Futures Game is today

Other Stuff

2PM (in like 2 minutes) on ESPN2.

Kyle Drabek and Yohan Flande represent the Phillies. Tune in.

Update, 7PM: Drabek with a nice inning. The tv gun was way off. Velo readings

96, 96
82, 94, 84, 95
95, 82, 95

83 thoughts on “Futures Game is today”

  2. I think 3rd, but folks will have to keep notice.

    Rain delay unfortunately. Will now have to watch the big club.

    Like

  3. How funny to hear them talking of CC as the Phillies top prospect as their showing last years Futures game due to the rain delay (best since Hamels, they’re saying).

    Like

  4. thanks bob. ya i saw Bumgarner warming up for the second so it’ll nice if Kyle is right behind him there whenever they restart play.

    Like

  5. yeah, I kind of was wierded out when the first batter I saw was “Greg Golson a Phillies Prospect from AA Reading…”

    Like

  12. 2 homers with the second half of a double-header still to come. Hopefully the kid is starting to put things together at low-A.

    Like

  17. Nice Drabek interview. Erin Andrews is 5’10, so it looks like the growth spurt they talked about with Drabek was spot on. Kid looked a good 6’1-6’2.

    Like

  24. NEPP, he would need to be replaced by another World player. The only international guys on the radar are Carrasco (been there), Bastardo (injured), Garcia (injured/Extended Spring), Galvis (coming off injury), Naylor and Sergio Escalona. I wouldn’t throw Domingo Santana out there just yet.

    Flande looks like a decent prospect, a step above Fabio Castro. Good fastball from a lefty thrower, I could see him making the bigs as a reliever.

    And I for one plan to watch the rest of the game. I like to check out all the teams’ prospects that I can. Good players of any organization excite me.

    Like

  32. Drabek and Feliz have the quickest arms of any of the pitchers in the game so far, and by a good margin

    Like

  34. Reading about Halladay type trade, they said phillies don’t have a Colby Ramus, like cardinals. who would be the type of center piece they want, is he that much better than Taylor as a prospect.

    Like

  35. Rasmus is in the hunt for rookie of the year right now, so, yeah, he is currently a better prospect than Taylor.

    Like

  36. I believe so. Rasmus is a year younger than Taylor, shows comparable power, plays good defense in center field and has shown he can perform in the Majors.

    Like

  37. Drabek looked really damn good, his mechanics looked really smooth and he had command of all 3 pitches.

    Like

  39. Here’s what I would prefer from my backup catcher:

    I would prefer a backup catcher that can’t hit a lick, but will call a good game and can play decent defense

    to:

    A catcher who will bat .260 but doesn’t know how to frame, call a game, and can’t block pitchers in the dirt well.

    Like

  41. 95+ average fastball?!! Wow!

    Dang – I forgot the game was on – I wish I had seen that.

    Hopefully, I will be seeing it soon.

    Like

  42. Ramus put up a .275/.381/.551 line in Double-A at age 20, with 29 HRs and 18 SBs, while playing CF. So yeah, he’s a better prospect than Taylor. He has the potential to be a Grady Sizemore-type CF.

    Like

  43. I think the radar on ESPN2 was acting a little funky today.

    Flande is one ugly dude, but I thought he did alright keeping his composure, especially considering it was still pouring out there. He could be of some use to the team in the future…who knows.

    Like

  45. But keep in mind Flande was facing “all-stars/future-stars”. He’s not great, but he didn’t blow up and allow runs.

    Like

  48. John Sickels blogged the game live as well and everyone was pretty excited about Drabek over on that board. They comped him to Tim Hudson and Roy Oswalt. Sickels liked Flande’s slider and said he has LOOGY potential going forward.

    Like

  49. Did anyone else’s elbow begin to ache when they read this portion:

    “Looking to break up the boredom during the long delay, Lincoln played frisbee in the outfield with fellow U.S. pitchers Kyle Drabek and Mat Latos.”

    Kyle, CAREFUL WITH THE ELBOW!!!

    Like

  50. i taped the futures games but then realized when I got back that there was a 3 hour rain delay so I taped nothing, anyone know a way I can watch the game online or just parts of it

    Like

  51. If you have verizon as your internet service provider, you get espn360 for free. The games on there in it’s entirety.

