Box Score Recap – 8/26/2013

Box Score Recap

AFL rosters will be announced today. I’ll try to post a link and a discussion thread as soon as I have it.

As for Monday’s results – Heroics in Reading, as Maikel Franco ties the game with two outs in the ninth on his 30th HR of the year, and Kelly Dugan walks it off with a solo shot leading off the 10th, his 20th of 2013. Mike Nesseth and Tyler Knigge both pitched well in extended innings on Monday, Nesseth in a DH spot start and Knigge backing up a not-great performance from Bobby Bramhall. Chris Serritella hit his 12th HR of the year, and Ken Giles fell apart again. Dylan Cozens was 3-5 with a double, Andrew Knapp was 4-5 with three of them, and Herlis Rodriquez drove in three runs on three singles as Williamport beat up on a good State College club – all nine starters had hits. And Deivi Grullon went 3-3 plus 2 walks in the GCL. He’s had a fine offensive season for a 17 year old – OPSing over .700 thanks to Monday’s results.

Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB.

http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20130826

8-26-13 boxscores

49 thoughts on “Box Score Recap – 8/26/2013”

  1. Is Stephen Inch a potentially exciting prospect? I vaguely, perhaps mistakenly remember him being a high signee.

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    1. Inch was 6th round draft choice out of a High school in Canada. He signed for $300K when the slot was more like $100K. He made the All Star game for Lakewood before he waas promoted to CLW. He BBs more than he strikes out but he has 11 saves on the year. We knew he was a major project being from HS in Canada. I don’t think he’ll be in my top 30 but he’s still playing minor league ball instead of roping steers in Alberta.

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      1. they give this stiff, 200 over slot, and wouldnt pay workman. and others in top ten in recent years. great job.

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    2. It’s tough to compare since they are coming from such different places. Zimmerman was an extremely polished college draftee. He was a plus-plus defender with an advanced approach at the plate combined with above average power. For all of Franco’s potential, I don’t think they are good comps.

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  4. With Franco 30 th HR and Asche playing well , who is the Phillies future 3B ? I know they are trying Franco at 1B but Howard is not going any where for 3 yrs . Can Asche play another position ?

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  5. Asche was tried at 2nd and supposedly that didn’t work. LF may be the only other possibility but there are questions about whether he will ever hit with enough power to provide sufficient value there. Other options would include moving Franco to 1st (not something I would advocate unless he really can’t hack it at 3rd), or trading one of them. Either way, having 2 3rd basemen like this is a good problem to have and these decisions won’t have to be made for at least another year

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    1. If A-Rod gets suspended, for 2 yrs , maybe the Yankees will take Howards salary and use him as their DH , leaving the door open for Ruf or Franco to play 1B ?

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  8. Best case scenario is that Howard comes back to at least a level where AL teams would even consider him and 25-50% of his contract.
    I think its idiotic to worry about Howard.
    There is no reason not to think of Franco at 1st and Asche at 3rd for the future.
    Franco will get plenty of time at LHV next year and if he continues at this rate he will be the starting 1st basemen batting 4th in 2015, regardless of what money you are paying Ryan Howard.

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      1. Dom I think one more year with howard, if they cant move him next season,and he isnt producing they might have to eat his contract, seems the only way, putting him on bench would be nuts, either you play him or part ways, thats just my opinion, i dont have to pay that money so its easier for me to say,

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  9. Confirming that move of Franco to 1B is in case the Phils are able to move M Young before 8/31. If they do, Franco will be promoted and take over 1B for the remainder of the season, with Asche at 3B and Ruf in RF. This is the Phils preferred plan but they will not bench M Young out of respect to him so this will only happen if M Young is traded. Other challenge with trading M Young is that the Phils will likely have to pay part of his remaining salary which they wouldn’t have had to do a month ago and it will make the GM look not so smart in his dealings. (Insert punch line here.)

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    2. Thank you for confirming the Phillies’ secret plan to rush their top prospect to the big leagues at a position that he’s never played until last week, anonymous internet commenter.

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      1. +1 LOL. He’s got inside info he can only share with this blog, not, you know, a reporter from a newspaper or something.

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        1. Yes, it is impossible for somebody who knows somebody within the organization, who is not a reporter, to also post that information on a blog such as this. It is also impossible for a member of the front office to ever share organizational discussions with ANYONE outside the organization, that would never happen.

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          1. Right, got it, I now understand the provenance of this information much better. Could you please convey a message back in the other direction: “Hilarious joke!”

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          2. So let’s formalize it – you identify yourself to me somehow, (Twitter works), become my “source close to the Phillies” and tell me how you come by this information, and I will print the news on this site. Or hell, pick a handle on this site. Call yourself “that guy who knows a guy”, and then we’ll know when you post that your claims about the team are based on your connection to the team. Otherwise, you’re just another anonymous talking in the comments, and we’ll never be able to verify if you’re the same guy who was right about player X and piece of info Y, or the guy who was wrong about everything all the time.

