Monthly Archives: May 2010

Around the System–Corner Infield

Around the System

It has been right around a month since our look at the Corners Infielders in the Phillies system, so here it goes again:

Neil Sellers, Age 28, .240/.313/.326 in 129 AB’s.  0HR and 11 RBI. .194 vs. LH, .255 vs. RH; .222 with RISP; 10%BB rate, 16% K rate. .216 in May.  Has played 16 games at 1B and committed 1 error (.993) and 13 games at 3B and committed 1 error (.971). After hitting with a good deal of power over the last two years in AA, Sellers seems to have lost his power without a homer yet for a struggling Lehigh Valley offense.  Sellers has hit the ball harder then his .244 avg. indicates, but his season thus far has had far less success then what was expected. Defensively, he has performed well.

Cody Ransom, Age 34, .235/.299/.470 in 166 AB’s.  10HR 31RBI, 2SB, .212 vs. LH, .241 vs. RH, .319 with RISP; 8% BB rate, 32% k rate. Has played 34 games at 3B and committed 11 errors (.872); 4 games in RF with two errors (.714) and 3 games at SS without an error.  Ransom has provided power and clutch hitting, but his defense has been awful and he strikes out a ton.

Andy Tracy, Age 36, .213/.322/.336 in 122 AB’s. 3HR 11RBI; .280 vs. LH, .196 vs. RH; .200 with RISP. 13% BB rate, 23% K rate. has played 30 games at 1B and committed 2 errors (.992).  8.30 range factor. 2010 has been very disappointing thus far for Tracy, who has missed about two weeks with nagging injuries most specifically his shoulder.  When he has played, he has struggled. Continue reading Around the System–Corner Infield →

May 27th Open Discussion

Box Score Recap

Last night’s scores, and then lots of nonsensical banter about Cliff Lee.

Reading wins 5-3.

Worley with another solid start. Rizzotti 3/5 with 2 more HR

Clearwater wins 13-8.

JC Ramirez is back. 8 K and 0 BB are the key numbers for me, don’t care much about the 4 ER.
Overbeck with #11.

Lakewood wins 11-10.

Sleeper Julio Rodriguez with his debut. Lots of pitches, a few runs, but 6 K in 3.2 IP is at least promising.

Singleton mania

Ten Pack/Hot Sheet

Sweeping the nation. Kevin Goldstein at BP gives Singleton a little love in his daily posting.

An 8th-round pick last year out of a Southern California high school, Singleton had classic first base tools, including plenty of raw power, but also enough hitting mechanics to project as a high-average hitter, but he was also seen as extremely raw. A surprisingly good debut last year excited the Phillies, and after spending the first part of the year in extended spring training, the team opted to test him at Low-A instead of the New York-Penn League, and he’s responded by going 19-for-44 (.432) with 34 total bases in his first 13 games. There’s explosive potential here.

To balance out this love, he gives a pessimistic assessment of the 3 guys we received for Cliff Lee. To sum up his points, basically none of the 3 have gotten off to awesome starts. Aumont’s velo is down with his new mechanics, Gillies has been hurt, and Ramirez still hasn’t shown much progress with his secondary pitches. All are valid concerns, but in the case of all three, I’m going to give them the rest of the year before drawing conclusions, for various reasons.

May 26th Discussion Post

Box Score Recap

This is where you rant and rave. First, last night’s scores

Lehigh Valley wins 2-1.

Reading wins 6-0.

Clearwater loses 10-8.

Lakewood wins 9-2.

The big question is, does Jon Singleton replace Ryan Howard in the lineup in July or August of this season?

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.

Lakewood Weekly Report (5/17-5/23)

4. Lakewood

Recap: Lakewood went 3-4 on the week, dropping two of three to Greensboro and splitting four with West Virginia.  The team sits at 24-20 in third place, three games behind Hickory in the SAL North.  Outstanding performances during the week by Jonathan Singleton, Jonathan Villar, and Brody Colvin.  On the downside, the Claws lost both Nick Hernandez and Jon Pettibone to shoulder injuries. Continue reading Lakewood Weekly Report (5/17-5/23) →

‘Pigs Weekend Update

Other Stuff

Another depressing weekend in Lehigh Valley, with the ‘Pigs losing each game. See below for details as well as notes.

Friday–Lehigh Valley concluded their series with Louisville, losing 5-2 to the Bats on Friday evening. Former Phillie prospect Matt Maloney shut down the ‘Pigs throwing six innings and giving up just two runs.  Brian Mazone started for Lehigh Valley and had a good outing, throwing 7.1 innings allowing only 2 earned runs on 8 hits, while throwing just 91 pitches.  A costly error by Cody Ransom made the first inning difficult for Mazone, who gave up an early three run homer.  A Melvin Dorta RBI single and a John Mayberry sac fly led to two runs for Lehigh Valley in the first, but that was all the ‘Pigs could muster the whole evening.  Louisville added a run in the 4th and another in the 8th for the final margin of victory.  Cody Ransom came to the plate with the tying runs on base in the 9th but hit into a game ending double play. Continue reading ‘Pigs Weekend Update →

Report from Today’s R-Phils Game

Other Stuff

Watched from the picnic area today.

Game was pretty dull. Lots of he pitchers for Reading were prospects.

The bad news was Aumont–pitched 4+ innings and produced maybe 1 bad swing all day. Flying Squirrels (yeah, I know) hit rockets all over the yard. Aumont topped at 90 (one time) with his FB and consistently hit 88. His best pitch was a 73 mph curve. He now throws from his ear a bit, which explains the loss of velocity. I have no hope for him a future major leaguer with this delivery and velocity–his FB just doesn’t move that much. He never got a lot out of his lower body when he pitched, but it seems like the Phils have shortened his arm motion and are working on being on-balance and hitting spots with him.  Hope he still has the 95 mph stuff around after they change his delivery.

Continue reading Report from Today’s R-Phils Game →

Weekly Notes Column, May 23rd

Weekly Notes Column

Welcome to this week’s edition of the weekly notes column. Before digging into this week’s notes, I wanted to kind of throw a warning out there. Over the next few weeks, I may begin to play around with different themes/layouts for the site. I’ve actually brightened the color red in the header so it stands out a bit more, but like anything you become overly familiar with, sometimes you want something new. I’ve never been fully in love with the wordpress templates available, I’ve tried to make them work because I don’t have the skills or abilities to build and maintain a website with regular HTML. That said, I did explore the possibility of having a custom wordpress form built, but the price tag is prohibitive. Because of that, I may just tinker with other themes and layouts. Don’t worry, the content will remain the same, and if I do go with a bigger change and move stuff around, I’ll create a road map so you can find everything. So the takeaway from that story; if you click on the page in the next few weeks and it looks really weird, don’t tweak out, just give me some time and I’ll do my best. Thanks. Now, onto the notes…

Continue reading Weekly Notes Column, May 23rd →

Evaluating Early Season Performance

Michael Schwimer Blog

First let me thank you for your patience.  I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted an article.  I have received many encouraging emails to share my insights pertaining to my performance this year.  As I write this entry, It is now Saturday May 22nd, and we are currently 40 games into the season.  Before the season started I made a promise to myself that I would not look at my cumulative stats until this point.  As you know, I believe in a relevant sample size and for me that is completion of at least 30% of my season workload.  I also evaluate my own performance differently than most other people.

Continue reading Evaluating Early Season Performance →