Clearwater Threshers Report (5/16-5/29)

5. Clearwater

Recap:  The Threshers went 8-6 over the latest two-week stretch, which was highlighted by a 23-inning marathon loss to Jupiter on May 23.  Despite the winning record over the stretch, the Threshers have fallen to seven games back in the FSL behind the Daytona Cubs, who are in the midst of a 12-game winning streak.  Daytona’s roster is not populated with many names that hit the Baseball America top prospect radar, but they are sitting in first place with a 39-12 record.

Hitters

  • Cesar Hernandez:  10-37 (.270), RBI, 2 K / 2 BB, 4 SB
  • Jiwan James:  16-52 (.308), 3 2B, 3B, HR, 3 RBI, 18 K / 5 BB, 4 SB / 3 CS
  • Joe Savery:  10-42 (.238), 2B, 3 RBI, 10 K / 5 BB, CS, E
  • Jonathan Singleton:  11-48 (.229), 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 15 K / 4 BB
  • Leandro Castro:  16-52 (.308), 3 2B, 3B, HR, 4 RBI, 8 K / 1 BB, 2 SB
  • Sebastian Valle:  8-30 (.267), 2B, 2 RBI, 6 K / 1 BB
  • Jeremy Barnes:  6-41 (.146), 5 2B, 9 K / 8 BB

Notes:  A few defensive notes—Sebastian Valle has thrown out 24% of runners trying to steal; as a comparison, Kyle Lafrenz has thrown out 31% and John Suomi 33%…Savery’s made just one error at 1B…Jonathan Singleton has a single error in LF and three assists.

Pitchers

  • Brody Colvin:  15 IP, 14 H, 6 ER, 0 HR, 10 K / 6 BB
  • Ebelin Lugo:  6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 HR, 4 K / 1 BB
  • Jarred Cosart:  13.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 12 K / 5 BB
  • Jonathan Pettibone:  19 IP, 15 H, 4 ER, 1 HR, 19 K / 4 BB
  • Julio Rodriguez:  18 IP, 13 H, 5 ER, 1 HR, 10 K / 5 BB
  • Trevor May:  16 IP, 14 H, 6 ER, 3 HR, 25 K / 10 BB
  • Tyler Cloyd:  6.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 HR, 6 K / 0 BB
  • Eric Pettis:  8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 HR, 5 K / 2 BB

Notes:  Having passed the 1/3rd mark, a quick look at some rate stats for the Threshers’ rotation.  Stats rates are shown as H/9, HR/9, K/9, K/BB, best in staff in bold.

  • Brody Colvin:  7.8, 0.0, 5.5, 1.7
  • Jarred Cosart:  6.8, 0.3, 7.1, 2.2
  • Jonathan Pettibone:  7.2, 0.3, 6.9, 3.9
  • Julio Rodriguez:  6.0, 0.3, 7.8, 2.2
  • Trevor May:  7.5, 0.7, 11.5, 2.4

Threshers in the News

  • Paul Hagen takes a look at the Threshers rotation.
  • Scott Russell of the Bethlehem Patch highlights Jon Pettibone’s ascension.
  • Bill Conlin likes Trevor May.
  • Kevin Czerwinski at csnphilly.com has a piece on Joe Savery.

42 thoughts on “Clearwater Threshers Report (5/16-5/29)”

  1. Will be interesting in about a week to two weeks if Tyson Gillies goes to Clearwater as Chuck Lamar hinted he will go to an A team first. Who moves? Is Leandro Castro ready for AA or do they move Ruf or Savery and then we see Rizzotti go to AAA.

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    1. A couple weeks ago, I would’ve assumed Savery would move up. But he’s hit .235 with a .259 slugging over the last month–might want to see if he makes adjustments next time through the league. Ruf makes sense at 25, but it would still leave a logjam in the outfield (unless they temporarily move one of the guys to DH while Gillies gets ABs).

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      1. Savery’s quotes in that article reveal a lot about him. He talks about how he expects too much and needs to improve his response to failure. I remember his quotes when he was drafted, saying he didn’t expect to be in the minor leagues for long.

        It is refreshing to see he is mature enough to recognize this in himself now. He really does have a ton of talent. I hope he becomes a Zen master on the path to ultimate enlightenment because the swing is sweet and the power will come. Quick, send him a fresh copy of the Dorfman book!

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  2. Pettibone is showing excellent command, a tremendous positive. Great to see. These young Threshers starters aren’t all going to be stars, a lot depends on which ones develop superior command. So far so good for Pettibone. He’s climbing up my top prospects list. He might not have the filthiest stuff on the staff but he knows what he’s doing on the mound.

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  3. Coming into this season, it was no secret to the Phillies that they a) don’t get to use a DH in the NL, and b) they have a pretty good first baseman locked up for many years into the future.

    What I’m confused about is why they keep moving players back and forth between positions and DH and other positions. As an example, Overbeck has played 3B, 1B, LF, and DH this year. Here is a guy leading the EL in H R and RBI and he’s not going to play DH, 1B, or 3B (based on his defensive performance there) for the Phils so why not work him in LF during the offseason last year and spring training this year and make him a leftfielder????

    The move of Singleton to LF made a lot of sense and he was our top offensive prospect not named D Brown so his development in A+ is most important compared to other hitters. Having said that, why move him back to 1B to accomodate Savery? Or is it his injuries or is he not doing well in LF? I haven’t heard anything that says he isn’t playing LF at least reasonably well. I understand Savery doesn’t have a future as a first baseman with the Phils either but his development as an outfielder could happen at Reading rather than in any way impeding Singleton’s.

