Trevor May was completely dominant in Game One of the BlueClaws series against Hickory as Lakewood took Game One 7-0. May went 6.2 shutout innings, allowing just four hits and a walk, while striking out 13. Lakewood got onto the board in the third inning when Jeremy Barnes scored on a wild pitch, which was followed by a Jiwan James sac fly which made the score 2-0. A Sebastian Valle solo blast extended the lead to 3-0 in the 4th, while two more homers, a three run shot by Alan Schoenberger and a solo homer by Jonathan Singleton led to a four spot on the board in the 5th. Eric Pettis, called up from Williamsport and Josh Zeid pitched the final 2.1 finishing off the shutout. Both Jeremy Barnes and Keoni Ruth has multi hit games for the BlueClaws. The best two out of three series continues Friday in Lakewood with Brody Colvin on the hill.
56 thoughts on “Lakewood Takes 1-0 Lead”
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Phuture Phillies 
No surprise here! This has been one of the best minor league teams all season. There is plenty of pitching to go along with talented, if not yet consistent players. The depth of offensive talent has afforded the the Claws to overcome individual inconsistencies. On a night where the leadoff guy does not get on base, guys like Shoenberger steps up with a huge home run. I would like to see Colvin show off his stuff tonight, go claws!!
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Great job May and Lakewood!
I don’t want to belittle the great effort but the leadoff guys, James & Dabbs, had 7 Ks between them. I guess the playoff adrenaline got the best of them.
Colvin can finish this series off.
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13 strikeouts in 6.2 innings. Great performance. I mean, getting that many strikeouts is one philosophy to keeping your bb/k ratio lower.
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I’m most impressed with Sebastian Valle on this team of numerous excellent and impressive prospects. His solo home run in the fourth made it a 3-0 game. I love the home run rates he is putting up as a teenager. Valle opened my eyes with 11 home runs in 160 AB last winter in Mexico and he’s continued to shine by leading Lakewood in homers and finishing 11th in that category in the SALL where he is 2.4 year younger than the average hitter. It’s rare to see this sort of home run production from a young player. The other aspect of Valle’s game that shines statistically is his rapidly improving catching ability. He throws out base stealers at an good 33% rate. He has to get some credit for the success of the pitching staff. He may be one of the reasons Trevor May has been so much better in Lakewood than at Clearwater this season.
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Is May in the same class as Cosart and Colvin now?
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Ken45, I was always impressed with the way Valle called a game when I covered him in Williamsport last year. You can’t always factor in caught stealing percentage into how good of a catcher a player is. I watched Cameron Rupp all this season look miserable trying to throw out runners, but it generally wasn’t his fault. He’s got a quick release, strong arm and usually puts his throw on point. But if the pitcher doesn’t give you a shot to throw a guy out by knowing how to hold on a runner, then it doesn’t matter. I’d say 70 percent of bases are stolen on pitchers, not catchers.
Valle always called his own games with the Crosscutters and manager Chris Truby always loved how adept he was at calling a game despite being just 18 when he was here. He knows how to work a hitter in and out, how to change speeds and how to get a pitcher into position to use his best pitch to get an out.
And let’s face it, starting your career in Williamsport and Lakewood isn’t exactly prime territory to be putting up torrid home run numbers. I’d expect his HR numbers to go up drastically as he moves to Clearwater, Reading and LV. I look at him like I look at Carlos Ruiz, you know he’s going to catch a good game, and if he can somehow manage to hit .270 for you, that’s all just a bonus. I think you’re going to get a lot more power production from Valle then you will Ruiz in the long run as he grows into a more complete hitter.
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I don’t think anyone has disputed that Valle has a strong arm behind the plate (it’s one of the reasons why Baseball America had him placed at 3B on the Phillies in their ‘5 five years from now’ or whatever team. The other reasons being that he had Travis d’Arnaud a level above him and Valle was raw behind the plate.
Valle still needs to work on his receiving ability, but I think that’s something that will continue to improve. However, he stacks up as good or better statistically than Travis d’Arnaud at Lakewood last year.
