Arizona Fall League Update

8. Arizona Fall League

Mesa continued its winning streak with three more wins Tuesday thru Thursday and now have a 10-5 record in the Fall League.  Tuesdays game was uneventful for Phils prospects as only Jason DOnald made a late inning appearance at thrid base and went without an at bat.  On Wednesday, Mesa won 11-3, behind a strong performance by Quintin Berry who was 3-5, with 2 runs, an RBI and a stolen base (3). Berry started in CF.  Jason Donald was the designated hitter and had a huge game, going 4-6 with a run and a double, lifting his batting average to .452.  Pat Overholt pitched two scoreless innings in relief, walking one and striking out two without yielding a hit.  His ERA now stands at an excellent 1.29, after a difficult second half of the season with Reading.  Sergio Escalona followed Overholt on Wednesday but yielded 2 runs, one earned in his inning of work.

In the 8-6 on THursday, Andrew Carpenter, got the start going 4 innings, giving up only a run on 3 hits.  He walked 2 and struck out 2, lowering his ERA to 7.00.  The difficulties of Tyson Brummett continued as he gave up a run in his lone inning.  Offensively, Jeremy Slayden went 1-4 with an RBI, leaving his average at .308, but a baserunning blunder was costly as he was picked off. Quintin Berry had a another big game, starting in CF, going 3-4 with 3 runs and 2 doubles, leaving his average at .346.

64 thoughts on “Arizona Fall League Update”

  1. Where do we see Berry? Is he Endy Chavez II?

    Also does anyone else get the feeling we already saw the only call up for Carpenter ever, in Phills uniform at least?

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  2. It’s all Donald, all the time. I love it.

    Good to see Q doing well too.

    Hopefully Carpenter can pull it together and at least become a servicable backend ML starter. He’s show flashes.

    Great job on the updates so far Gregg, keep them coming!

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  3. Section 113 – it’s possible Carpenter never makes it out of the minors since his stuff was never overwhelming.

    James, ever thought of adding birthdate to profiles as it is relative?

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  4. RodeoJones – Yeah Carpenter just isn’t impressing since last year. Huge drop off by him. An arm is an arm but him and Brummett look like they have already peaked in many ways.

    kind of fell bad for Slayden with Dobbs/Stairs/Jenkins he is never going to see playing time even as a 5th OF.

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  5. I could see Slayden making the team next year if he has a good spring. I think Jenkins will be moved somehow as he was a disappointment and Stairs is an AL-only player at this point. He is great to have for the playoffs but if he’s on the 25 man roster when 2009 starts it because the FO failed to find someplace for him.

    Look at me, getting off topic, but it’s on topic as I think it’s relevant to Slayden’s future. He’s getting long in the tooth so they’d better do something with him soon. This could be a showcase for him in the AFL for him to be traded. He’s at least a left-handed Jason Michaels.

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  9. With Donald’s stock at an all time high I think the Phillies are going to be very tempted to deal him. My worries aren’t calmed with what I read today about both Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins on the block. Rocky Mountain news is stating that the Phils are going to inquire on the asking price for both.

    No doubt Atkins and Holliday would upgrade this team’s lineup, but when it comes to the Phillies there’s always the risk of giving up too much considering the farm system isn’t exactly stocked full of above average prospective big leaguers.

    I’m not sure about the talent level of the AFL, but Donald is absolutely killing it right now.

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  10. i think Slayden will play the entire yearin09 at AAA and then in 2010 with Jenkins and Stairs contracts expiring he will get a good chance to make the big club

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  11. Garrett Atkins is not worth trading for. I could imagine Donald putting up better rate numbers with less power. I would trade Donald and Carrasco for Matt Holliday. Anyone who wouldn’t is deluding themselves about how good our prospects are, and is falling into the common trap here of forgetting that upgrading the major league team is the whole reason for having a farm system.

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  12. To me it seems if we are looking for a fifth outfielder. Berry would be the choice over slayden, better defense and better speed, both are probaley 250 hitters. Holiday trade for me would be great .as much as I like donald .for holiday he goes plus they can have carrasco and anyone else but marson.

