Lehigh Valley– End of Season Report

7. Lehigh Valley

Before we get to the final Lehigh Valley report of 2009, a huge thank you goes out to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs Media Relations Staff.  ‘Pig broadcasters/Media Relations Director Matt Provence and Jon Schaeffer were very helpful during this year and for that Phuture Phillies thanks you.  More specifically, without the near daily assistance  of Lehigh Valley Media Relations Assistant Tommy Viola, the information available to the readers of this website would have been drastically less.  Dealing daily with tv/radio/ print/blog media, in sometimes extremely stressful situations, Tommy’s availability (and good humor) and the importance he placed in ensuring everyone could do their respective jobs professionally can not be overstated.  Thank You.

Lehigh Valley finished their season at 71-73, in 3rd place of the Northern Division of the International League.

‘Pigs league leaders: Andy Tracy finished 4th in runs (76), 2nd in homers (26), 2nd in RBI’s (96) and led the league in walks(74); Mike Cervenak was 5th in hits (141), 5th in RBI’s (77), 8th in average (.305) and 3rd in doubles (36); Rich Thompson was 5th in triples (7) and 8th in stolen bases (26).  ANdrew Carpenter was 4th in Wins (11), , 3rd in IP (156), 6th in strikeouts (120), and 6th in ERA (3.35); Kyle Kendrick was 5th in ERA (3.34) and 3rd in WHIP (1.17).

Week in Review:

9/4/09–A doubleheader on Friday evening, pitting the decimated IronPigs against the more decimated Buffalo Bison, the Mets AAA affiliate.  In Game One, Joe Savery made his final start of the 2009 season and after a very rocky start, he settled down to pitch a good game in the Lehigh Valley4-1 victory.  Buffalo jumped on Savery for a run in the 2nd inning (he had thrown 52 pitches after 2 innings), but Lehigh Valley immediately bounced back with a three run bottom half (RBI singles Gosewisch, Thompson) to take a 3-1 lead.  Lehigh Valley tacked on a fourth run on a massive Andy Tracy (26) homer.  Meanwhile, after throwing 52 pitches through two innings, Savery threw 47 pitches through the next five  innings on the way to a seven inning complete game effort. Savery’s line: 7IP 5H 1 R 0ER 3BB 2K.  David Newhan was 2-3 for Lehigh Valley.

In Game Two, Rodrigo Lopez (7-5) got the call and threw a complete game, allowing just two runs on five hits in seven innings (shortened because of doubleheader).  He didnt walk a batter and struck out 5 in the Lehigh Valley 7-2 win.  The ‘Pigs opened the scoring in the 2nd on a David Newhan RBI double and added three more in the 4th on a two run single by JJ Furmaniak and yet another hit by Newhan, this time an RBI single. In the fifth, an Andy Tracy Sac Fly and John Mayberry’ 13th homer of the year extended the lead to 7-1, before the Bison scored a lone run in the 6th, for the 7-2 final.  Both Rich Thompson and Andy Tracy had two hits for Lehigh Valley, while David Newhan went 3-3 in Game Two, giving him a 5-6 night.

9/5/09–The late season struggles on Andrew Carpenter (see below) continued Saturday evening in the 6-4 Lehigh Valley loss to Buffalo. Carpenter (11-6) lasted 5.2 innings, giving up 4 runs on 10 hits.  Buffalo scored single runs in both the 1st and 2nd innings before the ‘Pigs scored two in the 3rd (Tracy RBi single) to tie the game up.  Buffalo again added single runs in the 5th and 6th, while Lehigh Valley cut that lead to 4-3 on a David Newhan sac fly in the 6th.  A two run 8th put the game away for the Bison. Another RBI single by Andy Tracy in the 9th led to the final 6-4 margin of victory for Buffalo.  Tracy, Furmaniak, Gosewisch and Ellison all had two hits for Lehigh Valle, who left 11 on base, while Mike Cervenak was the offensive star of the game going 4-5 with 2 runs scored, pushing his average above .300 with 2 games remaining in the season.

