Mesa, the Phillies AFL affilliate won their last three games and now stand at 7-5 on the season thus far. The offense exploded with an 18 run effort Friday and a remarkable 28 run effort on Monday in a 28-1 Mesa victory. Phillies prospects played a prominent role at the plate. Jason Donald continued scorching hot at the plate going 5-14 with 6 runs scored, 2 doubles, a homer (1), and 6 RBI’s, 3 walks, and a strikeout in those three games. He played third base in all three games, committing his second error on Saturday, and is now hitting .417 for the Fall season. Jeremy Slayden played left field on Friday and was the designated hitter Monday and went 4-12, with 4 runs scored, 4 RBI’s and 3 strikeouts over his two games played. He is now hitting .314. Quintin Berry pinch ran and stayed in the game to play CF on Friday and then started in CF on Saturday, going 1-4 with a run, stolen base (2), and strikeout. He is hitting .167.
Phils pitchers were fairly quiet with Tyson Brummett started to get himself back on track on Saturday with a scoreless inning, without yielding a baserunner. Sergio Escalona followed Brummett on Saturday with a scoreless inning as well, giving up 2 hits. Escalona lowed his fall ERA to 2.08. Andrew Carpenter, however, was rocked on Friday, giving up 5 runs on 7 hits, in his 3 innings of work. He struck out 4 and didnt walk a batter. 36 of his 55 pitches were thrown for strikes, and his Fall ERA now stands at 10.80.
Phuture Phillies 
How does a team lose 28-1? Is the talent differential from team-to-team in the AFL that significant?
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Gotta like that Slayden is leading the AFL in rbi’s and is hitting .421 with men on base and .500 with RISP and Escolona is averaging more than a strike out an inning so far.
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Where is airbornranger with instructional league updates. what did you see there, any one impress you with there play.
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28-1?
Did Donald go 5-14 in that game or for the week? 8^)
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There is an article on BA about Donald’s transition to third along with a few other things.
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Would you mind copying the relevant information Joe?
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Phillies officials are confident that they were watching a future big leaguer while keeping an eye on Jason Donald at Double-Reading this season. They’re just not sure where he’ll play because the infield positions in Philadelphia are locked up.
So the Phils sent Donald, a shortstop by trade, to the Arizona Fall League as a utility man. He will play second, third and shortstop for the Mesa Solar Sox.
“He can play shortstop, no question,” assistant GM Mike Arbuckle said. “But in our situation, there’s no opening on the horizon at short or second. We think the way Jason swings the bat he might be, at worst, a very good super-utility guy for us, and there’s a chance he could play third base fulltime eventually.”
The Phillies have shortstop Jimmy Rollins locked up for three more seasons, provided an option for 2011 is exercised. Second baseman Chase Utley is signed through 2013. Donald’s quickest route to the majors could be at third base. Pedro Feliz has one more season left on his contract.
Donald made a nice showing in big league camp in 2008 and will get another look in February. Arbuckle would not rule out Donald making the big league club as an extra infielder, but “ideally we’d still like to see him get some hitting off experienced Triple-A pitchers.”
Donald, 24, was the Phillies’ third-round pick out of Arizona in 2006. He hit .307/.391/.497 with 14 home runs and 54 RBIs in 362 at-bats with Reading this season. He showed a solid 86-to-47 strikeout-to-walk ratio and stole 11 bases in 13 attempts. He was also a member of the U.S. Olympic team.
“He’s a good contact guy with occasional pull home run power and good gap power,” Arbuckle said. “He has great makeup. He really competes. He’s one of the guys who likes to be at the plate when the game is on the line. He wants the ball hit to him when the game is on the line. He has very solid tools and his makeup allows him to maximize them.”
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Wow – the Phils actually said something nice about one of their prospects.
Judging by that article, it sounds like they will give him a shot to make the team in ST next year, let him spell Feliz occasionally and fill in for Rollins and Utley as needed. If all goes well, he will be a full timer in 2010. If it looks like he can handle the Hot Corner and continue to hit, then I wouldn’t be too surprised if they tried to move Feliz at the trading deadline next year.
– Jeff
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Anybody but Feliz for next year. The guy makes an occasional nice play at third, but I cannot stand watching him and Ruiz constantly ground out over and over and over….
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I can’t believe arbuckle said that. Maybe it was a arbuckle impersonater.
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I think they’re taking the right direction with Donald.
He may not put up the desired power of a corner fielder but I think he is a lot better then any of the realistic options the team has over the next 2-3 years. You don’t want to say you don’t need power from that spot because you get it from SS and 2B but I’m sure he could come close to Feliz’s HR total this year and add about .100 OPS points, which would be significant.
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I don’t see how Phillies can use lack of power to not play Donald at 3B. This season we have Feliz’s 14 HR in 425 AB — we go to WS. Last year we had Nunez/Helms/Dobbs with 15 HR in 856 AB (they had other playing opportunities beyond 3B, but that was all the power they could produce) and we went to post-season. That’s it for post-season since 1993. So, how many HR do we really need from 3B? Donald will give us what he gives us for less than $350K. How much will it cost to get more HR and will the defense be as good? Donald had 14 HR in 362 AB and is still of an age to be growing into his power. If he is our starting 3B in 2010, I think he can certainly match Feliz’s 14 HR in 2008. If the Phillies keep the rest of the team together, replacing the age-outs with comparable younger talent, that 14 HR will be plenty. Not a stretch to see Donald hitting 20 HR a season in the bigs. Or, the team can crimp its budget for pitching and OF and give some mediocre vet like Bell or Feliz $20 mill for 4 seasons on the hope he can hit 25 HR a season. That’s a lot to pay for 5 – 10 HR that may be as imaginary as the Feliz 20 – 25 promised HR power has proven to be.
