Report on Williamsport morning game 8/11

3. Williamsport

Courtesy of poster nyphilsmaniac (promoted from comments):

–Cesar Hernandez got the day off so Duran (SS) led off. Duran looked fine in the field making all routine plays. He one nice single, stole 2nd but then got picked off.
–Miguel Alvarez had only one hit but hammered a line drive that was right at the second baseman in another AB.


–Domingo Santana (who finally has reached the age of 18!) hit an absolute bomb well over the left field fence for a 2 run shot. He still struggles mightily against off speed stuff. Interesting that the HR came on a 3-0 pitch. He looked very smooth fielding balls in the OF. On one well hit ball he got turned around the wrong way, but recovered well and still caught the ball gracefully. He also did a nice job cutting off some balls in the right-center gap to hold players to singles. He has a strong arm but air-mailed a throw trying to nail a runner at the dish (it hit the screen on the fly).
– Jeff Lanning hit line shots up the middle for singles his 1st two times up and drew a walk. He also showed his toughness as he got plowed into at home on a play at the plate. He took a hard shot but held the ball and walked off the field and stayed in the game. He has his average over .300 now.
– Cameron Rupp did not hit well especially with men on base. He did hit one hard shot that was in and out of the SS’s glove (I think they gave him a hit- I know I did). I was more impressed with Rupp the last time I saw him about a month ago which was when he first starting hitting.
– David Buchanan started and went the 1st six innings. He only allowed 1 ER in 6 IP. He was not overpowering and the Valley Cats hit some hard foul balls off him, but overall he mixed things up well and pitched out of minor jams successfully.
–Juan Sosa followed with 2 excellent innings. He had 3 K’s and made the hittes lookf foolish on them.
–Chase Johnson closed it out with a perfect 9th. He also looked very strong. The game ended on a half-wing K where he fooled the batter completely. Johnson was hitting 91 consistently. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the place where the MPH was displayed(hidden) in the RF wall until the 9th inning.
–Kyrell Hudson looks pretty lost at the plate (good in CF though).
–One thing I found very interesting was that before the game EVERY pitcher on the team was on the field throwing. I have seen a number of minor league games over the last 15-20 years and have never seen that (including 3 other W’port games this year). The pitchers had to have spent over 10 minutes playing catch with each other building up to long toss and then shortening up again. I am very curious as to why and if this is a Lance Carter (WP pitching coach) idea or a sudden organizational thing. Again, I have never seen any of our affiliates do this before.

Hope everyone enjoyed the report and a decent # of people get to read it.

7 thoughts on “Report on Williamsport morning game 8/11”

  2. I know this is a little off subject but, for all those who feel that KLaw hates the Phillies farm system, this is from today’s chat: Brian (Philly)
    Thank you. Really just trying to figure out how depleted the Phillies system is.
    Klaw
    (2:28 PM)
    It’s not that bad. If they end up light on my top 100 it’s a reflection of how far away their best guys are, not a lack of talent. I like a lot of what Marti Wolever and his staff have done the last few years.

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  3. Thanks phillychuck for giving me a headline (now I fell more legitimate!!). I have seen both LV and Reading this year (and in season past) and did not see all pitchers throwing. Maybe they only do it certain days of the week. I only usually see them once or maybe twice per season.

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  6. In case anybody was interested and missed it, I had posted a similar write up for the Tuesday Crosscutters game:

    Was at the Williamsport game last night (Tuesday, 8/10) and tried to take some decent notes. I preface this with the same disclaimer that many do…I am not a scout (and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either) just a fan. So, here goes:

    Batters:
    C. Hernandez – looked very smooth/relaxed in the batters box. His index finger is extended while waiting for the pitch, showing me his hands are very relaxed. Had very good speed on the bases and seemed a little too fearless. Took a huge lead after a lead-off single and stole second rather easily. Then took another huge lead and got picked off 2nd base. On defense, backed up on an easy DP ball in the 2nd inning and then gave a soft toss to Duran at short. Couldn’t turn the DP because of all the time he took and he nearly got Duran killed (Duran stayed down at 2nd for a short time after the play). Later, in the 6th, made a very nice play on a slow roller that just got over the pitchers mound to get the runner at first.

