4 with an RBI and Welinson Baez continued his hot start (don’t get tooo excited) with a 2/4 evening. Carlos Monasterios pitched well enough, going 6.1 innings allowing 2 ER on 6 hits and 1 BB while striking out 4. Brian Schlitter worked 1 inning for the save, allowing 2 hits and a walk but closing the door.
Saturday; Loss to Lakeland 4-3. Cardenas again goes 1/4 this time with a BB. Gus Milner went 2/5 with a HR and Matt Spencer chipped in with a hit. Antonio Bastardo got the start and went 5 innings, allowing 1 ER on 7 hits with 2 BB and 7 K. There was also a Sam Walls sighting, pitching 1 inning and allowing 1 BB and 1 H but not allowing a run.
Sunday; the game was suspended due to rain and will be finished tonight.
Reading
Friday; Win over Altoona 2-1. Jason Donald goes 1/3 with a BB. Jeremy Slayden goes 2/4 with a 2B and a HR. Brad Harman also went 2/4 with a 2B and an RBI. Lou Marson went 1/4 and Greg Golson took an 0/4. Josh Outman started and went 5 innings, allowing 1 ER on 7 H while walking 3 and striking out 5. Pat Overholt, who looks to be in the closers role this year, got his first save, walking 1 and striking out 1.
Saturday; Win over Altoona 5-2. Jason Donald continued to hit, going 2/5 with a 3B. Greg Golson bounced back with a 3/4 effort with a 3B and 3 runs scored. Lou Marson was 1/3 with a BB and a 2B.
Sunday; Loss to Altoona 3-2. Jason Donald, Brad Harman and Greg Golson each collected 1 hit in the loss. Fabio Castro started and pitched 5 decent innings, allowing only a solo HR. He walked 3 and struck out 3 while allowing 5 hits. Will Savage took the loss in relief, allowing 2 ER in 2 innings of work.
Lehigh Valley
Friday; Loss to Scranton/Wilkes Barre 2-1. Jason Jaramillo was 0/3 with 2 K and Chris Snelling was 0/3 with a BB. Not a whole lot doing here on the prospect front.
Saturday; Loss to Scranton/Wilkes Barre 7-2. Chris Snelling again goes 0/3 with a walk, journeyman Chris Woodward turned in a 1/2 with 2 BB performance. Brian Mazone got rocked, allowing 5 ER in 7 innings.
Sunday; Loss to Scranton/Wilkes Barre 3-2. Not a good weekend for the Iron Pigs, eh? Brandon Watson went 2/4, Jason Jaramillo went 1/4, and JD Durbin was JD Durbin, giving up 3 ER in 3 IP allowing 6 H and 1 BB. Joe Bisenius pitched 1.2 innings, allowing 2 H and 1 BB but no runs, while also striking out 2.
There ya go.
Phuture Phillies 
Since I’m relatively new to following Minor League Ball, I have the following question: Is it usual for a team’s Triple A affiliate to not really have too many prospects, or do the Phillies just suck? I guess it would make sense that most of a team’s quality prospects are at High-A or Double A, with AAA having organizational filler just in case they are needed. Can anyone enlighten me a bit?
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No, not normal. The Phillies farm is weak at the top. You would want to see a balance of prospects at all levels. Double A is about the same as Tripple A, so top prospects performing well at AA is a great indication of future success.
Regarding the weekend’s results. Golson got off to a great start. Stealing bases like it is his job. Looking a lot more comfortable at this level.
Where was Carrasco? Did he not make it in the first trip through the rotation?
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I would say it is somewhat normal. Now, I agree that the Phillies system is particularly weak at the AAA level, but on the whole AAA doesn’t usually hold a ton of prospects. Mostly it is a short holdover destination for prospects that are ready for the bigs, but the organization isn’t quite ready to give them a try at the major league level. Where as in A and AA, prospects spend time there to mature and grow into their potentials. Maybe I am wrong, but that is how I always thought of it.
