Freddy Galvis promoted to AA

Galvis, Freddy

According to Todd Zolecki’s twitter, Freddy Galvis has been promoted to AA Reading. The reasoning for this escapse my grasp. Even if you concede that Galvis is a defensive wiz, he’s only 19, and he wasn’t hitting all that much in the FSL, where he was 2 years younger than the average prospect. Now he moves to AA, making one of the biggest jumps for a hitter, from A ball to AA. Your guess is as good (or better) as mine.

54 thoughts on “Freddy Galvis promoted to AA”

  3. Who was the SS at Reading? Maybe they wanted a better defensive SS to help out the pitchers, otherwise they’d change their pitching patters to induce more fly balls, which would hurt if they ever got to Philly.

    Otherwise, I have no idea.

  5. Is this just a direct result of Cairo being recalled? Is someone moving from AA to AAA? Are they abandoning the switch hitter experiment?

  6. Doesn’t make much sense. Maybe the Phils suspect he’s older than 19??? Unlikely, but I can’t think of another reason to do this.

  8. Rading just promoted their SS to AAA..all Scouting reports indicated Galvis can play in the Majors right now with this glove but doesnt hit much, therefore he wont be overmatched defensively, like Bruntlett is in the majors !!!!

  9. Along with Leon going up to AAA, Harman was put on the disabled list. Reading only has 15 games left.

  12. I am excited that I can see him play again—-Reading is close—Clearwater not so easy 🙂
    I think he will provide some thrill over the next 15 games.

  13. Reading only has two middle infielders on the roster: Ozzie Chavez and Galvis.
    They should have activated Clearwater Batting Coach Kevin Jordan to play some 2B!

    Galvis is batting .214 (.262 SLG) in his last 10 games in A.

  14. It’s the equivalent of a September callup to the majors for higher level minor leaguers. A 15 game audition for next year can’t hurt. I’m looking forward to seeing him.

  15. Freddy was hitting .274 in August at Clearwater with a 5 game hitting streak before the call up. He is worth the price of admission to watch in the field.

  17. Galvis now enters trade fodder territory. The better he becomes, and hits, the more he’ll bring when the Phils need to acquire another Cliff Lee type.

  19. You got it, HLH. He’s played 9 years and has 1500 hits. Another 9 and he’ll be saying hello to Roberto Clemente, the Hall’s gatekeeper.

  21. Oh, and I forgot to mention that he’ll end up as one of the greatest run scorers of all-time.

  22. Echoing HLH somewhat, perhaps they are preparing Galvis to be the starting SS in 2011. According to Cots, Rollins is owed $8.5M in 2011 with a $2M buyout; the Phillies seem to be a bit frustrated with Rollins so maybe they’d be willing to eat the $2M or shop what would probably be a reasonable, one-year contract with many takers.

    Or, maybe they want to see really quickly if Galvis is the real deal so they know sooner what they need to do regarding Rollins.

  24. Reading seems to be doing everything they can not to make the playoffs. Team has absolutely no heart.

  25. I dont see Galvis ever starting on the Phillies. I hope I’m wrong. And barring a colossal drop off, that option will be exercised. Jimmy’s glove alone is worth that money (as this year’s 1st half showed).

  27. After the trade for Lee. I was wondering where Harmon and Galvis were in the pipeline.

    With two weeks left, let Galvis see some higher level pitching. I liked Chavez when I saw him recently. Will Galvis get any at bats if Chavez starts?

  28. Appears to simply be a numbers game. The organization is short on middle IF prospects and Galvis is moving to fill an immediate hole.

    No doubt he begins 2010 back in A+ ball…

  30. What can it hurt to look at him for 2 weeks. Depending where he plays over the winter he could still start in Reading next year.

  32. slate got released b/c he missed curfew twice and they didn’t want to deal with his crap anymore.

  33. Galvis’ hitting numbers may actually look a hair better in Reading. Clearwater is an awfully difficult place to hit.

  34. I saw Reading in New Britain last night. Since the thread started with Galvis, I’ll give you my impressions. I was with my 17 year old son and Galvis is smaller than he is. He looked like a baby out there. He had a seeing eye single to right (batting right-handed) in his first AA at bat. The next two times up were weak grounders batting right-handed. In his last AB, he switched around to the left-side. The pitcher was throwing 91 – 92 and he looked overmatched. With 2 strikes he grounded back to the pitcher but it was a defensive swing. At SS, he’s a smooth as glass. Mahar does not look good at 1B but he didn’t have to do anything when Freddy threw the ball. Galvis was confident and taking charge out there. I was hoping to see a DP turned by Reading defense was all thumbs. There were two really good chances but Zagurski bobbled a bunt and Mahar muffed a 3–6–1 chance.

