Daily Discussion

Daily Discussion

Two more shutout innings in relief for Scott Mathieson last night, giving him 18 innings this year without having given up an earned run between Clearwater and Reading.  He has allowed just 14 baserunners in those 18 innings and the opposition is hitting just .129 against him.

Tim Kennelly, who has struggled hitting since his recall to AA Reading had a big night last night going 3-4 to go along with Domonic Brown’s 2-4 performance which included his first AA homer.

As aptly noted by “Boston Phan”, the light has been turned on for 22 year old starting pitcher Darren Byrd in CLearwater.  Byrd got the win last night, going 6 innings, giving up just a lone run, while in his last 4 starts, he is 4-0 with 0.36 ERA, having given just one earned run in the last 25 innings.

This years first pick by the Phils, Kelly Dugan has a 3-3 day yesterday with 2 doubles and 2 walks, raising his average to .253.

First Baseman Darin Ruf, 23, has continued scalding the ball since his recall from the GCL Phils to Williamsport.  Last night, Ruf was 4-5 with 2 doubles, raising his average to .364 with Williamsport.  He was hitting  .326 in the GCL.

83 thoughts on “Daily Discussion”

  2. Gonna take me a little while to get used to Domonic. Apparently his HR last night left the park entirely and landed on Rt 61.

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  3. Ducky they showed it on Comcast last night because they were there to watch Pedro. Brown hit the ball out of the park with ease. His stroke is fluid and he looks like he’s barely trying to hit the ball or run on the bases. He is going to be a good one. I hope I can get up to see him next year in Reading.

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  4. Could we just shorten it to Dom? It kinda reminds me of when Akeem Olajuwon informed everyone that his name was supposed to be spelled Hakeem.

    Even with Kennelly’s struggles, he has still managed to be productive – his ISO is around .240, and he has managed to draw twice as many walks (6) as strikeouts. I do believe that he will crack my top 20 prospect list, possibly even the top 15.

    – Jeff

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  5. And I really hope Scott can make it back to the big club. He is such a hard worker. If anyone deserves it he does.

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  6. Ruf is probably an organizational player — BA didn’t even have a blurb on him for the draft — but he’s worth monitoring nonetheless. He really hit at Creighton (e.g. .347/.483/.545 with a 51:23 BB:K his junior year), and while he might be a little light on power, guys with that kind of plate discipline always have a shot. Between Rizzotti, Hamilton, and Ruf, maybe one of our recent college 1B draftees will contribute in the majors in some capacity some day.

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  7. Great news on Mathieson. Obviously before he was hurt he was a “power arm” as they say? Anyone have insight on his stuff these days? Still the same type of pitcher?

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  8. That brings up a question…We usually refer to him as “Dom” Brown and I’ve noticed its the same on other sites (well pretty much Beerleaguer as there is a good amount of crossover between the two). Does anyone call him Dom Brown in real life and, Darn, this would have been a good question for Schwim when they were both on Clearwater.

    Anyone?

    Good to see Mathieson back and healthy.

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  9. ****Anyone have insight on his stuff these days? Still the same type of pitcher?****

    Reports from his outings have him in the mid-90s again. So hopefully, he’s the same guy.

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  12. Reading’s coming to CT 8/21 – 8/24. I’m hoping to get over to see them against New Britain then. I wanted to see Taylor but Brown will do just fine.

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  13. most everyone on our team called him “Brownie”. no one called him Dominic, and I cant even recall anyone calling him Dom. A lot of people called him “Mr. Brown” but that was an inside joke kinda thing.

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  15. that was in response to
    ****Does anyone call him Dom Brown in real life and, Darn, this would have been a good question for Schwim when they were both on Clearwater.****

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  17. How good of a catcher is Tim Kennelly? Is that his future? Last night two steals were successful on Pedro with a Kennelly throwing error. Last off season he played right field in the Aussie State tournament. Joel Naughton is the primary catcher at Clearwater where I saw Kennelly play first base earlier in the season and where he also made starts catching, left, right, and third. If he could play SS and 2b the Phils might have a ML bench prospect.

