Daily Archives: June 10, 2014

Box Score Recap – 6/10/2014

Box Score Recap

Of course the big news of the day was the Aaron Nola signing, and reports that he’ll likely start in Clearwater (or higher, according to Amaro). I wrote a little bit more about that in the post on that subject from earlier.

Roman Quinn was 1-4 with a double, his second extra base hit of the year, and second in the last three days. Brian Pointer was 3-3 – he also had three hits two nights ago, but in a testament to his continuous inconsistency, he sandwiched a Golden Sombrero in between.

Carlos Tocci managed the only hit for Lakewood, and J.P. Crawford drew the only base on balls, as Hagerstown pitching shut down the Claws. Tyler Viza pitched pretty well, and he continues to throw a heavy ball – he tallied 12 ground outs in seven innings. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/10/2014 →

Threshers; June 10, 2014

Game Reports

The rain I joked was scheduled for Wednesday arrived early.  The game with the Tampa Yankees was delayed after 4.5 innings.  Miguel Nunez had pitched a solid 5 innings allowing 2 hits, 2 walks, 5 strike outs, and 1 earned run on a home run to right that would have been a routine fly ball 2 innings later when the weather moved in.   The offense attacked early.  Roman Quinn opened with a ground ball double down the left field line that kicked off the stands.  He scored on a KC Serna single.  Brandon Short followed with a single, but the Threshers could do no further damage.  The Threshers collected hits in each of the next 3 innings, getting the lead off hitter on in 2 of them.  But in spite of singles by Brian Pointer, Angelo Mora, and Chris Serritella, the Threshers were unable to score.  When the heavy rain and lightning caused the umpires to clear the field, the score was knotted at one apiece.

During the break in the action, I went hunting.  Before the game, the PR Director had told me that  at least 8 draftees were in town, but he hadn’t been told who.   Continue reading Threshers; June 10, 2014 →

Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

Other Stuff

Lehigh Valley has lost three straight games and 9 of their last 12, and now sit at 32-34 in the Northern Division of the International League, in 5th place and 5.5 games behind division leading Syracuse.  After a much needed off day Wednesday, Lehigh Valley hits the road for four games against Rochester before returning home for an eight game home stand.

‘Pigs League Leaders, Hitting: Maikel Franco is 6th in AB’s(236); Tyler Henson is 5th in strikeouts(67) and 6th in SB(13)

Pitching: Luis Garcia is 6th in saves(7); Greg SMith in 10th in IP (72.1); Barry Enright is 2nd in HR allowed(12)

‘Pigs Prospects: The original plan was to talk about Tyson Gillies, Darin Ruf and Seth Rosin this week, but Gillies has become a non-prospect; Ruf is on the DL and Rosin was sent down to Reading.  So a few under the radar guys:

Hector Neris has been unscored upon in his last 4 games (5IP 1H 1BB 4K), and overall sits at 1-0 with a 2.95 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 12 AAA games.  Neris has the ability to throw multiple innings and has very good command, and attribute rarely seen in the Phils minor league system. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report →

Aaron Nola Signs With Phillies

2014 Draft, Transactions

Not much but the headline here. Marti Wolever announced that first round pick Aaron Nola, RHP from LSU, has signed. No word on his signing bonus as compared to slot. I imagine that will be reported sometime in the next couple hours. Also no word on where he will start. I guess Lakewood, but it could be Williamsport or even Clearwater.

Update – Reports indicate Nola signed for the full slot value for the #7 overall pick, $3,300,900. At the press conference announcing the pick, Ruben Amaro said Nola would likely start in Clearwater, but did not rule out the possibility of him starting even higher. Starting even an advanced college starter at AA is very unusual. Just for example, Stephen Strasburg started at AA the spring after he was drafted, and Gerrit Cole started at A+ his follow-up spring as well, while Michael Wacha made it to AA after 7 starts at lower levels the summer he was drafted.

We’ve been told from day one that Nola is supposed to be a fast riser, so an aggressive placement would fit that narrative pretty well, but all the way to AA right after the draft still seems pretty unlikely. Won’t be long until we find out, I suspect. There’s not much holding him back, save the conditioning to pitch every fifth day instead of every seventh, and possibly an innings limit that they’d like to slow play in case there’s playoff baseball in Reading this year and they’d like him to be able to participate.

In all, I’m happy with the pick. I would have preferred an upside arm, and only time will tell if the FO lives to regret drafting a low-ceiling, help-us-soon kind of guy into an organization that appears to need far more help than one man would ever be able to provide.

Final Practice; June 10, 2014

Game Reports

A truck was backed up to the doors of the Carpenter Complex.  Bags were being loaded even as the last intrasquad was being played.  This afternoon the truck will head for the airport to begin the long trip to Williamsport.

They only played 5.5 innings today.  Six pitchers made brief appearances.  The most notable was Brody Colvin.  The former member of the “baby aces” was hit around in 1.1 innings, giving up 5 hits and 4 runs, 3 earned.  Continue reading Final Practice; June 10, 2014 →

Box Score Recap – 6/9/2014

Box Score Recap

Leandro Castro is trying hard to haul his OPS up over .700 for the year. He was 1-3 with his 18th walk of the year last night. Remarkable for a guy who hasn’t walked that many times in a full season since 2010. He’s added .42 OBP points over last year and he has the exact same AVG. Nice to see.

Aaron Altherr was 3-5 plus a walk – he’s on a bit of a tear, OPSing over 1.000 this month after an abysmal May which saw him OPS .505. Ryan Demmin and the CLR bullpen shutout a pretty bad Daytona Cubs team.

Andrew Pullin had three hits and Dylan Cozens launched his eighth home run of the year, leaving him tied with a handful of guys for sixth in the league. Yacksel Rios struck out five in four innings of scoreless work. He’s been pretty solid out of Lakewood’s pen this year.

Bryan Martelo made his pro debut in the DSL. The 2013 signee ($230k), went 0-4 with a strikeout. Hugo Arrocha, who you may recall was seriously injured in a collision at 1B during spring training, is also back in the DSL after a long look at XST. And it took 17 innings for the VSL squad to take down Seattle, on a walk-off wild pitch. Three men logged seven offical ABs, two men took nine (!) and Jesus Alastre was 2-6 and was hit by a pitch twice. Only one offensive substitution was made the entire game – not showing a lot of confidence in the bench, there, skip.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/9/2014 →

Reading Report: 6/2-6/9

Other Stuff, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Since I knew there was just no chance in hell I was getting a report up before that crack of dawn 9:35 AM game Monday morning at FirstEnergy Stadium, I figured we would include that in this week’s report.

It was a busy week for the Fightins roster-move wise, probably the busiest week of the season in that sense. It was also a tough week on the field for the team, as there was a five-game losing streak with just two wins sprinkled in.

Continue reading Reading Report: 6/2-6/9 →