Reading went 6-5 over the last 11 days, including the completion of a suspended game, and another game that was suspended until mid-August. Harold Garcia was the hitting star of the period (along with the usual suspect, Matt Rizzotti), batting .356 and throwing in an unexpected .600 SLG. He hit in 10 of the 11 games, with a double, two triples, and 2 home runs. Garcia has been killing lefties in AA, posting almost a 1.200 OPS, albeit over only 30 plate appearances.
Of course, calling Garcia the ‘star’ shortchanges the monster of the Eastern League, Matt Rizzotti, who posted close to his usual stats, .414/.614/.655 for a 1.269 OPS. His most unusual stat was drawing 15 walks in the 10 games, with Akron simply refusing to pitch to him in the last two games of their series. Rizzotti now leads the EL in batting by 53 points, in SLG by 103 points, and in OBP by 20 points, currently holding the sabermetric triple crown.
Kevin Mahar has also finally hit his stride as well, batting .349 over the 10 game period and contributing 3 HR. Freddy Galvis had a superficially good 10 days as well, hitting .293, although that performance was tempered a bit by the complete absence of extra-base hits and by him drawing only 2 walks in 41 ABs.
The bullpen has stabilized a bit over the last week, with Justin DeFratus, Sergio Escalona, and Tyson Brummett pitching well recently, especially DeFratus, who pitched 6 innings without yielding a run and striking out 6.
The starters were a bit of an uneven affair, with Yohan Flande getting lit up twice and yielding 12 earned runs in 11 IP, Drew Naylor going 1-1 with a strong start and a bad one, JC Ramirez throwing decently once and poorly once, and fill-in starters Mike Cisco, Jason Anderson, and Ty Taubenheim pitching generally ineffectively.
Reading sits in third place in the Eastern division with almost no chance at the playoffs, trailing second place New Hampshire by 10.5 games, even though they’re just one game under .500. They begin a home stand this Tuesday versus Trenton and Erie, and I plan to attend one of the Erie games. I’ll post details then.
Phuture Phillies 
For a small guy, Harold Garcia has a really good OPS. Can he play SS at all? Can he replace Rollins in the future?
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If Harold Garcia never played an inning at shortstop in the lowly Venezuelan league, I doubt he can do it at the MLB level.
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I think they would call up andy tracy before they call up rizz
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We know what Andy Tracy can do. Why not give the Rizz a chance to at least showcase him for some trade potential in the offseason?
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I understand Tracy has the experience, but if what Rizzotti is doing this year with the bat doesn’t warrant a call-up I don’t know what does? This all pending the injury is serious enough to need a fill-in…
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Howard has a left sprained ankle and needed to be helped off by Manuel and trainer
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What Rizzotti has done this year warrants a callup to AAA. The Phillies are trying to win games right now. This isn’t about who has more potential, it’s about who is the better player. I honestly think that is Andy Tracy.
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That said, I think a more likely scenario is the Phillies plugging Ross Gload into the 1B role and calling up John Mayberry.
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Sure Tracy is the better player, if by better you mean batting 100 points lower with less home runs in a league hat is comparable to AA, not to mention the shoulder problems that have been nagging Tracy all year. I think its an outstanding idea to plug in one injured 1B for another. That should equate to more wins for the Phils…
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I’m just saying if needed I think Rizzotti’s bat is too hot this year to pass up
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in the end i agree with alan, gload is swinging a good bat right now and if howard has to miss time gload would most likely get the majority of time at first
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If Rizzotti was thought to be major league caliber, Houston would have taken him, instead of trading Gose for Brett Wallace.
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Mike, maybe the Phillies didn’t want to trade Rizzotti just yet hoping to increase his future trade value. I don’t know and you don’t know if Houston actually turned down an offer on Rizz.
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Oh, I’m sorry, Matt. Let’s bring up Harold Garcia to replace Utley, while were at it. Makes as much(or more) sense as bringing up Rizzotti for Howard.
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PC: How about the “Triple Saber”?
On Rizz: Only a few pro players a year have the year Rizz is having. There is no excuse for not riding that pony in September. See if it can gallop on the big trail. Hard to imagine him not giving a pitchers a really hard time at the plate with how he is locked in. Sometimes it does not matter as much as we think what league he is hitting in. Most times it does, but not always.
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There’s a difference between major league caliber when you’re at full strength and major league caliber when Utley, Howard, Victorino, etc. are hurt. They’re almost at a point (and I’m leaping to the conclusion that Howard gets DL’ed) where they have to roll the dice instead of bringing up another AAAA re-tread. You’ve gotten meaningful contributions from Valdez, Ransom (tied that game off Cordero), Sardinha hit some homers, etc., but sooner or later, the luck of these guys runs out. That’s why they play for a new AAA team every year and end up with 150 ML plate appearances after 10 years. And that’s why a team stocked with re-treads is about 90 games out of first in the International League. I have no idea if Rizz can play in the majors (now or ever). But doesn’t he present slightly more hope than bringing up Mayberry and playing Gload at first?