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Most teams AAA affiliate is their weakest, but ours is weaker than most.
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I’m certainly no expert but I think the Phillies are devoid of immediate impact prospects. They certainly have impact players on the current roster that came up through the minors: Rollins, Utley, Howard, Ruiz, Burrell, Hamels, Myers among them. It would be great to see a minimum of 2 players out of every draft, make an impact in the big leagues but it certainly doesn’t happen much of the time. The Phils haven’t been picking very high or have lost some high picks because of signings. We can also get into the discussion about not paying over slot for guys like the Red Sox and Yankees do.
I love this site because it fills me with a sense of hope. We can start to dream about some of these guys who are more than a year away. There are a lot of things that can go wrong on the way to CBP: Injuries, life changing events, gap in confidence among them.
At the same time, there are people that own minor league franchises. They want to field a team. They want to fill some seats. The Iron Pigs roster is filled with a bunch of guys who had their cup of coffee in the Majors. They’re solid minor leaguers. They’re no longer prospective impact major leaguers. Everyone of them hopes they are the next Chris Coste but most of them are guys keeping the bench warm for prospects to finally arrive.
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Will Edgar Garcia be pitching tonight for Clearwater?
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Carrasco started the Reading-Lehigh Valley exhibition game so he is technically last in the rotation. I think he starts tonight.
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Carrasco experienced some shoulder stiffness in his last appearance in minor league camp and was held to the back of the rotation. He started last Tuesday against Lehigh Valley in the exhibition game in Reading. He is scheduled to start tonight according to broadcast reports from yesterday’s game. Carpenter is scheduled for his second start tomorrow. If one of these two have a break out April and May they could move up quickly. The other two starters Outman, who was hitting 94 and 95 against Altoona in his first start Friday and Fabio Castro last night still have trouble with pounding the strike zone by walking three in five inning starts.
Speaking of Reading Golson has done OK but both Donald and he struck out swinging with a RISP in the top of the 9th to end yesterday’s game in a 3-2 loss to Altoona. Would have been nice to have had a hit to tie the game close and very late from one of them.
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I’d like to point out that Golson had FOUR stolen bases in saturday’s game.
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The AAA players in theory are supposed to be more ready for emergency call up roles now as compared to the AA and A players who often have more upside but aren’t there yet. There are very few big time prospects playing in AAA unless they’re blocked or their team wants to save a year of arbitration rights and plans on bringing them up in a month or so (Longoria, Bruce, etc). With Happ’s ugly start and Carpenter’s good start, Carpenter is sitting atop of the “next Kyle Kendrick” list with Outman sitting second. Even the Golson non-believers (including me) have to take notice of what the kid is doing. He is remaking himself into a legitimite prospect.
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Wonder how long Cardenas will be at Clearwater. He’s mashing so far: in three games, he’s 9 for 17 with 12 TB and a couple of SBs.
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Here is who Golson reminds me of in terms of looks, physique, type of game–that is, power, speed and defense in a sleek, smooth player.
Vada Pinson:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pinsova01.shtml
This is the dream of Golson. Will it ever come to pass, even close to those stats for a few years? Who knows. But the similarity in style and physical skills is there. Oinson was the 4th or 5th best CF of his time, with competition from Mays, Mantle and a few others like that.
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My Vada Pinson comp.
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After picking up another stolen base tonight Golson is now 6 for 6 in the first five games. The next closest in the EL has only 3 steals. No other player in AAA or AA has as many steals as Golson so far.
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more significantly, golson drew a walk!!!!
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Trade Burrell! Bring Golson up!!! Seriously, even though it just a week, Golson and Cardenas are on fire. Hopefully they continue to do well – it’s exciting to think that the Phils have some pretty decent prospects
– Jeff
p.s. Thanks for the answers about AAA – I kinda suspected that was the case 8^)
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This year Golson is hitting out of the 3 hole. I like to look for especially two out RBI with RISP in that spot and last night Greg got one with a double.
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