Quick Notes, Exhibition Info

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There is an exhibition game scheduled tonight at Coca Cola Park in Allentown with Reading taking on Lehigh Valley.  Yohan FLande will be throwing for the RPhils, while Joe Savery gets the ball for the ‘Pigs.  Tickets remain for the 6:30 start at just $6 apiece.  It’s a nice opportunity for a first look at many of those on the Reading/Lehigh Valley rosters. Look for occasional updates here.

Opening Day starters have been announced by Lehigh Valley (Brian Mazone) as they open against Syracuse on Thursday, Reading (Vance Worley) who open at home against Portland as well as by Lakewood (Nicholas Hernandez)  who open Thursday in Asheville. 

Tonights lineups in Allentown:  For Reading: Gillies (CF), Galvis (SS), Brown (RF), Bozied (DH), Mahar (1B), Pinckney (3B), Dorta (2B), Gosewisch (C), Berry (LF).  For Lehigh Valley: Duffy (LF), Valdez (2B), Mayberry (RF), Tracy (1B), Ransom (3B), Wise (CF), Sellers (DH), Hoover (C), Bocock (SS).

Game Notes:

–Yohan Flande went the first two innings for Reading, throwing 35 pitches, 20 for strikes with his velocity sitting between 85-88.  His line: 2IP 1H 0ER 0BB 2K.

–Joe Savery went five innings for Lehigh Valley, throwing 65 pitches, 38 for strikes.  His line 5IP 7H 2ER 0BB 1K.

–A great catch by Domonic Brown saved two runs from scoring in the 4th inning.  That came after a lazy fly dropped between Quintin Berry and Tyson Gillies due to miscommunication.

–Sergio Escalona looked good for Reading throwing a 1-2-3 5th inning, inducing 3 ground ball outs.

–A rough inning for prospect BJ Rosenberg, pitching for Reading.  He went one inning and gave up 3 runs on 3 hits including two very hard hit doubles.  He threw 25 pitches, 15 for strikes and walked a batter.  His velocity was between 91-94.

–Friend of Phuture Phillies, Michael Schwimer pitched the 7th inning for Reading.  Brian Bocock led off and popped out, a difficult at bat against Chris Duffy where it appeared Schwimer had Duffy struck out two times on check swings, before inducing a ground out to second, a four pitch walk to Luis Maza, and a dribbler to first base by Rich Thompson ended the inning, where Schwimer did a nice job getting over and beating the fleet footed Thompson to first.  Schwimer threw 22 pitches, 11 for strikes and reached 93 mph once and was steadily between 90-92 on the gun.  1IP 0H 0ER 1BB 0K. Observations: A nice outing where Schwimer clearly didn’t back down from hitters who have seen major league time.  He works very quickly, maintains his composure and clearly had a game plan this evening.

–Scott Mathieson pitched the 8th for Lehigh Valley and put on a show, striking out Kevin Mahar as well as Brian Stavisky.  He was in the mid to high 90’s with every fastball thrown.  Simply dominant for Mathieson this evening.

35 thoughts on “Quick Notes, Exhibition Info”

  2. Two interesting plays the inning:

    1). Pop up landed right between Berry and Gillies. Hopefully the lack of communication wasn’t a result of Gillies hearing issues.

    2) Brown with a great diving catch that robbed the hitter. If he doesn’t catch the ball it is likely a triple.

    Next inning Gillies runs out a grounder for a single. Man is he fast.

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  3. Can only listen to the game on the radio (when will MiLB get with the times and stream video for the majority of the games), but that catch by Brown did sound amazing.

    Savery seemed to slop through 5 innings, which is pretty normal for him.

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  6. Will be interesting to see who they use to close out the game, but I’m guessing that it’s zagurski. I’d imagine that Mathieson will be inheriting that role soon.

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  9. Nice bullpen effort by LHV tonight. Ransom and Wise had nice games at the plate. They both don’t appear to have a “hangover” from not making the big club.