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  18. Jonathan Singleton got his first professional HR today for the GCL phils and Domingo Santiago got the other RBi for them. they’re both doing real well.

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  19. Marlon Mitchell is also back in the lineup today. He hasn’t played much in August, I hope he’s alright.

    As for my boy Kennelly being a catcher, I’m glad they’re giving him a chance to catch every day. This is the only way to find out if he can do it. I just wish they’d been giving him this chance all along! If he can stick back there, he becomes a much more interesting prospect like Jeff O said.

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  20. I can’t wait to see Mathieson up in the ‘pen. I always liked his approach to every AB, and his stuff seems to have responded very well to the surgery and subsequent rehab. It seems that our minor league relievers have really come alive this year (Schwim, Mathieson, Rosenberg, etc.). Great timing too with the myriad injuries that the big league bullpen has suffered. With all our guys making big strides, I really can’t wait until Spring Training next year to see who makes the roster (and Mathieson has got to get very serious consideration for a September call-up despite his relative lack of IP). BTW Rosenberg is on the frontpage of milb.com for his scoreless IP streak.

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  21. Thanks for that, Schwim.

    Re: Kennelly, while it would certainly help his prospect status if he could stay behind the plate, I wouldn’t at all mind see him being just adequate back there but able to play a lot of positions. Guys like Willie Bloomquist give NL clubs a lot of versatility, so if Kennelly can dabble at C, OF, and some 3B and 1B, he could prove to be a nice bench guy (if his bat continues to develop).

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  22. gregg do you know how barnes did last night. also hows his season going. i,d really like to see kennelly get more time at 3rd.maybe we can have a future infielder.

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  23. Rosenberg should be double-jumped to Reading next year. If he continues his success there, he could possibly give our bullpen a boost down the stretch in 2010. Mid 90s heat from a low sidearm/submarine arm slot is just nasty and would give opposing batters a completely different look in the late innings. Is he especially tough on right-handed hitters? You’d think so.

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  26. Rodeo makes a good point – a lot of the questions posted on here could be answered through a quick look at some minor league websites. For example, you can look up players on http://www.milb.com and find their split stats. Going to Rosenberg’s page (http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=543725) shows that lefties are hitting .233 against him and righties .179.

    I also find that http://www.thebaseballcube.com has solid historical data. For example, you can see on JA Happ’s page (http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/H/James-Happ.shtml) that he always had high strikeout rates in the minors. After seeing that, then you would not be surprised when he gets strikeouts in the majors too.

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  27. Thanks Rodeo! That’s a great site. I’ve been going to Minorleaguebaseball.com every morning/night for updates but this saves me a ton of clicking! (And for those of you that haven’t used rodeo’s site you can click the heading of each game and it will take you to the full boxscore). Thanks again!

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  28. Singleton with OPS over 1.1 now. Small sample size (32 ABs) but beats a struggling debut and very encouraging. We have had a few hots starts by guys, but he has pedigree also. With 2-3 more signings, could this draft wind up producing more Phillies than last year? (Throw a bucket of water on me!)

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  29. thanks rodeo great info. lee looks like the perfect phillie. you can tell he,s a happy guy.

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  32. No problem guys, it’s been tossed out on here before and I’m a devotee of the site, or really that page. It just makes following the whole org a lot easier. I was doing what you were doing SteveB and you’re right, it’s a pain!

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  35. Even with the somewhat disappointing starts of Hewitt and Collier, the 2008 draft looks really spectacular so far – Gose, May, Worley, Stutes, Schwimer, Susdorf, Pettibone, Julio Rodriguez, Mike Cisco and we don’t even know what we have with Cosart and Shreve.

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  36. Squire—-

    You are right and remember both Hewitt and Collier have flashed real talent. Very raw but talent.

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  39. Looks like they might be converting Hyatt to a starter in Williamsport. 5IP, 9K’s, 1ER so far tonight.

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  42. May just tried to field a ball up the middle with his bare hand. He was taken out of the game, but was also over 100 pitches.

