The two short-season teams have been chock full of intriguing stories up to this point. On most nights these two teams are the first stop for me on the minor league scoreboard. Let’s take a look at how these two teams fared over the last week.
Crosscutters
The Crosscutters were rolling this week as they won five in a row to continue their seven game win streak and climb two games over .500 at 15-13. That leaves them 5 GB of first place Jamestown and only 1 GB of second place Auburn in the Pinckney Division of the NYPL.
Game Recaps
7/12: Williamsport defeats Oneonta 4-2
Tyler Cloyd built on his great start with another solid outing. He pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4. Michael Cisco and Michael Schwimer pitched well in relief, with the latter striking out the side to keep pace with his 18 K/9 IP ratio. On the offensive side, playing DH, Travis D’Arnaud went 2-4 with a 2B and 2 runs. Cody Overbeck went 1-3 with a HR and 3 RBI. Jeremy Hamilton was 1-2 with a 2B and a BB while Steven Susdorf was 1-3 with a BB.
7/13: PPD
7/14: Willaimsport defeats Oneonta 4-3 and 3-0
Game one found Justin De Fratus on the hill and he picked up the win to move to 3-1 with a 2.83 ERA for the season. In this game he went 5 innings, allowing 6 hits, 3 ER and 1 walk while tallying 6 strikeouts. The relief pitching was solid again with Brian Rosenberg picking up his 4th save, allowing 1 BB and getting 2 K in his one inning. D’Arnaud and Overbeck were both 1-3 with a 2B with Overbeck adding a run to his stat line. Hamilton was also 1-3, with a run and BB. Susdorf went 2-3 with a 2B, RBI and run.
In Game two, Michael Stutes added to his surprising start by picking up the win. He pitched 5 scoreless innings while surrendering only 2 hits and 3 walks, while racking up 9 strikeouts. Scwimer gave up a hit and struck out 2 to pick up the save. D’Arnaud tripled and walked in his three plate appearances. Hamilton was 2-3 with a 2B and 2 runs while Susdorf continued the hot start to his professional career by going 2-3 with 2 2B and 2 RBI.
7/15: Off
7/16: Williamsport defeats Vermont 2-1
After allowing 19 ER in his first 25.1 IP, Freddy Ballestas turned it around on this night. He picked up his second win of the season, pitching 6 superb innings, allowing only 2 hits and 1 earned run, while walking none and striking out 10. Sean Grieve worked a scoreless inning, striking out 1 and Jordan Ellis worked 2 innings while striking out 4 to pick up his first save at Williamsport. The offense could muster only 3 hits, but that was enough, with Daniel Hargrave delivering a two-run homerun for their only runs.
7/17: Williamsport defeats Vermont 5-1
Rob Roth did it again on this night. He picked up his 6th win, going 6 innings while allowing 4 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB and picking up 2 strikeouts. After 40.1 IP, he has a 1.12 ERA and opponents are hitting only .149 against him. Cody Overbeck had a big night on offense going 3-4 with 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI and 2 R. Troy Hanzawa’s only hit was his first homerun of the season. Susdorf singled in his only at-bat as well.
7/18: PPD
GCL
The Gulf Coast Phillies are off to a 15-8 start and lead the GCL North by 2.5 games. They had a rough week, losing the few games they played. On most weeks I’ll probably make this a separate post, but with multiple rainouts this week, I’ll simply include it here.
Game Recaps
7/12: Blue Jays defeat the Phillies 3-2
Reginal Simon took the loss, going 4 innings while giving up 5 hits, 3 ER and 2 BB, while striking out 3. Ellis struck out the side in his inning of work and Ryan Bergh struck out two in his inning. He has yet to allow an ER in his 15 innings, but he’s 23, so don’t get excited.Zach Collier was 1-4 with a run. Anthony Gose, Leandro Castro and Yonderman Rodriguez were also all 1-4. Sebastian Valle went 0-4. The offense on this day came from a rehabbing Matt Rizzotti.
7/13, 7/14, 7/15, 7/16: No game, PPD, PPD, PPD
7/17: Yankees defeat the Phillies 8-5
Jason Knapp gave up 3 ER in his 4 innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 walks, but striking out 7. He now has 17 K in 11 IP. Kyle Slate made his first appearance of the season and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits in 1.1 IP, striking out 2. Spencer Arroyo allowed 1 ER in 2.2 IP, giving up 3 hits and a walk, with 3 strikeouts. Collier went 1-3, with a 3B, 3 RBI and a R. Hewitt went 2-4, with a 2B. Rodriguez was 1-4 with a run. Valle went 0-4.
7/18: Yankees defeat Phillies 3-0
Miguel Matos went 5 innings, giving up 1 ER on 4 hits, walking 2 and striking out 4. He is 3-2 with a 2.88 ERA on the season. Rodriguez went 2-4 with a 2B. Collier was 0-4. Hewitt also went 0-4. He has struck out 6 times in his first 13 AB. Damarii Saunderson was 0-3 with 3 K. He’s hitting only .083, but has drawn 7 walks in his first 31 PA and his only 2 hits have been a 2B and 3B.