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  10. Brian Seltzer, the Reading play by play guy, was giving out some radar readings during the game. He had the IronPigs putting Rosenberg’s and Schwimer’s 92 mph fastballs into play. To show the difference between AA and AAA relievers he had the Pigs Jason Anderson striking out Tuffy Gosewisch on a 94 mph fastball and Scott Mathieson striking out Stavisky on 96 and then 98 mph heat.

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  11. Ken, I saw that 103 too, but I think it might have been the ball off the bat as it was a foul. Can’t say for sure, though…

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  12. And Savery never broke 86, hovered around 84 with his FB. Kept working in and out of trouble as Savery is wont to do. Gave the lefties some trouble. I still see his ceiling as a lefty specialist.

    Flande was a couple of mph faster than Savery, and missed more bats. His change-up was really tough for the righties to pick up. Best looking pitcher of the night.

    Rosenberg made lots of mistakes and got hit really, really hard. Cory Ransom should pitch…he has a cannon for an arm, and should have Castro’s job on the big Phils. He’s very quick on his feet, and I’m not kidding how incredible his arm is. He also has at least SOME offensive value.

    On to Reading’s lineup..

    Tyson Gilies is about as put together as any athlete I’ve ever seen–looks like he’s made out of rock. I can’t believe he won’t develop at least some power with that muscular structure. He beat out a bunt over Savery’s head that Savery fielded on one hop, and Gillies was already two steps past the bag. He didn’t really get a lot of good swings.

    Galvis hit second, and looked solid, making a perfect sac bunt and hiting a solid ground single.

    Brown hit the ball fairly well twice, and made a spectacular diving catch in deep RCF saving a triple and 2 runs.

    Can’t believe how big Mahar and Bozied are–they look like football players. Don’t think anyone is charging the mound versus Reading if they’re on the field.

    Pinckney played 3B and has a quick release, but his ball really floats over to 1B. He hit the RCF wall with a double in the 2nd inning.

    Myers made another great diving catch, saving Rosenberg even more runs.

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  14. Mathieson will be in the majors by late July – he’s just too much of a weapon for the team to let him languish in the minors. Savery’s velocity signals his likely end – too bad, but that’s baseball. Some guys recover from injuries, others go into the crapper – it’s just plain bad luck most of the time.

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  15. Savery did not impress me at all. Rosenberg had a rough inning. Fastball was clocking at 91 and 92. He did hit 94 once.

    Schwimmer was okay. Think he was around 91-93. Mathieson was impressive. Throwing 96-98 heat. Topping out at 103. haha. Don’t know what happened there.

    Brown did make an excellent catch. Also hit a hard liner to short. His size really stands out. Gillies is faaaast. He will be fun to watch. Don’t know what happened with the ball that fell between Berry, Galvis and Gillies. Think Berry made a diving catch too. Galvis didn’t look over matched at the plate like I thought he would.

    Overall a fun night. General admission so I drove my chair all over the place. I looked like a blueberry with my Utley bp jersey and blue lid. Hope people found something useful from my post. I’ll try to report on more games.

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  16. Just got home from the game. Great to see Schwim out there. I’ll need to upload my digital pictures tomorrow and see if I have anything worthwhile.

    The fastest I saw the stadium gun read on Mathieson was 98. The last time I saw him pitch live was in Harrisburg when he blew out his arm again. Much happier returns this time.

    Savery really seems to have little to offer on the mound. I can’t see labeling him a prospect right now.

    The defense was terrific. Brown, Ransom, Bocock all made great plays.

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  18. Stutes pitched the eighth for Reading, Wasserman pitched the 9th for Lehigh Valley. Wasserman throws 86-87 mph but it looks faster from his below sidearm arm slot (Schwimlosity!).

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  19. I did not see tonight’s game but I went to a bunch of Reading games last year and saw Mathieson clocked at 102 once or twice. And those were on swing and misses. Just felt that was kinda relevant for those who questioned the radar readings.

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  21. @Matt…MiLB.com will likely get with the times and stream video when more games actually have video to feed. A majority of the minor league games are not televised, and therefore there is nothing to stream. I’m just happy they have the radio broadcasts for free!

