Arizona Fall League

8. Arizona Fall League

Mesa split their 4 games since Wednesday, with Lou Marson making his Fall League debut fresh off celebrating the Phils championship . Marson saw action in 3 games, as designated hitter in each. He was 2-10, with a run scored, 3 RBI’s, a double and a triple. He should see some action behind the plate this week. Tuffy Goosewich was behind the plate on Wednesday and went 1-5 with an RBI, and it hitting .263 in the Fall League thus far. Quintin Berry was in RF on Wednesday and Thursday and Center on Saturday, going 3-8, with 3 runs scored, 4 walks and 2 caught stealing. Berry is hitting .342 with a .392 OBP in his 67 at bats. He has been caught stealing in 3 of his 8 attempts, a percentage that must improve. Jeremy Slayden played Friday and Saturday, both in RF, and went 2-6, with a run and an RBI. He continues to be consistent at the plate and is hitting .276 with a HUGE 20 RBI’s in his 76 at bats thus far. He must improve his plate discipline as he has walked a miniscule 2 times in those 76 at bats. FInally, Jason Donald played third on Wednesday and SS on Thursday, with his bat cooling off, going 1-9 with 4 strikeouts over those 2 games. Even so, his average stands at .400, with an OBP of .458 in 75 AB’s. His OPS is an awesome 1.151.

Pitchers seeing action included Pat Overholt, who threw 2 innins on Friday, giving up a run on 3 hits, He also walked 2. In his 9 appearances thus far he is 0-0 with a 6.39 ERA. Perhaps most concerning is his 8 walsk surrendered. If he is going to have any modicum of success, his control is key. Sergio Escalona also saw action on Friday, going 1.2 innings, giving up a run on a hit. he struck out 2. The 24 year old is 0-0 with a 5.25 ERA in the Fall, with a 1.25 WHIP, a good number. Tyson Brummett, who has struggled out of the bullpen all Fall, got the start on Saturday and went 2 scoreless innings, allowing only one baserunner on a hit in the 2nd inning. He struck out 3. Brummett is 0-2 with a 6.30 ERA in his 9 appearances (8 in relief).

35 thoughts on “Arizona Fall League”

  2. Donald is the real deal…I hope they don’t trade him as I’d love to see him at 3B next season platooning with Pete Happy.

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  4. Phils lose Pacific rim scout:

    Fielders Choice partner Kevin Hooker was announced by the Detroit Tigers organization as the club’s Pacific Rim coordinator. Hooker joins the Tigers organization after spending the past seven years (2002-08) as a scout with the Philadelphia Phillies. During his time with the Phillies he was responsible for scouting all of Australia, while he added coverage of Taiwan, Korea and Japan the last two years (2007-08).

    He will be responsible for overseeing the Tigers scouting operations in the Pacific Rim, which includes evaluating the professional leagues in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, scouting amateur players in Asia (mainly Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China) and Australia and overseeing the organization’s Asian scouts.

    For more information visit the offical MLB website artilce – Detroit Tigers Hire New Pacific Rim Coordinator

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  6. Hmm…we’ve been fairly active in Australia too, though much less so in the rest of the Pacific rim. Drew Carpenter and Brad Harmon are two of his finds I would think. There are a few others but my mind is drawing a blank.

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  7. drabek currently pitching 6 scoreless, only allowing one hit and one walk. What’s most impressive is that he’s only thrown 55 pitches in 6 innings. He’s not out yet, top 7. Taylor an encouraging 2-3 tonight with a stolen base. I’d like to see him get on track going into spring training so he makes his mark on Charlie and Ruben.

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  8. oh and taylor just went YARD. im ready for spring training already.

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  10. Yea. Brad Harman, Drew Naylor and Joel Naughton are the top Aussies in the system that Hooker signed.
    Gotta like Drabek’s one hit win today. He must have had a lot of sink on his pitchers: 10 ground outs to only 5 fly outs. With Taylor, it will be nice to have a guy who is 6’6″ 250 lbs. and plays left field who can steals bases. In three leagues this year he is 18 for 28 in steals after today. Wait til Lopes works with him!

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  11. A healthy Drabek could rocket through the system next year…especially once his arm gets up to 100%. He already looks alot better than when he first came back from TJ surgery.

    Taylor’s a beast.

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  12. Where does Drabek start next season anyway?

    Lakewood or Clearwater? He already played in Lakewood in 2007 so he could easily start back there…or do they jump him to Clearwater since he’ll be 21?

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  13. I’m all fired up about Drabek… can’t wait to see that kid in Philly… he is a groundball machine and just throws fire.

    And Rocky, would you just relax with all of the fire and brimstone already. We get it, you’re unhappy with Amaro…. but I’m not so sure a guy responsible for just three almost irrelevant signings in the past 6 years is really an incredible loss to the organization. The odds are stacked against Naylor, Harman and Carpenter, no matter how people like to chalk them up on here sometimes. Stop freaking out.. the sky isn’t falling… Scouts bounce around all the time. We’ll just replace him with someone else who can’t find great talent and all will be right with the world.

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  14. Scratch Carpenter… just repeated the mistake from the post above… Carpenter was an American draft pick wasn’t he?

