70 thoughts on “Box Score Recap, 17 April 2012”

    1. No kidding. Didn’t look like a tough lineup, but a good result is a good result. I’m interested to hear what gkit has to say.

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  4. It was batting practice for Reading. How about Castro with 14 rbis through 13 games (6 tonight). Ruff has had a nice start to the season and those 5 hits only helped. Solid averages for the line-up. 22 hits in one game early in the year helps. Trevor May now at 3-0. His control has been good this year. One bad thing…JC Ramirez. He has been bad all year. His ERA would be higher but one outing he gave up some unearned runs.

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    1. Not to focus on the negative, but i would have bet money JC would have really blossomed with his move to the pen. I really thought he could be effective in short stints. Not looking good for him.

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      1. Due to the fact that there have only been 11 games in the season…I think there is still plenty of time to right the ship..a little premature there

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      2. Interesting how a game like this makes you look for the negatives. Hanzawa taking an 0-fer, JC getting creamed etc. But if Reading is no hit (gonna be hard) we’ll be mentioning that Valle took a walk. Look for that silver lining when everything else is dark and find something that could have been better when the scoreboard can no longer keep track of the runs.

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        1. The only reason i acknowledged the negative was i had pretty high hopes JC could start an Aumont like ascension and so far i am disappointed that he looks as bad or worse than last season. Also, yes i do understand the season so far is a small sample but it is hard to ignore his history plus this sample.

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      3. Agree Jameson. I wasn’t necessarily confident that his transition would be successful, but I was certainly hopeful. Still early, but considering his very limited success in the minors, I would agree that it’s not looking good for him (his BB and K rates moved in the wrong direction last year – not a good sign)

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    2. Have to thank Ed Wade now for not selecting Castro as the PTBNL in the Pence deal last summer….Dom Santana is at 50%/K rate and struggling and also with many DR guys, ise being currently looked at for birther/ ID validation issues.

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      1. He still never should have been an option.

        And it’s a little early in the season to be calling someone with his huge ceiling a bust.

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        1. I doubt it. If I recall correctly, Santana is a middle class kid that grew up in the Bahamas where it would be more difficult to fake an ID. This is merely trolling as usual. The kid has played 3 games this year and gone 1-12. And that 1 was a HR so it is not all bad. 2 BB also in 3 games. I suspect he will end up with an 800+ OPS by the end of the year given he is playing in a better offensive environment this year.

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          1. Yeah, it’s a pet peeve of mine that every single Latin player gets subjected to these, “check is birth certificate” rumors. Not that there aren’t abuses, but … Anyway, agree regardless, still highly annoyed that Santana was on the list of supposed “non-prospects” that the Astros got to choose from.

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  5. I will mention the 19 runs because that was awesome.

    But, Brody Colvin, where have you been hiding and who has been wearing your jersey for the last year.

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    1. By far the most exciting performance of the week. May was pretty good too but Colvin was lights out.

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  6. Darin Ruf yells “LOOK AT ME” . I may be the oldest on the blog but have never seen 18 hits by the first five batters. WOW.

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  8. Not to rain on Reading’s hit parade, but who was the starter for the other team? He pitched a little (very little) last season, but before that his most recent stats were from 2005. Maybe a pitcher-turned-hitter-turned-pitcher? Or just a guy who left the game for awhile?

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    2. The fact that even May went 2-3 against that staff raises my eyebrow just a bit … still, nice to see a hit parade somewhere in the Phils system.

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    1. My guess is that they are going to manage his innings early in the season because he only threw like 40 innings at the JuCo level last year, and gradually stretch him out and then let him start, assuming he doesn’t have massive control problems.

      I think they are doing the same thing with Bonilla at Clearwater. Manage his innings early, then stretch him out as the season progresses.

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  12. Hernandez, Valle, Castro…nice hitting games. Really nice start for May.
    Cartwright triple’s nice. Great to see Colvin have an actual good start.
    Pretty good outing by Giles. Fewer walks than last time, still 3 Ks in 3 innings. Like the 0 hits against.

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  13. Cesar Hernandez, 5 singles in one game. Jiwan James with a hit, walk and no Ks in a game. Altherr and Valle with hits and walks in a game. Colvin with his 1st good game since 2010.

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    1. I know the sample size is too small but Cesar’s start is at least giving me some hope that we could have a legit 2B prospect in the upper half of the system. How nice would it be to see him have a big year and work his way into the 2013 discussion much like Freddy did last year…

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      1. I always thought people underestimated the double jump factor and the decent second half by ceaser

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  14. I see the Phils have 4 picks in the top 95 in the next draft (40th, 54th, 77th and 95th). I’m sure most of the discussion will be the signing a Papelbon and the lost #1 pick. The Philly.com article had to remind me that the last time the Phils had 4 picks in the top 100 had Hewitt and Collier as their first 2 picks. But Gose and Knapp were the next two and we got pretty good value for them: Oswalt and Lee. Collier still has a shot but the 50 game suspension is going to hurt.

    Link: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/Phillies-have-4-picks-in-top-100.html

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    1. Bottom line…they only get one extra pick then under normal circumstances. They would have had three in the first 90 anyway.

