Two quick hits

Spring Training 2010

These come courtesy of Frankie Piliere, the resident scout for AOL Fanhouse, who was at Phillies camp yesterday.

• One thing minor-league spring training gives us is a look at raw, talented young pitchers. Right-handed hurler Juan Sosa stood out among the Phillies’ low-level squads on Monday. The 20-year-old out of the Dominican Republic looked unpolished but showed enough raw stuff to be a commodity worth following closely. Sosa worked at 90-91 mph with his fastball, reaching 92 a handful of times. He also mixed in the makings of a solid-average breaking ball at 75-77 mph, with which he seemed able to throw strikes. His delivery is inconsistent, and he has some problems working from the stretch. This isn’t a guy that will make an immediate impact, but with his live arm and solid breaking ball he is player worth monitoring.

• Yohan Flande, a participant in the 2009 Futures Game, looks like he a way to go in terms of building up his arm strength. Flande sat around 84-87 mph with his fastball on Monday, well below his usual 91-92. The 24-year-old southpaw’s command was also somewhat inconsistent. It’s not much of a concern, but he’s certainly not near full strength yet.

Tuck it away for a later date.

Also, Jim Salisbury has an excellent little article on Jarred Cosart here.

41 thoughts on “Two quick hits”

  1. Good news on Sosa. He was my number one prospect off the 2008 DSL squad and pitched like he was hurt last year at GCL. At least he looks like he still has live stuff.

    The news on Flande is a little disappointing. Hopefully it is just a Spring outing.

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  3. I’ve seen Flande a few times and I’ve never seen him come close to throwing 91-92. When did he ever throw that hard?

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  4. Too bad he was not there today to see Jarred Cosart and Julio Rodriguez against the Pirates A- team at Schmidt Field. Cosart started and pitched 3.1 innings striking out 8 walking 2 and giving up one hit. That hit on a fast ball was a lead off triple in the third. He then proceeded to strike out the side. The young Bucs could not touch his curve ball. Julio Rodriquez came on in the 6th and gave up a lead off double. He then struck out 5 of the next 6 batters he faced relying on breaking and off speed pitches in two innings of work.

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  6. PECOTA for pitchers is finally here!!!!!!!!! Some decent Upside scores for Phillies pitchers. Pecota is amazing this year as theres about eight billion pitchers with scores. Oddly enough no scores for Colvin or Cosart. Bastardo has a great score higher than Wade Davis. Pecota likes our boy Schwim better than Aumont (imagine having these two out of the pen next year) and JC Ramirez has a nice score as well.

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  10. A little off subject, but has anybody noticed that Carlos Carrasco in his last 2 games has pitched 5 innings in each and gave up no runs. Has he maybe finally turned the corner? I know it’s only ST, but he was getting shelled in ST

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  13. Great article on Cosart. Did anybody else notice that potential Lakewood outfield of Santana ,Dugan, James and Hewitt. Competition for playing time should be fierce.
    I’ve heard Dugan might try another position. I know he’s played 1B in HS but I thought I read that he might try another infield position. Any insights anyone?

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  14. It seems odd to say, but given the depth in pitching and in the outfield, the player we may miss most from the Halladay trade could actually be D’Arnaud.

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  15. They could always rotate them through the DH slot. I thought Dugan was basically gonna end up as a 1B regardless. It’d be nice to have a real 1B prospect in the system…

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  16. Can we move Dugan to 3B? He throws right handed, played infield in high school and appears to be athletic enough to play and throw from CF.
    Yes, I understand not wanting to put too much pressure on him but why not. He seems more polished than Hewitt who needed to get a fresh start somehow.
    If Dugan does not make any progress at 3B how difficult is it to move him back to OF or 1B?
    Probably not worth messing with a high draft pick, kinda like the Utley to 3B and Howard to OF experiments, but and he’s a high schooler not a college kid. Okay, I convinced myself it is bad idea but I kinda wish it would happen.

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  18. Who is Jared Cosart? Is he the next big prospect?

    And I support anyone being moved to 3B since the Phillies need to stop pretending it’s not a position.

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  19. Yes…! Dugan could be considered for 3rd base.

    Hope the gods heard that idea…if they haven’t thought of it before…??

    He’s young and athletic enough and if he played inf a little while ago, having him get into that mode should be on the agenda!

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  20. I think moving Dugan to 3B is a bad idea at this time. Unless he has played there before, he should not be introduced to that position at this stage. Kelly Dugan is in his 1st full season as a pro. He should not have to worry about learning how to hit left handed and right handed, and then how to play a position he is not familiar with. All of the Phillies efforts should be to get this guy as many at-bats as possible from both sides of the plate.

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  21. RW, I noticed the potential outfield also. I do not believe they will start both Santana and Dugan at Lakewood. The Phillies have Castro, James and Hewitt there. Plus Gump, Myers, Collier and a couple other college players they drafted in ’09, who did not pass that level. The Phillies would have to get really agressive and move Castro and/or Jiwan James to Clearwater in order to play Dugan and Santana at Lakewood.

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  22. My guess is you’ll see a combination of James, Hewitt, Castro, Collier and Dugan every day. With the DH, 4 of them can play every day. Dugan might play some 1B as well, as I believe he played their in high school. I wouldn’t want him learning 3B now. Get him 1,000 AB in 2010-2011, see where he is offensively, and then determine if he’s ready to try 3B.

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  23. Murray, I saw Flande in late August in New Britain. He was consistently in the low 90s touching 93 once or twice. I don’t know if NB has a hot gun or not but Zagurski pitched later in the game and also was in the low 90s. I have to admit that it didn’t seem that fast to me but the NB pitcher was a high 80s thrower and Flande’s pitches were getting to the zone much faster.