    Like

  53. I missed the game, but from the way you guys talked about Flande, I figured he got blown up until I checked the box score. 2 hits and 2 Ks in his inning against what must be good hitters. What did everybody see from him that was unimpressive? I’m sure he didn’t measure up to what Drabek was throwing, but I didn’t get the impression that anyone was really thinking of him as a top prospect anyway, just a nice one.

    Like

  54. Flande hasn’t had Drabek’s expert instruction(since he could walk) so he should be lagging.
    Does Cisco move up?????

    Like

  55. nepp, please tell me drabek had mlb composure, unlike duckworth and floyd. god forbid flande is like castro or he can kiss his career goodbye.

    Like

  56. John, he looked like a guy just doing his job. Totally relaxed, smooth delivery. It was fun to watch. Complete 180 from how Flande looked the next inning.

    Like

  57. Flande has a chance to be a major league reliever. Drabek has a chance to be a major league ace. Don’t trade him! Btw, there’s no way that Drabek is 6’1′. Maybe he’s 6’0″ but he’s very thick and strong and a serious athlete. Separate note: let’s go Anthony Hewitt!!

    Like

  58. I liked Flande. His FB was sneaky with a little life on it. Other pitches looked good, decent command, and all this in a huge venue the first time in his life. His outing excited me. I also like his looks. Pretty cool and funky looking, very dark skin, Roman features, very different from the youthful, well-scrubed guys (boring!).

    Like

  61. Keith Law’s post-Futures Game assessment of Drabek:

    Kyle Drabek, RHP, Philadelphia.
    Drabek, son of former major leaguer Doug Drabek, was 91-93 with a hard curveball at 79-80 that had a slider-esque horizontal break. His delivery is still rough, with some head violence at the end, and he commanded his fastball to his glove side but less so to his arm side. Drabek’s name has come up as the potential anchor of a stretch-drive trade for the Phillies, but he’s not that kind of impact talent — just a very good pitching prospect with a chance for two above-average pitches.

    Like

  63. I have to say (not a rant) but he is completely off on the velocity. Drabek was at 94-96 yesterday, not 91-93. Was he even watching?

    Like

  65. Nothing wrong with “very good pitching prospect” considering Drabek’s extremely limited body of work. We’re talking barely 200 IP in the minors over 4 seasons. “Very good” prospects can turn into “great” prospects.

    PP, I am curious to hear your thoughts on Law’s observation of Drabek’s “rough” delivery.

    Like

  66. im sorry but i have to question his cred a bit here..clearly he was goin off the espn feed for the velo which was clearly out of whack..they had his first fastball at 86mph…all other sites acounts of his velo had it up to 95-96 on the “working” guns…so right there i take what e says with a pound of salt

    Like

  67. i don’t think that he hates the phillies. i just think that he is an idiot that doesn’t know jack about baseball which is why he got fired from being an assistant on a bad team.

    remember what that joker said about the ibanez signing? I mean, you couldn’t be more off in your analysis if you tried. complete 180 degrees wrong. here are some gems from his “analysis”

    Title: “Signing Ibanez an absurd move by Phillies”

    Great quote #1: He’s very similar to the player he’s replacing, Pat Burrell. But Ibanez is four years older, is a far worse defensive player and — outside of a blip in 2008 — does not hit left-handed pitching
    – i don’t know who he watched, but: 1. ibanez is a much better defensive player; 2. is a much more consistent hitter and 3. has had no issues with left handed pitching. it was a great trade and Ibanez is starting the all star game. his stats have only improved once he left the cavernous safeco field. where was that in the analysis?

    another good quote: “they should have offered it to Burrell, who at least is less likely to fall off a cliff offensively and would have kept their lineup a little more balanced.”
    – i mean, has he watched either burrell or ibanez play? they are the complete oposite to what he said. burrell is so hot and cold and can go in very long stretches of cold (i.e. entire seasons). ibanez has been a rock and is in better physical shape regarless of being 4 years older.

    Like

  68. Weird that Law mentioned his delivery, when everyone else thought it was smooth. Seems like he’s just nitpicking to back up his opinion that he’s not as good as others have made it sound.

