Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

7. Lehigh Valley

A crazy post all star break week, with players coming and going up and down the organization.  Lehigh Valley has gone 4-3  since the all star break, and now stand at 41-57, in 5th place of the Northern Division of the International League, 16.5 games behind division leading Scranton.

Leaders: Note: Stats are thru Tuesday and include only those on the current Lehigh Valley roster. Hitters: John Mayberry is 5th in runs (52); Chris Duffy is tied for 4th in triples (4) and is 8th in strikeouts (83); Andy Tracy is 3rd in walks (52), 4th in OBP (.400) and 5th in SLG (.515); Pitchers: Nate Bump is 7th in ERA (3.15); Brian Mazone is tied for 3rd in starts (19) and 7th in HR allowed (14); Scott Mathieson is 3rd in saves (18); Joe Savery is 6th in walks (40).

Monday–Lehigh Valley showed some moxie on Monday with a remarkable comeback from an early 8-1 deficit to win 10-8 over Indianapolis.  Nate Bump was hit hard, early and often, lasting only 2 innings, and allowing 8 runs on nine hits. Lehigh Valley actually got on the board first on a John Mayberry RBI single in the first inning, but Indianapolis quickly put 8 runs on the board by the end of the third inning.  The ‘Pigs began chipping away with a two run 4th, with Paul Hoover coming through with an RBI double and Dane Sardinha following with an RBI single.  Joe Savery pitched four scoreless innings in relief of Bump, giving Lehigh Valley the opportunity to comeback.  The ‘Pigs put four more runs up in the 7th on a Chris Duffy RBI triple, Chris Aguila RBI single, and consecutive RBI singles by John Mayberry and Neil Sellers.  The comeback was capped off with a three run 9th inning, with Brian Bocock coming up huge with a three run triple to cap off the comeback.  Michael Schwimer (1-0) picked up the win in relief with Antonio Bastardo earning the save. John Mayberry was once again the offensive star, going 4-5 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI’s, while Chris Aguila was 3-5 with 2 runs and an RBI.

Tuesday–A second straight win over Indianapolis Tuesday evening, this time 4-2.  JA Happ got the start but was pulled after three shutout innings, presumably because of an upcoming call up to Philadelphia to start this weekend.  A three run third inning got the ‘Pigs going with a two run homer by Chris Duffy (5) followed by a solo shot by Ozzie CHavez (2) causing the damage. Oscar Villarreal (2-3) got the win in relief with Scott Mathieson picking up his 18th save of the year while pitching two shutout innings, striking out three.  The final Lehigh Valley run came home on a Chris Aguila sac fly in the 7th, which gave Lehigh Valley the final 4-2 margin after Indianapolis crept back in with runs in the 4th and 5th. Both Ozzie CHavez and Dane Sardinha has multi hit games for Lehigh Valley.

Wednesday: Placing this game into the category of anything is possible in baseball, Brian Bocock hit a grand slam, giving him 6 RBI’s on the day in the 12-8 Lehigh Valley victory over Indianapolis, their third win in a row. Indianapolis got on the board first with a run in the 2nd off of Lehigh Valley starter Mike CIsco.  The ‘Pigs tied the game in the 3rd on a solo homer by Chris Aguila (2), and then took a 3-1 lead in the 4th on a two run double for the scalding hot Brian Bocock. A lone Indians run in the 5th made it 3-2,  but a Dane Sardinha Rbi single in the top of the 6th, gave Lehigh Valley their two run cushion right back. An Indianapolis run in the 6th, followed by 2 more in the 7th, spelled the end of the day for Mike Cisco who went 6.1 innings, giving up 5 runs on 8 hits. He walked one and struck out five, leaving the ‘Pigs with a 5-4 deficit when he exited. A four run 8th inning, which featured RBI singles by Andy Tracy and Domonic Brown gave Lehigh Valley an 8-5 cushion entering the 9th, when the Bocock slam finished the scoring.   Michael Schwimer (2-0) got the win in relief with Antonio Bastardo picking up his 2nd save. 

‘Pigs Prospects–Domonic Brown has hit in 18 of 21 games since his promotion to AAA.  Since being moved to the #3 hole in the lineup 12 games ago, Brown has 11 RBI’s. His combined stats this year are: .323/.385/.580 with 19HR 64 RBI and 14 SB. His K rate is below 19% for the year and he has hit .400 with RISP for Lehigh Valley. 

John Mayberry is hot.  He has hit safely in 7 of his last 8 games, hitting .471 over that period with 8 RBI’s.  This follows a period where Mayberry had been cold for most of June.  Maybe now after regaining his health (he had been nursing a sore leg) he has been able to take it up a notch, following the All Star break.  On the year: .263/.325/.412, 10HR 51 RBI, 11 SB, .283 with RISP, .316 vs. LH, .247 vs. RH.

