Another Big Night for Phillies Starters

Bastardo, Antonio

No, it wasn’t quite the banner day that last Tuesday was, but Saturday night was still an impressive night for 3 of the 4 minor league pitchers who took the bump in the Phillies organization.

Reading: Antonio Bastardo (5.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K)
Clearwater: Yohan Flande (7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K)
Lakewood: Tyler Cloyd (7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K)

Moved back to the rotation from the bullpen, Bastardo responded with 5 frames of no hit ball before being lifted, presumably for reaching his pitch count.  The 23-year old Flande, meanwhile, ran his scoreless streak to 18 innings after jumping straight to the FSL from the GCL, and Cloyd turned in perhaps his finest outing as a professional in the BlueClaws’ 1-0 win.

Obviously this trio isn’t nearly the caliber of prospect as the Carrasco/Drabek/Knapp group, but they certainly have a future if they continue the path they’re on this year.  Now if only those bats would warm up a bit…

50 thoughts on “Another Big Night for Phillies Starters”

  1. Flande is perhaps making a bid to get into the group you mentioned. He looked comfortable and confident all night. He is now 3-0 on the year with a pefect 0.00 ERA.

    The Threshers bullpen did a great job too.

    Derrick Mitchell broke out of a slump bigtime also for the Threshers. He had 2 HR a double 4RBIs and scored 3 runs.

    Like

  3. Hey Thresher’s Nation,

    Do you have any idea what Flande’s velocity is this year? Is he topping 90? They don’t have a gun in the stadium, right? You could check with the scouts behind the plate…

    Like

  4. Can someone provide information about Jonathan
    Velasquez, who has been pitching well at Lakewood?
    There is nothing on him in BA’s 2009 Super Register
    and nothing in the 2009 Phillies Media Guide.

    Like

  5. Incredible I am happy for these young guys
    AND The big winner in the organization is
    Jon Velasquez
    4-0
    lol who wooda thunk it
    dont firgit the Cloyd guy and the guys who are injured
    makes ya wish we had that first round choice so we can do it again

    Like

  9. Thanks for the info on Velasquez, Rickey, I’d been curious as well. He’s certainly one to root for. Incidentally, Northwood might be a familiar name to some college hoops fans from these parts — former ‘Nova coach Rollie Massimino is the current head coach there.

    And switching gears quickly, here’s a quote from Chuck LaMar on Flande: “His fastball and his fastball command and his changeup and changeup command are in place. With continued consistency … he’ll pitch his way out of that league this summer. If he continues to pitch like he has, we’d love to give him the opportunity to challenge himself in Double-A.”

    Like

  11. if carrasco cant pitch better than park,myers moyer or blanton we are in bad shape my friends. carrasco therefore should be here right now,that is if were to bekieve he is better than this bunch.

    Like

  12. I like the pitching depth in the farm system. Guys keep stepping up with well pitched games and what a difference it makes. Reading, Clearwater and Lakewood are a combined 29 -16. Pitching accounts for a lot of this. I think the pitchers are ahead of the hitters right now but a lot of these performances are dominating.

    I’m taking notice of Michael Schwimer. A lot of us liked him last year and he’s not doing anything this year (so far) to change that. He’s yet to give up an Earned run in 8 2/3 innings. 11 Ks and teams hit .143 against him. He’s a huge kid and even though he’s only a reliever it seems that relievers are more important than ever. Anyone see the Yankees / Red Sox box score yesterday? 10 relievers were used in that game and none of them was very effective. I think there were two guys from the grounds crew that were warming up at the end.

    Like

  13. Bellman says
    it seems that relievers are more important than ever.

    Sure the glut of runs scored means behind 5 run in the fifth
    isnt a death sentence. So even the 12th man the dreaded middle relief is vry important. They used to shove any dope out there to follow a starter in trouble and they usually further screwed it up. The role Durbin played in the first half was an example. To me he was more valuable in that role

    Like

  14. John you know it take a death or a leg falling off for the Phils to make a change If Thome had gotten hurt, Howard ……….

    Like

  15. I wonder has Bastardo develped a third pitch. Too bad he was in a position to finish the game Nice clipping for his memoirs

    Like

  17. John from Philly,

    But the people there now also almost certainly can do better than they are doing now. It’s absurd to bench a pitcher based upon a few starts in April, assuming that they are healthy. Are you gonna suggest benching Rollins for Donald? I dodn’t know, maybe you are – the logic would be the same. Heck, by your logic, bring Carrasco in for Hamels – he has the worst ERA of the starters.

    Of the 5 starters, the only one who I’d think about benching is Park.

    Like

  18. Rolllins ??????
    Larry which of the phils starter might pitch a shutout in the near future. John is justifiably wondering outloud. Coming from behind is great but…..