    Like

  69. To be fair to Keith Law, he sat behind the plate at the futures game and clocked Drabek along with every other prospect with his own gun. He comments specifically on what he sees when he watches a player and really couldn’t care any less about what team they play for. If he saw a rough ending in Drabek’s delivery, that’s exactly what he is going to write about. However, I do agree it is a little weird how almost everyone else has talked about how smooth Drabek’s delivery was and Klaw said exactly the opposite. Maybe he just got it wrong this time.

    Like

  70. I’ve always defended Keith Law here, and I’ll continue to do so. He’s been nice enough to do Q/A’s here and provide his insight. If he just agreed with what everyone else said, that would be boring. As for his past calls, who cares? Everyone gets some right and some wrong. At least he gives a clear opinion. If hes right hes right, if hes wrong hes wrong, he’ll own it.

    I didn’t see the same issues in Drabek’s delivery. I tend to focus most on how well the arm works, whether its high effort, whether there is a lot of unnecessary movement. I don’t see a lot of that with Drabek, he has a very fast arm, he doesn’t have a high effort delivery. I’m not that concerned with his mechanics or delivery, I am just worried about the huge innings increase from 2008 to 2009.

    Like

  71. what i seemed to notice is that while some other pitchers tended to “force” their pitches in a situation Drabek seemed very comfortable in his own “skin” and pitched that way.

    Also I’d think its tough to gauge in 10 pitches all he got from what he said about Kyle although he’s got to say something.

    I also wonder if coming from the Toronto organization and knowing Halladay like I expect he knows him he’d want them (at least subconsciously) to get an absolute haul for him prospect wise and would think they’d deserve more of a Bumgarner than a Drabek, although as time has shown sometimes the Drabek’s are better than the Bumgarner’s in the long haul of a career.

    Like

  72. How can you get an opinion of a prospect after just 1 inning at a futures game ? So Law doesn’t think he can command his fastball to his arm side after 1 inning ? weird.

    Like

  73. Dude’s job is to write what he saw in 1 inning of work/1-2 ABs from a dozen prospects. The 1 FB he missed badly on was to his arm side, and on the strikeout he painted glove side against the lefty. He also threw two outer half FB strikes to Escobar. Hence “commanded his FB glove side, less so arm side.” I wouldn’t go too crazy about that characterization

    Like

  74. Watching Flande on the DVR again, he’s gotta be tough on lefties because he throws across his body just slightly, so they see the ball very late

    Like

  75. Keith has reservations about Drabek and that’s fine, everyone’s entitled to their opinion and he’s seen a ton more pitchers than any of us.

    Like

  76. as for law i have no idea if he has an agenda like some other people, but even though most of us missrd on ibanez, in my case due to not seeing him, laws comments were way,way,way off.unless a player does something totally bizarre its very hard to get a read from 3 hitters. as for flande his comparison to castro is an insult.im not saying he,ll be good but he,s much further ahead than castro.

    Like

  77. Regarding the radar readings, from what I know, based on talking to scouts, is that the pitch fx is normally 2 mph faster than most of the standard Stalker radar guns.

    Like

  78. Fair enough on the velocity then. That’s all I’ve got an issue with. If that’s what his gun said, fine. I dont think he hates the Phillies or anything.

    Like

  80. Klaw strikes again!

    I’m still driving the FlandeWagon. To go from a player barely mentioned to a legit MLB bullpen prospect is something. Guys like Romero and Eyre make in the neighborhood of $2-4M per. That money can be spend elsewhere when Tony B., Escalona and Flande are doing the job.

    Like

  81. Well I’d go by the pfx data and baseball america speed, over the espn2 speeds…. So I’m willing to be the 94-96 was more accurate.

    Like

  82. NEPP…as I understand it, it all depends on where the reading is taken. The 94-96 was probably right as it left his hand. The 91-93 was probably as it crossed the plate. It all depends on where the gun is getting it’s reading.

    Like

  83. 91-93 would be about 10 feet out of his hand. Its more like 88 when its crossing the plate. The ball loses almost 10 mph from the hand to the plate usually.

    Like

Comments are closed.