Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

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A 4-3 week for Lehigh Valley, who now stand at 20-25 and in 4th place of the Northern Division of the International League, 6.5 games behind division leading Buffalo.  After an off day on Wednesday, the ‘Pigs play four at home against Norfolk, before hitting the road for four games in Rochester.

‘Pigs Leaders (Hitting): Cesar Hernandez is 9th in AB’s (169), 7th in SB (12), 4th in hits (54), leads the league in triples (6); Jermaine Mitchell is 2nd in triples (4); Cody Asche is 3rd in triples (3) and 8th in RBI’s (29); COdy Overbeck in 5th in HR (9); Darin Ruf is 6th in strikeouts (48).

(Pitching): Ethan Martin is 4th in wins (4), 4th in walks allowed (25); and has the 10th worst ERA (5.23); Tyler Cloyd has the 5th worst ERA (6.57), is 3rd in HR allowed (9) and has the 6th worst WHIP (1.64).

‘Pigs Prospects: Adam Morgan has really struggled since his first three starts of the season, and missed his scheduled start on Monday with what is being called “shoulder stiffness”.  In his last outing against Norfolk, Morgan gave up 10 runs on 10 hits over 3.1IP.  Each of his last three outings have been miserable, giving up a total of 19 runs in 11 innings.  On the year (8 starts), Morgan is 1-4 with a 4.97ERA. Morgan’s WHIP stands at 1.42 and he is allowing 2.6BB/6.2K per nine.  The opposition is hitting .283 against him, .318 with RISP.

Jake Diekman has had two good outings after an outings in which he completing imploded, giving up 3 runs in 0.1IP against Norfolk.  On the year, it isnt pretty…19 games, 1-0 with a 6.05 ERA and 4 saves.  Looking further into the numbers, Diekman’s WHIP is 2.12 and the opposition is hitting .278 against him.  Diekman’s problems against righties are really problematic, as right hande hitters are at .314 against him, and Diekman has waled no less than 19 right handed hitters in 13.1 innings. His WHIP against righties is a near unbelievable 2.63. The bright side is that Diekman remains effective against lefties as they hit him at just a .190 clip.

Ethan Martin has been excellent in his last three outings, allowing just 5ER over 19 innings and seems to have turned the corner after some significant problems to start the year.  In his 8 starts, Martin is 4-2 with a 5.23 ERA and 1.50 WHIP.  The opposition is hitting just .245 against him (.188 vs. RH and .318 vs. LH). Control is improving, but remains an issue with Martin walking 5.4 per nine innings, however he is averaging almost a strikeout an inning as well.

Mike STutes should be in the majors replacing any one of a number of Phillies relievers. In his last 10 outings, spanning back to May 2nd, Stutes has a 0.63 ERA and the opposition is hitting .157 against him.  On the year, Stutes has thrown in 20 games and is 1-2 with a 3.33 ERA and 2 saves. The opposition is hitting .208 against him and STutes has a WHIP of 1.19.

Cody Asche has been a consistent producer after a rough first couple of weeks of the season. Currently hitting .274/.324/.439 in 164 AB’s with 4HR and a team leading 29 RBI’s.  Asche is hitting .182 against LHP, .298 vs. RHP and just .197 with RISP, even while leading the team in RBI’s. Asche has performed very well in the field.

Next Week: Ruf, Hernandez, Savery, Castro

News and Notes: P Raul Valdes made his 2013 Lehigh Valley debut last Saturday evening against Rochester and was quite effective in his 4 innings as a spot starter, throwing 4 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits and striking out4.

—Tommy Joseph remains on the DL with what was first described as a minor concussion. He last played a game May 4th and has not yet begun baseball activities.

–Lehigh Valley scored 14 runs on Monday night against Rochester, their season high. In that game, Pete Orr tied a career high with 5 RBI and 8 total bases.

–Darin Ruf snapped an 0-21 drought with a single Monday night.

–On Monday, Lehigh Valley used a “spot starter” for the 8th time in 44 games, with Cesar Jiminez lasting 4.1IP and giving up 3 runs.

–Thru Monday, the IronPigs rotation is a collective 7-19 with a 5.44ERA and has gone less than 5IP in 21 of their 44 starts. 

Probables: Wed: OFF; Thur: Martin;  Fri: Valdes; Sat: Cochran; Sun: TBA

Transactions: Last Friday, P BJ Rosenberg was called up to Philadelphia.  To make room, P Raul Valdes was optioned back to Lehigh Valley. On Monday Humberto Quintero was called up to Philadelphia and Justin Dalles took his place on the Lehigh Valley roster for one day, before Dalles was sent to Lakewood and replaced on the Lehigh Valley roster with John Suomi. Pitcher Tyler CLoyd was called up by Philadelphia to start against the Marlins Tuesday night.  Greg SMith was promoted from Reading to take Cloyd’s rotation spot.

10 thoughts on “Lehigh Valley Weekly Report”

  1. i still have MANY doubts about martin, but since i said he had no chance of being a starter, hes really done a lot better. still see him ending up a high leverage reliever, but obviously if he can gain some control he could become a very solid starter.

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  2. also asche’s rbi total is kind of misleading, cesar is on base so much and has been on 3rd do to his league leading doubles. he’s disappointed me this year, but i had expectations that were probably not realistic so soon.

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      1. cody, i think he’ll come around, but i wanted him to be ml ready by all star break/ trade deadline. but he will still get it going. cesar has just been awesome, and i think if he can do this through the deadline, we may be able to trade utley. I would only trade him for something big though.

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        1. Please be aware that no one will replace Chase Utley. There will always be a downside until his body breaks down totally. There are signs, but I’m not convinced.

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        2. Cody turns it on the second half of season , kinda of like Cody does until he gets comfortable, at least I think , and hope . Either way it might be time for management to start making calls to teams that need a Young to play 3rd or DH and another Young to be a DH. Although Im not giving up YET on 2013

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    2. Asche’s doing the little things right-like getting rbi’s with sac fly’s and groundouts, and also moving runners into scoring position.

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  3. I am a bit concerned about Tommy Joseph. I had a child with concussion problems (hockey) and it was always very scary. What we don’t know is whether or not this was Joseph’s first concussion. If he has had prior concussions, the risk level goes way up – the brain can only sustain so many concussions before the player essentially has to retire. Fortunately, baseball is not generally a contact sport. However, catchers and infielders have higher risk of concussions than others, particularly catchers who basically do play a contact sport. The biggest thing with a concussion is for the player to be fully healed and returned to a cognitive base line before re-starting activities – the failure to do so can be catastrophic (I think an overly agressive early return is the reason Chris Pronger’s career is now over). I think and hope the Phillies are being extra careful here to make sure Joseph is fully healed before he returns to activities, but the delay strongly suggests this was either a bad concussion or that Joseph had one or more prior concussions. It’s scary and, for Joseph, it’s huge because if the concussions means he cannot return as a catcher, he goes from being a hot shot prospect, to, basically, another first baseman.

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  4. Hard to believe that this team has the top 3 in the league in triples! If Utley is DL’d will they bring up Hernandez? Or is Orr more likely? I guess it may depend on whether they intend to play the guy they bring up or play Galvis and use the guy they call up as a backup. It would probably not be a good idea to call up Hernandez and have him languish on the bench.

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