Daily Archives: May 4, 2013

Box Score Recap – 5/3 & 5/4/2013

Box Score Recap

I miss a day and they demote Tyson Gillies to AA. Someone said the other day that the club had retooled his swing this year to try to find a little more power. Not working yet. If they tinkered with Maikel Franco’s swing, that’s been working just fine. He hit his 6th homerun tonight. Dude’s mashing.

On a side note, my nephew, all of eight years old, throws hard enough to hurt my hand playing catch. In his game today, he couldn’t find his batting gloves, and then couldn’t find the bat he wanted to use, so he said “I’ll just grab a different one”. He did so, and then he drew a base on balls. A triumph over adversity. One of his teammates was sitting in the dugout facing away from the game and responded to his coach’s inspirational encouragement, (like “WE’RE STILL IN THIS!!!!”), with sarcastic negativity, (like “NO WE’RE NOT!!!!”). Also in this game, the other team pinch ran for someone because, as I swear to god the coach yelled across the diamond to my nephew’s coach to explain, the young man had to “take a dump”. Not embarrassing for that kid at all. Well done, coach.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/3 & 5/4/2013 →

Why Jesse Biddle Was Pulled From a Game Today

Biddle, Jesse

Jesse Biddle’s final line today was:

0.2 IP  1 H 3 ER 4 BB 0 K and 41 pitches

he was then pulled from the game and replaced by Tyler Knigge prompting internet speculation about an injury.  It turns out Biddle’s 41 pitches pushed him over the organizations limit for number of pitches in an inning.  To this point there is nothing to suggest that there is any sort of injury concern. Continue reading Why Jesse Biddle Was Pulled From a Game Today →

Around the System–Corner Infield

Other Stuff

The “Around the System” series is back as we continuously rotate through the System taking a look at the production of each and every player.  We start with Corner Infielders, and will continue through the middle infield, outfield, catcher, starting pitchers and relief pitchers, all in time to get back to where we started (corner infield) usually about 75 AB’s later. Stats are thru Friday May 3rd. Look for a report on the Middle Infield over the next several days…

Lehigh Valley

Cody Overbeck, 26, Phils 9th round pick in 2009; .250/.297/.515 in 68 AB’s; 5HR 12 RBI; 1SB; 6%bb/29%k rate; .417 vs. LH, .214 vs. RH, .214 with RISP. 14 games at 1B with 1 error (.992); 8.57 R/F. Overbeck has been simply OK in the years first month. He continues to show power but is far from consistent and has been striking out a ton.

Cody Asche, 22, Phils 4th round pick in 2011; .267/.330/.367 in 90 AB’s; 1HR 13RBI; 9%bb/25%k rates; .071 vs. LH; .303 vs. RH, .143 with RISP. 24 games at 3B with 3 errors (.952); 2.50 R/F. Asche had an awful start but adjusted and has been coming on strong in his transition to AAA as of late.  His progress has been similar to what I expected prior to the year, but some troubling splits. Continue reading Around the System–Corner Infield →

Draft Retrospective – Projectable High School Pitcher

2013 Draft

The Phillies like many teams draft for projectability when it comes to high school players.  The Phillies over the past 5 years have shown that they have a type of high school pitcher that they value.  That pitcher tends to be taller than 6′ 3″ and have large projectable frames with rumors that their velocity will increase and that they can hold up for a full season.

The thing to keep in mind is that many things can go wrong for high school pitchers.  Pitcher get hurt and often for strange reasons, and sometimes for entirely predictable reasons.  The velocity does not always increase and a player can be caught with fringy velocity.  Pitchers can also lose velocity in professional ball, this can be because they need to throw less hard to gain control or the increased work load can decrease their ability to throw hard every start.  The reward can be great with a high school pitcher that works out especially when those picks are in the later rounds. Continue reading Draft Retrospective – Projectable High School Pitcher →