Travis d’Arnaud (’09 Lakewood) 99 Games: 6 Errors, 9 Passed Balls, 23% base-runners caught
.255 BA/.319 OBP/.738 OPS 13HR/71 RBI 75K
Sebastian Valle(’10 Lakewood) 101 Games: 9 Errors, 12 Passed Balls, 33% base-runners caught
.255 BA/.298 OBP/.728 OPS 16HR/74 RBI 101K
Valle is close to a year and a half younger than d’Arnaud so he was playing almost all his Lakewood season this year at age 19(turned 20 in late July) while d’Arnaud turned 20 in February last year and then played Lakewood.
He is more the free-swinger of the two and seems like a streaky guy, but with legit power. I don’t see any reason why he may not turn out to be as good or better than d’Arnaud to be honest. He handled maybe the best collection of Phillies pitching prospects at one level in recent history this season and all indications are he did a darn fine job with it. Not to mention he’s got a former big league catcher as his manager offering him advice in Mark Parent (one of the reasons why I’d love to see Parent get promoted to Clearwater to stay with this group and continue that role)
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Valle is one of the guys im most excited to see his progress next year. If he can develop alittle more patience at the plate, he could be a real good hitter. The catching skills I’m not worried about, that will come with experience.
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This probably belongs in draft thread, but too far down for me!
Keith Law had some intersting answers to questions:
Eric (DC)
I get the argument about Dunn not aging well, but 4/55 mil is a lot less than what Howard got.
Klaw (1:40 PM)
Forgive the tangent, but I love how the Phillies just backed up the truck for Howard two years before they had to, and yet still give Marti Wolever and his amateur scouting staff one of the smallest budgets for signing players every year. Where does ownership think all these good teenage prospects come from? How did they get Halladay and Oswalt? Oh, yeah, by trading the guys Wolever and his team drafted. They’ve done a great job the last three years, especially finding later values like Singleton and Cosart.
Keith,There are Phillies fans who agree with you about generous contracts to players under control at the expense of the draft and international signings. So, any thoughts on how Wolver et al have continued to keep the farm stocked despite trading a full top ten list in the last couple years?
Klaw (2:05 PM)
I heard the other day that the Phillies have traded 20+ prospects from their system in the last (roughly) two years – if true, it is amazing that their system is still in the shape it’s win. Wolever’s group has done really well and they’ve found some promising kids internationally while also dealing with a tiny budget.
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Keith also mentioned that he’s attending a Lakewood playoff game. He’ll likely write a blog entry, but if not it’d be nice for James to shoot him some questions about the Blueclaws.
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Well, now we have a Pro’s take on the draft dollars spent. I’m sure some would feel vindicated if it wasn’t the dreaded KLaw that was coming to their defense!
In all sincerity, I respect KLaw and having heard him say this does make the blood boil a bit at draft stragegy. Good to see others defending/praising our evaluators.
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Keith Law’s teams never won a World Series.
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If the Phillies are using that money to keep important players then we can’t really complain. We are keeping the senior squad in tact and talented. As long as the farm system continues to help the team out, the draft budget issue shouldn’t be as big of a talking point as it is. We’ve been complaining about how much we spend for years. Now even with all that complaining and short changing, to an extent, we keep on getting talented young players that are at least helping the team get better and better.
Heck yea I want to spend a lot every year on the better prospects, but that hasn’t really hurt us all that much lately. Might even be helping us given that the scouts are working a lot harder with less to work with.
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“Might even be helping us given that the scouts are working a lot harder with less to work with.”
Well, I guess it depends on your perspective (i.e. cause versus effect). I, for instance, think having more to work with would probably equate to developing more quality prospects. I doubt that Wolever and colleagues would strategize and draft more effectively because of less financial support.
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KLaw clearly hates the Phillies prospects.
In all seriousness though, it’d be great to hear some firsthand observations of Lakewood from him if he is willing to take the time to post them/send them to James.
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In KLaw’s defense, he did have Dom Brown as his top mid-season prospect, and did have Cosart in his top 25 – and the latter is definitely not a given. But he does seem to say a lot of critical things about the Phils’ front office, and was probably one of the most vociferous in criticizing the long-term signing of Howard.
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KLaw says lot of critical things about pretty much every team in baseball. He doesnt single out the Phillies for his comments.
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Hmm, NEPP, I hope you didn’t interpret my comment as saying KLaw singles out the Phils’ front office – not being a fan of or being critical of an organization does not imply that he singles out the organization.