Antonio Bastardo has thrown 3 scoreless innings since returning to AAA from the Phillies disabled list.  Additionally, he has earned two saves and has now struck out 11 in 6.2 innings of AAA work this year.

Michael Schwimer has not allowed a run in his first 6 AAA appearances, spanning 5.2 innings.  Impressively, he has now struck out 62 over 45.2 innings this year, a k rate of 12.22/9. Still early, but the adjustment to yet another level for Schwimer appears to be very promising.

Mike Stutes has thrown in 3 post all star break games, with 2 good outings to go along with one rough one.  He has now made 11 appearances for Lehigh Valley, and is 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA.

Scott Mathieson has been unscored upon in 8 of his last 9 outings, going 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA and 6 saves since June 27. He has struck out 19 and walked 4 over 11 inninings during that time period. Again, not much more to say.

Transactions: Starter Drew Carpenter was called up by the Phils who optioned Kyle Kendrick to Lehigh Valley.  Carpenter’s trip to the bigs lasted one day and one outing, with the Cards scoring three earned on him in three innings of work.

Reliever Brian Gordon who had been on the disabled list since prior to the All Star break with a strained right hip was activated from the DL on Tuesday.

Starter Mike Cisco,23,  was called up from Reading as Lehigh Valley was in need of a starter and it was Cisco’s turn to pitch on Wednesday evening, thus the start for Cisco for Lehigh Valley.  Nate Bump was sent to Reading, which I strongly presume was simply a procedural move to clear a roster spot for Cisco, without Bump actually going to Reading.

Notes: Andy Tracy missed most of the Indianapolis series with a strained shoulder. He did have a pinch hit single in the game Wednesday.

—Brian Bocock has a 9 game hitting streak, during which time he has hit .367. The streak includes his first career multi homer game of his career. He also has 14 RBI during the streak after only 12 in his first 67 games.

–Lehigh Valley is now 9-26 in one run games, a winning % of 25%.

–Probables: Thur: Duckworth, Friday: Mazone, Saturday: Bump

13 thoughts on “Lehigh Valley Weekly Report”

  1. R-Phils Roster Transactions 7-22-10

    RHP Mike Cisco assigned to Reading from Lehigh Valley (AAA)

    RHP Nate Bump assigned to Lehigh Valley (AAA) from Reading

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  3. Alas, lots of promising bullpen arms, when do you come to majors?

    It seems to me with relievers there must be a better stat than than ERA… due to the streaky nature of the profession. A guy has a bad outing and then gives up few runs, then doesn’t for a while, but ERA is still funky, but performs decently in the interim.

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  5. Throw-in, for closers I like save percentage. For other relievers, I agree, there should be something that takes into account the number of quality appearances.

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  7. A stat that I think is huge for relievers, yet it doesn’t get a lot of attention, is the inherited runners stat. A guy can come in and with the bases loaded, strike out the side but mix in a bases clearing double. His box score line will look pretty good, but in reality he let in three runs. Yeah, he didn’t put them there, which is why I think runners stranded should be a big deal.

    A hold is a completely useless stat.

    I seem to remember Jayson Stark coming up with a stat called a “Stop” a few years ago. It was a bit convoluted, but was intended to replace the save, and could be handed out to any reliever throughout a game. I’d look it up right now, but I gotta run.Maybe later on tonight.

    – Jeff

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  8. Just wanted to knitpick something that made me chuckle. “Scott Mathieson has been unscored upon”. how do you get unscored upon? anyway, just kidding around, its a good post.

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  9. Sandberg, ideally I like to look at a pitchers’ opposing OPS. Unfortunately it is hard to get that statistic at the minor league level.

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  10. caught the pigs on the radio today, and heard that matheison is throwing a splitter now? any truth to this? isnt that a hard pitch on your elbow?

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  11. KKstinks, I don’t know if he is throwing a splitter, but I hope he is. It’s an excellent pitch and so many power pitchers through the years have had success with it.

    The split has a reputation for hurting elbows, but I have this vague recollection that guys who research these sorts of things have not found any evidence to support that conclusion. Hmm, just googled it really fast and every article seems to say it hurts elbows, though one said it only hurts your elbow if you use poor mechanics.

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  12. Every pitch hurts your elbow if you have poor mechanics. The myth of the splitter goes back to Bruce Sutter getting hurt I believe. Of course, it could’ve had something to do with the way they used relief pitchers back then…

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  13. So, with Worley’s MLB promotion requiring his offseason inclusion on the 40 man roster (which one might think is likely) Does this mean curtains for the believed by many slim chances of Joe Savery to avoid being included in the eligible for the Rule 5 draft list, not too mention others such as Rizzotti, H. Garcia, Galvis, Aumont, DeFratus which I believe are eligible also? Is there enough slack in the players currently on the 40 man, for their being bounced in a high enough number to accomodate the desirable newly eligibles. Or will the coming Trade Deadline completely reshuffle the deck? Is there an answer or will time tell?

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