August 12th Discussion

Daily Discussion

You know the drill.

GCL Phillies game was suspended
Williamsport lost 6-1.
Lakewood off.
Clearwater postponed
Reading won 7-6.
Lehigh Valley won 5-1.

Something random. I missed this, but the Phillies signed Drew Rundle a few days/weeks ago, and he’s been at Williamsport. He was a 14th round pick in 2006 by the Cubs, but received a $500K bonus, well above slot. His report back then

Two Oregon-bred outfielders went in the first round in 2005, but both Portland’s Trevor Crowe and Madras’ Jacoby Ellsbury were drafted out of college, not high school. Rundle entered the spring with a chance to join them as first-rounders after a strong summer on the showcase circuit, where he showed the ability to hit off top-flight pitchers in his draft class with good velocity. That momentum didn’t carry over to the spring, though, and his hopes for being drafted highly rest primarily on his athletic ability and his performance last summer. Rundle has changed his approach this spring, spreading out at the plate (with a stance similar to Jim Edmonds’) to gain better plate coverage. He’s not strong enough to generate power from the stance and had only one homer all spring as the draft approached. Unlike Edmonds (or burners Crowe and Ellsbury), Rundle doesn’t profile as a center fielder even though he’s a present average runner, so scouts are seeing a corner outfielder who isn’t showing present power. He has average arm strength, and scouts who like him point out he hasn’t seen much to hit all spring. An Arizona recruit as was Crowe before him, he’s expected to go off the board in the first five rounds.

He was decent from 2006-2008, but really struggled last year. After hitting 10 HR in 2008, he hit just 3 last year. He’s never played above A+ ball, and he’s now back in SS ball, but still interesting. I remember reading about him during the 2006 draft, always interesting to see these guys pop up. Not saying he’s a great prospect or anything, but interesting nonetheless.

60 thoughts on “August 12th Discussion”

  1. Why all the slim pickings? We seem to be cleaning up after others. I quess there is no harm but Drew Rundle would intervention from on High.

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  2. Nice work buy the bullpen in LHV – Stutes, Schwimer and Mathieson could all probably help out in Philadelphia. And speaking of bullpen arms, DeFratus has quietly been having a heckuva year in Clearwater and now Reading.

    Who is this Victorino guy in Lehigh? A recent sign, maybe? His OPS is off the charts – Call him up now!

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  3. How about that line for Akron pitcher Anthony Reyes? 1 ip 1 hit 7 earned – 6 BB. Although J.C. Ramirez wasn’t much better…

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  4. Gillies played in the suspended GCL game yesterday. Let’s get him going. He’s lost a good portion of this year. I’m sure he’ll play winter ball but where?

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  5. Poor outing by Ramirez. Nice win by Reading though.
    I will just be glad if Gillies is finally healthy. Hopefully, he shows that he is, in his remaining AB’s.

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  6. Agreed that the goal should be to get Gillies healthy. To me, he’s the most likely candidate for a huge breakout next year. Call it a hunch, but I think he’s going to be end up in the Phils’ outfield and replace Victorino in a few years. It’s just a hunch.

    In any event, I am happy for him, Ramirez and Aumont that the Phillies acquired Roy Oswalt – I am completely serious about this. The Oswalt acquisition, to me, takes away so much stigma associated with the Cliff Lee debacle – it’s now old news, just as it should be. Now, hopefully, these guys can toil away and work toward making the majors without that gigantic dark cloud looming over their heads.

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  7. Still would have rather had Cliff Lee than Oswalt, to tell you the truth. Lee was a great fit here, the short time it lasted.

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  8. I would rather have 2 years (possibly 3 ) of Oswalt, Aumont, Gillies, Ramirez and $11 Million than 1 year of Lee

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  9. Oswalt totally made giving up Lee worth it…Rube actually made up for his earlier mistake and then some.

    On Gillies: Normally, I’d say AFL for him but after missing most of his first AA season, I doubt he’s ready to get thrown into that level of competition (somewhere between AA & AAA) so who knows where he’ll play winter ball. Maybe the Mexican League (like Valle did last year?)

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  10. Nepp – Right after the trade for Oswalt, three respected scouts (according to ESPN) said they would not have traded Happ for Oswalt. The scouts liked what Happ did while he was here (win), and the fact the he is a LHP starting pitcher. So I wouldn’t be so sure that “Rube actually made up for his earlier mistake and then some”. Didn’t sound like it according to these scouts.

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  11. If Oswalt helps us win another WFC this year, the Lee and Happ trades will be totally worth it and RAJ will have done the right thing. If not…

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  13. amen! move off of analyzing the Lee trade. that is dead an buried.

    this is a blog to discuss current phillies’ prospects.

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  14. Geez . . . I sure as hell didn’t mean to stir up that hornet’s nest. I was just making a passing reference as it affects our minor leaguers. UGH!

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  16. PPFan, a, there was some discussion of the players involved in the Lee trade, such as Happ, Aumont, Gillies, Ramirez. But I guess that doesn’t meet your criteria. Sorry.

