Lakewood Report 6/10-6/15

4. Lakewood

As they head into the All-Star break, the Lakewood BlueClaws have finished the first half tied for third place in the SAL Northern. In a week that began by dropping both games of a Tuesday double-header, the Lakewood BlueClaws sent four players to Tuesday’s All-Star game and Michael Taylor took home honors for Player of the Month for the month of May.

Tuesday, June 10

The BlueClaws played a double-header against the Hagerstown Suns to make up a June 4 game that was lost to rain. Despite staff ace Drew Naylor starting the first game, the BlueClaws still managed to drop both games on the day.

Naylor, fresh off a complete game effort in which he allowed one run while striking out thirteen, struggled in the outing, dropping his record to 5-3 as the ‘Claws lost 5-2. Over four and two-thirds of an inning, Naylor allowed ten baserunners (nine on hits), while allowing five runs and striking out six. Naylor pitched a perfect first and third innings, and worked his way out of trouble in the second before allowing a run in the fourth. He ran into the real trouble in the fifth. After striking out the first two batters, Naylor allowed five straight hits and a walk before being pulled after allowing four runs in the inning.

Lakewood’s offense didn’t have enough to bail Naylor out, posting only two runs on five hits. Lakewood’s only runs were scored on a Michael Taylor single where an error by the Hagerstown second baseman resulted in two runs and Taylor coasting into third.

The BlueClaws then dropped the second half of the double-header in agonizing fashion, leading 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, when a three-run walk-off homerun off the bat of Bill Rinehart resulted in a blown save for Jared Simon and a BlueClaws 4-3 loss. For six innings, the tandem of Chris Kissock (3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 0 K) and Sergio Escalona (3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K) kept the Suns scoreless, both receiving no-decisions on the night. It was Simon’s fourth blown save on the season.

The offense managed three runs on ten hits. In the fourth inning, a double-play groundball off the bat of Matt Rizzotti was enough to score Dominic Brown, then in the fifth inning, singles by Jesus Sanchez and Brown drove in the other two Lakewood runs. Brown had the best game for the Claws, with two hits, a run, a double and an RBI.

Wednesday, June 11

Behind an impressive start by Julian Sampson, the BlueClaws managed their first win of the week, 7-3 over Hagerstown, avoiding a sweep by the Suns. Sampson struck out five and allowed only one run in six innings, allowing five hits and walking two. It was Sampson’s first productive start returning from the DL on June 6. He improved to 3-1 with the win.

After scoring a combined five runs the last two games, the Lakewood bats came alive, posting seven runs on eight hits. Seven of the nine starting BlueClaws had at least one hit, the only exceptions being D’Arby Myers and Derrick Mitchell. Travis Mattair got the scoring in the second inning, hitting an RBI double that brought in Karl Bolt. Shortstop Dennis Winn contributed a solo shot in the fourth, his third of the season. Dominic Brown contributed an RBI, and Karl Bolt contributed two more. The other two runs on the night were scored in the eighth on a wild pitch and a fielding error, respectively.

Thursday, June 12

The BlueClaws dropped the first game of a road series against the Delmarva Shorebirds 6-0, due to an anemic offense and a poor game by Jacob Diekman (6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 4 K). Diekman earned the loss, falling to 1-4 on the year. Yen-Feng Lin allowed two more runs in a two-inning relief stint. The BlueClaws managed only three hits in the shutout, coming off the bats of Dennis Winn, Michael Taylor and Karl Bolt.

Friday, June 13

Behind an outstanding start by Chance Chapman, the BlueClaws followed up being shutout by pitching a shutout themselves, only the second of their season, 4-0. Chapman only allowed two hits and two walks over six innings, striking out nine in the process. After Chapman left the game, Sergio Escalona kept the game scoreless, allowing two hits in two innings before handing it off to Jared Simon for a perfect ninth inning, in which Simon struck out two.

Michael Taylor drove in the first run in the game in the third inning, bringing in Derrick Mitchell. Herman Demmink scored in the seventh inning on a Joel Naughton sacrifice fly, and Naughton returned the favor, hitting an RBI single in the ninth to score Travis Mattair. The final run in the game was scored when Freddy Galvis took home plate on a passed ball by the Delmarva catcher. Taylor also stole his tenth base of the season in the game.

