Monthly Archives: March 2009

Dominic Brown article

Other Stuff

By popular demand.

Link.

Fortunately for the Phillies, area scout Chip Lawrence stayed on the case. And when Brown was still available late, they decided to take a shot. He eventually signed for about $200,000, extremely high for where he was taken, but not for the second- or third-round pick that he probably would have been if the football option hadn’t clouded the picture.

“I’m going to be honest with you. Baseball is my first love. I told all the scouts that,” he said recently at the Carpenter Complex. “But I guess I was so highly ranked in football that they just wouldn’t believe that a guy with my caliber of skills on the field would choose the baseball route.

Area scouts are the lifeblood of the org.

Projecting the squads; Lehigh Valley

Depth Charts

So, I figured we’d take a shot at trying to assign players to the full season affiliates. The work groups are a general idea, but they aren’t complete and guys tend to move around a bit, so I’m not reading too much into it. We’ll start with Lehigh Valley and then move down the chain. I’ll post the template and then update it as we discuss it in the comments. Check below the fold for more…

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Minor League workout groups

Spring Training 2009

Thanks to emailer Scott for passing this along. Its a long list, so Im putting it below the fold so its easier on the eyes. Commence comments.

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Charting the defensive spectrum, and other notes

Hewitt, Anthony

Add this to the list of “I think I’ve talked about this before, but don’t remember”, but it seems defense has become a much more talked about topic in the last few seasons. You know I’m not one for pumping other people’s products and telling you to buy stuff, but I am going to tell you to buy something here. John Dewan’s “Fielding Bible“, which I own, and the Fielding Bible 2, which I will buy, are essential if you care about understanding the game of baseball. Dewan’s method involves using video, and the core of his work is the +/- system, which attempts to determine who is average, above average and below average defensively. Dewan’s work is groundbreaking, in that its the first real system that uses video instead of just putouts/assists/errors/doubleplays and so forth. If you are a subscriber at BillJamesOnline you have access to the +/- scores for every major leaguer, and the Fielding Bibles also give you a bunch more in depth analysis on the various facets of the game. Check below the fold for more…

Continue reading Charting the defensive spectrum, and other notes →

Nice article on Drabek and Savery

Savery, Joe

Read it here. Talks about the Phillies changing Drabek’s mechanics, among other things. Next week we’ll start tackling who will be assigned where.

Today’s topic; Jason Donald

Other Stuff

Everyone knows the deal. Coming into spring training, Donald was going to see time at 2B and 3B in the event that Chase Utley or Pedro Feliz wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day. It appears both guys have a shot to be in the opening day lineup, Utley seems a better bet than Feliz. That raises the question, what happens with Donald? He’s hitting .379 this spring, much of it coming after a slow start where he appeared to be pressing a bit. He’s also drawn 6 walks. But if he isn’t looking at full time at bats, what is going to happen to him? I personally think he’s going to be one of the last cuts from the squad and sent to AAA where he’ll play both 2B and 3B, mostly 3B. But have your say here

Phillies pitching prospects and the “Rule of 30”

Other Stuff

I feel like I made a post similar to this one a year ago, but maybe not. Anyway, Tom Verducci, who writes for Sports Illustrated, did a study and found that pitchers under the age of 25 who throw 30 more innings than they did the previous season break down at a fairly high rate. You can read his article here in which he outlines the basic premise. More below the fold…

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Review of my Top 100 prospects for 2008

Top Prospect Lists

I am planning on cranking out another Top 100 for this season, probably sometime next week, but I was thinking about last year’s list, so I figure I’d take a look back and see how good/bad my list was last year at this time. At some point I’m also going to collect the Top 100 lists from BA, BP and Keith Law and add them into a spreadsheet for comparison’s sake. But for now, here’s a review of my top 100…

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Affiliate reports set for 2009

Other Stuff

Dan, who joined us for the first part of 2009 as the Lakewood correspondent is back this season to cover Lakewood. Jeff is also rejoining us for Threshers coverage, while Zac and Gregg will take care of Reading and Lehigh Valley. Thanks to those of you who expressed interest.

It’s On

Other Stuff

After a very effective outing yesterday by Chan Ho Park (4 IP, 1 ER), JA Happ followed that up today with 3 shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and striking out 7.  Kendrick and Carrasco are going to have some catching up to do, although I believe absent a phenominal spring by Carrasco, the Phils have always intended him to start this season in AAA.

John Mayberry, Jr. hit another homer today, bouncing back well from a game yesterday where he left 4 men on base.