Monthly Archives: August 2013

Box Score Recap – 8/30/2013

Box Score Recap

Lehigh Valley keeps their slim playoff hopes alive in dramatic fashion, coming back from a 4- deficit to walk off with two runs in the ninth. Maikel Franco went 2-4 including a double, and Kelly Dugan had three hits as Reading lost to Miguel Sano and his New Britain Rock Cats and his two homeruns. Clearwater shutout for the fourth game in a row. They did manage to get one hit, though, so they have to be feeling pretty good about that. Mark Leiter threw down again for Lakewood – his A- WHIP sits at 1.00 with 20K in 16 scoreless innings. Impressive.

And finally, Zach Green took his place in the Williamsport record books Friday, hitting his franchise record-tying 13th home run, matching Walter “Junior” Young’s mark, set back in 2001, when he was Pirate property. Wikipedia notes, (without citation), that Young, who had a cup of coffee with Baltimore in 2005, was “listed at 6′ 5” and 322 pounds, giving him a Body Mass Index of 38.2 (over 30 is considered “obese”), the second highest BMI of any major-league player in history, behind Prince Fielder 5’11, 275 lbs with a 38.4 BMI”. So if Zach Green hits one more homerun this year, Young will be second in two things. Bummer for him.

Young is, apparently, a corrections officer now. If Green manages one more bomb, hopefully the inmates don’t hear about it. Poor Junior will never hear the end of it. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/30/2013 →

Phillies Officially Sign Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez

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The final number is 3 years 12 million with a 4th year vesting/team option.  Negotiations hit a snag with regards to injury concerns.  Gonzalez has been placed on the 40 man roster and John Lannan has been moved to the 60 day DL to make room.

End of the Minor League Season Mailbag

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A ton of great questions coming in this week so without anything further here are the answers to your questions

Mitch_Rupert says: If you were forced to pick one team throughout minor league baseball to watch every game they played this year, which team would you have picked at the beginning of the season?

I love this question.  The first thing I did was look up where top talent was playing to start the year and the teams that jumped out were Hickory Crawdads (TEX, SAL), Quad City Bandits (HOU, MWL), Ceder Rapids Kernals (MIN, MWL), Memphis Redbirds (STL, PCL), and Portland Seadogs (BOS, EAS).  In the end I love low minors talent and I would take the Quad city Bandits because going into the year you knew you were going to get Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers, Rio Ruiz, and eventually the #1 pick in the draft (which ended up being Mark Appel).  Additionally coming into the year the Midwest League was really strong on talent and it would be good to have caught Buxton, Seager, Urias, Ynoa, Fried, and Almora.  I live in the middle of the MWL right now (Madison, WI) and my job has brought me to Cedar Rapids multiple times, but I never did get to a game while Buxton was there, but nonetheless there is a ton of talent and a great baseball atmosphere.

If I were to pick a Phillies affiliate it would have been the GCL Phillies. Continue reading End of the Minor League Season Mailbag →

Box Score Recap – 8/29/2013

Box Score Recap

The Lehigh Valley game quickly got out of hand when Mike MacDougal came on to pitch the 8th. It took Josh Fields getting the last out to get out of that inning. Lehigh Valley’s playoff hopes are all but dead. Things also got out of hand in Hagerstown, as Lakewood’s Josh Ludy had to get the last out there. Took him five batters to do so. Maikel Franco went deep for Reading – his 31st of the year between 2 levels. Clearwater was shut out again – that makes three in a row. A multi-homer game for Zach Green – one of them just happened to come in June when they started that game – he took over sole possession of the league lead with 12 home runs on the season, while his K rate remains right around 29%.

And GCL closed out the year at .500, after getting blanked on the last day. Tyler Viza had a nice season – 32IP/5R/21H/10BB/20K/1HR. Though you’d like to see him strike more men out, the walk rate is good and you can’t argue with the WHIP. One to watch, likely at WIL next year.