Saturday, June 14

Victimized by a stellar start from Delmarva ace Luis Noel, the BlueClaws fell 5-1. Noel struck out ten BlueClaws in seven innings of work. Darren Byrd (6 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 0 BB, 8 K) , on the other hand, didn’t fare nearly as well. Lakewood opened the scoring on a Derrick Mitchell single in the first, which drove in Freddy Galvis, but from that point on, it was all Delmarva. Offensively, Galvis had the best night, going 3-4 with a run scored.

Sunday, June 15

The BlueClaws’ bats came alive as they went into the All-Star break on a positive note, splitting the series with Delmarva and winning by a score of 13-8. Chris Kissock was hammered in the first three innings, allowing seven hits, six runs and a walk in three innings of work. Ben Pfinsgraff, Sergio Escalona, and Jared Simon combined to allow only two more runs in six innings of relief work.

Every BlueClaws starter hit at least once in the game, led by Derrick Mitchell and Dominic Brown, who each had three hits and scored three runs. Mitchell, Brown, Michael Taylor, Karl Bolt, and Travis Mattair each contributed at least one RBI (Taylor contibuted three, and Bolt, Winn and Mattair each drove in two). Taylor extended his hitting streak to a SALLY-high 26 games.

Notes:

– Michael Taylor was named the Topps Minor League Baseball Player of the Month for the South Atlantic League. During the month of May, Taylor hit .363 with seven homeruns and thirty-one RBIs.

– The SALLY All-Star Game will be played tonight. Lakewood sent four representatives – Michael Taylor and Michael Durant will be starters (Durant as DH). Drew Naylor and Joel Naughton will be on the bench to begin the game.

– Freddy Galvis’s fielding problems seem to be behind him now as he’s cut down on the errors. He turned a very nice double play on Thursday

21 thoughts on “Lakewood Report 6/10-6/15”

  1. Lakewood’s the only Phillies minor league team that isn’t in the cellar (on US soil). I think there’s a lot of talent here. Taylor’s a monster. Is he really 250 pounds? If he is, 10 stolen bases for a guy that size is impressive. Naylor’s another guy who’s impressed me. I hope he can continue to do it as he moves up. Durant has been missing from the box scores for quite some time. He hasn’t played in nearly a month. Why would his first game back be the All-Star game? Brown and Mattair are a couple of guys I have high hopes for. Naughton has increased his stock this year. It’s tough to run on his arm and he’s hit the ball pretty well. He’s in a slump right now but hopefully he’ll adjust and that will be another plus. Do you think D’Arby Myers will be sent to the GCL? He’s barely hitting his weight and must be overmatched right now. The GCL roster seems to be light on outfielders. I know some of the guys from the draft will be assigned there but Myers looks like he could use a boost. Thanks for the write-up.

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  2. Taylor is a big dude, so 6’6′ 250 is probably accurate. IIRC, at Stanford, he was more of a base stealer than a power hitter, but it looks like all of the offensive tools are coming together for him. I’m really curious to see how he does when he gets promoted to Clearwater. He has a 26 game hitting streak?!?!? That’s pretty sick.

    – jeff

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  3. Taylor has the early signs of becoming our next mega-prospect (Hamels, Howard, Burrell, Utley, etc.). Keep it up Mike. A guy who hits for high avg and has 20 HR power in most parks can certainly thrive at CBP. Hmm . . . so much talk about lack of position prospects last year and the past winter. No Taylor, Brown, Cardenas, Golson, Marson, Donald. Things have taken a sharp uptick.

    Can Taylor be Howard’s replacement if Ryan is traded? We have some speedy OF prospects coming up and life can be worse than having an athletic 1B-man.

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  4. I’ve pondered the possibility of Taylor playing 1b too, primarily because the Phils lack any real prospects there. Big target, athletic guy. Too bad he’s not a lefty.

    On the flip side, though: I’m a little cautious about being on the Michael Taylor bandwagon – he’s putting up huge numbers in a league that he is a year, possibly two years old for. He was a four year player at Stanford, and he will turn 23 in December. I’ll get officially excited if he puts up similar numbers at Clearwater (similar to how Donald’s stock rose last year once he moved to Clearwater)

    – Jeff

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  5. I think the Taylor bust out could be real because he’s ditched the “Stanford swing”, so while I don’t know that he’s a .350 hitter with 40 HR power, I think its a very real possibility that we’re looking at an above average prospect.

    And moving him to 1B should be a last resort. RF is still further to the left on the defensive spectrum, and if his arm can play there, you leave him there.