9/5/09–After losing scheduled starter Kyle Kendrick, OF John Mayberry and late scratch Andy Tracy it was a game with a make shift lineup and a “starter by committee” night in the 5-4 ‘Pig win against  Buffalo.  Joe Bisenius started and pitched better then he had in what had been an awful year for him, going three scoreless innings before yielding to the rest of the bullpen. Buffalo scored first, with a run in the 4th inning. Lehigh Valley bounced back with a run in the 5th and one more in the sixth on a Mike Cervenak solo homer (9) to take a 2-1 lead.  That lead held into the 9th, when Buffalo put a three spot on ‘Pigs closer Steven Register. Undeterred, the ‘Pigs put a three spot right back on the Bison in the bottom of the 9th, for the walk off win.  The key 9th inning hits were a Gus Milner (Playing in his first AAA game) RBI double and a two run, two out RBI double by JJ Furmaniak. Mike Cervenak was 4-5 for the second consecutive game  for Lehigh Valley, while both JJ Furmaniak,Tuffy Gosewisch  and Gus Milner had two hits apiece.

9/6/09–A two run, first inning double by Gus Milner was all Lehigh Valley needed in their 3-0 win against Buffalo in the last game of the 2009 season. Brian Mazone (2-6) got the start and was very strong, going 7 shutout innings, scattering 5 hits.  He didnt walk a batter and struck out 2.  The ‘Pigs added an insurance run in the 8th on a RBI double by David Newhan. Gary Majewski pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 5th save of the year.  Newhan and Jason Ellison both had two hit game for Lehigh Valley.

‘Pig Prospects–Michael Taylor ended the season having missed the seasons final three weeks on the disabled list with an oblique injury.  According to Phils GM Ruben Amaro, Taylor will be playing Winter Ball in Mexico, unless plans change.  Taylor had an excellent year, winning the Eastern League Rookie of the Year award during his time in Reading, and followed that up with the Paul Owens Award for the Phillies Minor League Hitter of the Year.  Having seen Taylor roughly a dozen times, he is a rare combination of speed, power and agility.  Additionally, he is someone who any organization would be proud to have represent them.  His final stats at Reading:  .333/.408/.569; 318 ABs; 15 HR 65 RBI; 18 SB; For Lehigh Valley: .282/.359/.491; 110 AB; 5HR 19 RBI; 3 SB; .287 with RISP;  His combined stats: .320/.395/.549; 20 HR 84 RBI; 21 SB in 116 games.

John Mayberry, Jr. ended his season hitting fairly well, at a .303 rate over his last 10 games.   On the year, .256/.332/.456 with 13 HR and 43 RBI in 316 AB’s.  He stole 6 bases, struck out 94 times (30% rate) and hit .237 with RISP.  His splits against LHP were at .296, as opposed to .243 against RHP.  Mayberry leaves the year, with the same issues he came into the year with, a very high strikeout rate.  While he provides power at times, Mayberry did not prove that he could hit even AAA pitching on a consistent enough basis to warrant a legitimate shot as a 4th OF for the Phils next year.  With the depth at the OF position in the Phils minor league system, the big club would be doing Mayberry a favor if they found a team to deal him to, and would be doing well to get a mid tier prospect in return.

Joe Savery–An awful outing against Syracuse (3.2 IP, 9H 6 ER, 4BB 2K,) followed by a very good outing against Buffalo (7IP 5 H 0ER 3BB 2K) to close out the season for Savery.  By and large Savery has been unimpressive for the ‘Pigs in his 7 starts, although he did go 4-2, with a 4.38 ERA. In 39 innings for Lehigh Valley, Savery walked 24 and struck out 19, with a WHIP  of 1.69.  Opponents hit .286 against him (.293 with RISP) In six of his seven starts, Savery gave up three walks or more.  Although his last start of the year was a step in the right direction, Savery must deal with the enourmous number of baserunners he allows.  He is often pitching in and out of trouble, something much easier to get away with in AAA then at the major league level.  Savery will have alot of work to do at the AAA level before major league consideration is warranted.