    Like

  19. Bastardo had a good change up based on Mike Drago’s report in the Reading newspaper:

    “Saturday they got an early lift from Antonio Bastardo, who returned to the starting rotation and delivered five hitless innings, effortlessly working through the Baysox lineup with pinpoint control and an effective changeup. He retired the first 14 batters he faced before Jonathan Tucker reached on an error. Bastardo, who had been converted to short relief during spring training, threw 55 pitches and left after the fifth”.

    Like

  20. 55 pitches that explains why he went five I expected only three. thanks RB I am getting a headache think about all this pitching. A new guy every day

    Like

  21. nowheels,

    (1) What’s a better predictor of how the Phillies starting pitchers will do for the rest of the season, their career numbers or their seasonal numbers to date? Assuming they are healthy, it’s the career performances by far.

    (2) Of the Phillies starters, are there any that, based on career performance, should be benched for Carasco? Aside arguably for Park, see below, absolutely not. Benching any of the Phillies’ top 4 starters for Carrasco would be an irrational panic move.

    (3) Park is the wild card here. It’s pretty obvious to me, though, that Park won the job over Carrasco in large measure because they don’t want to rush Carrasco. Maybe that was the wrong move. But if that was a bad move, it was a bad move right from the start, not because Park, like the rest of the staff, got off to a lousy start.

    Sure, the Phillies aren’t going to win if their starting pitchers continue to pitch to a 6.83 ERA. But they aren’t going to pitch to a 6.83 ERA – or even close to that – even if there are no changes in the five starters.

    But I’ll shut up now – too much big league talk. I didn’t start it, though. 🙂

    Like

  22. WOW carrasco and Drabek are being tested way too much , move them all down 3 levels ASAP!!!! Carrasco in williamsport and Drabek needs to go down to extended spring training based on their last performance

    Like

  23. Carrasco got mauled today (Sunday).

    This guy is still searching for some kind of consistently–good game, bad game.

    Wonder what his problem is.

    Like

  24. Carrasco is still a work in progress. I would love to see him in the bigs but as of now he isn’t ready.

    Like

  25. No doubt the bad outings were a result of being depressed with not getting promoted. Stupid management and coaching staffs!

    Like

  26. I still don’t understand all the love for Carrasco. Let him prove it on the field and show consistent results. Right now, Lehr would get a spot start before Carrassco. Potential does not guarantee success. Stutes is showing everyone what he’s capable of as is Drabek (except for today), Flonde, and Knapp. Plus Bastardo and Schwimmer among others. What a fun minor league season so far with all this pitching to follow.

    Like

  27. I’m actually glad Drabek had a poor outing today. First- It lets us see how he’ll respond next time he goes out. It will show everybody what he’s made of mentally.

    Second- it will quiet the jabbering geezers who want him promoted after two starts. He obviously still has things to learn.

    Like

  28. How good is the pitching coach at leigh valley? I remember last year there were so concerns about the minor league coaching.

    Like

  30. I hate to interrupt your celebration but Drabek had a bad inniing not exactly a poor outing. In fact one run scored after he left the game. If tiring in the sixth makes you happy ,
    glücklicher Feiertag

    Like

  31. larry your comments above were off track obviously no one believes hamels should be benched due ti the fact hes one of BEST PITCHERS IN BASEBALL having a rough start but happ should be in the rotation and no park. does it take a genius to know after 10 years park doesnt suddenly resurrect his career. but are you going to live with myers giving up 3 hrs every 1st or 2nd inning and do nothing? its called motivation if your doing a bad job you need a kick in the ass maybe youll do better. and as far as this being a few starts in april i seem to remember this being an every year occurance. some people you can caudle? some you cant,like myers.

    Like

  32. larry obviously you dont bench hamels hes only one of the BEST PITCHRS INMLB> but happ should be starting park should not and myers tribulations are not a 2 week phenominan they are a yearly event. i said if carrasco is our number 1 pitching prospect and he is not better than myers or blanton,who btw i like,than we sadly mistaken about carrasco.

    Like

  34. John,

    Regarding Park, we can agree to (mildly) disagree; I made my point above, but I think we can agree that Park is not much of a long term solution as a 5th starter, and I certainly wouldn’t have a huge objection to replacing him with Happ.

    As for the rest, I don’t want to be mean, but it’s pretty clear that youre understanding of baseball is pretty limited. First, the Hamels comment – the point that you are missing is that even the “one of the best best pitchers in baseball” can have a few bad games to stsrt the season. The same goes for Myers and Blanton, both of whom (for what very little it’s worth) are pitching better than Hamels so far.

    You seem to think that it is obviously true that Carraso is better than Myers and Blanton. That frankly isn’t obvious to knowledgeable people. His UPSIDE is probably higher than Myers/Blanton, but that’s not the same thing. You appear to be one of the people on this site who have an irrationally high appreciation of the quality of Phillies prospects.

    But it’s your motivation comment that is just ignorant. You think that Myers and Blanton are off to poor starts because the aren’t motivated enough? What an ignorant insult.

