Monthly Archives: September 2013

Report Card–Middle Infield

Other Stuff

End of the season report card on all 2B and SS. Remember, grades are based upon what pre-season expectations were for each player, measured against actual performance NOT against each other. Next up will be catchers on Tuesday.

Lehigh Valley

Cesar Hernandez, 23, Signed as a free agent in 2008; .314/.378/.406 in 401 AB’s; 2HR 37RBI; 33SB; .321 vs. LHP, .305 vs. RHP; .264 with RISP; .325 post all star break; 9%BB/19% k rates; 79 games at 2B with 9 errors (.976); 4.56 R/F; 24 games in the OF with 4 errors (.948); 2.54 R/F. Hernandez far exceeded all expectations in 2013 and solidified himself as a top 10 prospect entering 2014.  Even while being flip flopped from 2B into CF, Hernandez continued to perform at a very high level offensively, hitting well above .300 all year and was among the league leaders in SB’s.  The question at the major league level: where does he fit.  Grade: A; 2014: Philadelphia; Prospect Ranking: 4

Michael Martinez, 31, Acquired in the 2011 Rule 5 draft; .300/.352/.407 in 243 AB’s; 3HR 28RBI; 6SB; .343 vs. LHP; .283 vs. RHP; .311 with RISP; .275 Post All Star Break; 7%BB/14% k rates; 46 games at SS with 9 errors (.954); 12 games at 2B with 2 errors (.968); 10 games in the OF without an error; 2 games at 3B with 1 error. I desperately try to separate my feelings for MiniMart as a major leaguer as opposed to the season that Martinez had as a minor leaguer.  Put simply, Lehigh Valley could not have asked for anything more out of him.  He hit for average and was a offensive catalyst for Lehigh Valley (words I thought would never be associated with Martinez). His versatility was an additional plus as well. Now that said, I hope and pray never to see him in a Phillies uniform again (all due respect)Grade: A-; 2014:  He could be back in Lehigh Valley and just as easily could be with another organization. Continue reading Report Card–Middle Infield →

Top 30 Accountability: 26-30

** My Top 30 Prospects, Other Stuff

I started this series with players who didn’t make the list, and now will be stepping through the list 5 at a time.  The list itself can be found here https://phuturephillies.com/top-30-prospects/mattwinks-top-30/2013-top-30/

30. Gabriel Lino 

This is a tools pick, it came down to three catchers for the last spot in Lino, Grullon, and Rupp.  I aimed high on the projection because he is a pure boom or bust player.  Lino has huge holes on offense and defense that are not allowing his monster tools to appear in game action.  Lino is still very young so there is time, but there is a lot that can go wrong here. Continue reading Top 30 Accountability: 26-30 →

Box Score Recap – 9/4/2013

Box Score Recap

Malquin Canelo wins “Worst Season Ending Game” this year. His prize? A fancy metallic Mexican hat. Nice night from Shane Martin. He had a passable season, though you’d like to see him miss more bats – he struck out just 44 in 70.2 IP, or 5.6/9IP, though he only walked 16, which is just a shade over 2/9IP. That’s quite good. His assignment in the spring will tell us plenty about what the team thinks of him, as a double jump would be a big sign of confidence.

It’s been a fun year for me, and I hope you all have enjoyed yourselves. I don’t have immediate plans to not return in 2014, so I guess we’ll start this up again in April. I will be around this fall and winter posting AFL stat updates a couple times a week starting in October, other random thoughts, probably the head-to-head prospect ranking discussions like I did last year, and weekly general discussions (when I remember – feel free to tweet at me if I forget – @bxe1234). Continue reading Box Score Recap – 9/4/2013 →

Report Card–Corner Infielders

Other Stuff

Before we get started, a couple of notes to try to keep the discussion on track. Each player that is on a final minor league roster or has less than 130 major league at bats, 50 innings pitched or 45 days on a major league roster will be graded.  As far as grading goes, players will be graded against their own pre-season expectations as opposed to grading them against others in the organization.  While I will be positing Top 40 rankings attached to the appropriate players, a final Top 40 list will be published for discussion when the report cards are done.  To be considered for the Top 40, the same rules apply as above (less than 130 major league AB’s; 50IP and 45 days or less on ML roster). My hope is to get a new article out every three days or so, finishing up the entire system by mid October.

Lehigh Valley

Josh Fields, 30, SIgned as a free agent in 2013; .289/.337/.406 in 377 AB’s; 4HR 45RBI; 10SB; .348 vs. LHP, .264 vs. RHP; .330 with RISP; .258 Post All STar Break; 7%bb/27% k rates; 31 games at 1B with 3 errors (.987); 7.29 R/F; 12 games at 3B with 1 error (.964); 10 games in the OF without an error. Fields had a very good year with the bat, showed his versatility, and was a good guy to have in the clubhouse.  Grade: B+. 2014 projection: Another organization.  I am sure that from Fields perspective having been left out of the callups, he needs to focus his career on a situation where he may be able to get some roster time at the major league level. Continue reading Report Card–Corner Infielders →

Top 30 Accountability: Off the list

** My Top 30 Prospects

Part of learning to be a better evaluator and writer is examining your past work for mistakes and successes.  Now that the minor league season is essentially over, I am going to be working back through the Top 30 published at the beginning of the season.  The goal is to relook at guys in the system and how they have developed as well as look for evaluation trends and keys to things that caused misses along the way, as well as another opportunity to bring up 30+ individual players for discussion.  The original post is here https://phuturephillies.com/top-30-prospects/mattwinks-top-30/2013-top-30/

The first group is to focus on the players that didn’t make the list but had enough intrigue to warrant a write up.  Not all of the players were big time prospects and few are now, I have also only selected players who provide room for commentary.

