Lehigh Valley Weekend Update

7. Lehigh Valley

An abbreviated update due to the holiday weekend.  After being swept by Syracuse in a day/night doubleheader last Friday, both teams boarded their respective buses for the four hour drive to Syracuse to continue their weekend series in Alliance Field.

7/4/09–An excellent outing by Gustavo Chacin was wasted as the ‘Pigs lost 3-2 to Syracuse in 12 innings.  Chacin went 7.1 innings giving up just a run on 7 hits.  He walked one and struck out five, and left with a 2-1 lead which was blown by Gary Majewski.   Jason Anderson (0-1) took the loss, giving up a 12th inning game winning double.  Both ‘Pig runs were scored in the 4th, the key hit being a Miguel Cairo RBI single. Cairo has 3 hits in the losing cause, while Jason Ellison added two of his own.

7/5/09–A second consecutive dominating outing by Kyle Kendrick (5-5) in the ‘Pigs 2-0 victory, this time going 8 shutout innings, giving up 6 hits.  He walked one and struck out 3, while throwing  just 93 pitches, 60 for strikes. Lehigh Valley scored one in the fifth on a Mike Cervenak sac fly, and added an insurance run on a Miguel Cairo sac fly in the 8th.  Cedric Bowers pitched a scoreless ninth earning his 3rd save of the year, while lowering his ERA to 1.36. Thompson, Tracy, Tiffee and Marson all had multi hit games for Lehigh Valley.

Transactions: Taking the roster spot of Rodrigo Lopez is 25 year old LHP Pat Overholt, called up from Reading.  Overholt was being used as a set up guy in Reading, going 0-0 with a 4.19 ERA in 27 appearances.  He walked 20 and struck out 28 in 34.1 innings of work, and has a WHIP of 1.51.  The opposition is hitting .242 against him, and he has given up a lofty 8 homers in his 34 innings of work.  Overholt had been considered a legitimate prospect but two disappointing seasons have led him to bounce back and forth from the rotation into the bullpen.  He had been working on some changes to his delivery which had led to recent success with Reading prior to his recall.

Segio Escalona was optioned back down to Lehigh Valley once again with the activation of Scott Eyre on Sunday.

Notes- In his last 9 starts, Kendrick has 7 quality starts, going 3-2 with a 2.93 ERA.

8 thoughts on “Lehigh Valley Weekend Update”

  1. could it be that kendrick is coming into his own? we have all been so hard on the guy, but it is so easy to forget that, after all he has been through with his rise and demise, he still is at the age where many pitchers haven’t even reached the big leagues at all yet. Hes not an ace, he may not even be any good, but i think with how hes been pitching he at least deserves to be discussed as a number 4 or 5 guy at the ML level.

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  2. I have been a reader of your blog for many years this the first I have chosen to respond. I believe you have the best minor league blog on the net. My opinion about the draft is that the Phillies chose to use the draft picks of 2008: Cosart, May, Pettibonne,Shreve,Knapp and Gose who had not played in the 2008 season to any extent be used to be the prospects for 2009. Therefore, the 2009 draft was of no importance. None of the choices have any upside except: Colvin, Singleton, Stewart and Susac. The rest are minor league filler. None of the picks who are age appropriate for their league has done anyting of any value.
    Unless the Phillies intend to sign at least two of these players the draft is a failure.

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  3. i hope that is not the case….what kind of organization says “we had one great draft, so we just are going to not care about this one”

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  4. I don’t know how you do it, Gregg.

    These last two LvH teams have been mostly a bunch of retreads and some really bad retreads, at that.

    This year, there is at least a little more taxi squad ability and there are a few bona fide prospects in Marson, Carrasco, Kendrick (sort of), and Donald (when he comes back).

    There was an interesting write-up on Overholt in the Reading site. Apparently, he used to throw pretty hard, he then changed his approach and began to regress. The rumor mill says that he is now in the low to mid-90s again, as he was in early 2008. Does anyone know if this is true. I saw him mid-year last year and thought he was a borderline guy, sitting around 90 MPH, nothing special at all.

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  5. Could rotation help be found in house with Rodrigo Lopez, Chacin, Carpenter, and Kendrick?

    I would rather give these guys a shot before I trade a Drabek or Taylor for a Lee or Halladay.

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  6. I always had faith in the manager and coaches now at Lehigh.
    Maybe the Pat Overholt move will help by putting with those coaches and giving him hope for the future. I imagine he was
    low earlier.

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  7. I saw Overholt a few times in Reading this year, and he was between 92-94 most of the time.

    He appears to have a live arm, but is all over the place. You never really knew what you were getting out of him. There’s a reason why they wouldn’t let him close in Reading when there were no obvious canidates.

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  8. Kendrick is really increasing his value. Whether or not he ever pitches in Philly again he should be of good trade value. Still a young kid with a track record of winning in the MLB and has been getting better now at AAA. I think we could definitely package him in a trade without worrying about giving up too much of our top talent.

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