    He was pitching pretty good again. Was kind of getting dinked and dunked.

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  44. They didn’t say. The announcer was just kind of saying it might have been his pitch count as well. He did say it looked like he was in pain. Hopefully it’s nothing bad.

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  46. “baxter Says:
    August 6, 2009 at 1:32 pm
    Rosenberg should be double-jumped to Reading next year. If he continues his success there, he could possibly give our bullpen a boost down the stretch in 2010. Mid 90s heat from a low sidearm/submarine arm slot is just nasty and would give opposing batters a completely different look in the late innings. Is he especially tough on right-handed hitters? You’d think so.”

    Actually, he was double-jumped to Reading today (according to a reliable poster at philliesphans). Maybe Schwim gets jumped to Lehigh Valley soon, too.

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  47. Rosenberg throws over the top. 93-96 mph with a nasty slider 82-85. Fantastic mechanics. And a nice change that he throws rarely, but can if needed. Did I mention the 0.89 era?

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  48. I’ll give you a first hand account tonight. 6-0 loss, mostly due to the awful pitching of Briaz Mazone. Dialed his fastball all the way up to 87 mph at times, and the AAA Yankees’ offense is too disciplined not to take advantage.

    Michael Taylor looked good. 1-4 but two of his outs were hard hit liners right to the outfield. He looked shaky though and almost made an outfield throwing error trying to make a miracle out at the plate. He did collect an outfield assist. His throw beat the runner by several steps but the play was made close by catcher Hoover bobbling the ball.

    I’d have little else to report that isn’t already known. Miguel Cairo played short but fielded no tough grounders. For the flak that Jason Ellison gets, he has as much range as any Phillies player at that level. Overholt threw hard but erratic.

    For some reason the ‘pigs are absolutely helpless against the baby Yankees.

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  51. I really like how the organization is pushing guys. It’s unfair to criticize them for not bringing up players after a few good games. The callups this year have been timed well and usually to a good amount of success. The demotions of Collier and Valle show that they’re not afraid to let the kids fail either. In addition to the past two years of good drafting philosophy, challenging the prospects seems like a sign of continued success ahead.

    Any confusion about why Rosenberg would be jumped over Schwimer can be easily explained by the fact that there’s only about a month of season left and having BJ acclimate himself to the Florida sun seems worthless at this point since he’ll start next year in Reading anyway. Those two at the back of the R-Phils bullpen will be a nice thing to see.

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  53. Wow, that’s good new about Rosenberg – that article says his career minor league ERA is below 1. That’s pretty dominant. Is it pretty ununsual to double jump someone during the season? I can’t think of it happening before.

    – Jeff

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  54. I say that First Inning thing does not give all that’s needed to know. The cumulative batting average in the boxscore might be needed to know. A ready link to see who is still on the team roster and the cumulative season statistics for all players and the League Transactions may be needed to know also. http://www.milb.com is the way to go.

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  55. Hyatt- Phillies minor league pitcher of month this month.
    31.1 innings and 1 run allowed (on a HR) was the stat Seen as most noteworthy. There are others.

    The Rosenberg Double jumped to AA. Does this mean that Schwimer and the other guy should be Double Jumped to AAA next season. It may be they prefer more veteran options for the team closest to MLB.

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  56. im totally amazed that you guys come up with these sites. how in the hell do you find these places. marfis i agree about cumlative season stats but its like trying to figure out e=mc 2 to go to whats needed. rodeos site is easy but it only gives the dailies.

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  57. Well on the minor league site you can find it easier, I think , if you move the arrow up top to the “find team” section and when you slide the arrow over “find team” you go down to “by affiliation’ and when you get to the page you go down to the Phillies section. Then you click the teams wanted and click on to what you need from the team page. I don’t know if people know that, and it will take some time to get through all the affiliates, but I think it is easier than E=mc2.

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  58. I frequently use the minor league section of baseball-reference. Every time I try and link it though, the comment disappears. Are the spam filters wiping them out?

