May 25th open discussion

Box Score Recap

Last night’s scores.

Lehigh Valley wins 6-3.

Reading wins 7-2.

Clearwater loses 9-4.

Lakewood loses 6-3.

55 thoughts on “May 25th open discussion”

  1. Dom Brown had a nice night after coming back from the thumb injury. Do you see him making the jump to AAA around mid June or when? Also when is Cisco and Gillies to come off the DL?

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  3. I noticed Flande is stringing together a pretty nice year. He hit a rough spot a couple outings ago but has bounced back effectively. I know there was some talk that he just doesn’t have the stuff to do much in the bigs but it’s still good to see a guy pitch that well that consistently.

    Also De Fratus has been really good at clearwater. Over 5:1 K:BB and no HRs allowed. Those are great qualities in any pitcher especially a reliever.

    I noticed that both have pretty significant reverse splits. Is that a product of how they throw or what they throw?

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  5. From another thread, there was some talk of Rizzotti not being a prospect because he is not a power hitter. With 13 HRs last year, he can hit a long ball. And no one is talking about him as a starting 1B-man. He looks to have as much power as a Dobbs or Gload. Who knows, maybe more. Maybe a Matt Stairs eventually?

    If he keeps mashing, hitting over .300 with 10-15 bombs in 300-400 ABs, he has a chance to get a job off the bench.

    What will hold him back is hi glove. He will need to play 1B and LF maybe, for a few innings here and there, without losing a game with his glove.

    And he will will have to be consistent with the bat. But the long ball is not the factor at all for him. Because he has only a few HRs in the first 7 weeks? Long ball strokes come and go for everyone. Even Ryan Howard at times.

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  6. Offensively, he may come closer to Dobbs than to Gload. Gload hit 30 hrs between AA/AAA at the age of 24. Doesn’t appear that Rizzotti has anywhere close to that HR potential.

    Dobbs adds the advantage of being able to play multiple positions off the bench (3b, 1b, OF) while Rizzotti currently only offers sub-par defense at 1b.

    I agree that he may have the potential for a job off the bench but probably that chance would be better with an 2-tier AL team that could rotate him into the DH role.

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  8. Wow, Ross Gload really did hit a lot of homers in the minors – I kind of missed that when I looked at his statistics previously. Sometimes, when that happens (a few huge seasons in the minors, followed by relatively unspectacular production in the majors), a player will develop power or have a breakout season at odd and unexpected times in the major leagues. It makes me feel a little bit better about that signing.

    On Rizzotti, I’ve got no idea what to make of him, other than to say that he’s doing nicely, he’s a limited player and he’s almost permanently blocked at the big league level. There’s no rush with him, so it will be interesting to see how he’s doing in early August. It would be nice to develop a few bench players from the minors. I expect, for example, that Mayberry will be a 5th outfielder next year.

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  10. 3up: agree he is more suited for American League, maybe Oakland, who likes good sticks with good OBP and can tolerate less than stellar defense at times (at least in Billy Beane’s previous incarnation). Also, thanks for the info on Gload. Did not know he hit that many. Just went by what I saw, which is gap power, some doubles and an occasional dinger, much like Dobbs. Good to see Gload has a little more power if we have to use him more.

    I do not think Rizzotti’s chances are high to make it as a bench player. Too many just like him hanging around the minors. But if he has really become a .300+ hitter and can maintain his lifetime .376 OBP, he has a chance–if he can make his defense acceptable.

    But that’s like saying I’d have bacon and eggs in the morning if I had any eggs, but I don’t have any bacon.

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  11. Let’s see what Rizzoti does for a complete season. I would be careful to judge his power until we see more of him. The power might come as he advances. After all, Dom Brown had 9 homers at Lakewood and last year finished with 14 between Clearwater/Reading. His power will likely come as he advances too.

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  12. Yeah, I think Rizzotti likes AA. Let’s see how he does his next time through the league. Hopefully they can find him some time in the field.

