A middle of the road, 3-3 week for Lehigh Valley, who now stand at 54-57, 9 games out of first place in the Northern Division of the International League. ‘Pig league leaders include Andy Tracy who is 8th in runs (57), 4th in homers (18), 2nd in RBI’s (67), and leading the league in walks (52).Mike Cervenak is 8th in RBI’s (57). On the mound, Andrew Carpenter is 3rd in the league in wins (9), 7th in ERA (2.72), 7th in IP (119), 9th in WHIP (1.20) and 9th in strikeouts (94). Kyle Kendrick is 5th in starts (20) and 8th in IP (118).
08/03/09–Joe Savery (1-0) got the win in his first AAA start as the ‘Pigs beat Rochester 10-4 on Monday evening. Savery was effective in that he only gave up one run, but had a strange line, going 6 innings, giving up a run on 4 hits. He walked five and didn’t strike out a batter. Lehigh Valley scored single runs in the 2nd (Hoover RBI single) and 3rd (Taylor RBI double), before a five run fourth inning put the game away for the ‘Pigs. In the fourth, a 3 run double by Mike Cervenak and RBI double by Paul Hoover were the big blows. Lehigh Valley added three more in the sixth (2 run double by Tiffee) to close out their scoring. David Newhan and Paul Hoover each had 3 hits for the ‘Pigs, while Rich Thompson and Terry Tiffee added 2 apiece.
08/04/09–Andrew Carpenter picked up his 9th win of the year in the ‘Pigs 7-4 win over Rochester, taking 3 games in the four game series. Carpenter went 6 innings, giving up 4 runs (2 earned) on 6 hits. He walked one and struck out 6. The ‘Pigs jumped out to a 3-0 lead on an RBI triple by Andy Tracy and a Rochester error before the RedWings bounced back to take a 4-3 lead after a costly Miguel Cairo error. Lehigh Valley took the lead back for good with a three run seventh keyed by a two run double by David Newhan and RBI double by Mike Cervenak. Jason Anderson came in to pitch a scoreless 1.1 innings, earning his 4th save of the year. Miguel Cairo returned to the lineup after missing about a week injured and had 3 hits. David Newhan had his second conseuctive three hit game.
08/05/09–OFF
08/06/09–The ‘Pigs opened a 4 game series against Scranton (2 on the road followed by 2 at home) on Thursday evening and were trounced by Scranton 6-0. Brian Mazone (1-4) lasted only 4 innings, giving up 5 runs on 9 hits. Nothing to report offensively for Lehigh Valley other than a multi hit night for John Mayberry.
‘Pig Prospects–Michael Taylor had a week in which he went 5-23 (.217) with a homer and 6 RBI’s. You can’t really argue with the run production this week, even with the low batting average as his AAA adjustment continues. On the AAA year, Taylor is hitting .243/.341/.419 with 3 HR and 11 RBI in 70 at bats. Still far too early for any real judgment other than too say that even while hitting only .243 he really impresses me with both his attitude and athleticism. He has reached base in 17 of his 20 games in Lehigh Valley.
Andrew Carpenter had a solid outing picking up his 9th win of the year Tuesday night. He went 6 innings giving up just 2 earned runs while striking out 9. He is now 9-2 with a 2.72 ERA in his 19 starts, the opposition hitting just .245 against him (.239 with RISP). With the new found plethora of starting pitching in Philly the prospective role for Carpenter has changed this year from potential emergency starter to September callup, but he has done nothing but help his potential major league job prospects whether in Philadelphia or elsewhere
Joe Savery–has an interesting first AAA outing in which he gave up just a run over 6 innings earning his 13th victory of the minor league season. It was interesting in that he walked five and didn’t strike out a batter. Control issues have been nothing new for Savery who must improve his peripherals if he expects continued success in AAA and above. I like his guile and competitiveness and that gets someone a long way, just not to the big leagues without better control.
John Mayberry has been struggling since returning from Philly and beginning to get reular playing time in RF for the ‘Pigs. Mayberry was 5-24 (.208) on the week and struck out 7 times in those 19 at bats. He has fallen to .252/.332/.456 on the year with 8 HR and 31 RBI and average of .267 with RISP.
Notes: Andy Tracy had a 10 game hitting streak snapped on Thursday night, while Mike Cervenak has hit in 14 of the last 16.