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  59. Hey I’m just curious– with all of “Dr. Brown”‘s athletic ability and speed, how come he plays right field? With everything I read about him he sounds like he should be able to play center….. anyone know why?

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  60. Would guess it’s because he arm fits better in RF and the Phillies have a number of fast CF candidates in their system.

    I agree that his value goes up even more if he can play CF AND give them corner OF offense…

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  61. Yea that was kind of my thought process…. his value is deffinitely maximized in center and from there if he fills an ML need at a corner spot the transition isn’t difficult. Not to mention having a center fielder with a cannon is never a bad thing. And our fast CT prospects aren’t exactly knocking down the door or anything.

    He seems to have all the tools to be in center– does he have poor fielding instincts and take bad routs or something?

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  62. The reads in right field are more difficult to learn than center. Brown has the arm to play right field and the athleticism to play center. Working the right corner prepares him to transition between the two easier.

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  64. I would imagine the phillies also feel there is the potential for some speed diminishment if Brown puts on some adult pounds. He certainly has the speed now but might be more suited for right if he becomes heavier. He is exciting to watch.

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  65. his size 6’6″ may have something to do with it. very few cf,ers are that tall. generally a smaller player with the same speed will get the cf spot. beginning acceleration,

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  66. Yea the size is a good point- but Werth for instance is a big guy but is perfectly adaquate in center.

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  67. yeah skunk but given the choice werth is a rf,er, while the smaller short striding vic is a picture of a center fielder. i guess its great vs. very good. the thing that struck me about brown is how atheletic he is. you can definately see the difference beyween him and taylor. i,ve always put my money on taylor but seeing brown was an enlightenment. i can definately see the similarity to strawberry, of course 50 lb,s lighter.

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  68. Does anybody know what happened to May last night? I know that he tried to field a ball with his bare hand and then left the game. Was he injured?

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  71. i dont know, but he looks promising. he,s 22 i think. i just checked marson and donald on bb ref. and so far their not tearing it up. carrasco is 2-0 with a 6.5 era and 11 k,s 0 bb,s.

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  72. From Kevin Goldstein, an abbreviated version.
    Austin Hyatt, RHP, Phillies (Short-season Williamsport)

    The shocker here is that his fastball is suddenly up to 94 and he has been the New York-Penn League’s most dominating arm. Also mentions a good change up.

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  73. jeremy barnes, ss williamsport, is hitting .314 with 3 hr,s and an ops of .870. unfortunately he has 14 errors.

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  74. That adds up to lots of errors on the left side of the infield—Hewitt is closing in on 20 over at third.
    Good thing for hyatt that he strikes out so many.

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  75. The silver lining is that Hewitt hopefully has a good amount of range being a great athlete and those errors are partly due to him getting to balls.

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  77. I am of the impression that alot of Hewitt’s errors are throwing errors, and might simply be a factor of bad footwork. It seems when a player at another position moves to 3rd they seem to get some throwing errors.

    On a negative side for Hewitt, though he gets the opportunity to improve this, After toning down the strikeouts for a while, he has seemed to hit another patch of strikeouts with , by my count , around 7 in last 2 games.

    In other strikeout related news, Domingo Santana has really tailed off in strikeouts the last few game, been getting hits, and is now batting around .282. Even with the still high strikeout rate.

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  78. Since this still appears to be the operative Daily Discussion, How about a Phillies Prospect Alumni note:
    I see Jorge Padilla finally made it to MLB with the Washington Nationals. Story seemed to say he was Phillies #7 prospect in 1998. Still only 29.

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  79. marfis i saw the game against the cycones and hewitt was a wild man. i hope he calms down.

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  81. That’s a good link on Vincente Padilla. Marlon Byrd appears to be critical. I will check the Williamsport schedule to see when they go to State College, then I might know something.

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  82. Trying point out that that is exactly the kind of player the Phillies don’t draft anymore then lie for years about his attitude.

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  83. Mathieson would be a good Sept callup. Should be in the mix for next season, possiby to take over from Lidge?

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