Phuture Phillies 
Hewitt – 6 K’s in 13 AB’s – that’s prime Phillies material. He’ll fit right in on the big club.
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Its kind of not worth thinking about, but if they were really adamant about taking two toolsy OF, I’d have preferred Collier first, then taking Destin Hood in the comp round. Hood is similar to Hewitt, but younger and has more actual baseball skills. But I digress…
Thanks for the report Cody, looks good.
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Hewitt went 1-3 with a triple today, 0 K’s. His triple was off the Braves 2nd round pick who is 4-0 so far in the GCL.
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The guy is just getting his feet wet as a professional player. Isn’t it a bit silly to be discussing his strikeout totals after 13 at-bats??
What he or any other draftee, especially a HS prospect, does the rest of this year isn’t of much importance.
I know many aren’t fans of the Hewitt pick and are looking for that first sign of failure to justify that opinion but at least wait he’s gone through some instructional league and a professional spring training before jumping in..
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yes, it is silly to discuss his k totals after 13 professional at bats. very silly. i know we all like watching the box scores and getting excited or disappointed after each game, but the reality is, you can’t judge results from a guy like hewitt for a few years. all you are looking for is the continuation of the tools. like it is very good that he has two extra base hits in 13 ABs. shows he has some pop. clearly he isn’t consistent, but they knew that. he wasn’t a college player. they knew he was raw. he is also DH’ing, something he has never done before and truly a learned skill. it is hard to sit on the bench for 3 innings and then step to the plate.
i think that you should look for the positives and not focus on the negatives with someone so raw…i mean, you give savery the benefit of the doubt and he is 22. if hewitt is still striking out 50% of his ABs when he is 22 then rip him a new one. untill then, let’s give the kid a shot.
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I’m actually pretty encouraged by the fact that he has two extra base hits. I may be wrong, but isn’t he still transitioning to wooden bats? If he is smacking the ball when he does make contact then I’m pretty happy about that.
As for the strike-outs, its such a tiny sample size to make a legitimate judgement on… not to mention the fact that we ALL knew he would need to get better at pitch recognition and practice making contact. Thats what instructional leagues are for. Its unfair to start judging the kid already.
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What kind of stuff does Roth have?
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I know its early but it’s nice to see Susdorf on an 8-game hitting streak to start his career. Especially with half of his at-bats being extra base hits. Yea he’s a long shot to make the majors some day but he’s seemed to carry over his good batting with Fresno into the minor leagues.
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I’m not saying I liked the Hewitt pick, but I think he has a chance to be a star, like any high ceiling pick
so instead of pointing out his downfalls 13 ABs in to the year just so you could say told you so to the Brass, we really should be hoping he makes a smooth transition to wooden bats….
for our sake if he does, we may have a pretty special player….
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I’m not implying anything but the GCL Phillies have lost 6 straight since Hewitt arrived. Last night, he went 2-5 with his 1st RBI. He hasn’t played in the field yet but he’s listed as an outfielder. He’s probably gettingOF instruction.
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Thought the plan was to start him at 3B? Guess they scrapped that idea or they are just waiting until they can get him into the instructional league
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if you give the kid a mulligan on his first game, he is 5-16. not a bad start for a raw prospect. still no walks yet though
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Throw out the first game and Hewitt only has 3 Ks in 16 ABs with 2 XBH, 5 Hits, 1 RBI, 2 RUNS, and a .312 AVG…that’s promising considering age, wood bat, prior experience, etc. Let’s give the guy a chance. I know we all want to rip management because we’ve only won 1 world series in our entire existence, but I don’t think Hewitt should be the focal point of the ripping…yet.
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wonder why neither schwimmer or rosenberg were considered for promotion. i guess simon is doing well with 21 saves for Lakewood, but why no progression of any of the three then? any ideas anyone?
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I wonder why hewitt is the DH. I think he should be playing a position if he makes errors so what it where you learn in the minors. It’ not about winning or losing but learning.
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Hope they give 6’5,” 19 year old Kyle Slate a shot at starting in the NY-Penn or higher. See he pitched a four inning no/no start today striking out 7 in the GCL. He has now struck out 9 in 5.1 innings of work.
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Impressive outing today for Slate, but he did get rocked in his first outing (4 ER in 1.1 IP). A big, raw kid like can afford to work slowly up the chain — hit the NYPL next year, Lakewood in two years, etc. — until he really forces them to promote him.
Two more observations from today’s game: this year’s 8th round pick, Julio Rodriguez, made his debut (1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K). And Anthony Hewitt played third base for the first time today, making a couple of plays in the field and going 0-for-2 at the plate before being lifted at the end of the 5th inning.
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Slate is coming off a month an half lay off from mono. He hasnt pitched in a game in a pretty long time. Hopefully yesterdays outing gives him a nice boost an he finishes the season strong.
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