Kyle Kendrick finished the year in very impressive fashion, winning his last three starts with an ERA just over 2.  On the year, Kendrick, still only 25, was 9-7 with a 3.34 ERA in 24 starts, covering 143.0 innings.  He walked 35, struck out 62,and allowed 9 homers.  Opponents hit .250 against him, just .181 with RISP.  He finished among IL leaders in WHIP at 1.17.  His post all star break stats are even more impressive at 4-2 in 6 starts with a 2.90 ERA and 0.99 WHIP.  Having become somewhat of a whipping boy for Phillies fans (including myself at times), Kendrick simply did what was asked oh him this year, learning a change up and having success with it.  He kept a good attitude and probably surpassed Andrew Carpenter towards the end of the year as the most consistent pitcher on the Lehigh Valley staff.  He and Carpenter will surely be competing for spot as either a #5 starter or long reliever with the big club in Spring Training.

Andrew Carpenter finished off his season with two out of three rocky outings, maybe feeling some fatigue late in the season.  On the year Carpenter was 11-6 with a 3.35 ERA in 25 starts.  He threw 156 innings, walked 47 and struck out 120.  He gave up 18 homers, allowed opponents a .271 avg. (.255 with RISP) and had a WHIP of 1.33.  After a tough 2008 season, Carpenter put himself back on the prospect map this season throwing very consistently throughout the year.  While not overpowering,  his command, ability to throw multiple pitches for strikes and grit put him in a position to fight for a roster spot in Philly next season.

‘Pig Leaders: HR:Andy Tracy, 26 RBI: Andy Tracy, 95 R:  Andy Tracy, 76 AVG: Mike Cervenak, .305 SB:Rich Thompson, 26 2b: Mike Cervenak, 36 3B: Rich Thompson, 7 W: Andrew Carpenter, 11 IP: Andrew Carpenter, 156 K:   Andrew Carpenter, 120 WHIP: Kyle Kendrick 1.17 S:  Steven Register, 7 Assists:  Rich Thompson, 13.

Notes:Gustavo Chacin won 6 of the last 7 games  and went 6-1 with a 3.09 ERA in his last 12 starts of the season.

With two four hit games during the last week of the season, Mike Cervenak ended this season at .305.

Joe Bisenius made his first start since June of 2005 on Sunday.

WIth two OF assists on Sunday, Rich Thompson took over the team lead in assists with 13.

Outfielder Gus Milner, called up from Single A Clearwater on Sunday, had 4 RBI’s in his first two AAA games.

A player who saved Lehigh Valley pitchers a ton of runs this year was OF Jason Ellison. Along with his 12 OF assists, Ellison plays a great OF, covering alot of ground and making difficult plays look easy.  When hitting out of his most natural leadoff spot, Ellison hit .323, this year.

Lehigh Valley finished the season with average attendance of over 9,100 fans a game.  Coca Cola Park has about 8100 fixed seats and 1900 general admission lawn/standing room seats.  Their attendance was up over 6% from last season. They are one of three teams in all of minor league baseball to average 9000 fans per game, and had 25 complete sellouts (10,000).

The 2010 International League All Star Game will be played at Coca Cola Park in Allentown.

29 thoughts on “Lehigh Valley– End of Season Report”

  1. Nice job this year Gregg. Did you end up going to most of the games? Your write-ups are extremely detailed, I’m guessing that you were at most of them.

    Not a terrible year for the Ironpigs. They didn’t have a ton to work with. Their attendance is awesome, the Reading/Allentown corridor has got to be one of the best in terms of minor league support in the country.

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  3. Give the ‘Pigs credit for putting a respectable product on the field this year. Hopefully next year they continue this push and play above .500 ball or even playoff baseball. They should have an influx of youth from our AA team to help them as well as starting off the year with M. Taylor as a starter…as well as possibly Dom Brown.