    I like Rizz as much as anybody, but he won’t factor into the player if Goad is DL’d.
    Probably Mayberry Jr. returns. Or possibly Andy Tracy, but he is obviously not on the 40 Man Roster.

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  17. If three scouts were pointing to Happ’s winning % as a reason to pan a trade, I’m not sure how “respected” they could be.

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  18. Blue Claws on BA’s Low Class A Best Tools list has Singleton as most exciting player and best defensive 1B. Cosart gets best fastball.

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  21. If Gload is hurt, I do not think he will be replaced with Rizzotti. You’d have 2 guys who do nothing but play 1B. A pitcher might come up or be acquired – it was pointed out that Mike Gonzalez is on waivers – or Mayberry or Ransom again. I think they send Brown down until the roster expands. If they use Dobbs as their lefthanded first baseman then it’s Ransom because they are short infielders. But then they’d need a lefty bat off the bench… oy – decisions, decisions.
    How about this for a short term replacement for Gload… Matt “The Wonder Hamster, in case of emergency use the” Stairs. Another great clubhouse guy, can play first and outfield.

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  22. jumpin are we allow to mention Gload he is in the major, remmeber what pp said only prospects allow,stairs isnt a prospect either you broke the rules,gongalez is not a prospecteither you might get hollered at.

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  23. As far as I am concerned within the rules, I am talking about who might replace Gload, which would include prospect options / minor leaguers, not how is Gload playing… most of the guys I talked about are on our AAA club.

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  25. does anyone know how long kelly dugan will be rehabbing and when he’s done will he go back to williamsport?

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  27. The cubs already converted Rundle this year to pitcher after he failed to hit his weight above rookie ball. They must not have thought he was cut-out for it as they cut him after a few appearances. The Phils have used him strictly in the OF since they signed him so I think he’s just filling OF depth. Was either him or another independent league signing like Bill Rice.

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  28. I don’t see the big club (if I’m allowed to mention it) making any other moves. Gload was on the roster as the 4th OF. He goes on the DL and Shane comes off. That leaves Dom and Ben as the 4th & 5th OF. Sweeney and Dobbs will man First until Ryan gets well. If they want, they could bring up Andy Tracy. They could put Jamie on the 60 day DL to make room. They could send down the 13th pitcher to make room on the 25 man.

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  30. FlyByeNite: Bil Rice was not an independent league signing. He was signed following a 2 years in college.

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  31. 3upkkk : Well I wouldn’t think that a young lefthander 15-6 in his career in the league, who came in 2nd in the NL Rookie Of The Year voting would go unnoticed by 3 respected scouts. How many other young LHP have that kind of winning %?

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  32. snakeman: I think he’s inferring to the fact that wins mean nothing and how pitchers have no control over them.

    Would it be wrong to say that Jesse Biddle is a top 5 prospect for us? Six foot six lefties that have a good fastball and command aren’t exactly easy to find. Right now, I’d say he’s five behind Cosart, Colvin, Singleton, and May.

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  33. W-L is a bad measure of pitching performance, but Happ also didn’t give up a lot of runs. Since the trade, Happ has two great and one awful start. Oswalt has one great, one very good, and one poor start. Really not a whole lot of performance distance between them, thus far.

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  35. A bit of a changeup here, but I was just going over the 2010 draft picks anto see how our guys are performing/look at the potential slot-bust signees, and I noticed that it looks Eldmire signed, but is not on the Williamsport or GCL Phillies roster. Does anyone know his status?

    -Jeff

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  36. Never mind. I just googled his name, and one of the first hits linked me to a recent interview posted here.

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  37. Snakeman … do you have a link to the ESPN report that quoted those three respected scouts, or is that just something you remember hearing on ESPN after the trade was made?

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  38. Just noticed this looking over the reading box scores.

    Reyes, A (L, 0-2) 1.0 1 7 7 6 1 0 25.41

    Akron starting pitcher

    Thats 1 hit, 7 runs, 7 ER, 6 BB. 1 inning pitched. Wierd.

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  39. any update on hinson or frazier? I am at Coastal Carolina and players are arriving on campus to begin classes on Monday. I would like to see Hinson in the fold.

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  40. I was a big Savery supporter. Now lets trade him for an underachieving third baseman. Even if he hits here, first base is not an option.

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  41. Hinson broke off talks with the phillies, they wish him luck at school, no chance he signs. according to the scout.

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  42. Hinson and his Father had agreed to a bonus with the Phillies before they drafted him and then after he was drafted Hinson asked for significantly more and then the College World Series happened and Hinson played well and his asking price you would assume went up even more.

    So basically they went back on an agreed price and kind of screwed the Phillies over. Dude is going to be 22 next year when he gets drafted and I doubt he gets more money than what the Phillies were offering, if he decides to play out his senior season he’d be 24 after 2 more years and not even considered a prospect when he enters the minors.

