Monthly Archives: May 2014

Hot or Not

Other Stuff

A look at the time period of May 1 thru May 7.  Some quick notes….How is Cesar Hernandez not in Philly.  He is mashing in the minors and has shown he can hit major league pitching. I simply can’t comprehend why they are choosing to not put their best 25 players in Philadelphia…And on that note, on to Luis Garcia, who has yet to allow an earned run pitching in AAA and has converted 9 of 10 save opportunities over two year.  Can he not do what SHawn Camp and Jeff Manship do?…When does JP Crawford get moved up?  My thought is there is zero reason to rush and I would let him get another 100-150 AB’s in Lakewood…Perci Garner’s start this week opened some eyes.  It will be interesting to see how he follows up….I would think the day is coming sooner rather than later where Brody Colvin is no longer with the organization.  He $600K plus bonus is the reason he is currently around…Finally, for the first time in “Hot or Not” history, there were no “not hot” hitters, meaning that no hitter in the Phils organization during the time period discussed hit under .200 in a minimum of 12 AB’s. Kind of remarkable.

Hot Hitters: Min 12 AB’s; Cesar Hernandez (.524, 5R 2HR 6RBI); JP Crawford (.433, 5R 1HR 5RBI, SB); Tommy Joseph (.375); Matt Tolbert (.368); Tyler Henson (.347, 5R 3HR 9RBI); Aaron Altherr (.346, HR, 7RBI, SB); Willians Astudillo (.345, 5R 1HR 8RBI); Dylan Cozens (.333); Andrew Pullin (.320, 2HR); Honorable Mention: Duran, Franco, Lavin

Not Hot Hitters: None

Hot Starters: Perci Garner (6IP 2H 0ER 2BB 9K); David Buchanan (6IP 7H 1ER 1BB 6K); Colin Kleven (6IP 6H 1ER 0BB 2K); Jesse Biddle (7IP 3H 2ER 3BB 6K)

Not Hot Starters: Miguel Nunez (4.2IP 9H 8ER 1BB 1K); Mark Leiter (2 starts, 5IP 9H 9ER 2BB 5K); Mike Nesseth (2IP 4H 5ER 3BB 1K); Brody Colvin (4IP 6H 5ER 2BB 0K); Ranfi Casimiro (5IP 9H 5ER 1BB 4K); Alejandro Arteaga (5.2IP 6H 6ER); Hoby Milner (2 starts, 12.1IP 15H 9ER 6BB 8K) Continue reading Hot or Not →

XST Camp Day; May 7, 2014

Game Reports, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesdays are Camp Days for the Phillies in XST.  On camp days, the coaches run the players through fundamentals in the morning.  Later, an intrasquad game is played with accredited umpires.  This morning, I decided to walk over to watch the game.  It seemed to me that it would provide some interesting observations as players strove to impress while competing against their peers. Continue reading XST Camp Day; May 7, 2014 →

Andrew Knapp Assigned to Clearwater

5. Clearwater, Transactions

Andrew Knapp‘s hitting rehab appears to be over.  He has been assigned to Clearwater and will likely take over as full time DH until he has been cleared to catch.  Currently the Threshers roster has 4 catchers with Knapp, Gabriel Lino, Chad Carman (Temporary Inactive list), and Logan Moore.  There will likely be another roster move coming at some point, but for now it seems like Justin Parr is the roster cut (assigned to XST) and could be not long for the organization.

Looking at Some Mock Drafts

Other Stuff

We are now right abouta month from the MLB First Year Player Draft.  There are many mock drafts floating around the internet so lets see who they have going at #7.  Remember that these are not necessarily who the Phillies have been linked to, it is also an interpretation of how other players are slotting into picks.  As always these mocks are subject to seismic changes over the next month, so don’t panic.