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Talking Donald up means they’re trying to trade him.
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What annoys me is all this talk about HRs. This team doesn’t need anymore HRs. It needs a player who can consistently hit over 300 in 500+ plate appearances.
The team didn’t have one player hit over 300 this year. Chase is the only player that is expected to do so as well.
Donald is a contact hitter. That is what we need. The Phillies play in a sandbox and if Donald can became any sort of player in the majors he is going to get at least 15 in a season.
We haven’t had ANYTHING at the position for how many years now? And now people are worried about the HR output of the position?
Donald, for all intents and purposes, is a lay it all on the line ball player. I love it. I want another Chase playing in the infield. He may not have that power, but the ball park will help that out.
If Shane can get 14 a season with his stature and line drives, I’m not worried about Donald.
Don’t want to hype players up before they even make the senior squad, but he looks like exactly what we need.
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Mo – Well said. Like you, I’m tired of thinking that we should have a “Troy Glaus” like 3b. That’s needed for teams with guys like Steve Jeltz and Tommy Herr manning the IF.
If Donald is our 3b next year, I think it’s safe to say that he’s the best 3b we’ve had since Rolen.
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Troy Glaus was the pick taken after J.D. Drew. So Wade screwed up more than most people think.
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Please everyone check Donald and Marson’s splits and be happily surprise.
BTW Donald had only 362ABs to hit 14HR and he will be a year
stronger
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I don’t think anyone here is questioning his power to play 3B, just the conventional wisdom that abounds from the professional writers.
NEPP – I think it might be the kiss of death. I could swear I’ve seen this before, was it with Bourn? It reminds me of the old WCW days…as soon as the announcers starting talking about how good a team the bad guy tag-team made it meant they were going to break up.
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nowwheels why would Nepp think that we are trying to trade the only third base prospect we have.
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Trade hell i wanna adopt him
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The following was on BA:
Prospect Of The Day:
Anything Jason Donald does in the AFL is just icing on the cake on what has already been a successful season for the Phillies’ farmhand.
Donald was Philadelphia’s third-round draft pick in 2006 out of Arizona. This season, he hit .307/.391/.497 over 362 at-bats as a shortstop for Double A Redding in the Eastern League and in July he was one of only three U.S. players to muster a hit in the Futures Game.
But yesterday, the icing was extra sweet.
Playing third base for the Mesa, Donald went 4-for-7 with a double and a home run as the Solar Sox annihilated the Surprise Rafters, 28-1.
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love it! truly the icing on the cake of a great big league and minor league season. if marson and donald can produce at the catcher and 3b position in 2009/2010, then we have an unstopable line-up without any holes. really fun to dream about.
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A nice stat line for Donald, but really, how do you assess an individual offensive performance against pitching that gave up 28 runs in a game? I tend to shrug.
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I really hope they dont trade Donald but remember he was on the block all season anyway. They tried to trade him to the Royals for Mahay but the Royals shot it down, not the Phillies. The Phillies shouldn’t trade him but that doesn’t mean they won’t.
To be clear, I really hope they dont trade him as I’d like to see him handling 3B in 2010 and off the bench next season.
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off the grid but the Dh in the history of DHdom
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Kyle Drabek made his first appearance in the Hawaii winter league 2 days ago and went two scoreless innings, gave up 2 hits and struck out 3. I’m glad they chose to send him there but why didn’t they do it off the get-go?
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I thought that Drabek was with the team in the instructional league. Maybe its over and they decide then to send him.
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i think arbuckle talking about donald is basically to begin greasing the skids for feliz. theres no way donald should not be starting at 3rd 2009. but ive been saying this all year. the same with marson. as good as ruiz is playing right now marson should be starting next year. both of these guys are contact hitters not hr. hitters.if we have one need its guys who can play small ball. does anyone know what carrasco is up to? we need one more stopper.
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I think you still have to watch the innings on Drabek so perhaps they didn’t want him to go pitch just yet and help him back.
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If 3B was all about offense, Dobbs would have played more games in the playoffs. If C was all about offense, Coste would have played more games. Feliz should have been the gold glove winner this year. Ruiz is a very solid defensive catcher and from all accounts handles the pitchers well. Why would you all want to mess with that chemistry. Someone said that Donald would be the best 3B on this team since Scott Rolen – how do you figure? Donald hasn’t played a game at 3B in the minors. He’s playing a few games at 3B in the AFL, that’s it. He could be a bust defensively. Right now, we are watching the best fielding 3B since Rolen. Enjoy it for another year. Also, enjoy Feliz crushing the ball against left handed pitching. Plus, he his OPS was about 100 points lower against RH pitching last year. He should pick that up a bit this year.
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nyphilsfan have you seen donald play? if you can play ss, the hardest position in the infield you can play 3rd. i guess your new welcome. ive been saying all year that ,along with many others on the site, that donald will be an as in 3yrs. im sure nepp can give you his exact statistical breakdown, but as somebody whose watched many come and go this kid is as close to utley as you will find.
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Felix drops in fielding suggest he is no gold glove fielder, a good but not greatfielder. Best fielding third basemen since Rolen. Well yes when you consider the junk at third its like saying ,blanton is the best right handed pitcher we acquire since eaton, that’s true but a joke when you consider the comparison. I said and was proven right watching him field he can’t charge a ball and can’t go to his left and the fielding number proved it out.
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