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  7. you see “trade bait” from the guys who you don’t see as legitimate prospects? Are you one of those guys who proposes the Roy Halladay for Savery, Kendrick, and one of Harman or Galvis? c’mon, how can non-prospects, even in the eyes of an amateur, be trade bait? trade bait for what?

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  8. To follow up, Taylor is a fine prospect. But everyone else on that squad will have to grow old taking comfort in the fact that they were pretty good ballplayers in their day. Kendrick will probably see the show in fitful spurts, Carpenter less so, but at least get a cup of coffee. Mayberry will be gone to another team by next spring, likely one with worse upper-minors depth than we have at the moment. And that will be that. Hopefully Andy Tracy had some words of wisdom today for anyone with a contrary idea.

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  9. Regardless of Kendrick’s success with balls in play (and with runners on base) this year:

    Kendrick: 3.9 K/9
    Carpenter: 6.9 K/9

    One of those guys could be a decent major league starter.

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  10. Will–
    I see Mayberry for exactly what he is, a 4th or 5th OF in an organization. He clearly doesn’t fit in the Phils organization with the OF prospects they have. With your apparant vast knowledge of the game, I am sure you know that many teams would actually give up a “mid tier prospect” for a potential major leaguer, even if that major leaguer was a 24th or 25th man on their ML roster.

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  11. Gregg, thanks for all your hard work and thanks to all those Media guys for making your blog easier.

    This year’s team was heck of a lot better than last years. There were prospects on it like Marson, Donald and Kendrick. Mayberry was intriguing but we all knew Taylor and Brown were on the way. Some guys came up to help the big club when they needed it. Lopez, Walker (who might be the best relief pitcher the Phils have right now), Cairo, Carpenter and a few other guys were the AAAA type guys they needed to supplement the big club. Marson and Donald helped get Lee.

    What more could we ask for in a AAA team? Some guys are still coming along. Brown will be in the Valley some time next year. Schwim and/or Rosy are coming along. Drabek, Bastardo, Mathieson and some pitchers will see some action here. Some AAAA guys are still needed. Infield and catching prospects seem to be a long way away, if there are any.

    I, for one, will miss the minor league games. Winter ball won’t start for a long time. But James will probably get some features going where we’ll pick our top 30 and we’ll get to pick which guys will move up and which will move on, Who will end up on the 40 man and who will be Rule 5 eligible.

    Gregg, Thanks for helping make this site # 1 in my book.

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  14. I was thinking of downgrading the notion there is but one legitimate prospect at LV- Taylot, so I set out to review the roster, and you know, you could be right.

    Off the current roster, I would say , Gosewisch could continue with defensive prowess development, and hit a little bit. If you go over the list of Free Agent MLB catchers this season, he is not much different from most of them. Savery, by my count, is in 2nd full pro season , and at AAA, so give him another season and see what develops. Some fill-in work from like Kendrick, Carpenter… though let them be competing with Cisco, Drabek, Flande , Stutes, Worley come Spring Training. If Kendrick and Carpenter don’t best that comnpetition , try to move them. If the Reading guys fall short, perhaps some could stay at Reading, because other than Naylor, I don’t see alot below Reading that would absolutely have to move up to Reading.

    Mayberry- and they should move him , why? I looked at his MLB stats the other day, and don’t foresee anybody beating down the door to get him. I believe they will have openings at LVIP next season at CF ( I forecast Berry as MLB OF reserve next season) and 1B ( no sense in writing in Minor League veterans at Reading) so they could have somebody (Mayberry) who might be remotely be projected as a prospect.. So for the next LVIP position players I put Mayberry in CF with Taylor in LF and Brown in RF. The Middle Infiield I go Harman and Ozzie Chavez and let them learn , of burn out, at a higher level. I put Gosewisch as one of the alternate catchers. In spring training , I let Susdorf compete at 1B/DH , and Kennelly compete to alternate between C, 1B, 3B, OF, and DH. Then , as needed, you might have to add some selections in the minor league portion of the rule 5 draft, 6 year minor league free agents (maybe some 24 year olds who started at 18) and as a last resort they could bring back some from this season’s Lehigh Valley and Reading rosters.