MLB Draft Insider – Chris Crawford (5/7/14)

Bradley Zimmer – CF – University of San Francisco

Baseball Prospectus – Bret Sayre (making the pick) (5/7/14)

Alex Jackson – C/RF – Rancho Bernardo HS (San Diego, CA) Continue reading Looking at Some Mock Drafts →

Box Score Recap – 5/6/2014

Box Score Recap

Sean O’Sullivan managed the Lehigh Valley game well in a losing effort, but the offense just didn’t get it done against Tommy Hanson. Maikel Franco drew his second walk in two days, which seems good, but Jim Murphy‘s solo home run (4) was all the scoring the Pigs could muster.

Severino Gonzalez didn’t have it working on Tuesday – he gave up 4R on 6H, 4BB, 2K over 6IP. He’s been struggling some this year, but as the season wears on, we’ll find out a lot more about the young Panamanian. Remember that he is one of the fifteen or so youngest guys in the Eastern League, and last spring he was ticketed for the New York Penn League. He’s going to have setbacks. How he responds over the course of this full season will tell a much greater tale than where he sits on May 6th.

Colin Kleven scattered six hits and allowed just one run in six innings, and Brian Pointer hit a two run home run in the top of the ninth to salt away Clearwater’s second victory in as many days. Colt Murray stranded two batters for a one-out save in that game, his second save in as many days. He’s on the Harold Martinez career path, though, so unless he’s promoted and starts doing good work at AA, or we hear scouting reports saying he’s “finally figured it out”, or that he’s “poised to turn the corner”, or something to that effect, I’ll choose to not get too excited about his stats.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/6/2014 →

Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

Other Stuff

The ‘Pigs continued their eight game road trip in CHarlotte Monday and Tuesday, losing both games  after sweeping Gwinnett over the weekend and now stand at 15-16 and in last place of the Northern Division of the International League but just four games behind division leading Buffalo.  Lehigh Valley finishes their series with CHarlotte on Thursday and then returns home for an 8 game home stand against Gwinnett and Scranton that begins on Friday evening.

‘Pigs Leaders: Hitting: Maikel Franco is 9th in AB’s (113); Reid Brignac is 5th in runs (20); Jim Murphy is 5th in doubles (9); Clete Thomas is 4th in walks (20) and 4th in steals(8); Tyler Henson is 9th in SLG (.524).

Pitching: David Buchanan is 3rd in wins (4); Luis Garcia is 5th in saves (5); Sean O’Sullivan in 9th in IP (35.0); Barry Enright is 4th in HR allowed (5).

Pigs Prospects: Maikel Franco is showing improvement at .209/.263/.327 on the year and .300 over his last 10 games but in not nearly where we thought he would be at this stage.  His K rate (21%) is not all that problematic, but he has struggled to make solid contact for a good portion of the year before just recently.  Franco has 2HR 10RBI and is hitting just .188 with RISP. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report →

XST vs. Yankees; May 6, 2014

Game Reports

Due to scheduling and weather it has been about 10 days since I’ve been able to attend the games at the Carpenter Complex. On April 28th, I was able to report that Ethan Martin was getting the start and that Roman Quinn was in uniform and in the line up . Well, Martin has move on to the Threshers to begin his rehab and Quinn was not in uniform today.

However, Darin Ruf started in left field for the GCL squad and Chace Numata was behind the plate.   Continue reading XST vs. Yankees; May 6, 2014 →

Box Score Recap – 5/5/2014

Box Score Recap

A friendly reminder that Harold Martinez is on his third trip through the Florida State League, and that ten game samples don’t prove a whole lot, and they prove even less when you’re a 24-year-old playing against a bunch of 21 and 22 year-olds. Also 30 more PAs without another walk and his rate will round down to 1%.

Tyler Henson hit his third home run in two days, and Leandro Castro was 3-4 with a walk-off caught stealing. Yes, that last part’s bad. Wouldn’t have been an issue if the bullpen and Barry Enright hadn’t collapsed int he 7th and 8th innings. You should read the recap of those two innings. Pretty amazing.

Three hits for Cesar Hernandez. He’s clearly a big league level hitter stuck in AA. Whether the glove comes around at more than second base, at least he’s getting his time at the plate. Austin Wright threw a clean inning with 1K – it’s his first base-on-ball-free outing of the year. Like to see him string together a handful of those and put himself back in the discussion as a bullpen arm.

