Hot or Not

Other Stuff

–Its time to start paying significant attention to Tyler Cloyd. In his 8 starts between Reading and Lehigh Valley, Cloyd is 7-0 with a 1.24 ERA.  Opponents are hitting just .194 against him.  His stats are actually significantly better for Lehigh Valley then for Reading, although still excellent during his time in Reading.  Most impressively, during his time with the ‘Pigs, hitters are just .067 against him with RISP.

–Another week on the hot list for Scott Elarton…could his time be coming with a lousy start by Kendrick today?

–The concern about Brody Colvin should be reaching is apex.  Very troubling start. Hit around and terrible command.

–“Continued success” for Darin Ruf , Cody Asche and Cesar Hernandez this week. 

—Tyson Gillies has fallen below the .250 mark on the year with his struggles this week.

Hot Starters:Colin Klevan (W, 7ip 4H 0ER 4BB 7K); Jesse Biddle (W, 6.2IP 4H 0ER 4BB 8K); Scott Elarton (W, 6IP 1H 0ER 3BB 3K); Julio Rodriguez (W, 6IP 1H 0ER 5BB 3K); Trevor May (6.1IP 0H 1ER 4BB 5K); Tyler Cloyd (2W, 11IP 6H 1ER 2BB 10K); Jon Pettibone (15.2IP 11H 3ER 2BB 10K, W).

Not Hot Starters:Brody Colvin (L, 5.1IP 10H 12ER 7BB 7K); David Buchanan (L, 5.1IP 10H 7ER 3BB 0K); Austin Hyatt (L, 3.2IP 6H 5ER 1BB 3K); Kenny Giles (2.2IP 3H 3ER 4BB 2K); Austin Wright (5.1IP 5H 4ER 6BB 3K).

Hot Relievers: Gabrial Arias (W, 6.1IP 1H 0ER 1BB 7K); BJ Rosenberg (4.1IP 4H 0ER 1BB 5K); Tyson Brummett (4IP 0H 0ER 0BB 7K); Michael Schwimer (3IP 1H 0ER 0BB 5K, 2SV); Matt Campbell (W, 3IP 2H 0ER 0BB 3K, SV); JC Ramirez (2.2IP 0H 0ER 0BB 5K, SV); Tyler Knigge (3.1IP 4H 0ER 0BB 6K); Colt Murray (3IP 2H 0ER 1BB 4K, SV)

Not Hot Relievers: Garrett Claypool (3.2IP 4H 5ER 2BB 6K); Ryan Duke (4IP 6H 5ER); James Birmingham (1.2IP 2H 4ER); Austin Brough (1.2IP 4H 3ER); Luis Paulino (4IP 5H 3ER); Lisalverto Bonilla (3.1IP 4H 3ER 3BB 6K)

Hot Hitters: Min 12 AB’s: Rich Thompson (.440, 2SB); Darin Ruf(.360, 5R 2HR 12 RBI); Mike Spidale (.375); Cody Asche (381, 1HR 5RBI); Cameron Rupp (.368, 2RBI);Cesar Hernandez (.360, 5R 6SB)Steve Susdorf (.345, 4RBI); James Murphy (.333, 4R 4RBI); Albert Cartwright (.318); Miguel Abreu (.313)

Not Hot Hitters: Gustavo Gonzalez (.000); Brian Pointer (.067); Miguel Alvarez (.067); Carlos Alonso (.111); Carlos Perdomo (.118); Sebastian Valle (.130); Brendan Tripp (.130); Tyson Gillies (.138); Leandro Castro (.143); Bob Stumpo (.157).

42 thoughts on “Hot or Not”

  1. A lot of the key position player prospects have really been up and down. The difference between a real prospect and a suspect is consistency. At this point, we have not seen consistency from the top young position guys. A guy like Ruf has been most consistent,but is not really considered a legit prospect at this point.
    I believe the pieces that need to go in order for the youth movement to be at all possible would be the outfield. Victorino and Pence could be replaced with cheaper options if guys like Brown, Gillies, and/or James could elevate their play. The team needs to be able to infuse less expensive talent. As far as 3b is concerned, those solutions are years away.

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  2. Gregg, you are on fire. Hot/Not report, LHV report, Monday Musings, OF Report, Middle IF, corner IF and I probably missed one or two. Thanks for continuing this site and adding your content to it.

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    1. I have no idea how well Asche is fielding. Even if the fielding is fine, I’d like to see him sustain the average for a month and show some real power before he is promoted. But he’s doing a super job considering he skipped a level, far exceeding my expectations. This is still his age 21 year (I believe), so he has time yet to develop.

      There are some good hitting prospects but, for the most part, virtually all of the outstanding prospects in the system are still pitchers. Here’s hoping for some additional balance over the next couple of months.

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      1. Agreed…Still too early. If he sustains production at borderline similar levels into late June, then move him early part of July.

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    2. Chase Utley as a 22 year old played his entire first full season at Clearwater. He didn’t put up a great BA, but his power and OBP numbers were quite good. He then double jumped up to AAA the following year.

      It’ll be interesting to see how they treat Asche, but I think his power and patience need to get a lot better before I’d consider him a great prospect.

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          1. I think their only similarities are age, and the way they’ve tracked through the system thus far. My point was that if Chase freakin Utley spent the whole season in Clearwater, then it isn’t unreasonable to expect Asche to do the same.

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  4. I still have no idea what to make of Cloyd. I watched a little of his start yesterday on video this morning and saw some pretty good command, an above-average curveball and everything else was pedestrian. Hyatt, whose fastball seems to sit between 89-92 and touches around 94 or 95 (but also with periods in which it sits around 88) and has a plus change-up, would still appear to have quite a bit higher ceiling (4th starter ceiling, likely reliever or 5th starter). But maybe Cloyd will need a spot start in the majors to show his stuff.