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  13. Keith Law recently said that the Twins are best served to trade Delmon Young for an up the middle infielder as they are pretty set with young pitching. His stock as fallen alot since he was BA’s player of the year and I wonder if there was a deal to be made there. Maybe something like Donald, Jaramillo, and maybe a Bastardo/Naylor/Garcia. Not sure it they would take that deal but that would give us another RH bat if we lose Burrell and someone who is still relatively cheap to allow us to sign some pitching. Sorry if this comment is to ML based

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  14. My main points was that the club just has to be careful with what they end up giving up for these more important established players…especially if signing them long term will become a problem, but that’s another issue. Donald may not be of the upper echelon of prospects because of his lack of power, but he could be an important player for us down the line. Meaning that he is more important and valuable to this organization than he would be at another.

    I’d just hate to lose Donald, Carrasco, Marson and Happ all in one summer because other teams don’t rate our ‘talent’ as much as we do. Not likely we lose all of them, but you never know. It’s all a matter of knowing what to give up and this club hasn’t always had the best track record. All that being said given he’s in the last year of his contract and the most recent trades for big name players (CC) Phillies could be able to do something without losing 3 very good prospects. Rockies apparently want a young starter.

    Heck, 3 more wins till we have to think about that stuff! Go Phils!

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  15. Posters should take Keith Law’s words with a grain of salt. He’s nothing special at all. If you read his last chat, someone asked him why he hates the Phillies. He said, “Because they remind him so much of the Padres.” I still can’t figure that one out. Wait until you read his take on Lou Marson this offseason. He won’t have good things to say based on seeing 1 time at the Futures Game taking batting practice where Marson was centering balls up the middle. He’s one of those guys who knows a little about everything and nothing about anything.

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  16. Keith Law doesn’t have a vendetta for the Phillies or any other organization. He does have certain things he looks for as a scout. Some people are more Bill James stats & metrics oriented and others go off of their own first hand scouting. From what I understand, Law is of the latter type. So Law will put more stock in his own personal knowledge as opposed to the player’s overall statistics. He does it with lots of players, not just our prospects. Just because he doesn’t put our guys on pedestals like we tend to do doesn’t mean he hates the entire franchise.

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  18. DominiqueYou The reason is both teams don’t cry small market and act like it. They draft poor and go route of cheap free agents. Like now nomatter what happens in series, we need a starter and clutch hitter, they won;t go all out to get a manny and sheets. its bottom line owners. the hell with the fans. same with the draft. this year spent a little more but ignore the international market.

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  19. Look at the farm. we are all into the minors on this blog. But look at the players we are trying to promote to help the club Waldron, Slayden, Swindle, Jaramillo, Berry, all over 25 and still not doing anything outstanding to get to the bigs. If a slayden is a prospect at his age and by his numbers, we need to get better job scouting ,because this isn’t what a contender should have as a alterative for a outfielder spot.

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  21. “If the Phils had Price he would still be at LAKEWOOD”

    Very true but if we did have Price and considering the Rays had to finish last in ’06 to get him, we would have had many more immediate problems than replacing Burrell or having a young impact starter. I mean would you have traded what the Rays went through the last 11 years to get their draft picks?

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  22. Phils promoted Hamels at an earlier age than the Rays promoted Price. Price will turn 24 next summer. Hamels had over 300 innings and 24 wins by the time he was 24.

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  24. What point are you trying to make?

    Hamels pitched 201 Innings over 3 1/2 years in the minors, and was injury prone. You can’t move guys up when they are injured.

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  25. My point being if the phils have the talent they move them up. They just don’t have any David Price’s in the system right now.

    By the way Hamels had about 200 pro innings before being called up and Price had about 100 pro innings and another 200+ at Vandy. 100 of Cole’s innings were when he was 19 the other 100 over a 3 year period while battling injuries. I think I would say that Price probably had a bit more experience than Hamels when called up to.