A couple notes – Jeff Schuler of The Morning Call reported that Adam Morgan left last night after a mound visit from manager and trainer, as a precaution due to tightness in his shoulder. Does not sound good, but we shall see. Schuler also mentioned that Cameron Rupp’s glove-hand thumb injury would have held him out of last night’s game, though he was already scheduled for the day off. Does not sound serious. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/29/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 8/28/2013

Box Score Recap

Not a banner night for the full-season teams. They combined for seven runs in five games. Lost all five. Cameron Rupp left the Lehigh Valley game with an apparent thumb injury. Jesse Biddle had another wild performance. Walked seven in three innings, but allowed just one hit and one run, while striking out four. Not sure what to make of his year. Ethan Stewart was not bad for CLR – he’s been not bad for a couple turns now. Exciting, I know. And Alejandro Arteaga had a good start in his FSL debut – 6IP/0R/2H/2BB/4K – after showing nice, if not thrilling number in the GCL most of the year.

In the short season leagues, Yacksel Rios pitched well for WIL again – 5IP/1R/6H/1BB/5K – while Venn Biter was 2-5 with a double and a triple and Trey Williams hit his third homerun of the year for GCL. The GCL season wraps up today, as the Phillies have been eliminated from playoff contention. They are, at least, guaranteed a .500 season, which will probably feel better than a sub-.500 season…I did the math in my head. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/28/2013 →

Clearwater Game Report, 8/27/13

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Courtesy of NYPHILSMANIAC19

Threshers vs Tampa Game Report, August 27
Last night’s Thresher game was an exciting one, which CW won with 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th.  Severino Gonzalez started and pitched 7 strong innings but was matched by two Yankee pitchers which left the game knotted at 1.  Ryan O’Sullivan pitched a scoreless 8th but couldn’t find the plate in the 9th (he walked 4 though 1 was intentional).  In the bottom of the ninth, the Yanks reliever returned the favor by walking 4 as well, and with one out, Harold Martinez lifted a fly ball to RF that wasn’t very deep. Aaron Altherr tagged anyway, and scored the winning run with an awesome slide around the catcher, just catching the plate with his left hand. Continue reading Clearwater Game Report, 8/27/13 →

Box Score Recap – 8/27/2013

Box Score Recap

A big night from Derrick Mitchell helps Devid Buchanan’s cause, as Lehigh Valley beat Buffalo. Buchanan induced three double-play grounders to keep his so-so night from looking like a nightmare. Jim Murphy hit a walk-off two run shot for Reading, (their second walk-off bomb in a row), after Seth Rosin and Hector Neris gave up 6 runs in the top of the ninth. Kelly Dugan was a late scratch, though I haven’t see a reason. Clearwater managed one hit but walked seven times as they best Tampa 3-2, with 2 runs in the bottom of the ninth on 4 walks and a walk-off sac fly from Harold Martinez. Nice line from Severino Gonzalez – 7 IP/1R/4H/3BB/6K. Drew Anderson pitched well, striking out six and allowing just 2 hits in 5 scoreless innings. Mitch Rupert reported that he was hitting 92-93. Here’s Mitch’s game story.

I forgot to mention that the DSL season concluded recently, with the Phillies finishing 3 games over .500, but 8.5 off the wild card pace. There were a couple interesting names there, but in my mind, no standout like Sam Hiciano from 2012. We’ll have to wait and see if we get any positive reports on any of them out of instructs, or beyond that, wait and see which guys make the GCL squad out of spring training next year. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/27/2013 →

House Keeping

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Just a quick note to let you know what to expect with the Minor League season ending next week.  As in previous years, I will be going through each player in the organization and reviewing their 2013 season with stats, a grade, comments and a 2014 projection. Also included will be a post season Top 40 ranking where applicable for those within that top 40 group.  We will fully cover the Arizona Fall League and Florida Instructional League as we can gain tidbits of information during the Fall months.