    PRD, I second your observation on DeFratus. I hope he can get a promo sometime this year.

    snakeman, Brown is not a good comp for Rizzotti as he was much younger as his power developed. Usually power develops with age, not with the level of the minors you are playing at.

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  14. Andy Tracy was activated off the DL this afternoon if anyone is interested. Corresponding roster move to come later

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  16. Thanks for “enlightening” me Boston Phan. Check out the ages. There is not quite a 2 year age difference in Rizzotti and Brown, with Rizzotti being older, since he played college ball (“much younger”)?. Rizzotti had played 63 more minor league games than Brown with about 300 more AB’s. I am not sure what that really tells you. I just think it would be prudent to take a look at the full season this year, and evaluate what we have. One of my points would be to take a look and see how Rizzotti does at AA, to better gauge how he might fit later.
    And thanks for being so condescending. Don’t be so full of yourself.

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  17. That should have read Brown had played 63 more minor league games than Rizzotti with about 300 more AB’s. Sorry for the typo.

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  18. If that’s condenscending I would hate to see how you would react if Boston Phan were actually condenscending.

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  22. Wow. That seemed not even a little bit condescending. He disagrees with your comp & he told you why. Maybe you should switch to decaf, snakeman.

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  24. Gregg, I think we had a roster spot open b/c Ennis went down and Valdez went back up. Thanks.

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  25. dc seems to indicate to me the Phillies will go high school. And see if they can sign them. But there still talking about Workman, surprises me, thought he be gone by there pick. Gibson who didnt sign and went to Minnesota last year is really coming on, maybe Workman is another like him. but for every Gibson there are so many who dont do anything in college, man baseball draft is really hard to gauge,

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  26. I read Salisbury’s article this morning, didn’t have a chance to post it, but its really nothing new if you follow the Phillies last handful of drafts. They like athletes, they want bats, but they know they’ll have to settle for pitchers early because all of the college bats will be gone. Same story every year, even more so this year because the first round will be very light on college bats.

    Austin Wilson would be a really interesting pick. Consensus seems to be that if he slips out of the top 10 he won’t be easily signable. Phillies generally don’t roll the dice that much in the first round, they wait a few rounds.

    Also, Workman will be gone by 27. Dream pick at this point, when considering the board and how things are shaping up, might be Stetson Allie.

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  27. Kind of a bizarre group of players attached to the Phillies in that draft article

    Austin Wilson – this is right in the Phillies wheelhouse – athletic HS OF with a Stanford Committment.

    Grandal – I’d dance a jig but he’s not falling to 27 unless he gets mortally wounded the day before the draft.

    Workman – I could see us as interested but I don’t think he falls to 27 either.

    Wojo – Seems worthy of the 27 pick I guess and he might be there.

    All the others seem like reaches at 27 so maybe they are 2nd or 3rd round considerations

    Don’t really understand Yelich so much as he is limited to 1B but I’d be Ok with him as a 2nd rounder I guess.

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  30. Yeah. I see that BA has him in the low 50s now and I think Law does too. I was basing that off the PGCross rankings where Yelich is 94. Would seem odd to take Yelich on the heels of Singleton but I actually think I would like that pick more than Wilson.

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  32. the question is, do we draft Allie as the pitcher throwing 97 or the thirdbaseman with prolific power.

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  34. “the question is, do we draft Allie as the pitcher throwing 97 or the thirdbaseman with prolific power.”

    That’s a ridiculously good question… but I think it would probably be Overbeck-dependent. The phis don’t seem to let the standing of other players impact how they develop a player. Otherwise Gose might be pitching, considering our dearth of legitimate lefthanded arms and decent number of good outfield prospects at the time he was drafted. Best available player in the most effective possible way.

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  35. Can’t see them setting someones position based on anyone else. They will position a player wherever they think he profiles as the best player. It would be a pleasant problem forthis organization to have too many third base prospects!!!

