Williamsport opens the season with a loss

3. Williamsport

The short season leagues are getting under way, which means one more scoreboard to watch every night, and a slew of prospects both new and old to add to the radar screen. Williamsport kicked off their season with a 4-3 loss to Mahoning Valley, the Indians short season affiliate. Freddy Ballestas started, going 5 innings and allowing 3 runs, 2 earned on 7 hits with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts, while getting 8 groundballs and 4 fly balls. Travis d’Arnaud opened up 3/4, and newly drafted Brandon Haislet went 2/5 out of the leadoff spot. It will be interesting to see how the lineup is rotated to get everyone reps, but tonight’s configuration is likely to be the “normal” lineup.

14 thoughts on “Williamsport opens the season with a loss”

  2. Ballestas made a brief appearance in Clearwater earlier this season. He made one start and one relief appearance.

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  3. Williamsport does not look as prospect-laden as they were last year, primarily because we signed few HS players a year ago in the draft (and Sampson and Mattair jumped to Lakewood). This year’s team also will not have lots of top 10 round college picks to draw from, so it might be mediocre as a result.

    D’Arnaud at catcher is definitely one to watch. From this year’s draft the two guys that should hit are Jeremy Hamilton and Cody Overbeck. The OF has less offense than one would ideally want, however.

    On the mound Vance Worley is the top draft choice, though his prospect status in college dimmed a bit over the last year. Ballestas should be a decent starter in his first year in the states, though he is not a high end prospect like a few of our other Latin American arms (Reginal Simon at GCL is definitely one to watch). Justin De Fratus from last year’s GCL is also one to watch as he had a solid debut last year.

    One interesting thing this year is that the team drafted no college catchers and only one HS catcher. They must really like D’Arnaud’s potential (and maybe GCL catcher Sebastian Valle as well) because they have cleared out most of the playing time for him.

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  4. NEPhilliesPhan, there’s a number of interesting names I’m keeping an eye on, but I’m especially intrigued by the following (in approximate order of interest)…

    Travis d’Arnaud
    Jeremy Hamilton
    Vance Worley
    Brian Rosenberg
    Justin de Fratus

    There’s certainly others, but that’s my list.

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  6. Back in the day the Cubbies were once described as “Ernie Banks and 8 other guys”. With the Crosscutters it seems like it might be with the DH “Travis D’Arnaud and 9 other guys.” Last year I went up to see Savary’s debut and a plethora of future of ML talent was on the field for the Crosscutters. This year not so much.

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  7. I think Steve Susdorf will help in the OF once the CWS is over and Susdorf signs with the Phillies.

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  8. Susdorf seems like a good bet, though I bet they could even jump him to Lakewood. McDonald, in my opinion, is on the fringe right now. They might want to just get him a half season of AB’s to see if there is anything there, but I think he’s basically falling off the radar after this season. Just a hunch

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  11. I think there are a few guys worth watching on W-Port. In particular, I’ll be following Overbeck and Hamilton. I believe the Phillies think that these two may move through the minors pretty quickly.

    Nice to see D’Arnaud get off to a good start.

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  13. Make that two losses in a row – although there were some encouraging signs from some 2008 draftees:

    Hamilton 2-5, 1RBI
    Haislet 1-4, 2 runs scored, 1 SB
    Hargrave 2-4, BB run scored
    Arroyo 3 shutout innings, no strikeouts but no walks and only 2 hits allowed

    D’Arnaud also had a hit, yet his average dropped to .500. He’s still hitting over .150 points higher than that other catcher in the system ;^)

    – Jeff

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  14. “what’s the story on Brian Rosenberg? 4 Ks out of 5 batters faced…does he have gas?”

    Yes, supposed to be able to get to the mid 90’s.

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