God willing, Matt and Brad will continue with their contributions, as put simply, the site would not function on anywhere close to the level it does day in and day out without their hard work and expertise. I am deeply grateful and appreciative of their efforts.

I am hoping my schedule allows additional time for analysis of prospects and that is something that I havent been able to dedicate myself to as much as I would like, but Matt and Brad have picked up my slack and then some. 

Phuture Phillies continues to be extremely successful thanks to all of you, the loyal readers.  During this baseball season, we have received in excess of 1.6 million page views and hope to continue to grow in the future.

GCL Game Report

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Todays first hand report from NYPHILSMANIAC19.   Excuse the formatting issues please…
Gulf Coast Game Report vs Yankees 1, August 27
PITCHING:
 
Feliberto Sanchez started and pitched into the 6th inning.  He looked good over all but seemed to tire late in the 5th and in the 6th.  At times his fastball seemed overpowering (I would make a wild guess at around 92-93).  He also has an effective change-up.  I think he needs to work on his move to first as a few guys stole second more on him than on Grullon.  Here are his batter-by-batter results:
 
1st:  0-2 pitch lined into RC for a base hit/Hard liner to CF that Sandberg corralled- it was very breezy and Cord sprinted back too far but then turned and came in to make the catch/weak 4-3 groundout/K looking on fastball on the outside corner
2nd: 2 Hopper, 6-3/Hard hit lineout to Left/pop-up to SS
3rd:  BB/Flyout to shallow LF/Flyout to shallow LF/RBI double that hit the Lf wall/Flyout to shallow LF
4th:  K on high Fastball/4-3 (nice play by Torres going to his left)/Foul popout to first
5th:  K looking/Deep liner over Sandberg’s head in center but he ran back and caught it/hard single into CF/Bunt single (Grullon stumbled or it probably would have been the third out)/Hard ground RBI single between SS and 3B/Walk (after going 0-2, he threw 4 straight pitches outside to a lefty batter)/Settled down and induced a 5-4 FC on an 0-2 pitch with bases loaded
At this point, he would have left the game with a very positive outing, but…
6th: Hard grounder off Hernandez’s glove at 3rd- was ruled an error but could’ve gone either way/4 pitch BB/Sac Bunt, 5-3/Hard 1B down the LF line that scored both runners.
At that point Therrien (formerly known as JDT) came in and threw some gasoline on the fire (though an error by Robinson Torres also contributed).  Therrien only gave up one runner in the 7th.
 
Lewis Alezones pitched a rocky 8th (1 run with 2 BB’s and a single), and then a scoreless 9th (with another BB and single)

Arizona Fall League Roster Announcement

Weekly Discussion

The rosters for this year’s Arizona Fall League were supposed to be announced at 2PM EST today, but they very uncoolly made us wait until nearly 2:30. The Phillies are sending Aaron Altherr, Cameron Rupp and Kelly Dugan as position players, plus pitchers Kyle Simon, Mike Nesseth, Austin Wright and Ken Giles, (per Ryan Lawrence – update – Lawrence has a roster that shows Giles – The AFL Website does not include him). The season begins October 8 and runs through the 16th of November.

As discussed last week, the Phils needed to send six guys, but they seem to typically send seven. Only one man from below A Ball is supposed to be allowed to go to the AFL from any organization, so the picks of Giles and Altherr are a little confounding. Perhaps since The Phils are sending 7 guys, they were allowed an extra A Ball player, or maybe the rules have changed and just not been posted on the AFL site. Don’t know. The roster rules also states that any man not on a AA or AAA roster by August 1 counts and an A Baller, and players from any level who are currently on or recently came off the DL cannot be included. Nothing in there has been violated by the Altherr/Giles addition, so I still don’t know. Whatever.

(Update on the rules – After they tweeted Giles as part of the roster, I asked the AFL Twitter account and got a response that two A Ball exceptions are allowed per team. This must be new for 2013, and the roster rules weren’t updated on the website).

Continue reading Arizona Fall League Roster Announcement →