Monthly Archives: May 2010

May 11th Box Score Roundup

Box Score Recap

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.

More thoughts on the draft

2010 Draft

If you missed it a few days ago, I wrote a very lengthy piece expressing my views on the MLB draft, why its flawed, and how to fix it. Obviously I don’t expect my ideas to be used, or even accepted by the masses, and the debates on how to fix the draft will go on for as long as the draft remains the mess it is today. But I’ve been thinking more about the upcoming draft, and past drafts, and I thought I’d write another piece, because I think maybe we’re missing the mark with our draft analysis and reactions. Check below for more…

Continue reading More thoughts on the draft →

Q and A with Josh Zeid

Other Stuff

The Lakewood BlueClaws have been kind enough to arrange for a Question and Answer with reliever Josh Zeid.  Zeid, a 6’4, 210 reliever was named the Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Month for the Month of April.  Zeid, 23,  was chosen in the 10th Round of the 2009 draft out of Tulane University.  Zeid spent the first two seasons of his collegiate career at Vanderbilt, and then transferred to Tulane.  He was the Gatorade Connecticut High School Player of the Year his senior year in high school.

Continue reading Q and A with Josh Zeid →

May 10th, Box Score Roundup

Box Score Recap

Here is the thread to discuss the night’s games.

Lehigh Valley loses 3-2.

Reading wins 4-2.

Clearwater loses 4-3.

Lakewood loses 2-1.

Nick Hernandez with the best pitching performance of the night

7 IP – 0 ER – 3 H – 1 BB – 4 K

Around the System–Starting Pitching

Around the System

A first look at starting pitching through the system.  Take this for what it is, statistics for the first 5-6 weeks of the season with brief comments attached. Note: Stats are thru 5/9/10.

Lehigh Valley

Andrew Carpenter, 24, 5 starts; 3-2 with a 4.03 ERA. 22.1IP 24H 11BB 11K; 1.56 WHIP; .186 vs. LH; .385 vs. RH; .192 with RISP. Carpenter started very slow but has picked it up over his last several starts. 

Nate Bump, 33, 6 starts, 4-1 with a 2.75 ERA. 36IP 39 H 9BB 14K; 1.33 WHIP; .274 vs. LH; .288 vs. RH; .262 with RISP.  Has looked good and knows how to pitch.  Far from overpowering however.

Brian Mazone, 33, 6 starts; 2-3 with a 5.63 ERA. 32IP 37H 5BB 22K; 1.31 WHIP; .300 vs. LH; .284 vs. RH; .261 with RIS; 5 HR allowed. Has either looked very good, or very bad and the last two starts have been very bad.  Good control but very hittable, and when he gets hit, the hits come in buckets.

Ryan Vogelsong, 32, 6 starts, 1-1 with a 3.77 ERA. 31IP 28H 22BB 33K; 1.61 WHIP; .224 vs. LH, .259 vs. RH; .273 with RISP.  Has probably the best “stuff” on the Lehigh Valley staff, but there are times he doesnt know where it is going.  Significant command issues have hampered him, drawing many deep counts and walks.

Joe Savery, 24, 5 starts, 0-2 with a 5.00 ERA. 27IP 34H 12BB 16 K; 1.70 WHIP; .383 vs. LH, .282 vs. RH; .370 with bases empty, .211 with RISP. 4 homers allowed.  Savery is an enigma.  See specifically the splits with bases empty and RISP.  He simply runs into too much trouble to be effective in the long term. Continue reading Around the System–Starting Pitching →

Reading Weekly Report 5/2-5/9

6. Reading

Reading had a 3-4 week, unfortunately featuring yet another bullpen meltdown costing the RPhils another multi-run lead late in the game.  The RPhils lost a blowout to New Hampshire, took 2 out of 3 from Portland (and would have swept without the meltdown), and lost 2 of 3 to Akron.  They play New Hampshire again early this week in a series that features a third chance to face former RPhil Kyle Drabek and two morning games.