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  29. Comparing Hamels to Price is unfair. Hamels was not taken til the fourteen pick for a reason. There were major concern about his being able to stay healthy. He was not sound but the phillies took a chance on him. I believe that he was limited to so little innings because of arm trouble fears. Price was a college stud and was dominate from day one in the minors.

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  30. Phils fast-tracked Hamels. Getting himself into bar fights is what slowed him down.

    They are trying to fastrack guys that they think can handle it including Taylor, Marson, Garcia and Carrasco off the top of my head. They aren’t going to rush a guy for the sake of rushing him.

    I’ll take the challenge, someone name a player in the last 5 years or so who you thought was moved up too slowly.

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  32. Taylor to Reading near the end of the year would be fasttrack.
    Marson to the big team(cutting SO-SO) after the allstar game would be fasttrack. Likewise Carasco. Garcia ok i will agree.
    Happ is a good example he was ready after Reading. Howard of cource.
    Nice trick question there hasnt been a good draft until 2006
    compliments of big Eddy Wade. And dont tell me this is his team they drafted high,my granny could get someone there.
    Utley’s success belongs to Utley he made himself a serviceable defensive player. I’ll take about who he passed up if u want

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  33. As a college grad, Taylor should be at Reading by July if he’s the real deal. He’s already dominated Lakewood and Clearwater last season. Utley and Howard were both held back due to money and lack of a position on Howard’s part due to have a future HoF sitting at 1B in front of him.

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  34. I see Taylor starting at Reading. He’s old enough and he has already dominated at Reading. What would be accomplished starting him there again? Zero. The wild card is his performance in Honalulu. Is he hurt or nicked up? That’s the on’y explanation I can think of for playing so rarely and not hitting well. If he is healthy in ST, Reading it is, IMO.

    On Donald, I see him as a healthy David Bell with better BA. If Bell had been physically sound through his career, he would have been a .270, 18HR, 70-80 RBI, avg to avg+ fielding 3B. Donald might be that with better BA and OBP. That’s pretty high value. He would not have the same value at SS, simply beacuse his avg fielding skills at a defensive position may not appeal to most teams. So it’s either 2B or 3B. If Utley goes down in 09 or thereafter, he should be our starter there until Utley returns, unless he is solidly entrenched at 3B, which might be the case.

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  35. Utley was terrible defensively and they had Polanco, who they moved when he forced their hand. He benefited from more time.

    Howard had issues with lefties, and still does, but I believe that extra time helped him as well. There was also the Thome issue. They put Howard in left in the minors but it didn’t work. They had to sign Thome to sell seats in the new stadium and Howard suffered.

    Taylor, albeit a college guy was a fifth round pick. It’s not like the other 29 teams forgot about him 4 1/2 times. His movement is fast for his draft position in my opinion.

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  36. Hey nowheels, it’s not a trick question. I named guys I thought they fastracked in that period and you can’t name anyone that they didn’t but should have, so my point is proven.

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  38. Taylor fell in the draft because he stuggled at Stanford. Since he’s been a pro, he’s reverted to his old swing and, voila, spectacular baseball talent. He’s clearly nicked up in Hawaii (the lack of reps show that). I would be happy if they started him in Reading as he DOMINATED Clearwater. We’ll see what happens in ST but Taylor has made huge strides this season.

    If Donald becomes a healty David Bell I’d be very happy. Bell had some pretty good years when he was healthy.

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  39. David Bell was named in the Mitchell Report I believe which makes one believe that his only decent years were the result of some type of added advantage.

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  40. I’d like to think Taylor is ‘nicked’, but they have had a pretty normal rotation as far as outfielders go since they have so many. Though, I still wouldnt hold Hawaii against him, its been a long season; this is vacation baseall.

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  41. How did this get so off topic? Gregg mentioned Berry as getting it together. He’s hit in 5 straight games and has three 3 hit games in a row. Hit a HR and 2B yesterday. He’s streaky but when he’s hot… he’s hot. He’s also still stealing bases.

    Tuffy Gosewisch played yesterday. He went 1 – 2. I guess Philly sent him to replace Marson. Slayden had a tough game. He was 0 – 5 with 4 Ks.