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The cody ransom experiment should end. That guys doesnt have a clue how to hit, man what do they see in him? but we have no one down on the farm to help,shame,
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Peco Pick, I’ve seen enough of both levels to believe there is a substantial difference in quality between AA and AAA.
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Well Rizzotti seems to be doing it better then everyone including the beloved Dominic Brown in AA. And so far Dominic seems to be doing great in the bigs. So if one were to go by that scale why not give the kid a shot for a few weeks and see what this guy can do, instead of bringing up a hurt 36 year old career minor leaguer.
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Alan: Would you say the the “substantial difference” is over or under .100 BA points? I’m going to guess under…
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I love the call mayberry up comments lol!
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Would love to see Roy Halladay’s face the 1st game he pitches with Gregg Dobbs at 3rd and Matt Rizzotti at 1st. He would have to rethink the merits of being a ground ball pitcher.
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Peco, probably under. But then you have to figure on sample size differences, experience, defense, park effects, etc. A lot goes into evaluating hitters beyond their batting averages. I for one am doubtful that Rizzotti is truly a .360 hitter long term.
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Come on Alan, even if your right, would you not admit that rizzotti, at least this season, is the hottest bat we have available, and happens to play the exact position of need. Akron gave him bonds treatment the other day. And mike, do you think rizz will be that much of a drop off from our current gold glover over at first base.
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Yeah, and I’ve seen Matt Wieters and Jesus Montero come straight from ripping AA to flailing at AAA. It’s not a sure thing by any standard.
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“We have nothing to fear but fear itself” The Phillies need to grow a pair instead of playing it safe. Rizzotti to south philly and bring on the cheese steaks.
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Howard listed as day to day, DL small possibility
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howard is to miss couple days its seems, no one is being called up
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Mike
You know how the team understates injuries. I hope you are right.
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Rizzotti is hitting insane, but AAA is superior to AA. In my non expert opinion I’d bump him up to AAA to see if a September call up is in cards, but have no problem with letting him marinate at AA.
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I for one don’t think that AAA is superior, I would say in terms of defense and fielding you are right but not with hitting or even pitching. My view on it is most people in AA are still in the process of going up, where as players in AAA are mostly there as people that either a) can’t hack it in the majors or b) are there because they are or may be an adequate back up in case of injury. Players that are majors bound that are true talent don’t seem to spend a lot of time in AAA.
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Jeremy, an MLB scout friend told me the same thing. He said that mostly AAA is like a warehouse that houses players that jump from AAA to MLB temporarily or is a safe haven for minor league lifers. He said that most prospects go directly from AA to MLB. However it depends on the team and how well they run their minor league system. In my opinion, the Phillies are very slow to promote and I think our AAA is very hard to reach cause it is filled with a lot minor league lifers. I think our AA is actually like other teams AA/AAA combined in terms of prospects.
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In an interview recently Domonic Brown said double A pitching was much more difficult than triple A for him.
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Having more prospects does not equal having a superior league. First off, a high percentage of the “prospects” do NOT succeed in the majors. Second, AAA has the veterans who though they are not MLB caliber for one reason or another, can still play at a high level and do it well. The typical AA player isn’t Domonic Brown. It’s guys like Mike Spidale and Tuffy Gosewisch. The typical AAA veteran is far, far better than the AA veteran.
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Looks like Howard is day-to-day and may not require the DL. If he did, then it would seem Ross Gload (yesterday’s minor league phenom) would become the regular at 1B, and they should only call up Rizzotti to the 40 and 25 man roster if he can play regularly. Calling up either Tracy or Rizzotti will add another to 40 roster, so I believe they would call up Mayberry in that case, as they could switch off with both Ibanez and Brown against LHP’s. I hope Howard can play by Wednesday.
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Guys, there’s really no need to debate this AA/AAA thing — AAA is a bit better according to statistical studies done by the nice folks at BBProspectus, making batters lose about 15 BA points on average moving up. Other factors (hitter’s league/pitcher’s league, park effects, etc.) distort this.
Minor League Splits carries major league equivalencies for all minor leaguers. They say Rizz would be about a .287 hitter if promoted to a neutral big-league park with an .828 OPS. He loses more points than most since REading is a pretty good hitter’s park, though, since CBP is a hitter’s park as well, he might pick up som OPS points because of our home park. I think he could help us more than Tracy or Mayberry if Howard is down for a while.
His MLE versus righthanders is almost a .900 OPS. He could certainly help in a platoon (with a RH like Francisco starting in the OF v lefties, and Gload or Ibanez starting at 1B).
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As per the Philadelphia Inquirer tonight…Ryan Howard’s sprained left ankle is serious enough to warrant a return to Philadelphia, where he will be examined by team doctors on Tuesday. The Phillies slugger flew from Miami to Philadelphia tonight.
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