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  15. I think the way drabek pitched at the end of the season and now in the hawaii league you have to atleast put him at clearwater to start the season

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  16. i am also interested to see what his velocity has been in the hawaii leagues if anyone knows anything regarding his velocity

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  18. Drabek is coming of TJ surgery, I really think they will want to start him in Clearwater to keep him in the warm weather of Florida.

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  19. Exactly EDGE and i would even think of cutting back on his innings now. You got what you wanted out of winter ball
    a little rest cant hurt now.
    I need to buy an” MT Express” shirt

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  20. Shunky just mad at how they repaid the guy who build the team. They just threw him under the bus. And I still think they don’t get it about the draft. It is where you must be committed to spending money. Especially if you are going to keep saying you are small market.

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  21. That’s my fault…I was confusing my Drew’s. I meant to say Drew Naylor, not Drew Carpenter….Drabek in Clearwater at Age 21 wouldn’t be bad. Hell he does really well and gets promoted in June/July and suddenly he’s 21 and in Reading.

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  22. “Hmm…we’ve been fairly active in Australia too”

    I’m not sure if 1 to 2 kids a year is all that active. But then again the talent pool down there hasn’t been very impressive over that time span either. Its taking those kids twice as long to grow into their tools, and obviously most aren’t getting very far with them to this point- and i’m not just talking about the phillies aussies.

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  23. Which isn’t to say they shouldn’t be looking- but you’re a pacific rim scout, and the parent club shows no interest in signing asian players- while you’re only signing 1 or 2 kids a year from Oz, well I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to find a better opportunity. Though I don’t think the Tigers have ever put any money into asian talent to this point either.

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  24. Would be surprised if Drabek doesn’t start in Clearwater for a couple of reasons. First, as mentioned above, much better to start him in a warm-weather climate while he makes to full return from TJ surgery.

    Also, his age, ability, and draft status lends itself to pushing him to a more challenging situation and puts him close to what would have been his projected pace without the surgery.

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  25. 93-95 pretty much puts him back to where he was before surgery.. thats pretty awesome news. I think they should give him a rest and then start him in Clearwater. There isn’t a huge gap in talent between low and high A, and he’s talented enough that a jump and a little challenge won’t really hurt him. Not to mention what edge said about the weather.

    If this kid could put together an ’09 like he is capable, it would really give our system a shot in the arm.

    And Rocky, sorry for calling you out about that… but I disagree… I don’t think they threw Arbuckle under a bus though. He must have known that Amaro was getting the job, and its not like it will be difficult for him to find the same position in a new organization. Its just the way the business end of the game works, and I’m sure Arbuckle and all of the scouts that are loyal to him are professional enough to understand that. I just seriously doubt that all of our scouts are going to jump ship… and even if a few did then good riddance. The org could use some fresh blood anyway.

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  26. Anyone else read the article on Michael Taylor? It’s incredibly encouraging.

    “I came here opened-minded,” the 6-foot-6, 250-pond outfielder said. “I knew
    it was going to be a little different with different hitting coaches, a
    different environment. I’ve worked on some different things.

    “What I like about here is you can experiment a little bit. I’ve done some
    different things I didn’t do during the year, just trying to see if this is
    going to work. This (league) allows you to do that because it’s against good
    competition, but it’s not exactly like your (regular season) where you’re
    really trying to focus on getting better, but also your performance. During
    the year, numbers are important. It’s how you move up in the organization.
    Numbers are important here as well, but it’s more important for me to learn
    things to get better.”

    also

    “It’s something every hitter wants to work on,” he said. “The more a batter puts a ball in play, the better chance you have to get hits. That’s one of my goals, to be a one-to-one (walks to strikeouts) guy. It will be difficult, but if you can cut your strikeouts down, maybe you get 10 or 12 more hits out of that and bump
    your average up. That¹s what I want to do, get into counts that I can swing at and go from there.”

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  27. I wonder if Drabek goes to Clearwater and starts strong. That they won’t move him faster because of his father being a former pitcher, and tutoring him on the jumps. that he can handle it better than others.

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  28. “I wonder if Drabek goes to Clearwater and starts strong. That they won’t move him faster because of his father being a former pitcher, and tutoring him on the jumps. that he can handle it better than others.”

    Well, Doug Drabek was one heck of a pitcher, but a wise sage he wasn’t. I agree the clearwater seems like an obvious choice for competition and weather, but if he stays healthy it will be his first full season of minor league baseball- while AA is a possility next year, its not likely to happen too quickly.

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  29. Its great to read that Taylor is working on things because that might explain his struggles in Hawaii. He’s the guy we all want to see do well after last year. He has a real chance to be in Philly in 2010 if he plays well next year. Drabek will probably start in Clearwater and it wouldn’t surprise me if he spent the whole year there. They want him to have some success and they want him to see what playing an entire season feels like. Unless he just dominates there, he’ll likely stay there most of the year.

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  30. It’s good to see Drabeck healthy, but I wouldn’t put too much stock in his Hawaii winter league performance. My understanding is it’s not nearly as competitive as the AFL.

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  34. Gotta like Lou Marson. After sitting through the Phillies post season and watching a lot of poor situational hitting with men on base he has decided to do just the opposite in the AFL. After 6 games so far Lou is 0 for 5 with the bases empty but 4 for 6 with runners in scoring position for 6 rbi’s. Overall in 21 plate appearances he gotten on base 10 times. He is looking better all the time as a great No. 8 hitter in the Phils lineup driving in runs and turning the line up over.

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