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      3. I can confirm from a source (Ruben Amaro’s neighbor’s dog fluffy) that the Phanatic is starting at catcher next year. The Phillies believe he adds more value and merchandise sales potential than Brian McCann. TIFWIW

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    3. How much remaining salary do you think Michael Young has? He can’t be owed more than $1 or $1.5 million at this point in the season. For a contending club looking for a postseason bat/utility player, that’s couch cushion money.

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    4. What kind of respect do they owe michael young. he isnt a long time philly player. that is a joke, He isnt in there future plans, they owe him nothing, if they cant move him and really want to do this plan, just release him.

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  10. Reminder to anonymous and everyone else – please don’t copy and paste other people’s work in this space. Someone copied essentially Matt Gelb’s AFL article from Philly.com here. Link if you like, I’m sure Gelb would take the traffic, but don’t steal his work.

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  11. Question: Is Knapp’s bat special enough where one would consider moving him off catcher to get him to the majors faster? If i remember around draft time he was a raw at catcher but a good athlete who could move to another position. Also, i have already seen all the discussions on defensive value, but i think in this case, if Knapp could handle RF, it would not be such a big loss as Franco from 3B to 1B, but the main question is going to be “is the bat special enough to want to move him and develop him faster?”

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    1. If he can stick behind the plate, I would not move him. Too much value in a good catcher who can also hit.

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    2. My personal opinion is they give him another year to see how his bat/defense improve. He’s putting up a wRC+ of 131, very good but not “great” for a college player in low A. If he gets jumped to A+ next year (very possible), and puts up a wRC+ of 150 or better, it is possible depending on how he’s handling duties as a catcher. At this point though, I’m not comfortable enough saying that his bat is “special” enough and worthy of a rush job, the phillies aren’t going to contend next year.

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      1. +1 – he’s not a world-class bat that will play anywhere on the diamond in, like, 2015. Maximize his value behind the plate unless he really can’t handle it.

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    3. I don’t know what you mean by “is his bat special enough?” What evidence do we have that his bat is at all special, apart from being a plus for a catcher? Not to put the guy down, but you have a college kid, who’ll be 22 in November, was the 53rd guy chosen in the draft, and has put up about a .750 OPS at Williamsport. To me, that doesn’t shout super special. He seems to be a good catcher prospect, but why should we think his bat plays at 1B or corner OF. Not saying it may not turn out that it does, but I don’t see what evidence exists today to suggest that it does.

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  12. I still don’t get the arguments that Franco moving to 1B diminishes his offensive numbers. I know that historically certain positions warrant certain numbers. 1B being a power position, 2B/SS not so much power more so defense/hit tool/some speed, 3B being somewhat like 1B however defense is looked at more, LF/RF being power spots with an arm needed in RF, CF defense/speed minded w a hit tool and catcher being a defensive position with any bat being a plus. What does it really matter? I know it doesn’t happen often but if my 1B is a .300/.370/.390 lead off hitter who can steal 30-40bases and my 2B is a .250/.350/.525 30HR guy I’ll take it. I don’t care where production comes from as long as they come from somewhere. Or am I alone her?

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    1. It does diminish his value – quite a bit, actually. Third base is no longer a hot bed of offensive production. It’s a pretty weak hitting spot with a few luminaries. If he hits like, say, Ryan Zimmerman, he is very valuable, but if you put that offensive production at first base – it’s just so so. Larry has explained this ad nauseum but you need to think of it another way. How hard is it to acquire an okay hitting first baseman? It’s easy – there’s an abudance of these players – meet Adam LaRoche for example. This supply makes the value of the player lower. But how many really good hitting third basemen are there? Not a lot and those players are rare, difficult to acquire and command premium pay. If you don’t understand this, I’m not sure what more I can add.

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      1. Now, that being said, in the short run, it probably does not hurt to have Franco learn how to play first base to give the team some flexibility, so long as it does not significantly impede his development on defense at third (which it might).

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      2. Catch, I think your response to the OP misses a point… there are two entirely different aspects to this discussion. One is player value, and one is team production. If you have two players with equal defense (at all positions) and far different offense, it doesn’t matter which positions they play at from a production and wins perspective.

        What you’re talking about is player value, and that is true. EricD, what it’s really about is rarity of offensive skills and your ability to replace such offensive skills with a comparable player on the open market.

        In short, supply and demand. As I mentioned below, because of the lack of elite offensive players at 3B (meaning players who are capable of playing 3B, and put up OPS’s over say .900), a player who can perform that way is comparable more valuable to a team over say the same player at first base, where a .900 OPS is much more commonly acquired.

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    2. It doesn’t matter, but typically the guys who hit for massive HR totals don’t have the athleticism to play more defensive premium positions.

      In a world where quality of defensive play and power were mutually exclusive, you would be right.

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    3. For the best example of how maximizing positional value helps a franchise, look no further than the past decade of Phillies teams. That offense was so potent because it had serious run production from the middle infield spots — Utley and Rollins hit for power, got on base and scored runs while other shortstops and second baseman dinked and dunked. That made the offense a juggernaut even though the outfielders and third baseman were generally average, with a few seasons from a few players as exceptions.

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