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  37. I really doubt the Phillies would choose a role based on the performance of a 24 year old 3B in A ball. But then it’s silly to assign that role regardless of what you have in your system.

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  38. Don’t look now, but saves on back-to-back nights at LHV for Scott Mathieson: a two-inning save yesterday and a perfect ninth tonight to protect a 2-1 win for Drew Carpenter. Does he get a shot this year, or is be going to be some good trade bait, maybe for catching or middle infield depth?

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  39. Singleton 4-4 with his 4th bomb…..Naylor with a CG 3hit SO in Reading….Dom Brown with 2 triples & Derrick mitchell starting to show some life in Clearwater with his 6th HR…….unfortunately the least talked about guy in teh Doc trade may hurt the most as D’Arnaud is ripping the ball tonight.

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  40. Mathieson will get a shot if there is an injury, even then it will be tough as Madson will be back in a month. Can’t see him as trade bait. How much would someone give for an unproven bullpen arm with 2 TJ surgeries in his past? Answer is not much.

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  41. Was Mathieson ever sharp tonight to get a 1-2-3 save. After striking out the first batter he faced in the 9th, he throws two sharp breaking sliders to get ahead of Mike Cervanek of Buffalo 0-2. Then fires his fastball and gets Cervanek to ground out softly. And then gets another ground out to end the game. He is now 8 for 8 in save opportunities.

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  42. Saw Shreve pitch last night and was a little surprised that his fastball was mostly 88-89 hitting 90 a few times. Is that a result of the arm surgery or is that his normal stuff? He seemed to be getting a lot of outs with his offspeed stuff. He went 6 innings giving up 2 in the 3rd and 3 in the 4th when it appeared that he was leaving a few pitches in the middle of the plate.

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  45. with the k to bb ratio as a basis ( plus all the other peripherals and three slash line) has there ever been as an impressive a debut (last year and this) as jon Singleton. He has been a revelation. He has moved into my top five prospects.

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  47. after tonights 4-4 Singleton is now 432/519/773/1291 …look there ar ehot streaks, but to come out of the gate in Low A like this? he has 44AB’s….his hitting is otherworldly right now. I know the preference is to give him a full year in Low A, BUT if he is still hitting after facing some of these teams twice then you have to move him to Clearwater.

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  48. Naylor’s 111 pitches got to be tops so far this year for the minor league staff. Nice he ended the game with a K. He has now pitched 15 straight scoreless innings after giving up two run in the first inning of his last start. During those 15 innings he has given up only 4 hits and one walk, striking out 11.

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  49. Leave Singleton alone in low A for the year. He isn’t needed in Philly for several years and destroying this league makes him more valuable as a trade chip. Also, it would be nice if they won the league and he can help do that. Winners in the ML can lead to winners in MLB.

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  51. I’m holding my thoughts on Singleton til I see 150-200 plate appearances. But I do find it kinda cool that he comes from Lakewood, California, and now he plays for the Lakewood Blueclaws.

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  52. Cheese a August move up for Singleton will probably cripple
    him for life. His arms will fall off and he will get terrible headaches.

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  53. Why is it so hard to understand that too easy is just as hard as too hard. I Singleton IS so much better than the league in
    August he may only develop bad habits because he can get away with them at this level. By August there will be a read.

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  55. Brown, Cosart, Singleton as 1-2-3 makes sense for today, but keep in mind things can change quickly.

    Also, we are down on the Cliff Lee guys, but there is plenty of time for them to pan out. I am most concerned about Aumont. I like to think his velocity variations are due to his extended innings as a starter and learning a new delivery. But I am concerned his hip comes into play in this and maybe Seattle was limiting his innings for physical reasons. Maybe not an acute injury today, but a weak area that shows up after wear and tear, maybe in performance first and then a DL-type injury. Just a possibility to keep in mind.

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