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  8. Not a bad year, I was expecting a bit more, but he’s shown decent plate discipline and at least doubles power. I think he still has a ways to go, but its a decent start. He’s really really struggled against lefties, I didn’t really see that coming, but he’s got time to figure it out.

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  9. Michael Taylor looks like he could play for the Eagles, that’s how big and strong he is. You have to assume that he and Chapman, also an older guy, will be at Clearwater within a week. The organization just has to figure out the full ripple effect up the ladder.
    Can everyone please stop the trade Howard talk? He’s not being traded in the forseeable future. The Phillies have the #1 offense in the league with a very tight clubhouse and they’d be stupid to mess with it. 120 RBIs do not grow on trees and Howard will knock in at least 120 in a bad year. He’s hot for a week and he’s already tied for the league lead. In addition, the Phillies do not have a single can’t miss position player prospect in the system to replace him. Cardenas looks good as a hitting 2B but move him off there and he’s just okay. Also, no one should assume Cardenas will hit like Utley because its unlikely and unfair to Cardenas.

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  10. Tyson Brummett went to Reading replacing Bastardo who is on the DL. Carpenter had a good start at Clearwater yesterday.

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  11. Michael Taylor’s numbers are better, thus far, than Ryan Howard’s were when he was at Lakewood. Plus, he’s more athletic and strikes out less. To say he’s too old for the leagure is to say that Ryan Howard was too old for it too, and he didn’t turn out to be too bad, did he?

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  12. Forgot to mention that Taylor was a 4.0 student in high school and college. Also, from what I’ve read about him, he’s a clubhouse leader with the type of personality that keeps his teammates loose. In short, he sounds almost too good to be true.

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  13. i liked reading that point steve! (the one about same age as howard, although the second point was good too). time will tell…but he is certainly off to a great start.

    but he needs to be moved to clearwater. i don’t know what the hold up is.

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  15. It is not that Myers is not hitting but the majority of his hits were called errors, which lowed his stats and makes it appears as if he is not hittinf. for example: on June 5th an error, June 6 there were 2 errors and a sac bunt that was not a sac bunt, everyone was safe. June 7 error he hit a single, triple and once again an error. 6-8 not in line up. 6-10 taken out of game early 1-3. June 11 another error and the errors go on and on. He has the less defensive errors in the outfield, so why would he go back down to GCL? If, because of his speed the majority of the times he hits a ball and runs to a base makes the opponents nervous and they make errors then he should be moved up not down. Anyone garnering that many errors from the other teams because of his speed needs to be moved up not down.

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  16. PP Fan Says:
    but he needs to be moved to clearwater. i don’t know what the hold up is.

    Couldn’t agree more. A lot of people are wondering what the hold-up is.

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  17. Re: the Howard/Taylor comparison, I was wondering whether offense was up in that league overall? Howard almost won the SAL triple crown in 2002 with numbers that seem pretty pedestrian, but the SAL was known as a pitcher’s league at the time. Taylor’s numbers are better across the board, but he’s only leading in batting average; other players are ahead in homers and RBI (not to mention other offensive stats).

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  18. Michael Durant merits consideration as a prospect this yearas he seems to be making more contact and demonstrating more pitch selection , A good performance at the SAL All Star game

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  19. It looks like the Lakewood guys proved themselves at the All-Star game. Taylor was 2 – 5 with a 2B and RBI. Durant 2-5 with 2 R, a HR and 2 RBIs. He also had 3 Ks. Naughton had a hit in 2 trips. Naylor was named pitcher of the game with 2 Ks in 1 inning.

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  20. With Naylor, the farm hands continue to pick up honors in All Star games. Edgar Garcia was named pitcher of the game in the FSL All Star game. Now even Fox baseball sage Ken Rosenthal last night on DNL said that he is being told that the Phils have some arms at AA that might allow the Phils to make a move before the trading deadline. What a turn around in just a few months on perceptions of the minor league talent.

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  21. D’Arby is not over matched. His speed causes errors and on June 11 he contributed, he had a run and a RBI but because of the error he did not get the hit or the RBI, but it was a contribution to the teams score. On June 7th he had 2 RBI’s, a run, stole a base and scored the game winning run and because of his speed another hit was ruled as an error. And he has excellent defensive skills which have been a major contribution to the Blue Claws winning games. He knows how to use his speed in CF. Games are also won and lost by defense. He is not over matched and does not need to go down to the GCL.

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