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  43. Chom57,
    Biddle being the 5th best prospect is reasonable, IMO. 5 through 10 could be any order. Biddle, Valle, James, Gillies, Santana and Ramirez could go any order in the top 10.

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  44. First time poster to this great site. I wanted to pass on a email I got from John Manuel from Baseball America about my concerns that the Phillies have not signed anyone since July 6, 2010:. we answered this in a podcast that will go up 2moro(Friday). —
    John Manuel
    Editor, Baseball America

    So if anyone has access to Baseball America can you update Phillies fans on his information?

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  45. I’m guessing it will be response that MLB has held up over-slot signings this year and is releasing them even slower.

    To that I would say, the Phillies have traditionally not been a team that GROSSLY overpays for slot bonuses and that we’ve seen bonuses announced by teams that are already 500,000-800,000 over-slot. The Phillies might sign one guy for that much over slot. The rest would be your 200,000-300,000 or less signs.

    Unless the Phillies signed Palka for like $1.2m and ticked off major league baseball (doubt it)

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  46. Just read J. Stark Rumblings and Grumblings. Interesting not is the phillies would not include both Gose and Drabek in the Halladay deal. The Blue Jays chose Drabek and Gose was replaced by Taylor. So after considering this, the question is: Who is a better prospect and who should the phillies have kept, Gose or Taylor?

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  47. Gose was coming off a what almost 80 SB season? The Phillies love speed and Gose has it to burn, unfortunately this season he seems to have burned a lot of it. He probably has more upside than Taylor, but I think he also has more downside. Gose needs develop much better recognition when he’s batting and take more walks to get on base and utilize his speed. He strikes out like he’s a power hitter. I think he also needs to have some real coaching on base-running because too often he runs on first movement by the pitcher and that’s led to him getting picked off a lot this season.

    Taylor struggled early in AAA, but you can put that as a new team and trying too hard to impress because he wanted to be in the bigs. I think he can be a Jayson Werth type hitter(maybe a little less power) in the OF. If Gose learns to harness all his ability and walks more he could turn into one of the top 3 or 4 lead-off men in baseball and an elite defender in CF who could remind you of Beltran in his prime at CF with the Royals in the amount of ground he can cover (and the arm to go with it)

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  48. Apparently this slipped through the radar, but Austin Hyatt was promoted and is starting for the Reading Phils tonight.

    Nice easy first inning for him:
    # Jordan Henry called out on strikes.
    # Jason Kipnis strikes out swinging.
    # Lonnie Chisenhall grounds out, shortstop Freddy Galvis to first baseman Kevin Nelson

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  51. Hyatt lost control giving up five walks over the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings. Taken out after 96 pitches in five innings of work.

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  52. Snakeman, point is that no legit scout would mention a pitcher’s w/l record as a way to evaluate a player. I am a fan of J. A. Happ and expect he will have a productive career but Oswalt is the better pitcher.

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  53. Taylor has always–in the Phils’ system–started out the season doing poorly but later on he usually got it together and ended each season well…especially in his last two minor lg seasons.
    This season has been the same pattern with the A’s. Hope he gets going.

    AAA may help; but it tells us that the Phils’ insistence on keeping Brown was accurate…so far.

    My own misgivings about Taylor have been that an athelete with such a demanding hot-weather sport with a loooong season may be a problem for a guy whose diabetes has to be kept under control. In the civilian population, that may be a lot easier than for an athlete with such physical and endurance expectations.

    I surely wish him well and want to see him playing well for the A’s, but I do appreciate our having Brown.

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  56. NOBODY GET BENT OUT OF SHAPE This comment is sarcastic…but from reading above that we cant talk about the major leaguers even when it may directly affect the minor leaguers then we should not be able to write about PhutureA’s or PhutureBlueJays either right?

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  58. Ramirez why all the love, last two years he has given up more hits then innings pitched. Doesnt strikeout a lot of hitter, cant figure how is he top ten prospect, is out system that weak?? Has high era in 2009 in fl which is a pitchers league

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  59. Very disappointing to hear about Hinson. He is putting all his eggs in one basket. The kid better have a hell of a season. Even if he does, isn’t he a senior? What leverage would that give him??

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  60. Mikemike,

    Umm … were you joking, or really not aware that Rameriz pitched in an extreme hitters park (High Desert) in an extreme hitters league (California League) in 2009, not the Florida State League? I mean, if you saw his ERA, you must have also seen his team and league?

    Certainly he hasn’t gotten off to a great start in AA (though he has pitched a little better than his ERA would indicate). But he is in AA as a 21 year old. And it’s just 11 starts. He pitched quite well in A+ earlier this year – yes, his ERA was only okay given that it was the Florida State league, but his underlying data was quite good (FIP 3.06).

    This is a perfect example of the segment of the readership here that doesn’t trust either scouting reports or advanced statistical analysis, but relies only upon an unsophisticated understanding of raw statistics. A major league organization that evaluated players on that basis would routinely lose 100 games a year.

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