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  22. I thought the stadium gun seemed accurate. Savery like I noted before topped out around 86 mph. Flande threw high 80s, not certain if he touched 90. Jason Stephens of Reading registered 91-92 mph. Rosenberg and Schwimer threw low 90s. Jason Anderson of the ‘Pigs threw about 92 mph, and I previously mentioned that Wasserman threw 86.

    Positives:

    -Lehigh Valley’s ballpark remains a great stadium experience. I highly recommend a visit if you have never gone. It’s both a great park and a great value.

    -Pitcher control. Last year there seemed a parade of pitchers who kept throwing in the dirt. A lot of strikes.

    -Team defense. At least three players made defensive plays that I would’ve deemed great plays. Freddy Galvis as well made a good play in the first inning, but Galvis is so good out there that it is hard to tell if it took a great effort or not. When I’m watching a shortstop I take note of how often he fields a ball up the middle while still on his feet.

    -Tyson Gillies took a couple at bats but struck out looking his first time and I never really got a chance to gauge his speed.

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  23. GregA – You’re right, I should have clarified. I believe all the affiliates tape the games for their own purposes, so how hard would it be to take the extra step and stream the video on the net? They could just synch up the radio broadcast with the video. Sure, it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be something.

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  24. Thanks for all the in person updates, good stuff. For Matheson, it will all be about his control and location. Even in AAA, they can hit straight fast balls in bad locations so it will be interesting to see how he does and whether he can pitch on back to back nights. Gillies’ speed is very real and is a major weapon. While he is incredibly strong, it may take him a few more years to learn how to turn on the inside fastball without being susceptible to slow stuff away. For now, he seems to be more of a slap hitter with gap power but with speed. I’ll be surprised if he has less than 10 triples, he has that kind of speed (and bats lefty).

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  26. Can anyone tell me how Santana, Hewitt, and Gose did in the spring?
    I was at last Monday’s Phils game where they honored Cosart for his work in the spring. According to BA, the only thing missing from him previously was that work ethic. Coupled with what Schwimmer said about him, I think that is HUGE!!

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  27. From the recaps I read, seemed like Hewitt had a very good spring. I think 4 or 5 homers (maybe even 6) and seemed to be in the recaps fairy often. Same with Gose, it sounded like he had a good spring training from the recaps.

    Didn’t see Santana mentioned as often, but he was in there a few times. And he obviously impressed them enough to be a starter on the Lakewood team. Santana is actually the youngest player in Blueclaw history.

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  28. Thanks Alan. Had to catch a ride so I left. I forget the play, but Gillies just looked fast when he put the ball in play. Don’t remember if he was trying to beat out a double play.

    Also, I think Flande hit 90 once. Wasn’t paying too close attention early. I will be surprised if Savery ever helps the Phillies. I know it’s early in the season, but nothing about him excited me. Drew Carpenter looks like an ace compared to Savery.

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  29. What are the odds that Savery gets turned into a first baseman before the season is over and gets sent down to A ball to hit? It definitely could happen late in the season if he hasn’t done well and other pitchers below him have because there will be pitchers that will need to move up a level during the year and that will cause ripples. I predict August 1 for the date that the pitching experiment ends and the hitting experiment begins.

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  30. I’d put the odds at about 200:1.

    Ironpigs/Chiefs kicks off at 2pm today, so if you’re around at 7pm this evening and wondering what happened to the game, they play early.

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  31. First base is not a premium position. It is not hard to get an average hitting 1b. The better question is: what are the odds Joe Savery would be any better than Jim Murphy or Rizzotti. It would seem that even if Savery continued to be a mediocre LH pitcher, that would still be more valuable than a mediocre 1b.

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  33. Hoover triples and the ‘Pigs lead 5-4 in the 8th! A win would give the Ironpigs their first winning record in team history.

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  34. I doubt Savery ever gets turned into a 1B. Even with mediocre stuff and poor control, he should be able to find work. Even as an average hitter he wouldn’t be as valuable at 1B as he would as a LHP.

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  35. Nope , Hoover’s hit was not decisive, thanks to the client, Wasserman, looks like the Submariner ran into a few depth charges. Still not one game above .500 in the entire Iron Pigs History, according to the LVIP correspondent.

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