–In his last 20 outings with Lehigh Valley, Jason Anderson has a 1.65 ERA and 4 saves and has become one of, if not their most dependable relievers.
Phuture Phillies 
I thought dearth meant shortage. From what I read, many don’t think there’s a shortage of starting pitching in Philly at this exact moment. I don’t have Carpenter as a Call-Up due to the excess veterans that can slip into September roster overages and the need to a add a couple of Left Handed Relievers.
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Carpenter is already on the 40-man roster and has been to Philly a few times this year. There is no reason not to call him up, even if he doesn’t pitch.
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“I thought dearth meant shortage.”
It does.
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Worry quotient on Michael Taylor hitting: 0%
He typically needs some weeks to adjust to a new setting and then takes off. He will likely do the same in majors, so I hope they are patient with him in 2010/11 and bring him up when they can put him at #7.
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With the position players the Phillies will need to add and the excess veteran pitchers I say wiil still be there, and the option of adding a couple of Left Handed pitchers I say that spells no room at the Inn for Carpernter. The reason to not call him up is to not have an excess surplus of players and waste money. There are also other players already on the 40 man roster and who have been called to Philly in the course of the season. Should they all be called up?
The reason the “thought dearth was shortage’ thing was inserted was because the article seemed to imply Dearth was thought of as surplus or the writer thought there was a shortage of starting pitching when most would say there would soon be 6 starters in Philly and most say 6 is enough at least.
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The only reason not to call up Carpenter in September is if the Ironpigs make a surprise playoff run. There’s really no downside to the move.
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Having watched Taylor twice in Atlanta and last night on MILB.com (small fee) I can say that in each of those three games he hit the ball on the screws, but had balls played exceptionally well or right at them for outs. To my count 4-5 of the balls he put in play across those 3 games could easily been recorded as hits.
John Mayberry also hit the ball well last night and probably had a homerun to center pushed back in by the wind.
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Lehigh Valley game will be broadcast tonight on MILB.com.
The Fee is $6.95
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5- current starters-Lee, Hamels, Blanton, Happ, Moyer
+5RH releif with injury returns -Madson, Lidge, C. Durbin, Park, Condrey
+2 spots added on past September 1 – Myers, P. Martinez
+2 LH relief with injury returns (J.C.Romero, Eyre)
+2 LH add-ons to bolster Left side (Bastardo, Escalona)
+13 current position players
+ at least 5 positional call-ups ( I say: T. Gradoville, M. Cairo,D. Newhan, M.Cervenak, J. Mayberry)
That’s my projections to expand to 34 September 1. I don’t think they go much higher than that. Seldom have . Given the 16 pitchers (and if you don’t add the 2 Lefties it is 14) and there would likely be at least 6 RH releivers available after September 1, either way. Does Carpenter really warrant being an extra bullpen piece and would get enough work and do well enough to warrant usage. I think not. We will see.
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In a bit of a side note.
I was a big supporter for Mike Arbuckle being GM over Amaro. Arbuckle may be a great GM someday but Amaro has been great for the Phillies. I couldn’t be happier with what he has done not only for the big club, but also the care and respect he shows for the farm system and its players.
I caught this quote on Philly.com this morning:
Amaro was asked whether he’d received some congratulatory phone calls. He squirmed uneasily, then went on long and hard about all the help he received.
“We don’t do this to receive congratulations,” he said, finally. “We do this to win games, man.”
Amaro is doing the right things and saying the right things.
Leadership makes a difference and it seems we’ve got a good one.
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Marfis, four of those position players you mentioned are not on the 40 man roster. In order to add any player to the 40-man, the Phils would either need to release a player or move one to the 60 day DL. Would they really risk losing talent so they could have a third utility infielder on the roster for a month? I doubt it. Mayberry and Joel Naughton will get called up. Naughton probably would not play but they would like to keep an emergency catcher handy. Beyond that, I doubt they will trouble themselves much to make roster moves just to have extra backups handy.
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Surprised they called up Kennelly to catch at AA while Tuffy is out rather than Naughton. Guess they want to see if he could fill the Sept., 3rd catching role since they dumped Coste plus his ability to play the corner positions adds value. But fully expect that the only catcher in the minor league system with ML experience AAA catcher Paul Hoover will get the Sept. call up as soon as rosters expand.
