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Some insightful comments on various Lakewood BlueClaws on their blog today…(http://blog.blueclaws.com/) .  Manager Mark Parent was interviewed and he commented on:

Jonathan Singleton: “Word is out on him, thats for sure…He is going to have to expand the zone or be more aggressive early in the count.  They are going to pitch to him like a big leaguer rehabbing. He is a good hitter.  His swing is simple and good.  He will certainly adjust to whatever they are doing”.

Brody Colvin: ” He was already a big prospect but he has opened alot of eyes.  When people get alot better in a short period of time, you never know how much further they can keep going.”

Matt Way: ” Way has come out where to, for me, he has pretty much done all he can do at this level. At his age, his stuff, we need to see if it transfers to a higher level. We have talked about that for a few weeks. There has to be an opening but he has been great.”

The Bullpen: “Wertz has stepped up.  Lugo’s almost been perfect. Zeid, in my opinion, is a starter. Some people have the temperament where they can come in with other guys on base and even if they give it up, they can bounce a bad outing off him.  He is a guy that has to prepare and work through his stuff.  I think Zeid will do a great job as a starter.”

15 thoughts on “BlueClaws Blog”

  2. Pettibone has impressed me since he came off the DL (except that 1st outing). In his last 4 starts he’s pitched 19 2/3, giving up 8 Hs, 5 ERs. He had 10Ks and 12 BBs.

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  3. FYI on the Blue Claws . . . my son saw them this past week and said that the biggest surprise, believe it or not, was Massingham. He was shocked to discover that Massingham’s fastball consistently sat around 97 MPH and hit as high as 99 on the gun. Is anybody else aware of Massingham having that good of an arm? It sure was surprising to me. Also, he said Colvin’s fastball sat in the 94 MPH range well into the game and hit 96 – very good news indeed.

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  4. Wow, Catch. Sounds like that radar gun may be tweaked high to please the fans. Still, even if it is 3-4 mph high, those are impressive numbers. Will have to pay attention to Massingham now. Thanks for the heads up.

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  5. I hope Singleton doesn’t take that advice too far. He’s got terrific discipline for such a young guy – don’t wreck that to try to hit balls out of the zone that are hard to square up on anyway.

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  8. Singleton’s swing is amazing. There is no wasted motion at all. He goes right from the set point in his stance to putting the bat in the hitting zone. There’s no stride, no bringing the bat back, nothing but a slight raising of his heel combined with a weight shift. An incredible economy of motion.

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  9. “Being more aggressive” seems to be part of the Phillies’ instructional mantra, and is the last thing you want a young hitter to do. Take the walks, hit the balls in your happy zone. Don’t go fishing for stuff you can’t drive anyway.

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  10. I don’t have any problem with them wanting Singleton to be more aggressive as it relates to attacking pitches in the strike zone.

    Talking about him expanding the strike zone is an entirely different story.

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  11. If you want to be an impact hitter and not Wade Boggs, you have to extend your strike zone at certain times in a game.
    Thats what super stars do. And that’s what everyone makes Singleton out to be.

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  12. So Wade Boggs was not an impact hitter. Hmmm.

    There are few times in a game – very few – when it makes sense to “extend your strike zone.” Setting aside the large amount of evidence in favor of such proposition, simple logic will suffice.

    (1) In those rare occassions where a base on balls actually reduces the chance of a victory by the hitting team, the pitcher can issue an intentional BB.
    (2) Thus, unless the non-hitting team makes a tactical mistake (i.e., pitches to a player when an intentional BB would make more tactical sense), a player being pitched to should ALWAYS take the BB if he can. In order to do that, he should not “extend his strike zone.”

    Now, that does NOT mean that a player should NEVER swing a pitch outside the strike zone. There are circumstances when he should – but that’s not really situational*, not really a matter of “extending the strike zone.”

    *Except perhaps in terms of the count, but I don’t think that’s what you meant.

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  15. I erred (it’s human-or as they used to say-it’s Truman) (mistake- great President) Blueclaws 10-3.

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