    Other impressions of the game. Flande started and was not in sync. In the 1st two innings he gave up 6 H and 4 runs. They were hard hits including a long double. He also BB one guy. He settled down a bit after that but there were some hard hit balls off him. He left after walking the 1st two guys in the 5th. His off-speed stuff was not working last night. In the 1st two innings, I don’t think he had a strike with the anything other than a fastball. NB was just waiting on the old #1. He topped out at 92MPH. He was consistently 90-92 on the fastball. As I said his off-speed stuff wasn’t working and was always around 84MPH. He threw 1 curve ball that had a NB batter shaking his head but other than that he had nothing going. He was having trouble from the stretch. When he had guys on base, he seemed to lose a little bit on the FB and the breaking stuff wasn’t working. I’m not down on him. He was battling. He just didn’t have it going last night.

    I’ll say something for Schwimlocity. Flande didn’t have it. He’d throw 92 and it didn’t look much different than the 84MPH. I’d look at the radar-gun reading and scratch my head, wondering how a certain pitch was 92. NB was on top of him all night. The opposing pitcher, Mullins, never got over 87 but his pitches seemed to be getting to the plate faster. Reading hitters were off stride all night. His off-speed stuff was in the mid to high 70s and Reading had a hard time picking up what was coming.

    Kennelly caught last night. He did a nice job blocking balls in the dirt and moving around behind the plate BUT he looked terrible on a foul pop fly. It was a high foul that was halfway between the plate and screen. He set up well but you could see he wasn’t comfortable while he waited for the ball to come down. He botched the catch for an error. Luckily, it didn’t matter but that’s a play he has to work on to be a catcher.

    Domonic Brown is a big kid. NB was careful with him all night. He went 2-5 with a RBI. In the 8th with 2 on, NB brought in a lefty specialist to pitch to him. On a 2-2 count, he seemed to lean into a pitch and didn’t look like he swung at a pitch in the dirt but the home plate umpire called him out. I was directly behind homeplate but it didn’t look like a swing to me (it’s not the place to try to make that call from). Roadcap came halfway down the line at 3rd yelling the ump. He got tossed and was never within 40 feet of the ump. I heard him yell that that it wasn’t a HP umps call. He should have asked the ump on the left-side of the infield for help. I don’t know what over pleasantries he yelled but Roadcap was restrained in his argument. I was waiting to see his arm and there was 1 play where I thought he’d get to use it. There was a NB guy on 2nd and a high fly ball to Brown. It was definitely deep enough to take a shot at picking up the base but the guy didn’t even attempt it.

    Concepcion looked pretty good but my biggest pitching no-no came to haunt him. He walked a guy and then gave a big HR that was still going up when it went out of the ball park. Walks will kill you. Zagurski was unimpressive to me. He was throwing at 90MPH and it didn’t seem to have any pop to it. He walked a guy and was visibly disgusted with himself. He started popping the glove at 92 with one FB at 93 after that. He started out looking like a guy who was planning on a long outing instead of coming in to pitch to 3 or 4 guys. After he walked that guy, he looked like a reliever on a mission. But he needed Chance Chapman to bail him out for the last out.

    Over all I have to agree with someone who wrote above, that Reading didn’t look like a team trying to get into the playoffs. They had 14 hits and only 3 runs. Most of the hits were excuse me pops over the infield or seeing-eye grounders. Brown has a nice shot on one of his hits but also hit into a DP. There were all kinds of rally killing plays.

  35. Thanks for the write-up Bellman. Interesting information on Flande’s stuff.

    Galvis called up because he can play the possition. We really don’t have anyone else. We’re very thin at infield. We’ll need to sign some veteran bodies this winter so we can field teams next year.

  36. interesting note, Brian Gump was just promoted to Lakewood for the remainder of the season. Great chance to prove to the brass that he can stick around.

  37. If you look in the boxscore thing from yesterday, I predicted they would call somebody from A(A) because Carlos Leon went to AAA and Harman was placed on the DL. Galvis hits fine for a good defense SS, and his hitting will improve with playing time due to repetitions. Even maintaining the current hitting level at higher levels and maintaining the defensive prowess Galvis is MLB quality. The list of current MLB Middle Infielders with a batting average below even the current minor league stats of Galvis would take alot of space. Galvis will eventually make the MLB given the current levels of progress. In fact, if, the Phillies should make the playoffs, and , God Forbid, Jimmy Rollins should suffer a long-term injury in said playoffs, Galvis will be up there , right then. Who else would they use in that situation? Eric Bruntlett? Miguel Cairo? Brad Harman? Any of the career minor leaguers at AA and AAA?

  38. Thanks for the first-hand accoint, Bellman. I think this type of account by an observant, knowledgeable and analytical person adds a lot. Keep it coming.

