So yeah, Ryan Howard out 6-8 weeks. The idea of playing Darin Ruf at 1B right now makes sense, as the team hopes to cling to a slim playoff hope in a shaky division. But in three weeks, if the team is out of it and selling, shouldn’t they be playing Ruf in left, either in the bigs or AAA?
Monthly Archives: July 2013
Box Score Recap – 7/7/2013
I won’t hold this up any longer trying to come up with something interesting to say, aside from RIP Severino Gonzalez’ magical season.
Clearwater Game Report
The always insightful NYPhilsManiac19 has been kind enough to once again give us a guest post after attending a recent Threshers game.
Clearwater July 5 Game Report:
Offense: This is the short part of the report. With the recent promotions of Franco, Dugan, and Joseph there wasn’t much left to cover.
Aaron Altherr: Rough day at the plate going 0-5 with 3 K’s. Had a chance to bunt over the winning run in the 9th but Truby chose to let him swing away which he did at strike 3. In the 4th inning he worked the count to 3-0 and got the green light and fouled one off into the seats behind 3rd base. His last at-bat in the 11th was a flyout to RF. The most exciting play of the game happened while Altherr was in the field. With a runner on first in the 8th and CW clinging to a 1-0 lead, Dunedin’s Pierce Rankin hit a deep fly to left. Altherr leaped up over the fence and appeared to bring a home run ball back into play except it didn’t stay in his glove (should have taken lessons from Jiwan James, but then again, did Jiwan really catch that ball?). He quickly picked up the loose ball and fired to the cutoff man (Mojica) who then gunned out the runner trying to score from first at the plate on a controversial bang-bang play. Continue reading Clearwater Game Report
Mid-season Mailbag – Question Request
Around the quarter point mark of the season I did a mailbag soliciting questions from here, email, and Twitter. I thought it brought out some interesting question and discussions, so I am going to repeat it here. Feel free to leave questions here or on Twitter (my email is in the writer’s tab at top) for me or any of the writers here.
We will run your questions and our answers later in the week.
Box Score Recap – 7/6/2013
Darin Ruf got the call to the bigs today when Ryan Howard went on the DL. Back on the farm, Maikel Franco goes deep again – his fifth at AA in 16 games. Larry Greene with his second bomb of the year. 6 pretty strong innings from Mitch Gueller – 2R, 7H, 1 BB and 3k – a nice bounceback after he couldn’t get out of the third inning last outing. 1st Round Pick JP Crawford with 4 hits and 3rd rounder Jan Hernandez with his first professional homerun.
Around the System–Corner Infield
Next trip around starts with a look at the corner infield…
Lehigh Valley
Cody Asche, 23, Phils 4th round pick in 2011; .281/.342/.444 in 324 AB’s; 8HR 49RBI; 7SB; .256 vs. LH, .291 vs. RH, .243 with RISP; .304 since June 1; 8%bb/23%k rates. 83 games at 3B with 9 errors (.960); 2.59 R/F. Asche is progressing exactly as you would hope and is ready to take over the Phils 3B position in 2014 if not sooner.
Josh Fields, 30, Signed as a free agent in 2013; .314/.370/462 in 223 AB ‘s; 4HR 32 RBI; 6SB; .382 vs. LH, .279 vs. RH, .358 with RISP; .292 since June 1; 8%bb/28% k rates. 21 games at 1B with 3 errors (.982); 5 games at 3B without an error; 8 games in the OF without an error; Fields has done everything Lehigh Valley has asked and done it well. The numbers against lefties make me think a Howard/Fields platoon would work much better than Howard alone.
Cody Overbeck, 27, Phils 9th round pick in 2008; .251/.308/.498 in 263 AB’s; 15HR 42RBI; 1SB; .329 vs. LH; .223 vs. RH, .176 with RISP; .299 since June 1; 7%bb/28% k rates; 53 games at 1B with 3 errors (.993); 8.34 R/F. Overbeck has picked it up as of late and may be the best pure power hitter on the team, but the high “k” rate, and low avg. with RISP kill him. Continue reading Around the System–Corner Infield
Box Score Recap – 7/5/2013
Kelly Dugan with a base hit in his AA debut, while 2 hits for Maikel Franco keeps his hot start going – he’s OPSing 1.104 for Reading. Ethan Martin doing Ethan Martiny things – 5bb in 5IP, to go along with 5R and 7H allowed, plus 4ks. After a strong outing last time, Brody Colvin got absolutely bombed on Friday night. I’ll spare you the details, and recommend you avert your eyes at that point in your box-browsing.
Elsewhere, Cameron Perkins returns from the DL with a 1-4 day, while teammate Chris Serritella had a double and a triple in 5 trips to the plate. 16 hits for Lakewood in a losing effort, including 4 from Angelo Mora. And after 2 more doubles, Zach Green’s ISO sits at what I would call a ridiculous .388.
Box Score Recap – 7/4/2013
Kelly Dugan announced on social media late Thursday that he’s been called up to Reading. Should be a good test to see how he can handle another caliber of pitching.
A busy day for names of note – on the hill, Jesse Biddle gave up 1R, 3H, 1BB and 9K in 6 IP. Kenny Giles back on the bump for Clearwater – he touched 99, according to @baseballbetsy on Twitter. A fourth strong start in a row for Shane Watson since a meltdown outing 4 weeks ago.
As for position players, Cesar Hernandez got his first start in the outfield, playing in the rain make-up half of the double header – an interesting addition to his value if he can cut it. Tyson Gillies went deep. He’s hit in four straight since coming back up to AAA. Dylan Cozens with his third HR of the year, while Zach Green had another double, and Andrew Pullin had 4 hits, including a triple.
Box Score Recap – 7/3/2013
Nice line from Perci Garner – 3R on 4H, 2BB, and 8K in 7IP. Kelly Dugan was 2-6 with his 10th HR. Zach Green 3-4, with 2 more doubles. He’s got 14 XBH already this year, in 66 PAs. Yes, he’s striking out too much, but he’s walking some also. Will be interesting to see how his stats look in another month. 3R 5H 1BB and 5K in 6IP for Drew Anderson. He’s a 2012 High School pick, and a guy I’ll be keeping an eye on.
And oh what a day for Jesen Therrien. He recorded just one out, and allowed 6 hits, 1BB and 8 (8!) earned runs. For the day, that’s a 216.00 ERA. It’s said that experience is the cruelest teacher (h/t JDeF). If so, hopefully there’s a lesson for JDT in that third of an inning.
Hot or Not
A look back at the week of June 27-July 3. Huge week for Cesar Hernandez, who is beginning to make the Phils decision making at 2B interesting…Andrew Knapp is hitting well, even while suffering from an arm injury that is keeping him from catching…Tommy Joseph’s 2013 is turning into a lost season…Pitching lines simply dont get better than that of Severino Gonzalez last week…Minor league hitters continue to mash Tyler Cloyd.
Hot Hitters: Michael Martinez (.571, 4RBI); Cesar Hernandez (.464, 4R 4RBI, 4SB); Albert Cartwright (.455, 3HR 5RBI, 2SB); Cody Asche (.420); Logan Pierce (.417, 5R, 5RBI); Tyson Gillies (.417); Andrew Knapp (.375, 3SB); Chris Serritella (.353, 2HR); Maikel Franco (.333, 6R, HR 4RBI); Gustavo Martinez (.333). Honorable Mention: Duran Continue reading Hot or Not
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