    Now for Rizzotti, all we hear is the guy can’t play 1B. So I assume that to be true, but why keep shuffling him back and forth between 1B and DH? Why not play him at 1B and give him the opportunity to improve that aspect of his game?

    So my question to those of you more knowledgeable than I about player development, is this normal to have so many position changes and moving minor leaguers from position to position on such a frequent basis? Seems like it would be easier for the players to focus on both offense and defense if they had more consistent roles.

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    1. you’re over analyzing things.

      Overbeck has begun to play the OF a bit.
      Singleton is probably playing 1B because he’s still nursing a tender ankle, and 1B has him doing less running.

      Singleton is 19. He has plenty of time to learn the OF, because hes not going to make it to Philly for another 3 years.

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    2. Also, DHing is not a negative and does not impede development. Playing in the field for a couple games and then DHing a game allows a player to watch the fielders out there, talk to coaches, take a bit of a breather as they adjust to full-season baseball, and focus more on their hitting. I think they ought to be taking ground balls with the coach teaching 5 or 6 times a week. To me that’s more important. But a DH breather does not hurt.

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    3. Also need to keep in mind that all of these players are not necessarily auditioning to become Phillies. They are also being exposed as potential trade pieces to other organizations who might have an interest in a guy like Overbeck if he can play multiple positions.

      Its also a fact that some guys are not being looked at a ever being major league players and are being used in a way that meets the needs of their current teams.

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      1. Also worth remembering that minor league clubs rarely get days off. You have to take guys out of the lineup for rest occasionally.

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    1. Outside of the article linked above, I haven’t seen much said of Pettibone’s velocity this year. Anyone have any solid info?

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      1. No numbers, but in the Hot Sheet Chat from Friday, BA says:

        “Anthony (NJ): Jon Pettibone has been dominating this season and I was wondering what his potential was?

        Jim Shonerd: He could be a mid-rotation starter. Fastball is above-average but the secondary stuff has further to go.”

        For a FB to be above average it needs to at least be in the low 90s. Sounds legit to me.

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  6. Mildly concerned about the K rates of the starting pitchers – only in the sense that the hype may be a little bit ahead of the reality. Still a very promising group of prospects.

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    1. I would throw in the league rate stats on these reports. The league average K/9 in the FSL is 7.4. Pettibone and Cosart are below average, but not alarmingly so. Brody Colvin is well below average but he has few innings under his belt yet.

      Pettibone is four strikeouts away from an above average K/9 ratio. The 6.9 K/9 looks alarming, but that’s a little perspective on the issue. I’m not worried, in fact I’m greatly encouraged that ALL of Pettibone’s ratios have improved this season. Less HRs, less walks, more strikeouts. I doubted Pettibone before but he’s having a possible breakout season here.

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  7. Anybody know when Mattair’s coming back? He’s been out for alittle more than a month.

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  8. This Worley thing has all the markings of letting up a player to fail. I will not post until he returns. A minor protest but that is all I can do. I have seen the Braves do this to Jason Marquis to the point of bring him out when he had an extraordinarily high pitch count with intent to injure. It is the worst of baseball.
    When they announced the inferior lineup for the Worley game I knew what they were up to. They can go to h….
    Bye for now

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      1. Even Worley is quoted he needs to get in better shape and stretch out. The bigs in no place to do this. The Phils have a few days off in the next few weeks and they are not going to us a 5th starter. By the way watching Lehigh Valley beat up on Atl’s #1 prospect Tehran 5-1. Jeff Larish hit a moon shot. He has a triple as well and 4 rbis

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    6. Well now that they don’t have Happ to kick around I guess they need some new prospect to screw around with?

      Nothin like a good conspiracy theory…

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  10. What do you guys think I should do?

    A) Herndon
    B) Mathieson
    C) Zagurski
    D) Carpenter
    E) Schwimer
    F) DeFratus
    G) Orr

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    5. When does Gordon of the 1.00 ERA get a shot? Why not ride him for a while? Yeah, I know, 40-man.

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  11. They took Bonine out of the game after 68 pitches 4 innings and one run…no injury they say…they wouldn’t call him up would they?

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    1. They shouldn’t call him up because he’s not on the 40 man roster. I think Matheison gets the call.

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  12. I’m going with A or B. Herndon threw the ball better last time he was up so I think it will be him but Mathieson also threw better in his last big league outing and his numbers look good at AAA since he went back down. I’d like to see Mathieson get a look for 6 games and get a few more games in the majors.

    I also think that with only our top 4 pitchers going between now and 6/8, they might go with an extra bat when Victorino returns. For example, whomever they call up tomorrow will get optioned Friday when Victorino comes back which will delay the roster decision on an outfielder by an extra week.

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  13. Not sure what that Bonine removal means. If they were going to use him on Saturday as the 5th starter, that would be a normal 4 days rest so not sure why they would pull him early. If they were going to call him up to use out of the bullpen, he wouldn’t have pitched at all tonight.

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  14. For those that have watched the Iron Pigs a lot this year, how has Barfield’s defense looked? Seems like he is starting to hit but I remember he didn’t look that good in the field during spring training. Not that we really have a spot for him anyway…

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  17. The call goes to Zagurski! If he pitches well, we may see something done with Romero, whose record is very mediocre this season. 13 hits and 8 walks in 13 innings is not good. 7 Ks in 13 innings is not good either. Lefties have a higher BA against him than righties.

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    1. The phils should give Z a shot over romero but I would be shocked with so many inexperienced guys in the pen now. Can’t see it happening.

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