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      1. Huh? They could have had all the picks they currently have, plus the 1st round pick they lost for signing Papelbon a day before the CBA was signed.

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  15. jimhg
    the reading game was a laugher to end all laughters. we left after the sixth inning, with the score 18-1!!
    hard to pick the notable from so much offense, but leanro castro, tyson gillies, cesar hernandez, darin ruf and seb valle stood out. jiwan james not so much. if he put on 20 pounds this off season, he must have looked like a collection of pool cues before. still quite thin. castro is a powerfully built guy and was raking in both games. valle looks good behind the plate. good technique stopping balls in the dirt. no importunities to throw out stealers.
    trevor may was impressive. good command, fastball 91-92, but also got strike outs on his secondary pitchs. reading also does a good job on defense. they did have numerous base running blunders in the first game of the series.

    looks like rain all day in richmond, so probably no game this morning,

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  16. So how do independent leagues fit on the skill totem pole? Is every league below rookie ball, are some roughly equivalent to low-A, etc?

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    1. Depends on the league. The Atlantic League is somewhere between AA and AAA. Lots of veterans who aren’t prospects but who can play, some even former Major Leaguers. The CanAm League and American Association are worse than AA but better than A ball. Many guys with experience in organized ball. The Frontier League is closer to Rookie/Short Season ball. Mostly inexperienced kids who were good high school/college players, but without skills that translate to future MLB success.

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      1. I see, a lot of the players must be former minor leaguers who couldn’t hack it or got too old, and still want to play baseball for a living. Makes sense that some could be close to AAA level, as there’s only so much room on the AA and AAA teams for 30 year old non-prospects.

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  18. Disappointed that Eldemire drew a walk and didn’t steal a subsuquent base! Come on, what’s he doing out there?!?

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  19. I think the line of the night is Cesar Hernandez scoring 5 runs in 6 ABs. No offense to Castro, but that’s much harder to do than knocking in 6. Of course, both stats are pretty meaningless for the purpose of analyzing them as prospects, but still, better more of those than less.

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    1. I think he is actually playing there. Probably just want to get him more at bats and he should not catch the morning after a night game.

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      1. Actually, it looks like he is not playing. They just substituted Susdorf for him in the box score. A little odd, but it explains the left field appearance.

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        1. I guess we should assume minor league box score errors when we see strange things. It probably makes more sense that a catcher gets the morning off after catching the previous night.

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  21. The Valle getting a walk thing is getting old. Many really good MLB players don’t walk a lot and if he has the hit tool you’ll want him driving the ball anyway….

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    1. You don’t want him swinging at everything and getting himself out. The more selective he is the better pitches he’s going to get to drive.

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    2. What’s your definition of “many” and “really good”? If he learns how to walk, he gives himself a chance to have a better career than Rod Barajas, who no one would describe as a very/really good hitter.

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      2. Let’s start with Jimmy Rollins 7.5%, Pence 7%, Posey 7.5% Vlad was only 8% and still managed an career OBP of .379 think about that. Now I use caution we don’t know yet what type of a hitter (middle of line-up) or further down Valle will be.

        just sayin to point out a walk when he’s hitting .333 is nit picking to me. I admit I’m partial to the kid. I like him.

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        2. With the exception of Vlad (who is an exception in many ways) all of those players had a ~10% or better walk rate at the A+ level, where Valle had a 3.6% walk rate last season.

          The nitpicking comes from last season when he had a .312 obp. If he’s hitting .333 with a 3.5-5% walk rate then that’s great. But the higher the level he gets the harder it will be for him. If he’s a .280 hitter then he’s looking at another .310-ish obp. That wouldn’t be a terrible thing at catcher but not exactly something to look forward to.

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        3. It’s not nitpicking. His OBP was .312 last year… In Single A. That isn’t going to translate into a good MLB player. It’s going to translate into a Rod Barajas type career.

          I don’t want him to go up there looking to walk but it’s something he needs to become better at.

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  22. Good for Colvin, and what a night for Reading, yikes. I haven’t seen Clearwater yet, what’s the word on Hector Neris?

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    1. Neris = live-armed right-hander…throws strikes, doesn’t rack up a ton of K’s but knows how to induce a lot of weak contact. Will be 23 in June.

      Got to see him in Williamsport last year and now here in Clearwater. Also one of the nicest guys you could ever talk to.

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      1. thanks for the info, from the early looks of it, things seem to be going well enough for him so far. Will be keeping an eye out for him.

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  24. Though I have no idea the story behind the Pointer triple, it is a big sign to me. He came from an area in high school where he wasnt seeing big fastballs. Lakewood faced a kid throwing in the upper 90s yesterday.

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  25. I ran Pointer way up the flag pole right after he was drafted. I loved his swing and setup at the plate. I was disappointed he was only in the GCL last year, but I was happy to see he was jumped to Lakewood and he’s responding.

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      1. We should at least get a player the caliber of a Frandsen or Luna or something you would think. I just wish Posednik was hitting a little bit because trying him out in LF wouldn’t be a bad move right now, but hard to justify with him batting .185 in AAA.

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