Would not be surprised if Harman gets dropped from the 40 man to make way for Kennelly or Hoover. Harman’s strength, his fielding, is starting to drop off with recent errors and his hitting is hard to watch. Of the 70 or so who qualify in the EL batting race Harman’s .205 average is 69th and next to last. His homers have dropped from 17 last year to 5 so far this year. He hit .147 in July and is currently 0 for August. After two seasons at AA and over 900 plate appearances all under the watchful eye of AA batting instructor Frank Cacciatore it might be time for Harman to move elsewhere.
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Truly a shame about Harman. He actually impressed Charlie Manuel with his hitting (ability to drive the ball in his brief stay with the parent club) and could have projected as a replacement for Bruntlett, but seems to increasingly lost ability to make contact.
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My SAT’s were taken along time ago…I will be changing the word “dearth” to the word “plethora”
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Off Topic:
Acknowledgement to Neil Sellers for his efforts during July. Playing in 28 games he had 109 ABs and recorded a tremendous 42 hits with 8 2B, 2 3B, and 4 HRs! He scored 17 times and knocked in 16. His BA was .385 and he had an OBP of .433 and SLG of .606 and OPS of 1.039.
Outstanding output over the course of one month.
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Was at the game last night and have to agree with what everyone has said about Harman. He looks completely lost. He started out the year poor, but then got it together for a few weeks, but then went right into the tank again.
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Marfis…I see your point on Carpenter. I still think he’ll be on the team after September though. Regarding position players, there is no way any of those, with the exception of Mayberry, are on the team after 9/1. There just isn’t room on the 40-man for those guys. You’re more likely to see Harmon than Cairo.
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Phil:
Your assessment is correct. In my view, Ruben Amaro has aced his first set of tests as a GM. I am impressed for the same reasons you are – he wants to win now, but respects the importance of the system. Like his predecessor, he also believes in redundancy. By that I mean having more resources than one might otherwise believe are necessary to accomplish a given task. The current six man rotation issue is evidence of that approach. He didn’t come right out and say it, but when folks were questioning what he might do with Jamie Moyer, his response, stripped of the polite veneer, was, basically, “look, we want to win another World Series, I have great respect for Jamie Moyer and for Pedro Martinez, but we need to win this and if what I do has the incidental effect of insulting somebody, well, sorry, but we’ve got to put the team first.” That’s exactly the right answer.
A few other things have impressed me.
First, he completely quashed the J.A. Happ back to the bullpen rumor. I think Charlie couldn’t figure out what to do. I believe Ruben politely reminded Charlie that J.A. Happ has been, without question, his best starter this year, and the team needs its best starter to start.
Second, Ruben’s grace and vision under fire during the Roy Halladay sweepstakes was amazing. Most impressive was his ability to shake off Pat Gillick and others inside the organization to get to a deal that was much better for the team in the long run and perhaps even the short run (where would they be without J.A. Happ right now? And the Francisco side of the trade is already paying dividends with added depth).
I still love the Pedro move. I think Pedro still can be a very, very effective pitcher for at least 5 or 6 innings. If he pans out, a rotation of Lee, Blanton, Hamels, Martinez and Happ is as good as this team has put on the field since at least 1993 (Schilling, Mulholland, Jackson, Greene and Rivera) and probably since the 1970s. But, what if it doesn’t work? So what? How much have they lost by risking this? Other than some spare cash, this move presents nothing but upside. I love it.
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By the way, I want to apologize for the placement of the last blog in this chain – this was a chain about the AAA team and my response should have been in the daily discussion section. I am not sorry for the entry itself, but it’s placement was not well chosen and I want to let the author of the entry know that I do not want to take away from his fine work, which I very much appreciate.
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40 man roster issues: When the injured MLB pitchers all return; They will try to assign Rodrigo Lopez to the minors and he will refuse assignment or they will trade him. That’s one opening. Then you have the talent on the 40 man roster of Jack Taschner, Joseph Bisenius, Steven Register, and Tyler Walker who will likely be dropped as the injured relievers return. That will leave openings on the 40 man for Cairo, Newhan, Cervenak, Gradoville (who is the best choice for 3rd catcher) Mayberry (who is already on the 40 man roster), so I will also add OF Rich Thompson. They Will do something like that. They did the same last season with Cervenak, Andy Tracy, and some others. They do it every year.
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