Tomorrow is opening day for the Phillies DSL squad. They play in the Santo Domingo North division and are coming off of a division-winning season where they went 45-18 behind a squad featuring lots of young players. While multiple players from last season’s team are likely to graduate to GCL this year (Sebastian Valle, Yohan Flande, Ferrel Gomez, Lendy Castillo, Leandro Castro, Vlad De Los Santos, Ebelin Lugo, and Reginal Simon), several younger prospects remain. Expect to see Rudney Balentien and Miguel Alvarez in the OF and Juan Sosa and Pedro Carpio heading up the pitching staff. In addition, we are also likely to see the debut of high priced SS Carlos Valenzuela and the first full season from RHP Gabriel Arias. Continue reading Latin American Update – End of May
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Daily Discussion; 5/30-6/2
I’m going to be out of town this weekend and will not be arriving back till late Monday, so while I’m gone, behave yourselves and discuss the games that happen, as well as these tidbits;
* There is something very very wrong with Andrew Carpenter. Last night he went 4.1 IP — 8 ER — 9 H– 2 BB — 3 K. Now I know the jump from A+ to AA is the toughest in the minors outside of short season to Low A, but come on. Troubling as well is the 1.17 GO: AO ratio. I hinted 6 weeks ago that he had to be handled carefully because of the workload increase he saw in 2007, but it looks like he couldn’t have been handled carefully enough.
* Travis Mattair is hitting .333 over his last 10 games, with 3 of his 6 doubles for the season coming over that span. He’s racked up the strikeouts (45), but has already drawn 16 walks as well. Mattair was a three sport star in high school and turned down multiple scholarships to play baseball. I kind of suspected he’d be a bit of a project, but he is already showing signs of the raw ability. While the power hasn’t emerged yet, he seems to be making adjustments, and you have to figure the HR will come for a kid who is 6’5, 210 lbs.
* Josh Outman has given up 6 ER in his last 4 innings, covering 3 relief appearances, and that comes after a string of 10 scoreless innings. His splits so far this season;
SP: 25.2 IP — 3.16 ERA — 29 H — 15 BB — 32 K — .279 BA
RP: 17.1 IP — 4.15 ERA — 16 H — 8 BB — 16 K — .258 BA
Its still a small sample, but so far, I’m sure the results are not what the Phillies were hoping for. His control is still an issue against both lefties and righties, but he is holding lefties to a .222 BA against. I think he should be in Philly at some point this season, but it might take a little longer than some thought.
Ok, I’m off for a long weekend. Don’t burn the place down while I’m gone.
2008 Florida State League All-Stars Announced
The 2008 Florida State League All-Star team will be announced on Friday, but you can say you heard it here first. Gus Milner,Brett Harker Edgar Garcia and Matt German will all represent the Clearwater Threshers at the game. Congratulations to these players on the well deserved honor.
In addition, because the Threshers are the defending FSL Western Division Champions the Threshers’ coaching staff will represent the Western Division at the game.
The game will be played on Father’s Day weekend in Viera, Florida home of the Brevard County Manatees. I will certainly be there, and I hope to see some of you there as well.
Iron Pigs Report
Lehigh Valley continued their consistent play over the last several weeks, going 4-3 this week and are now 18-37, 16.5 games back in the Northern Division of the IL. Looking at hitting leaders, Mike Cervenek is 6th in AB’s (195), 5th in runs (34), 2nd in hits (63), 9th in RBI’s (35), and 4th in average (.323). Andy Tracy is 9th in homers (9) and 2nd in walks (30). Pitching leaders include Brian Mazone is 2nd in wins(6), first in innings (72.2), and 6th in WHIP (1.10). JA Happ is 7th in innings (64.1) and leading the league with 70 strikeouts. Matt Childers is now 5th in the league with 8 saves and ‘Pigs pitchers continue to struggle in the homers allowed department. Ron Chiavacci is 6th (9), Brian Mazone is 7th (9), and former ‘Pig JD Durbin is 9th(8). Continue reading Iron Pigs Report
The draft is a week away
Wow. It really kind of crept up I suppose, but the draft starts next Thursday at 2PM, and the first round + comp round will be shown on ESPN2 I do believe. I’ve posted two mock drafts, and I suppose I’ll churn out one more next Wednesday, trying to incorporate the murmurs on what teams are thinking. There’s lots of smoke and little fire at this point, and I trust the track record of teams more than the latest buzz, and those track records are what I built my last mock draft on, so not much is likely to change, but I will make a few adjustments. I’m going to devote this post to the first round and the compensation round, and then I’ll look at guys we can possibly grab in the 2nd round on Tuesday before wrapping everything up on Wednesday before the draft. On draft day, I’ll make a draft discussion thread and update it as the day progresses. If you’ve just stumbled onto the site, you can check out everything I’ve written on the 2008 draft by clicking here. You can see my first mock draft here, and my second mock draft here. Now, onto our first 2 picks.
