Stats and observations behind the dish. Starting pitching report next some late week or weekend..
Lehigh Valley
Erik Kratz, 30, .275/.390/.394 in 69 AB’s; 6HR 14RBI; 14% bb rate 19% k rate; .310 vs. LH, .250 vs. RH., .263 with RISP. 7/17 CS (41%), 3 passed balls and 1 error in 22 games. Simply can’t ask for much more than what Kratz has given. Should be in Philly and Sardinha should be in Allentown.
Joel Naughton, 24, Hitting .231 in the 4 games he has played thus far. 0/5 CS in 4 games caught.
Reading
Tuffy Gosewisch, 27, .266/.310/.468 in 79 AB’s; 4HR 18 RBI, 2SB ; 6% bb rate 17% k rate; .222 vs. LH, .279 vs. RH, .350 with RISP. 9/28 CS (32%); 2 passed balls and 1 error in 25 games caught. Gosewisch has improved with the stick and continues to be very consistent as a defensive catcher. Deserves better than what the organization has offered thus far.
Tim Kennelly, 25, .179/.258/.304 in 56 AB’s; 0HR 9 RBI; 2 SB; .143 vs. LHP, .190 vs. RHP, .211 with RISP. 3/8 CS (38%), 3 passed balls and 2 errors in 10 games catching. Has also played 6 games in the OF. Very tough start for Kennelly whose playing time has been limited.
Clearwater
Sebastian Valle, 20, .337/.350/.420 in 98 AB’s; 3HR 15 RBI; 1% bb rate 21% k rate; .333 vs. LH, .338 vs. RH; .346 with RISP. 8/33 CS (24%); 0 passed balls, 1 error. Valle has been excellent at the plate, ok throwing runners out and good defensively. BB/K ratio is a concern. Is currently on the DL after getting run over in a collision at the plate last week.
Kyle Lafrenz, 24, Hitting .222 in 6 games thus far. Missed several weeks on the DL after impressing in Spring Training. 5/13 caught stealing (38%); 2 passed balls.
John Suomi, 30, Hitting .179 in 28 AB’s between Reading and CLearwater. Basically floats throughout the organization wherever needed. Has caught 5/6 runners stealing (29%) in his 9 games caught.
Lakewood
Cameron Rupp, 22, .200/.278/.263 in 80 AB’s; 1HR 6 RBI; 8% bb rate 29% k rate; .188 vs. LHP, .203 vs. RHP; .182 with RISP. 8 for 32 c/s rate (25%); 2 passed balls and 3 errors in 26 games behind the plate. A disappointing start to 2011 for the 2010 3rd rd pick out of University of Texas.
Torre Langley, 23, .235/.270/.265 in 35 AB’s; 0HR 5 RBI; 3/14 caught stealing rate (21%); 2 passed balls, no errors.
Jeff Lanning, 24, Currently on the DL. .333 with 2 HR in 7 games. Has caught 2 of the 3 runners trying to steal against him.
Phuture Phillies 
We need more catching in the system. I agree with you on Tuffy, the Phillies are unfairly treating him as an organizational player. He should be the AAA starter.
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Gosewich is real interesting, as the pitchers on the big club seemed to love throwing to him in camp. But if Tuffy’s not ready for MLB, he may as well stay at AA so he can play a lot. AAA catchers need to be sharp and ready to go at a moment’s notice, and better to let him hit AA for a full year with the two guys ahead of him handling the back and forth to the big club for injuries.
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Tuffy’s 27, and at Reading. I’d love to see Kratz behind Ruiz in Philly, and Tuffy getting most of the AB’s at C in LV. Naughton and Kennely can share duties at Reading. Word 🙂
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You guys really think a 27-year-old catcher with a career triple slash line of .235/.311/.359 with no speed should be treated as something other than an organizational player?
By all indications he is a good defensive catcher and handles pitchers well but he certainly doesn’t fit the bill of a prospect
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I love Gosewisch too but I agree…he’s just Org Filler.
Its a shame that Kratz didn’t get the call over Sardinha as he’s had a very strong start.