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  42. Anonymous you may be right Bell was having a lousy season and got hot in Sept etc and that led to the Phils signing him.
    that looked very strange.

    How is Berry defensively???

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  43. Anonymous Says:
    October 25, 2008 at 11:34 pm

    Hey nowheels, it’s not a trick question. I named guys I thought they fastracked in that period and you can’t name anyone that they didn’t but should have, so my point is prove

    The guys u named were regular type promotions as far i am concerned . Fasttrack is at least jumping one league. That is a very slow train you are on

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  44. Bellman-

    Yeah I want to know how good Berry is defensively. If he has a halfway descent glove I feel he may contribue more as a 5th OF than Golson as an everyday player. He looks lost at the plate just as Howard does, but Howard at least has the strength to rip shots into the stand Golson doesn’t have Howard’s power.

    The more I see of/read about Golson, the less I like him.

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  45. A thought on Taylor and the islands
    Chaminade University at least used to run a basketball tourney where they won most of the time because some where distracted by………..(lots of things) or maybe Mt is just slow to adjust to new league anyway lets hope

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  46. I am sorry but what is anonoyous trying to say. Everyone knows Howard and Utley weren’t fast tracked because of years of service issue.

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  48. That was me Rocky, and I don’t think it’s some sort of common knowledge you are making it out to be.

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  49. so slayden hit well but made a big baserunning blunder?

    maybe those comparisons to werth were accurate after all hahahah

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  50. Two wins away from a freaking championship. Maybe that Joe Blanton trade wasn’t so bad after all haha, We’ll see tonight!!!!

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  52. Ruiz keeps it up and Marson might get shopped this winter for another helping piece. I know it wouldn’t be smart but sometimes clubs think that way after a playoff series. If they determine that this is the real Ruiz instead of the one from the 1st half and figure they can get by with him as the primary backstop, that pretty much leaves Marson out in the cold. I doubt it actually happens that way but you never know.

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  53. Marson isn’t going to be traded because of Ruiz’s playoff series. Ruiz is a defensive catcher. Will we trade Carrasco if Blanton is lights out tonight? Why keep Taylor when we have Werth?

    I am sorry but to think RUiz has somehow played so great they would trade Marson and elect to keep him, when you could actually have both on this team is foolish.

    What gets me is how the Rangers have all this catching. What about us? Marson/Ruiz/Coste/Jaramilo/d’Arnuad/Valle/Kennely/ Naughton? That’s pretty nice.

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  54. Marson could easily take Coste’s place. Even if Ruiz gets most starts, Marson could get 1 or 2 a week and learn a lot. Plus he could be used as a pinch hitter if needed. If the Phillies trade a catcher I think it will be Coste or Jaramillo, not Marson.

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  55. If skipping levels is the criteria for fasttracking, then Utley certainly was fasttracked seeing as how he skipped AA ball.

    Ryan Howard moved a bit slower because of his huge strikeout totals in the minors and a guy named Thome who was blocking him.

    Hamels pitched a total of 23 AAA innings before being called up so that would seem to be fast-tracked as well.

    Burrell started directly in A+ after being drafted in June and then moved immediately to AA the next year and was in AAA by the end of his 1st full season so that would appear to be fast-tracked as well.

    Point is that the Phillies have no problem pushing guys through the organization if their talent and performance warrants it.

    David Price is up with TB because he was the #1 overall pick and had the talent to compete at the ML level coming out of college, not because TB has some different organizational philosophy.

    Funny thing with the Price argument is that many baseball people were questioning the Rays for not bringing him up earlier since he was dominating minor league competition.

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  57. Teams make foolish decisions all the time because of short sample sizes. I’m loving having both Marson and Ruiz on the roster next season.

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  61. Sometimes being wrong isnt a bad thing. Trades sometimes
    stimulate a player to do better things like get in shape.
    One more to go. Financially and image wise the city really needed this

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  63. I hated blanton trade. but if they win series in my opinion. it becomes mute what the prospect become. we have a championship and even though blanton has pitched okay at best. He is undefeated so we must say they were right in there thinking

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