Continue reading Reading Weekly Report 5/2-5/9 →

Lakewood Weekly Report (5/3-5/9)

4. Lakewood

Recap: Lakewood went 4-3 on the week, splitting a four game series with Charleston, then taking 2 of 3 from Savannah.  The Claws currently sit in second place in the SAL North with a 17-14 record, two games behind Hickory.  The week was marked by pretty solid starting pitching and capped off with a 15-inning win on Sunday on Jonathan Villar’s walkoff single.

Continue reading Lakewood Weekly Report (5/3-5/9) →

‘Pigs Weekend Update

Other Stuff

A look at the Lehigh Valley weekend.  See below for summaries and notes.

Friday–AFter a strong start in which Lehigh Valley took the early lead on a Melvin Dorta RBI single and Ryan Vogelsong struck out 5 of the first 6 hitters he faced, things went downhill quickly in the 6-3 Lehigh Valley loss to Columbus. Columbus took the lead with a two run third, however Lehigh Valley quickly answered with two of their own on a Neil Sellers two run double.  Columbus tied the game in the 4th, off of starter Ryan Vogelsong who went 5 inningd, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits.  He walked 2 and struck out 9.  The wheels fell off in the 8th when a crucial error by Luis Maza led to three unearned runs, sealing the game for the Clippers. Mike Zagurski (0-1) took the loss.  Neil Sellers was 2-3 at the plate with 2 RBI’s, while Cody Ransom was 1-3 with 2 runs scored and 2 stolen bases. Continue reading ‘Pigs Weekend Update →

New video of Jarred Cosart

Other Stuff

Thanks to the amazing resource that is Prospectube.com, I found five new videos of Jarred Cosart. They were uploaded just a few days ago, and come from his April 14th appearance.

Part 1, 4/14/2010
Part 2, 4/14/2010
Part 3, 4/14/2010
Part 4, 4/14/2010
Part 5, 4/14/2010

Old scouting bureau video pre-2008 draft.

Just a few thoughts. His tempo is still very slow, and that hitch from his pre-draft delivery is still there. But it appears the Phillies have smoothed out his motion a bit, and he seems a bit more under control. The arm speed is still blazing fast, and you can see the fastball explode out of his hand. The big difference I see is that he comes from a lower arm slot, so I don’t think he’ll be able to throw a traditional curveball, and I wonder how well he’ll be able to command a changeup from that slot. He throws a few hard sliders in the video, which will probably be the preferred secondary pitch he sticks with. I wonder if maybe he’ll be able to pick up a split finger grip on a changeup, similar to the pitch Roy Halladay uses. Halladay’s “changeup” sits in the 83-85 range, from what I’ve seen, and with Cosart’s 93-96 mph fastball, that would be an ideal range for his changeup as well. Still, impressive stuff here. Massive arm strength.

You can also check out other good videos of Lakewood guys by looking at the channel for this user, PhillesProspects, here.

The economics of keeping Jayson Werth

Other Stuff

As a regular reader, you know that I generally (almost always) discourage talking about the big league team here. This site was started with a very targeted purpose, to focus solely on the minor leagues. There are some situations where it is important to discuss the big league team, ie, how current prospects fit in to the big league team, or if a player gets injured and the speculation is to who replaces him. But in general, I don’t really care about the latest Phillies game with regard to this site. We’re here to focus on the Phillies minor league system. That said, when I see something consistently get brought up over and over again, and it does tie in somewhat directly with the minor league system, I feel it does warrant attention and discussion. This is the case with the idea of Jayson Werth’s future in the Phillies organization. In my opinion, the “analysis” of Werth’s future beyond 2010 has been somewhat shoddy. So I’m going to do my best to explain why I think its far more likely that Werth re-signs here than goes elsewhere. After that, you can make a judgment, but hopefully when someone brings it up and uses the incorrect assumptions, you correct them and maybe show them this post. I’m going to try and be as detailed as possible. Check below for more

Continue reading The economics of keeping Jayson Werth →