    E. Duran – The first thing I noticed about him was how slow his bat looked through the zone. Some would call it an “easy” swing, but to me it looked like his bat was too heavy. In spite of that, he had two hits and could’ve had three but the pitcher made a nice play on a ball up the middle in the fourth. Made all the plays he should’ve at short.

    M. Alvarez – Just looks like a ball player. Seemed to have good baseball instincts in the field/on the bases. First time up he hit a lazy ground ball to short with the defense back and a runner on third (just trying to make contact to get the run in). Made a couple of nice plays on line drives hit right at him.

    J. Lanning – A big guy/well built. Had a nice swing, but older than most of the guys there.

    J. Klocke – First, I was surprised at the pronunciation of his name (clock – EE) but that kind of stuff fascinates only me. Nothing special with the bat. Had really nice footwork on the two steals against him. The first one, the runner was half way to second before he even had the ball but he nearly got him anyway. Would’ve had him, but the throw was a bit low and Duran missed it, allowing the runner to go to third. The 2nd attempt he nailed the runner by a lot. Was chatting with the umpire most of the game.

    J. Cusick – The best I can say about him is that he really got hold of one in the fourth. Hit it as well as he could/as far as he could. Went 380 feet to dead center. The wall is 400 feet away.

    D. Rundle – Tall, skinny lefty. Didn’t hit the ball out of the infield.

    C. Alonso – Defense was very shaky. He botched an easy grounder in the fourth (slow roller hit right at him that he just dropped) and then dropped the ball on slow roller that he had to charge and barehand in the same inning.

    K. Hudson – Very traditional stance. Seemed a little tense at the plate, like he knew his stats were bad and he was pressing. Was muttering to himself a lot and shaking his head when he swung at bad pitches. Hit two grounders to the SS (one a DP) and was completely fooled by a curve ball that dropped in for a called third strike in his final AB. Very smooth in the field.

    Overall, not a great game with the bats for the team. I was impressed that in the 9th inning, when down 8-2, the came out swinging and had the whole team up on the top step of the dugout hanging on the rail rooting the team on. Not one player took a base on balls, and come to think of it I can only remember 2 guys going to three balls.

    Pitchers:
    L. Bonilla – James, I don’t know if you’re still looking for pitch counts (or if you’re even reading this) but he threw 46 pitches in his 1.2 innings. The gun at the stadium was malfunctioning, so I couldn’t get any readings on his pitches. My first impression was that he wasn’t popping the catchers glove, but that was his warm-up pitches before the inning would start. He threw much harder when there was a batter there. He sort of slings the ball from shoulder height, not really side-arm but not really over the top either. You could tell from the stands that a breaking ball was coming because he would slow his arm down to throw it. The hitters seemed to know it was coming too because he got rocked.

    J. Borup – Threw 50 pitches in his 3.1 innings. Threw from a 3/4 arm slot and had roughly the same speed as Bonilla. If I had to guess, I would say 87-89 with nothing breaking 90. But, I had no gun visible to me, this is only a guess based upon past experiences. Didn’t really seem to throw anything special.

    B. Blanks – Looked VERY similar to Borup. In fact, he completed all of his warm-ups before the announcement was made that there was a pitching change, and it surprised me. The only difference I could notice was that his arm slot was slightly higher, but still not over the top. He threw 24 pitches in two innings. His ball seemed heavier that Borup (louder pop in the mitt) but not any faster.

    B. Morgado – Wow…is this guy interesting to watch. Let me say first of all that I can see why he has control issues. He is all arms and legs and everything is moving. His follow through reminds me of Mitch Williams, although not quite THAT pronounced as he fell off to the third base side. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to smooth that delivery out. Threw 6 pitches in his inning, 3 balls and three balls that were smoked by the batters, but right at the defense (2 LD’s to Alvarez in left, one hopper to Duran at short).

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  7. Interesting side note to the W’port game yesterday. I sat right behind a guy whose son played for Tri-City (Ben Orloff was the player’s name). The interesting part is that Orloff played with current Crosscutters, Pettis and Cusick, at UC Irvine. He was raving about what great kids they both are.

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