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His “triple slash” looks like Johnny Bench compared to Sardinha’s (11 seasons in the minors).
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Not sure what Sardinha has to do with the Phillies handling of Gosewisch.
They are treating him like what he is, a solid organizational guy who works well with younger pitchers.
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I think that he has a shot at the majors due to the fact that he can play catcher. Look at Dane Sardinha’s stats. I don’t think he will ever be a everyday starter but I think he can do what Dane Sardinha is doing. Chris Coste didn’t make it until he was 33 so it doesn’t really matter that he is 27.
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Gosewisch should be treated very simply as a potential major league backup catcher. As we see offnesive matters very little, if at all for a back up catcher in the majors. Pitchers, including several on the Phils staff love throwing to him and his offense is improving. I presume he is staying in Reading because the organization wants a good “pitchers catcher” handling the Ramirez/Hyatt/Zeid/Aumont/DeFratus/Rosenberg’s of the world.
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I would much rather have Kratz in Philly, Tuffy and Dane in Lehigh Valley, Kennelly and Naughton in Reading and Suomi and Langley to go wherever they are needed. Valle should spend the entire year in Cleawater because he is young and obviously the phillies top catching prospect. Lafrenz should stay in A+ because the Clearwater staff is probably used to him catching for them. I would like to see Rupp hit a little more because I was pretty high on him when he got drafted. I also think that Jeff Lanning seems pretty good. He is old for Lakewood though so he should move quick once he is healthy.
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Kennelly pitched tonight for Reading. One pitch, one out. What is really means is that Reading was blown out today.
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TK has now played every position except second and short.
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I guess the Phillies read the comment I left yesterday.
“Stephen Batts and Jim Murphy should not be in Lakewood. Either send them up to Clearwater or release them.”
Stephen Batts was released today. Micheal Dabbs replaced him on Lakewood’s roster.
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Kratz should be in Philly. Sardinha has been awful on both sides of the ball. He couldn’t even tag out a batter properly.
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I think Sardinha was brought up because of what he did last year. He knows our pitchers better and he got some big hits. But he was hitting .105 when he was called up. He has been soft when blocking the plate and cost us some outs. He’s an out at the plate. And this time around some of our pitchers have gotten frustrated with him. I’ve liked Kratz since spring training. He’s a local guy and I think he’s Amish. His hitting is much, much better than Sardinha’s. Schneider is going to be out for awhile. Kratz needs to continue to play well and I think the Phils will reconsider sending out a lineup with Valdez, Sardinha and the pitcher out there again. There’s an inning right there. I have a gut feeling also that Kratz could come up here and get some big hits for us, including homers.
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Mennonite- went to Meuhlenberg.
Seen the 1st MLB game he played on TV (PGH).
Looked good. Wiped out a guy at home plate (seem to think he was a fast powerful runner type too). He’s 6’4 265 though. Hit a couple of HR’s.
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That’s twice now that he’s utterly failed to properly block the plate/tag the runner. He should be sent down just based on effort.
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Dane Sardinha now has 149 plate appearances in MLB. 463 catchers have managed 140+ PAs since 1961. Sardinha’s OPS is the sixth worst in that group. That’s not even replacement level. That’s beyond replacement level. There’s just no way a catcher’s glove justifies that offense.
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Can any of these catchers make a tag at home plate? Sardinha apparently can’t
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Not so great Dane should not be in Philly now. Can it be any more obvious?
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I think Tuffy has been fairly treated. He (or any good veteran defensive catcher) makes sense at Reading since you want someone to handle the pitching prospects versus LHV where the pitchers are mostly non-prospects. Clearly there will be some (hopefully!) good P prospects at AAA each year but decent defensive catchers who can’t hit don’t seem that hard to find. Kratz’s bat is the best of the catchers and he has been playing AAA so he got to be in AAA this year. Time to swap him out for Dane though now that Schneider is out for a lengthy amount of time. Not that a backup catcher should impact a team greatly but a better bat obviously preferred in the current line-up.
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