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Law is arrogant and obnoxious – and doesn’t single out the Phillies especially. He is also usually (not always) right. He has, incidently, praised the Phillies’ minor league operation (& the prospects) numerous times this year.
The Howard contract has been pretty universally panned – Law is not by any means alone, and he’s less harsh than most non-Phillies fans.
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Mathieson 15-day DL for muscle strain in his back.
Robertson DFA’d (yay!) to make room for Cesar Carrillo claimed off of waivers from the SD Padres.
I think we need another pitcher… any thoughts?
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Gotta say the comments section’s been rockin lately. Some smart new commenters (even when I disagree with them), and some regulars stepping up their game.
Still too much OT I’m sure for some people. I know I’m one of the offenders on that point, though I’m trying not to be.
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Off topic question: Colby Rasmus? What should the Phils offer for him? Knowing that Werth is gone and Dom/Ibanez are hardly sure things for next year I think Colby would be a great fit. I put him in the same category as Dom Brown but I don’t want to do that offer. How about Victorino and May for Colby? Thoughts?
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thoughts??? No. Victorino is signed to a fair contract for the next two years, and may has been damn good. With Dom Brown appearing to be a probable future all-start it would be silly to trade our all star centerfielder and a possible future high end #2 for colby rasmus.
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Thanks Mitch_Rupert for sharing your thoughts about Sebastian Valle! I’ve never seen him and rely on statistics and factual objective reports from people like you to form my opinions. I had forgotten that managers don’t always let the catchers call the game. It make sense that pitchers are at least as important as catchers at controlling the running game, not only in caught stealing percentage, but in the number of attempts. But while a high stolen base rate can be the fault of either the pitcher or the catcher, a low one means that both are doing their jobs well.
Valle has hit about twice as many homers on the road as at home the last 2 seasons at both Lakewood and Williamsport. I am hoping and optimistically expecting him to improve as he moves up the ladder. His walk rate could improve, not only through experience, but also as pitchers pitch him more carefully due to his increasing power.
In a completely other topic, can anybody explain why a team would place a player on the 15-day DL in September with 40-man rosters? I guess Mathieson has a pretty serious injury with zero chance of a recovery in less than 15 days. I hope it’s not so that he can do a rehab assignment during the Blue Claws’ post season.
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The “proper” scouting, choosing, and money-gobs for would be draftees is a long-time discussion here…and elsewhere.
The opinions expressed ARE those of the posters, varying and inconclusive.
Suggestion: the team drafts should be judged on how each draft satisfies both the quest for major league contributors measured by the ultimate value of the choices and less by the amount$ spent. Each team has its own scouts who bear the brunt of lousy recommendations made, and the rewards for “finds.”
How many teams show a very limited budget for draftees dependent on their own financial position. The Dodgers are tied in knots for that reason…and their choices in ’11 are likely to be “cheapest” dependent on a present divorce outcome.
The Phils are also tied to an amazingly high team salary figure in consideration who they have (“stars”), so a guy like Werth is unlikely to be re-signed for the kind of sum and term that he certainly lusts for.
It is the same reason thaty suggests the Phils temper their draftees offers excepting when they’ve caught one of thiose “finds.” (see Cosart, etc.). Otherwise, they rely heavily on what seems to be an extraordinarily perceptive bunch. So, they try to spend smart instead of gushing with cash for the big names most of whom have been gone by the time they’ve reached where they’ve been positioned.
For them in this draft position and with present and future team salaries, this course has worked out well. Bet you can name plenty of first rounders on whom boatloads of cash were dumped, but never did time in the bigs.
Their spending smart is best…when you consider these positions of the team.
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Since the Knapp thing it seems like the Phils have been more conservative with their young pitchers and it seems to have worked. I may be wrong but most prospect have been on the DL only short times. Have there been any major breakdowns??
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As I’ve mentioned before elsewhere, St. Louis won’t be trading Rasmus. And Victorino + May is not enough for Rasmus. St. Louis does not want to take on salary.
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Scout who signed James, Rodriguez and Brown left for a promotion with the Padres, here is the link:
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20100910_Scout_stuck_by_Domonic_Brown__and_it_paid_off_for_Phils.html
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I think complaints about the Philies draft budget are a little skewed.
