Rumors swirling. Happ was removed in the 3rd inning, and according to 1 report, was being congratulated in the dugout, or at least it didn’t appear he was injured. If he was being recalled by the big league team, it seems odd to remove him mid inning. The more likely scenario is a trade in the works. Stay tuned.
Monthly Archives: July 2008
Daily Discussion, 7/25
Happy Friday. Just a few quick notes from me today. First, I wanted to again thank those of you who have been here from the beginning, and those of you who might have just found the site last week during Blanton-Fest. Traffic has really surged over the last 2 months, starting a few weeks before the draft, and the momentum has continued. Seeing new opinions is always something I enjoy, and even with the huge influx of new visitors, everyone has behaved reasonably well. I did want to make a quick point though. The people who volunteer there time here writing reports (we now have a correspondent for every affiliate, which is awesome to me), are just that, volunteers, and I think its disrespectful to these people to get off topic in the comments section of their respective weekly reports. I purged a bunch of comments from the Reading post yesterday for that reason. I’m going to be more attentive in creating a daily discussion thread like this one every day for people to discuss there general thoughts. Around trade deadline time, I don’t mind discussions delving into the big league team, we’re all Phillies fans, but I’m trying to keep this site focused on the minors, since there are tons of sites and blogs devoted to discussing the major league team. We’ve kind of cornered the market here on intelligent (I think) minor league discussion, and I kind of want to keep it that way.
Also a quick update on the Wiki Project. A few of us have been working on adding info to the site, but I’m always looking for more people to help out. I haven’t posted much about the specifics of the Wiki site yet, but my goal is to have all of the information, or at least a good chunk of it, added to the site by October, and then spending the rest of the winter touching it up and making it look nice. When the Wiki site is “ready”, I’m going to be making some changes here, nothing radical, but just touching things up, moving a few things, and generally making it more visually appealing. There will be more on that in the coming days/weeks/months, and again, if you’d like to help out, send an email and I’ll give you the details. And now onto today’s games…
Iron Pigs Report
Lehigh Valley had a rough week going 3-4 , and now stand at 43-63, in last place in the Northern Division of the International League, 21.5 games behind Pawtucket. Updating ‘Pigs among league leaders, Mike Cervenak is 8th in at bats (368), 3rd in hits (116), and 3rd in the league in average (.313). Andy Tracy is 9th in slugging % (.520), 7th in on base % (.384), 4th in walks (52), 4th in RBI’s (68), and 4th in doubles (25). Brandon Watson, who has been playing extremely well lately is 5th in the league in hits (107). JA Happ is 9th in the league in ERA (3.37), 10th in the league in innings (114.2), leads the league in strikeouts (124), and is 6th in the league in WHIP (1.18). Brian Mazone is 9th in WHIP (1.19), 5th in homers allowed (17), and 5th in innings (121.2). Les Walrond is now 3rd in the league in ERA (2.83) and Matt Childers is 2nd in the league in saves (16).
Reading Phillies Weekly Report (7/16-7-22)
Another bad week for the Reading Phillies. The team not only lost 5 out of 7 games on the week, but also lost an excellent prospect in Josh Outman. I wish Outman the best of luck in what looks to be a very promising MLB career. Even though Outman is gone, the Reading Phillies still have plenty of prospects that look to help the big league club in the near future. Lets take a look at the game recaps…
Tuesday tidbits
So, time for me to stop slacking and get in gear. I have some general thoughts. Before I get to that, if you want to make a redundant comment about the Joe Blanton trade, or even a fresh comment with fresh ideas, go to the Joe Blanton post, make it there, and do it before the end of the day, because I’m going to lock the comments on the post and freeze it in the time capsule for all of us to look at later. But I want to move on, and I feel like Blanton-Mania has cast a general malaise over the rest of the site. With that said, lets get to the tidbits.
Drew Naylor Robbed in 3-1 Threshers Loss
| July 19 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Threshers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 | |
| Hammerheads | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | – | 3 | 2 | 0 |
BOX SCORE
SCHMIDT LIST PLAYER-OF-THE-GAME
The Threshers and Hammerheads were mired in a pitcher’s dual on Tuesday night. Drew Naylor got the start for the Threshers and threw a gem. He held the Hammerheads to just one hit through seven innings of baseball, but the Threshers were held scoreless through seven innings on just six hits by the Hammerheads.
Continue reading Drew Naylor Robbed in 3-1 Threshers Loss
Clearwater Threshers Report
The Clearwater Threshers have continued to struggle over the last couple of weeks since my last Clearwater report. They have a second half record of 10-18 and are currently 11.5 games out of first. Obviously the biggest news in Clearwater lately was the Phillies trade that sent both Adrian Cardenas and Matt Spencer from the Threshers along with Josh Outman to the A’s for pitcher Joe Blanton.
July VSL Update
This week we will take a quick look at the VSL and DSL teams this summer. As always, these reports are based on little more than statistics over the Internet, so they are highly subjective. The key statistic to look for is age-based performance. In general, the better prospects are the younger ones that get regular playing time. Prospects over the age of 19 are rarely top prospects. The Phillies VSL squad last year might have been a slight exception to that rule as 3 20-year-olds (Freddy Ballestas, Yonderman Rodriguez, and Harold Garcia) are all making significant contributions in the U.S. this season. It remains to be seen if all of them are prospects, however, as each is somewhat old for the league they are playing in.
The VSL Phillies are currently in 3rd place out of 8 teams in the league with a record of 28-24. Unfortunately the best players on the team have tended to be the older players. The average age of the team is slightly above the league average this year and many of the younger players have struggled. This article will take a look at the top players and prospects so far, with a follow-up article after the season ends to rank the top prospects.
Williamsport and GCL Weekly Report (7/12-7/18)
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.
Continue reading Williamsport and GCL Weekly Report (7/12-7/18)
Top 30 Prospects Updated
With 3 prospects from my Top 30 traded, it was time for an update. The next update will come after the trading deadline, as I suspect more moves are in the works. Again, a quick thanks to everyone who stopped in for the first time, and for those who continue to check in regularly. The Blanton discussion obviously got heated, but I think its important to remember that we’re all Phillies fans at the end of the day, and we’re all rooting for Big Joe to pitch well. Also, best wishes to Adrian, Josh and Matt in Oakland, and we’ll continue to check in on them and see how they are doing as the season progresses. Have a nice weekend.
Phuture Phillies 