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  16. Yeah, Gregg, if you were a player, your performance this year would rank you as one of the top prospects. Schwimer might edge you out in the “best writing ability” tool, but it’s close.

    Nice work.

    – Jeff

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  17. In the ex-Phutures / ex-Iron Pigs category, Marson got called up and is expected to catch Carrasco today. I’ll be rooting for them.

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  18. Thanks everyone for your compliments..I enjoyed the year, and will hopefully be continuing to put up new material a couple of times a week in the off-season, starting with the last edition of “around the system”, starting Wednesday or Thursday.

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  20. Gregg, I was referring to the previous poster’s assertion that Kendrick and Savery are “trade-bait” after implying they have no future. I was not referring to your catch-all title of “pigs Prospects”. I thought your write-ups were quite on-point, without the sugar coating so many Phils prospects get from the homers who thought we should build the Halladay offer around Kendrick, Savery and any other prospect they figured wasn’t worth a damn to the Phils.

    I notice you also think we should deal Mayberry for something this winter (which I hadn’t caught prior to posting) which is not actually different than what I posted. So long as we all understand that we’re gonna get back some overaged middle-relief prospect who struck out teenagers with a refined change-up in Low A ball, than I agree, we should trade him. I disagree that he is a potential 4th or 5th outfielder for another team any more than he is for the Phillies. The guy turns 27 next year, hasn’t learned to make solid contact in AAA, and people don’t tend to get any better at his stage of development.

    And I do have a vast knowledge of baseball. Vast.

    Just like the next guy.

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  21. Will–
    Looks like we are on the same page after all….couldnt understand why u were taking a shot. Now I see you werent. sorry about that.

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  23. Marfis, there’s just no way Mayberry can cover CF on a regular basis. Right now the Phillies have Ibanez, Victorino and Werth under contract, and Ben Francisco is not yet FA eligible. With a backup center fielder already under control, I don’t see how on earth they would give an MLB job to a AA center fielder who hit .266, no matter how fast he is.

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  24. Ok, I thought I was referring to Mayberry as CF in AAA, if he don’t get to a few balls here and there, they could adjust around it. I think they’d have Domonic Brown at AAA next season, and he might be better suited to play CF, but, I say he would be better off developing to be a good RF. That’s what it is supposed to be about, development. If Mayberry lags a bit in CF, they can bring back a 4th OF, Maybe Thompson, or they might prefer Ellison, as a late inning defensive replacement.

    As far as the MLB bench goes, I would want 2 reserve OF’s who are CF capable, as the bench blueprint. Preferabley one who bats Right and one who bats Left. If not Berry, who? Among the possible Free Agent CF’s who might be bench worthy I believe the best guy is Endy Chavez, and he made 2 million this season. Rather than a guy at that level, they can promote Berry to play for the minimum. The question is can Berry significantly upgrade his level of performance in AAA. If theydetermine that is yes, then they can place Berry in AAA and have Maybery at 1B. That would likely improve the AAA team. If Berry would be adjudged to only marginally improve his performance, they can work him into MLB on a coached in, controlled basis.

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  26. Well it was posted this morning on MILB.com, but it is now not listing Taylor as on Reading. Error or not I guess we will know for sure tonight. Anyone see the same roster posting?

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  27. I reached out to Reading Eagle columnist Mike Drago who says it isn’t true that Taylor would play. He said the Phils wouldn’t chance it and it was his understanding the playoff rosters had to be set before now.

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  28. Mike actually reached out to me and now says he got word that this indeed is happening. Taylor will play for the R-Phils tonight!

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  29. Why not call MT up to Philly? I mean would it affect his service time or options that much?

    Though it would be fun to see him dominate AA pitchers in the playoffs.

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