Your nightly/daily links. Discuss the games here.
Lehigh Valley loses 2-1.
Reading loses 3-2.
Clearwater wins 4-0.
battling line of the day is easy; Domonic Brown: 1/3, HR (6), SB (4)
pitching line of the day is easy; Austin Hyatt: 8 IP – 0 ER – 1 H – 2 BB – 14 K (6 GB, 2 FB)
Hyatt, for those of you who were asking, is a fastball/slider guy. He’s old for A+ ball, but is doing what he’s supposed to, and that’s dominate. I asked Kevin Goldstein via Twitter where his fastball is sitting, and he replied “88-91”, which is on the lower end of what I had read before, which was 90-93, though I suppose he can hit those ranges in short stints. Hyatt has great command, and with great command, he can carve up A ball hitters with relative ease. The big test comes at AA.
Phuture Phillies 
14 k is a little more than “doing what he’s supposed to”.
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Dom Brown should get some shot at LHV by seasons end. I would like to see Hyatt, Overbeck, DeFratus, and maybe Ramirez move some point from CLW-REA, and Hernandez and Barnes from LKWD to CLW based off their early season numbers (Zeid too)
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Here’s Goldstein on Hyatt last July:
“Austin Hyatt, RHP, Phillies (Short-season Williamsport)
A 15th-round pick in June out of Alabama, Hyatt was one of those cheap senior signs who throws strikes, has a good changeup, and is a solid organization arm. The shocker here is that his fastball is suddenly up to 94 and he’s been the New York-Penn League’s most dominating arm, allowing just one run in 31 2/3 innings while compiling a 49/5 K/BB ratio and giving up just 14 hits. At 23, he needs to move quickly and is probably no more than a reliever in the end, but he’s certainly more than just a solid organizational ar
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Hyatt also reportedly throws a nasty knuckle-curve. At least he did in college.
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Yeah I think its going to be a bit of a mystery until he gets to Reading and we can get some legit radar gun readings on him.
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Dom Brown is putting together some good numbers right now. When do you see him promoted to AAA? this month….mid June…or after AA all star game?
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It’s funny how things vary so much before guys get to AA ball.
Seems like every year we have a guy tearing up Clearwater who we read all sorts of scouting reports/velocity readings that conflict each other.
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The varying velocity makes sense. He was a reliever last year. He is a starter this year. 94 last year and 90 this year makes sense.
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pp are you hearing this draft is weak in middle infielders and left handed pitching. strong catcher draft is what I heard.
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Keep in mind the FSL factor. That’s where Drew Carpenter was dominant too. Howard had only 24 HRs or so there, a year before he hit a gazillion in Reading, etc.
Not a criticism of Hyatt. But maybe a real factor–don’t have a handle on full league stats and analyses by the experts, just going by things I have heard and the fact that hitters seldom tear up that league in average or power and then do better in count stats in AA.
He still has to put the ball on a dime with something on it and he is doing that. 5th starter or good relier, still an asset to be valued. Maybe trade bait right now to get our reliever to ameliorate the Lidge situation.
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Oddest stat so far this year belongs to Troy Hanzawa. He has 15 RBIs in 30 games in CLW. He’s 3rd on the team in that stat and he bats 9th. He’s batting .357 with runners on and also in scoring position. He’s only batting .155 with no one on. The weird stats continue: He’s stuck out 20 times in 58 ABs with no one on base and only 1 time in 28 ABs with runners in scoring position. Maybe when there is no one on base, the 1st base coach can stand real close to 1st base so it appears someone’s on base. Or maybe he should be hitting just ahead of Overbeck.
On the flip side, he’s noted for his defense but has 7 errors.
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Over his last five starts, Worley has a 3.38 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, K/9 of 8.6, BB/9 of 3.4, HR/9 of 0.3. Obviously those numbers are flattered by his most recent start, but let’s hope it’s part of a trend. This time last year coaches were talking about his command of four pitches and how he looked like a major leaguer. Maybe he’s the guy who can get promoted to AAA mid-season to let Hyatt try his hand at AA.