Marson makes the Ten Pack
Marson Mania is kicking into full gear. Lou made this week’s Ten Pack;
Marson was one of the Phillies’ breakout players last year, batting .288/.373/.407 at High-A Clearwater while featuring plenty of athleticism behind the plate. All of that has led to another step forward this year, as Marson is currently riding a nine-game hitting streak is which he’s reached base 22 times and driven in 15 runs. Now batting .345/.462/.460 for the R-Phils, Marson has turned into an absolute on-base machine, reaching safely at an even .500 pace in 21 May games, and he’s doing his part defensively as well by nailing 39 percent of opposing basestealers. From nice catching prospect to very good one, Marson could fill one of the Phillies few lineup weaknesses by mid-2009.
Daily Discussion; 5/28
First a recap of yesterday’s action
Lakewood wins 6-5.
Clearwater loses 10-5.
Reading loses 3-1.
Lehigh Valley wins 7-3.
Quick note. SQUIRE, if you read this, can you please drop me an e-mail? I have a question/inquiry for you.
Today’s action….
Threshers Week in Review
The Clearwater Threshers finished another week with a 3-3 record and currently sit at 21-30 on the year twelve games out of first place with 19 games remaining until the end of the first half of the season. Barring a complete collapse by all five of the teams ahead of our club in the standings it seems unlikely that that team can secure a playoff berth in the first half of the season to try and defend their 2007 FSL crown. Of course as we say here just about every year, there’s always the second half .
Despite the team’s record the club is not as bad as their record would indicate. Offensively the team has made some strides while beginning to get some extra base hits which is certainly promising. After trailing the league most of the season they moved up three places to ninth (of twelve) in slugging percentage this week. Unfortunately the pitching also ranks ninth in ERA with a 4.11 mark on the year and the Threshers staff has surrendered the most HR in the league having given up 45 so far on the year while the offense has managed to hit just 23 HR of their own.
Continue reading Threshers Week in Review
Daily Discussion; 5/27
I don’t have time today to post all of the recaps from the weekend games, but feel free to discuss any of those results should the urge hit you. Here are a few talking points before we get to today’s games;
* Andrew Carpenter now has a 6.18 ERA in 55.1 IP. Is this just a case of him having a poor two months adjusting to AA? Is he carrying an injury? I raised the notion about 6 weeks ago that he could have trouble this year, as he violated the “Rule of 30” last season.
* Lou Marson has a 1.150 OPS in 36 AB v LHP. His .843 OPS against RHP is still impressive, but man is he destroying lefties. Overall, he’s hitting .424 in his last 10 games with 2 2B, 2 HR, 2 SB, and 8 BB to go with 8 K. Young Lou is on fire.
* While I’m normally the guy that stresses patience when everyone wants a guy promoted after 6 weeks, can someone explain to me why 24 year old Chance Chapman is still at Lakewood? Has he already ascended into “organizational filler” less than a year after being drafted? His peripherals are decent, but he’s pitching against guys 4-5 years younger than him. If anyone should be converted to a reliever and fast-tracked, its Chapman.
Now, onto today’s games
Lakewood BlueClaws Report (5/20-5/26)
After a disappointing week in which the BlueClaws went 2-5, the team rebounded with an extremely impressive 6-1 record this last week. In a week in which they eclipsed the Hickory Crawdads to take a two-way tie for fourth place in the SAL Northern division, the ‘Claws found themselves dropping their first game of the week before picking up the pace in their current six-game winning streak. Once again, the key to the week was pitching, as the starters posted a combined 2.65 ERA for the week.
Phuture Phillies 