Not much offense for Lakewood, and Mark Leiter Jr. put up his second lackluster performance in a row. That may be generous – I’m not sure the last one qualified even as “lackluster”, though it certainly lacked something…not sure what it was…outs, I guess.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/5/2014 →

Around the System–Outfielders

Other Stuff

Our first look at the progression (or lack thereof) of the outfielders around the system.  Next up will be corner infielders, over the weekend.

Lehigh Valley

Clete Thomas, 30, Signed as a free agent in 2014; .262/.389/369 in 103 AB’s; 1HR 10RBI; 8/9 SB; 16%bb/24% k rates; .300 vs. LHP; .247 vs. RHP; .217 with RISP. 29 games in the OF with 3 assists and 3 errors; Thomas has played well, providing much of what was expected when he was signed by the Phils as a 6th or 7th OF.

Leandro Castro, 24, Signed as a free agent in 2006; .188/.287/.275 in 80 AB’s; 1HR 9RBI; 1/3 SB; 11%bb/17%k rates; .074 vs. LHP; .245 vs. RHP; .250 with RISP.  23 games in the OF with 3 assists and 3 errors ; Castro’s low walk rate and high strikeout rate have been his historical problem and that has corrected itself this year, however, he has done little else.

Tyler Henson, 26, Re-signed as free agent in 2014; .299/.349/.494 in 77 AB’s; 2HR 12 RBI; 4/5 SB; 7%bb/30% k rates; .296 vs. LHP; .300 vs. RHP; .292 with RISP.  18 games in the OF without an error; 1 assist; 5 games at 2B without an error; 1 game at 3B without an error; Henson has hit very well, although with a high strikeout rate.  Henson has shown versatility, some power, and some speed and is hitting for average.  Gotta admit, I like him a little bit. 

STeve Susdorf, 28, Phils 19th round pick in 2008 draft; .254/.316/.296 in 71 AB’s; 0HR 4RBI; 2/2 SB; 9%bb/22% k rates.  8 games in the OF without an error; Susdorf has been adequate playing part time thus far.  I expect more from him as the year progresses.

Tyson Gillies, 25, Acquired from Seattle in 2010; .196/.258/.286 in 58 AB’s between Clearwater and Lehigh Valley; 1HR 3RBI; 2/3 SB; 3%bb/29% k rates.  14 games in the OF with 1 error. Just awful on many levels.

Reading

Zach Collier, 23, Phils 1st round pick in 2008; .177/.301/.258 in 61 AB’s; 0HR 2RBI; 2/4 SB; 11%bb/31% k rates. 18 games in the OF with one assist and one error;  Awful and overmatched.

Kelly Dugan, 23, Phils 2nd round pick in 2009; .275/.396/.375 in 40 AB’s; 1HR 5RBI; 1SB; 15%bb/18% k rates.  12 games in the OF with 1 error; Has been unable to stay on the field thus far and hasn’t had enough AB’s to pass judgement. Continue reading Around the System–Outfielders →

General Discussion – Week of 5-5-2014 – Home and Home Edition

Weekly Discussion

The Phils have two tonight at home versus Toronto, then two in Toronto, Wednesday and Thursday. Former Phillies’ LHP J.A. Happ on the hill tonight for Toronto for his first start of the year. After being sent to Houston in the Roy Oswalt deal, Happ wound up in Toronto as part of the Brandon Lyon trade. I guess you call that the Brandon Lyon trade, not the J.A. Happ trade.

It’s been pointed out to me a couple times on Twitter today that Jonathan Villar, who also went to Houston in the Oswalt trade, has five home runs this year for Houston. So that’s fun. Anthony Gose, who was traded with Villar and Happ, then flipped to Toronto for Brett Wallace, is also on Toronto’s big league roster right now, but he’s appeared in only a handful of games all year as he’s split his time between TOR and AAA Buffalo.

Anyway, it’s still not been long enough to evaluate that Oswalt trade properly, but I’d say it was worth it to contend for the WS in 2010, unless Villar keeps up a 30 HR pace in 2014 and plays like an all-star for years to come.

Discuss.