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    1. Interesting. I hope this means the majors for Rich Thompson. He’s just a fifth outfielder, but he’s done a great job for Lehigh Valley the last several years. Kyle Hudson is also just a reserve outfielder. Good speed but no power and fringy arm. Kind of a cross between Rich Thompson and Juan Pierre, but younger.

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    3. “Hudson, 25, has hit .291/.378/.318 in 133 Triple-A plate appearances this season. He had four singles in 29 plate appearances for the Orioles last year, resulting in a .143/.143/.143 batting line”

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  6. Cesar Hernandez has made the biggest stride IMO as a prospect. Assuming he continues AA this year and AAA next year, that gives the Phillies a possible option for 2014 at second base.

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    1. I have a friend who worked for the Reading Phillies and in catching up with some of the coaches there last week, they felt Cesar was going to be a starter in the Majors one day. Pretty high praise that I didn’t expect to hear. They even went so far as to say he was most likely to make it out of everyone on the current roster.

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      2. I would agree with that. The kid is very smooth at 2B and looks like a perfect #2 hitter in the big leagues.

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      1. Moreso than Asche. I want to see another 100-150 plate appearances before I buy into Cody Asche. Despite the batting average, he’s on pace to hit 5 HRs and walk less than 30 times. And five steals. The average is great, but that’s literally all he’s doing.

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        1. Asche is younger than Cesar (both are 21) and only a level below him. There’s not that big of a difference, age/level wise.

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  7. Somebody said Diekman was only showing 90-92 on the Lehigh Valley gun. Could that mean Cloyd’s 85-87 mph is really more like 89-90? Still not much but it would help.

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    1. I said that – yes, it appears that the Lehigh Valley gun is about 3 MPH slow compared to the CBP gun. It means that Cloyd is probably more in the range of 88-90. It also means that Philippe Aumont and B.J. Rosenberg throw REALLY hard. Aumont is often in the upper 90s and his FB sits at around 94-97. Hopefully, Aumont gets better soon and irons stuff out with his delivery because he has the best raw stuff in the farm system – even better than Biddle, May or Diekman.

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  8. I was just going to ask the same thing. Have heard that the lehigh gun is slow so Cloyd’s velocity could average around 90.

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  9. I would add Juan Morillo (Reading) to the not hot relievers. In 8 innings pitched so far this season he has walked 22 batters and has an ERA of 11.25. In his last 5 appearances ( a grand total of 3 IP) he has walked 14 batters. Wow. Why is he still on the roster with these kind of numbers?

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  10. At what point do we remove the prospect tag from Freddie? Who would of thought that he would
    be the leading hitter on the team for over a week. Very enjoyable watching Galvis play. Only Ellis has a better fielding percentage.

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    1. IMO discussion on him as a prospect ends at years end. Since this is going to be his “rookie” year, he’s fair game. 🙂

      He’s looked ok this year. If he could get his average up around .250 by years end that would really bode well for him. That said, looks like he’s going back down to LHV as chase utley is getting close.

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      1. It will be an interesting call as to who goes down when Chase comes back. Galvis is the best option for fielding at either 2nd or short and probably 3rd as well. He has hit in some bad luck, and appears to be improving as a hitter. Luna, Orr or Fotenot could all be alternatives to Galvis going down to LHV.

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        1. I think Galvis has probably played himself into the primary IF bench role once Utley returns, especially since its unlikely that Utley will be able to play everyday even when he is activated.

          Galvis is the only guy the have on the current roster who can really play SS.

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  11. I have not seen Asche play, so I can only go on the numbers put up thus far. But if he is fundamentally sound (a la Galvis), even these numbers COULD be very valuable at the major league level. For those of you that don’t remember, there was a guy by the name of Tom Herr (Lancaster’s favorite son) who played a key role in a very successful run for the Cardinals in the mid-to-late 80’s. And, yes, he played 2nd, not 3rd, and it was a different game then, but since everything in life runs in cycles, MLB is long overdue for a team with good pitching, good defense, speed and a bunch of .300 hitters with limited power to start winning again.

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    1. Could that team work in Citizens Bank Park? Those types of teams in the 80s played in parks with fast artificial turf and deep power alleys.

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  12. If they knew Galvis was this ready and they didn’t know Utley was hurt, then why sign Rollins to a load of cash?????

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    1. Probably because they still don’t know that Galvis is ready but were well aware that Utley’s cronic condition with his knees wasn’t going to magically disappear during the off-season.

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  13. alan did you watch the game the other day?? sarge talked about guys who dont walk, are free swingers. and name some good ones. if a guy doesnt walk but hits three hundred , that doesnt bother me.its the 250 hitters who swing wild,and the speed guys that dont try to walk that bother me,

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    1. I only get to watch games on WPHL (or national). Obviously I didn’t hear the names Sarge mentioned. But my guess is that free swingers who hit .300 and don’t walk also don’t strike out much. Asche has 20 Ks and 6 BBs. With that kind of plate discipline in the majors you get guys like Willie McGee. He might pop off and win a batting title in a given year, but he can easily hit .250. (And keep in mind McGee was far more valuable on defense.)

      I’m skeptical given that it’s just 133 ABs. There could be players of this profile who succeed. But those players are rare, and I’m wary that this is just a flukish stat line.

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  14. If he did not mention them, Sarge should have gone down the lineup of the late 70’s Pirates – Al Oliver, Rennie Stennett, Mannie Sanguillen and of course Madlock and Stargell. Lots of free swingers who wreaked a lot of havoc.

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