Cameron Rupp – He just didn’t have enough upside for me, he just missed the list because of the safety, but he isn’t more than a backup. Continue reading Top 30 Accountability: Off the list →

Box Score Recap – 9/3/2013

Box Score Recap

Julio Reyes with a gem – struck out nine and allowed just one hit in six scoreless IP. He’s 22 years old, he missed all of 2012 after a 2-year DSL stint, and he’s only one season from needing to be protected, just in case you were wondering. Josh Warner followed up Reyes’ performance by allowing just one hit and striking out two in three scoreless, though the write-up says Tyler Buckley worked the ninth for the save. Not sure what actually happened. Zach Green was 2-3 and scored the game’s only run on an error, after the Batavia pitcher hit two Cutters in a row to load the bases after his single.

One more WIL game today, and we’re done for the year.

Just one note on rosters – yesterday I mentioned that Tyson Gillies was moved to the 60-day DL to clear a roster spot for Cameron Rupp. It would appear that was incorrect, as there was room on the 40-man. Thanks Rick B for pointing that out. Not sure why they moved Gillies over to the 60-day. Just for maximum flexibility on the waiver wire, I guess.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 9/3/2013 →

Fall/Winter Assignments

Other Stuff

A big part of the development cycle is winter and fall ball.  This post will track all players (who project to have prospect eligibility) participating in various offseason leagues as the information becomes available.

Major Leagues:

Mauricio Robles, Cameron Rupp, JC Ramirez, Cesar Hernandez

Florida Instructional League:

JP Crawford, Shane Watson, Larry Green Jr, Delvi Fransisco, Carlos Tocci, Kevin Walter, Zach Cooper, Mitch Walding (rehab) Continue reading Fall/Winter Assignments →

General Discussion – Week of 9-3-2013 – Call-Up Edition

Weekly Discussion

I mentioned it in the other thread, but here’s a good place to discuss the call-ups and other big league items. Enjoy!

Box Score Recap – 9/2/2013

Box Score Recap

Winding down – Lakewood’s finale was calcelled by weather, so there were only three games Monday. Lehigh Valley was blanked on two hits. Several members of that squad were called up after the game, including 40-man guys Galvis, Cloyd, Savery, Garcia and Mauricio Robles. Tyson Gillies was transferred to the 60-day DL, ending his hopes for a call-up, but making room on the 40-man for Cameron Rupp, who was added to the big league roster. 

Maikel Franco was not added, despite assurances from anonymous posters here that he would be, but he did cap off his fine year by going 3-4 with a double, to finish with a AA OPS of .926 after an A+ OPS of .925. Pretty remarkable. Severino Gonzalez made his AA debut in place of Jesse Biddle, (I saw no word on why exactly Biddle was held out). Gonzalez reportedly threw FBs at 87-89, according to @chrismellon from BP, which is lower than we’ve seen in previous reports. It’s been a long year for the 20-year old, so maybe we’re just seeing a little fatigue, or maybe 87-89 is closer to his norm than the 94 we saw earlier in the summer. We shall see. He’ll be a tough guy to rank this winter.

And Dylan Cozens tallied his ninth HR of the year. He’s got two games left to try to get to double digits, while Zach Green goes for 14 to potentially break the Cutters record for HR in a season.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 9/2/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 9/1/2013

Box Score Recap

Larry Greene had, by far, his best day of 2013 Sunday, as it was the day his season finally and mercifully ended. He closes out the year just above a .600 OPS. His K Rate was a whopping 35+%, though he did continue to take his walks at better than a 12% clip. I’m not writing him off completely, though, and if he comes to camp in 2014 ready to play, he’ll have a clean slate in my opinion.

Malquin “Malki”, (as I’ve decided to call him), Canelo has forced his way into the prospect conversation. A note that’s been making the rounds on Twitter and in the comments here – Canelo, the barely 18-yr old Crosscutters’ shortstop, who all but skipped the GCL this year, and fields with the best of them, (as reported at various times by Mitch Rupert and Crashburn Alley’s @Longenhagen), is sporting a .438 BA and an 1.104 OPS in his last 10 games, punctuated in his final plate appearance last night, where he walked off the home season at Williamport with his first professional round tripper.

If Canelo ever winds up on a team with the aforementioned Mr. Greene, I hope someone gets a snapshot of the two of them and captions it “Malki and Larry”. Would be perfect.

And FTR, I deleted a big note about Cam Perkins’ fine season just so I could land that reference without clutter.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 9/1/2013 →