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From the man himself, Hyatt says he throws fastball-changeup and is trying to add a slider. If he adds a slider, he’ll continue to be a starter. No comment on how hard he throws: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100511&content_id=9977218&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp
DiamondDerby, nobody likes Carpenter more than I, but his numbers pale in comparison at A+ to Hyatt’s (albeit in a much much larger sample):
Carp: 3.13 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 6.2 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9
Hyatt: 1.90 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 11.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 0.2 HR/9
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location is far more important than fastball speed. there are a ton of fire ballers who get crushed in the majors because they can’t locate. all else equal, sure throwing hard is a good thing. but it isn’t the most important thing. you have to hit your spot or the hitters in the majors will crush you. regardless of how hard you throw
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Hyatt and Hernandez are both making cases to get promotions and when you add in that Shreve needs to get back into the rotation, it becomes who comes out of the Reading rotation (I don’t think anyone there is worthy of a bump up). As for Brown, there is no need to push him since he’ll probably still be in AAA next year when it starts. I don’t see him getting bumped up until later in the second half like Taylor was last year. They will not start his service clock with a Sept call up to Philly so there’s just no rush.
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Wake-up on Wednesday with Phils minor league starters: May @ 10:30am, Aumont @ 11am. Colvin for your nightcap. I love days like this!
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Hyatt needs to be promoted to Reading today
He will be 24 the end of May and has now dominated at Williamsport and Clearwater . If we redid the top 30 , he would be in my top 15 .
Overbeck should also be moved up . I think he is 23 also . In my opinion the Phillies should have no one in A ball 23 or older with any type of talent .
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Dom, There’s no way you can that a kid just out of college and send him to AA. Development is the key, not so much as age, especially college players. Overbeck is a good example. This is his second season of pro ball. Williamsport, to Clearwater, to Reading is the way to go. The jump to AA is huge, as we all know.
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The Phillies double jumped both Worley and Stutes from low A to AA, so they do have a bit of a history. Both Overbeck and Hyatt have shown great success in A+, so it’s something that should happen in the very near future.
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I agree with Tom , The Phillies have jumped college guys from low A to AA . After college they should spend one year in low A , then to AA if they are talented enough like Hyatt and Overbeck .
If these 2 guys spend 2 years at AA and one at AAA , they will be 27 or 28 when they make the majors . That’s a little old to start a major league career
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another HR for Brown. The man is on fire.
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But the Worley jump, who know’s now, as he has struggled mightily. Stutes’ start this year has been so-so too. I am not sure those are the best examples to use.
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PPFan, if you’re still reading I thought you’d be interested in this line from a baseballanalysts.com article “Mike Fast has studied the correlation between fastball velocity and run average and concluded that ‘starting pitchers improve by about one run allowed per nine innings for every gain of 4 mph’ (or 0.25 R/9 per 1 mph).” Here’s the link, from which you can link to the study: http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2010/05/which_pitcher_i.php
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I promise this is the last post I will make for a while, but Hyatt was KG’s Sleeper Alert in today’s Daily Futures: http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/insider/news/story?page=dailyfutures100512 You need insider to read it. Basically he says he’s a polished pitcher, has no projection to him, though some now see a possibility he makes the bigs.
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BP: Reading comprehension hiccup? I never made that comparison. Only making the point that pitchers can do well in that league, because the heavy Florida air keeps power stats down in that league.
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Snakeman, Mike Leake went from college directly to the majors, so I think they can send the 24 year old 2nd year guy to double A.
I’m in a deep fantasy league in the Philly area, and I’m kicking myself for not drafting Hyatt as a minor leaguer. I took some 19 year old kids from HOU (Bushue) and LAA (Skaggs) with my last 2 picks a couple weeks back. Some people on this affected my picks as I downgraded Hyatt a fraction below the guys I took (2nd round picks last draft). While I realize the odds are still stacked against Hyatt…I hope he continues his success.
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I think Brown will go the Taylor route and get his AAA callup after the AA all star game.
As for Hyatt, I think his callup will be much sooner than later. Stutes got jumped to Reading with only 7 low A starts and it took Worely 11 (mind you they also were in Williamsport briefly). If Hyatt gets to Reading and has a real good year there, I can see him maybe getting hotshotted to the Pigs next year (like they have any real competent SP prospects anyway).
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Hyatt is not comparable to Stutes or Worley. They were double jumped after dominating Low A as starters. Hyatt was a reliever. When has a pitcher been double jumped going from reliever to starter?
I am not convinced that Hyatt is a good prospect yet. I prefer RH pitchers that have a major league breaking ball as their secondary pitch not the change-up.
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Mike77, I don’t think people disagre with you. It’s the level of dominance he’s shown that shows the need for a bump. I have no idea what kind of prospect he is either, though if I had to guess, I’d say, based only on stuff, he maxes out as a middle man. He’s not been challenged appropriately at any level, and at his age, I’d like to see what he could do so we know what we have.
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Anyone still on the Hyatt bandwagon after the last 3 starts?
Example #25659 of why sample size matters when discussing the “hot” prospect of the day.
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