They’ve been an above .500 team for most of the past 10 years, have signed some Type A caliber Free Agents, and have locked up most of their Type-A talent with long term contracts. This means that for most of those years, they have had either late first round picks, no first round picks, and very little comp round picks.
Teams that are always drafting in the top 10 are always going to “spend more” than a team like the Phillies because they have to shell out multi-million dollar bonuses for high first round picks.
I like the Phillies approach of developing a world class scouting organization, targeting a select group of signability guys, and picking their spots to bust slot. It’s not like they don’t take risks and draft nothing but AAAA guys.
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I’m not sure what would classify as a major breakdown Nowheels… Cosart has been out since early July, but they say it’s nothing serious and just being extra cautious (like with Knapp) of course Knapp did have to have surgery after leaving the Phillies.
Steven Inch and Ryan Sasaki of the 2009 draft both missed this entire season. Sasaki had back surgery prior to the start of the season, not sure what happened with Inch. Sasaki was rehabbing at the Clearwater complex so I’d assume he’ll be back next season and possibly be at Lakewood and eased in like Colby Shreve was this year.
I think the most significant injury to a pitcher this season is probably Nick Hernandez. They said it was ‘close’ to being a frayed/torn labrum and that they managed to catch it in time in May. He didn’t pitch again until making a rehab start with GCL and didn’t do well, went back on the shelf for a month or so and made another appearance and then was shut down.
Labrum injuries are HUGE red flags for pitchers. Tommy John surgery nowaday is pretty commonplace and the vast majority of pitchers recover all their speed if not actually improve. The Labrum is another story. The success rate on pitchers having the same stuff after a surgery is most lower.
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If we could get Rasmus for Victorino and May, god help us we better jump. Unfortunately, any package to get Rasmus would have to start with D.Brown. That might be almost fair, but people shouldn’t forget Rasmus was in Brown’s prospect position 2 years ago and all he’s done since is prove that ranking right. 23 year olds who drop an .875 OPS in Busch stadium are quite a piece. Whatever, trades like that almost never happen, but I guess the real point of this is LaRussa is an idiot for how he’s been yanking Rasmus in and out of the lineup, because without Rasmus, Pujols is gonna be hitting a bunch of near triple crowns for third place teams in the near future.
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I know this is wandering off topic but if talking about young OFs that have fallen out of favor, wouldn’t a play for Matt Kemp a) make more sense and b) cost less in terms of what you’d have to give up? He’s a RH power bat in Cholly’s hands who can man multiple OF positions and is still under arb control for another year beyond ’11 ($6.95MM salary in ’11).
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Keith Law quote:
“I heard the other day that the Phillies have traded 20+ prospects from their system in the last (roughly) two years”
So if you go back to 2007 when the Phils first made the playoffs, how many prospects (traded for players who have played on the major league team at some point during the past 4 seasons) have they traded to help win 3 straight division titles (and hopefully a fourth this year)?
Knapp – Oswalt
Gose – Oswalt
Villar – Oswalt
Drabek – Halladay
Arnaud – Halladay
Taylor – Halladay
Carrasco – Lee
Donald – Lee
Marson – Lee
Knapp – Lee
Jaramillo – Paulino (Paulino for Taschner)
Golson – Mayberry
Castro – Stairs
Schlitter – Eyre
Cardenas – Blanton
Outman – Blanton
Spencer – Blanton
Bourn – Lidge
Costanzo – Lidge
Geary – Lidge
Maloney – Loshe
I know, Happ and Geary weren’t prospects when they were traded, but they’re listed for effect. So has it been worth it?
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Yea! Let’s get Colby Rasmus AND Matt Kemp. While we’re at it we can grab Troy Tullowitzki and Johan Santana. Albert Pujols, anyone? Awesome.
Fantasy baseball has warped the MLB fanbase’s collective perception of reality.
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But who would have thought we could add the two Roys?
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Skunky, you are 100% correct. It looks like we’re regressing into Yankees fans, thinking that we can trade for any stud prospect and giving back not fair value in return.