    Finally, you completely ignore the fact that the Phillies have determined that Carrasco, good prospect that he is, isn’t ready yet. Sure they could be wrong, but I sure as heck value their opinion on that over random know-nothing posters on ths blog.

    Like

  35. “jabbering geezers”

    Reminds me of Spiro Agnew”s “nattering nabobs of negativity.” How about “jabbering geezers of gobbledygook”?

    Like

  36. The team really needs to see if happ can replace,park because if not we need to start finding out what are our option, a trade or do we wait for Carrasco or Drabek?

    Like

  37. I was thinking since the baseball draft was started has there ever been talk of being able to trade choices. I believe this year Say Washington can’t sign Strasberg, what the teams would be willing to give for him?

    Like

  40. Mikemike,

    I believe baseball’s concern with allowing the trading of picks is that it would give big market teams an even bigger advantage and it would also drive up salaries.

    Imagine the bargaining power a Scott Boras would have if he could use the threat of his players refusing to sign to force teams to make trades to those teams willing/able to pay.

    Trading picks only works if some type of rookie salary cap (similar to the NBA) or an overall salary cap is implemented at the same time.

    Like

  41. You can’t trade baseball draft picks although I suspect that they’ll change this at some point in the future.
    To all the over reactors, 162 games is a long season and you don’t change pitchers this quick unless they’re just totally awful and Park and Myers haven’t been awful. They haven’t been good but Myers continues to have bad starts and then settles down and that can be fixed. park is throwing better now than before and while I’d prefer Happ in the rotation than Park, Park outpitched him in ST and Happ hasn’t been lights out from the pen to show that he deserves to pitch more. He’ll get some starts at some point because someone will need to miss a turn eventually. I’m glad to hear that Drabek only had one bad inning because he shure is throwing the heck out of the ball. It sure does seem like Savery is dropping in comparison…

    Like

  42. Murry since the weird series win with the Marlins,everything can slow down Had the lost three the pressure would of been intense. So the farm system relax (me too) lol
    looking forward to see a few game soon

    Like

  43. ” the phillies starters wont continue to pitch to a 6.82. era ” are you sure. as far as knowing nothing about baseball i worked in bb before you where probably born. i would watch the personal attacks this is not the place to be ignorant.

    Like

  44. It also isn’t the place to discuss the major league pitching, john. There is a whole slew of other blogs designated for complaining about Blanton’s whip or Moyer’s age or Myer’s inconsistency.

    Like

  45. And I agree that this isn’t the place to be “ignorant,” but you obviously have no idea what the word actually means. It means lacking in knowledge or understanding– say, assuming that inconsistency in the team’s starting pitching is due to a lack of motivation rather than being due to pitching deep into the postseason and not having an adequate rest period. Ignorance has nothing to do with being insulting.

    Maybe you should take a course in vocabulary.

    Like

  46. 3up3kkk Says:
    “Trading picks only works if some type of rookie salary cap (similar to the NBA) or an overall salary cap is implemented at the same time.”

    I think that is the only case they could do that in as well 3up, otherwise the Strasburgs of the world would never sign with the low market/failing teams. But that then stems from 2 other problems- baseball hasn’t pushed for draft pick salary caps (even though the union might actually be in favor as it would direct money back to the major league members), because in part, they feel like that have to be able to be flexible with bonus’s to buy premium athletes away from football and basketball (which have better sholarship opportunities too). And secondly, as long as draft picks are tied to free agents, baseball can’t change it without renegotiating the labor deal- which gives the union something to barter against (even if they even preferred a rookie salary cap).

    Like

  47. according to webster yes but not according to the colloquial and by the way where do minor league players aspire to be the majors so there is a lineal corelation between my falangial verbosity and the acumen viserally expressed by the lumenati who frequent this jeffersonian site. in other words lets get back to baseball and stop with the condescending nonsense. as in this staff is brutal and i unforntunately do not see improvement.

    Like

  48. fish,

    I agree that implementing a draft pick slotting system will probably required eliminating of the FA compensation system as well. Doing that would allow the owners to control the draft without needing to negotiate with the players union.

    The other major problem with a slotting system is what to do with all of the foreign players. Not sure how an international draft would work and slotting draft picks just opens up a different can of worms with international free agents.

    Like

  49. Last night why would you let Naylor get hammered for ten runs, what purpose did it serve? The other thing is I have been talking a lot about Swimmer and now can’t understand why he isn’t up with reading or Leigh Valley, he is twenty three, has face good competition. What purpose does he serve to be facing younger and mostly overmatched kids at his age.

    Like

  50. The reason I asked about the trading of draft picks is that I wonder what a team would give up for Strasberg, a great prospect but unproven. You could probaly get players plus money. look what kind of money the Red sox paid for a player rights. If it was me and here was trading. the money would help me over pay in that draft to get more than one player. You could go after the hard signs and really help your system.

    Like

Comments are closed.