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  25. I love seeing that some of our young, right-handed prospects can really bring it. IMO, if you’re a right-hander, there is a gigantic difference between throwing in the low 90s and the mid to upper 90s. I’m not entirely sure why the difference is so pronounced – perhaps it is because the upper strike zone opens up to these pitchers which, in turn, allows one to throw a whole assortment of different pitches. Just look what happened to Ryan Madson when his FB went from 91-93 to 94-97 – it was like we acquired a completely different pitcher. By the same token, when Brett Myers went from the low to mid 90s to around 90 or so, he went from being (at times, at least) a bona fide #2, to a guy who is lucky to be in the rotation.

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  26. If Flande can really throw 90, my opinion of him would certainly improve. I saw him and he was a mid 80s guy with good but not great control. Those guys are all over the minors. As for Lakewood, I doubt they’ll start Santana there although I heard he’s a having a great time playing there now. Don’t forget that Collier won’t be back until May. I would expect Castro, Hewitt and James to play alot but Dugan could get pushed there as well to get at bats and he can play some first. Myers will be at Clearwater with Gose and Gump.

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  27. That BlueClaws blog thing had a write-up on the OF situation yesterday. They say J. James, Hewitt, and Castro are “locks” with Dugan close but maybe next year. I think they could consider as DH. They mentioned some possibilities for 4th OF a reserve position including Batts, Dabbs, maybe Brian Gump.

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  28. It appears that the following have been released based on the 3/23 Work Groups; Pitchers; Bill White, Walter Tejeda, Miguel Matos, Mark Doll. Outfielders; Jarvis Diaz, Roy Uhl. Infielders; Gabriel Martinez, Jesus Villegas, Evan Porter.

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  29. I would be shocked if, as a 17 year old, Santana started the year at Lakewood. Unless they think he’s the second coming of Willie Mays or Hank Aaron (or even Jason Heyward), they should take it slow and start him in the NY-P league.

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  30. as long as the Phillies develop arms, getting position players (via a trade for a young pitcher or a free agent)like a 3B isn’t that huge of a concern, just my opinion.

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  31. As long as there is some “where OF’s play ” talk on here. The Asbury Park Press has a story on Anthony Gose which states he will start in Clearwater this season. Steve Nowryta confirms this is comments and Gose seems to as well. It is linked to in the “BlueClaws Blog”.

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  35. Aumont pitched four shutout innings today against the Yankees AA squad. He gave up one hit, hit a batter and struck out two. He induced ground balls for the most part getting 8 ground outs and two fly outs. Watching both Cosart and Aumont pitching off the same mound in the last two days you can see that Cosart had more velocity and a sharper breaking curve. Cosart pitched like a future No. 1 while Aumont looked more like he might have a chance to be a back of the rotation ML starter.

    Another interesting development was that Freddy Galvis’s bat continues to be on fire with three more hits but he struggled in the field. He dropped a line drive hit right at him and failed to make a sweep tag on a throw from first baseman Jim Murphy. Pitcher Matt German had the runner picked off first. Coach Jorge Velandia was called over from one of the other back fields and gave Galvis a quick lesson on sweep tagging next to the bench at Schmidt Field.

    In the AA game Derrick Mitchell continued his hot spring hitting by going three for three with a home run and an rbi single. Tim Kennelly blasted a double near the base of the wall in left and Kim Campbell also on fire at the plate doubled to the gap in right center in a late unsuccessful rally as the AA Yanks held on to win.

    After the end of the two games I followed two Yankee coaches out ot the Complex. They were bemoaning the fact that they blew a 7-3 lead in the AAA game on a walk off three home run. First baseman Brian Stavisky launched the long shot just inside the right field foul pole to send the AAA Yankees back to Tampa with an 8-7 loss. Zagurski and Mathieson pitched clean 8th and 9th innings to set up the winning bottom of the 9th.

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  36. Good stuff Rickey, thanks for the updates. So far so good on the Eric Campbell call James. He’s been pretty good so far.

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  37. It is not often that you hear a guy that has a plus plus Fastball and a plus curve, described as a back end of the rotation starter. Usually guys who have closer stuff, are considered at least mid rotation guys.

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  38. Two of the top pitching prospects struggled today at the Complex in starts against the Yankees A level teams. For what will be the Lakewood team Brody Colvin went four innings giving up three runs on five hits. He struck out two and did not walk a batter. The good news is that he retired the side in order in the fourth and threw several good curve balls to get a strike out in his last inning of work. In the A+ game Matt Way struggled in an inning and two-thirds with control problems. He struck out three on change ups but walked three. Pitching behind against most of the batters he faced Way was hit hard when he came in with his fastball giving up three runs on five hits.

    A player who stood out was shortstop Jonathan Villar for the A- team. Though he spent most of his at bats fouling off bunts for base hit attempts, in his last at bat he lined a first pitch single to left. He eventually was advanced it to third. He then timed a perfect steal of home. Lefty Jacob Diekman work two innings of relief for the Lakewood team giving up only walk and striking out a batter. But the pitching coaches were not satisfied with his work when he walked a lefthande batter. After he finished up he headed back to the bull pen to work on his delivery with Gorham Heimmuller. Lugo also looked good with a strike out in a clean inning of relief.

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  39. I was watching the video on cosart. I thought to myself he is wild and not much of a fastball,shows how much I know,he is hitting 96 on gun,and is being touted as a top prospect by scouts.

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  40. If you’re talking about his draft video, he was 17 when that video was taken, and was already hitting 92 consistently. He’s now 19, almost 20, has added a bit of muscle, so its not surprising that he can regularly hit 96. Harnessing it is the next step.

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