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Anonymous…heck yeah it’s been worth it! Of all of the players that the Phillies have traded away, how many have gone on to become all-stars? I know it is still early for a few of those guys, but the players the team has gotten back have always been important pieces to the current MAJOR LEAGUE team. The other guys would either still be in the minors, or not as good as the major league players currently on the team (ie Bourn would be a fourth outfielder on this team).
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mwbbfan, the difference is that the Phillies are absorbing a huge chunk of salary. At this point, the Phillies can’t pay anymore salaries so anybody with a big salary is out.
Getting Rasmus would be nice, but unless the Cards GM is a total moron, this won’t happen unless the Phillies pony up a serious offer. Rasmus is an offensive stud. And he’s cost controlled for 4 years.
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Boy, you had to bring up Schlitter again. I am still reeling from that trade and it never gets easier, does it? Oh the humanity!
Y’all can stop laughing now.
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In hindsight, I wish…
We could have kept Jason Knapp around (kid is going to be good)… but Cliff Lee paid dividends so I guess it all worked out.
We could have kept Kyle Drabek but I’ll take Halladay, I guess.
We could find a way to get Michael Taylor back (needs a change of scenery)
Golson/Mayberry never happened
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I don’t think it’s Yankee-esque or pie in the sky to think Kemp is an attainable player in the off-season. The Dodgers are in a cost-conscious mode and Kemp has fallen out of favor with the brass (and underachieved).
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stevemc, how will the Phillies fit Kemp under their internal salary cap? Will Kemp even accept a 3 year deal? Nowthstanding that some people still think we can re-sign Werth…
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guru – Kemp is signed for ’11 at $6.95MM. I believe his is then arbitration eligible for the ’12 season. I don’t know what their internal salary cap is necessarily for next season although many hypothesize it to be around $150MM. I’m not sure how they fit him in and what he would cost in terms of a trade, I just think he’s a more realistic addition than a Rasmus at this stage given all the circumstances if we were to add another long term answer in the OF.
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I’m not happy that Kemp seems to be perceived as an underachiever – the Phillies have specialized in motivated, positive, high-energy players and that’s the way I like ’em too. But sometimes a guy gets unfairly labled or just gets in a rut. I think Kemp has a fantastic upside and acquiring him would interest me if I were the Phillies.
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“jimcallisBA Kemp, though I’d hold onto him too. @Section211: @jimcallisBA out-of-favor CF more likely to be moved: Rasmus or Kemp? “
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stevemc, I agree that Kemp is more of a realistic option than Rasmus. However, I don’t think it will happen since if Dom Brown takes over RF, we have no empty OF spots available. So why pay a likely $8M to Kemp for 2011?
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guru – I agree it isn’t likely to happen. I was just giving a more viable alternative to the Rasmus debate which I don’t see at all.
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Probably not a surprise, but the Phillies and Blueclaws extended their working agreement through 2012.
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sounds like Brodys getting squeezed tonight.
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I am convinced that Colvin is the Cole Hamels of Single A. For some reason, he doesn’t get much run support.
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Mc Guire why use him to lose a playoff game, the kids were doing good and then they put in a org filler in a playoff game makes no sense
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Mcguire is the reason they got out of the inning. Zeid came in and walked and drilled a guy and got pulled and Mcguire got them out of the inning.
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What game were you at:: read the boxscore, he gave up a double and the run was charged to him he pitched two innings,what are y talking about?????
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Umm Mikemike, read the recap.
Hickory Top of the 9th
* Pitcher Change: Joshua Zeid replaces Julio Rodriguez.
* Jared Bolden walks.
* Matthew West hit by pitch. Jared Bolden to 2nd.
* Pitcher Change: Mike McGuire replaces Joshua Zeid.
* Guillermo Pimentel called out on strikes.
* Michael Ortiz strikes out swinging.
* Edwin Garcia flies out to right fielder Anthony Hewitt.
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did he not give up the double that lead to the winning run alan???? in the tenth inning what does the ninth have to do with it?????was he not charged with the loss??? did I miss something in the scoreline????
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You didn’t. But you acted like the ninth inning didn’t happen. The fact is that yes, McGuire surrendered the double. The run scored on an infield single and then an out, so McGuire didn’t get hammered. He made one bad pitch. To flip out because of a single run is silly. Lakewood didn’t lose because of their pitching, they lost because the offense scored one run in ten innings.
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