    Question: Does Galvis look like the type of kid who can keep hitting the weight room and develop some strength and girth–and maybe hit the ball with more authority as he grows?

  39. Would anybody consider shifting J-Roll to 3rd in a few years if Galvis is legit? Obviously you don’t move a GG SS in his prime to 3rd, but in a few more years I could see his range deteriorating. Just a thought…not a recommendation or a prediction based off the lack of top flight 3baggers in the system.

  40. “Would anybody consider shifting J-Roll to 3rd in a few years if Galvis is legit?”

    Problem with that: Rollins right now is roughly a ML average hitter (lower this year, but fairly consistantly over the past 5 years, with one year better and this year worse) and GG SS. That’s a very valuable commodity – his salary is really a bargain. But a slightly below average ML hitter (assume a slight age related decline) and average defense third baseman (assume defensive decline based upon age and position shift) is barely above replacement value.

    Shorter version: the offensive expectation of thirdbasemen are higher than shortstops; generally speaking, the few shortstops who make that position switch are much better offensive players than Rollins.

    I would expect that they will fill the third base opening in 2011 with a FA or trade.

    I do see Rollins (for better or worse, probably better assuming a gradual (as opposed to sharp) age related decline) as the Phillies SS for the next 5 years (assuming reasonable contract demands after the current deal expires).

  41. DiamondDerby, I’m certainly no expert but Galvis is listed at 5’10” and 154 pounds or so, can add a few pounds of muscle. I saw him next to Ozzie Chavez, who’s listed at 6’1″ 160. Ozzie looks much bigger & more solid and at the plate he appeared to have a plan. This was Freddy’s 1st game in AA so he might have been tentative but he looked significantly overmatched. His last at bat, the pitcher went right after him. He fired the fastball and challenged Galvis to hit it. I thought to myself that he should either stand in there and take his cuts or do some sort of slap thing like Ichiro. He was defensive in his swings. He was also the only guy without a name on his uniform. They didn’t have time to get it on there yet.

    Dom Brown needs a new pair of pants. He had a hole, the size of a baseball, in the back of his leg. I forgot to mention that Brown had a SB. It looked like a run and hit situation. He started slowly, like he was expecting the hitter to hit it. The ball was down and in so the batter didn’t swing. Dom hit another gear and snuck in under the tag. Not sure how a 6’5″ guy sneaks anywhere. It was an awkward slide. He could use some time with Lopes.

    Also there were two shots, one by Spidale and 1 by Kennelly, that were doubles off the bat. Both guys decided not to take the chance on the extra base. If Spidale had gone for it and made it, it would have been a run in the 1st for sure. Kennelly’s was a great play by the NB CF’er to cut down a gapper. This was another reason I said the team didn’t look like it wanted to get into the playoffs.

    On a side note, there were a ton of people wearing Phillies hats, jerseys and other stuff at the game. I saw a family that had 4 or 5 kids. The mom, dad and 3 of the kids were decked out in Phillies stuff. The youngest kid was around 3 and he had a Red Sox outfit on it. I guess he was the “black sheep” in the family. I didn’t wear my Phils stuff. I wanted a “Phuture Phillies” shirt to display that I was going to blog about my trip to the game.

  43. Why? They could have sent him anyway as their one exception, unless there is someone else in A ball they want to use that exception on? Doesn’t Venezula have it’s own winter league anyway?

  44. Thanks for the update wildcat. I wonder if he’ll have “diversity day” on the lakewood bus?

  45. I think the Venezula league was suspended last year because of unrest. This year, I have no idea.

  47. They want to send him to the AFL, and not use the “A-ball player” spot. So…promote him to AA…

  48. mikemike, if you’re reading, nice call on the Gump double-jump. Congrats to Freddy and Brian for their promotions!

  49. He goes up because Leon went to AAA and Reading needs a SS. This is like deja vu. The last time Reading was in the playoffs, Anderson Machado came up to play SS about this time in the season. He was that era’s Galvis, a poor bat but a glove already described as major league quality. He was a faster runner than Galvis, though. He hit well in Reading that year, but in his full year at Reading the next season he was back to Machado of the woeful bat and was eventually traded. Did make it to the major leagues, however, if only briefly.

  53. I attended the Reading @ New Britain game on Sunday (after being at the Phils-Mets game Saturday night and will be going to Pittsburgh tomorrow night– my wife is the best!). Anyway, Sellers had to play 2B due to the shortage of middle infielders. I thought he did a nice job there though he isn’t exactly built like a 2nd sacker. I assume this is the only reason for the Galvis move.

  54. and, thanks to small sample sizes combined with my phanatiscism, i will be super pumped and calling galvis the nextCal Ripken until he stops hitting like that.

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