Box Score Recap – 6/11/2014

Box Score Recap

As some of you may have seen on “The Twitter” today, I am going to be doing some minor league/prospect writing for Crashburn Alley, on a weekly/whenever basis . You’re stuck with me, though, as I’ll still be doing the box score recaps for at least the rest of the year, if not beyond. But enough about me…

It was a light day, with LV and CLR off. Aaron Altherr won the day, going 3-5 with a triple and a home run. Jesse Biddle struggled, and didn’t get through four innings, walking six men and allowing five runs, (though only two were “earned”). Jiwan James with his first two hit night of the year.

The Lakewood lineup went off for 10 runs against Hagerstown, in celebration of Zach Green‘s return to the lineup, no doubt. Green played 1B, which is not ideal for his long-term development, so we’ll see how long that lasts, but he, Crawford, Knapp and Hiciano each had multi-hit games, in support of a strong outing from Mark Leiter Jr., who struck out seven in 7.1 innings and allowed just two runs (0ER) on five hits and no walks.

A couple notes – Drew Anderson hit the DL with a finger injury that had him leave a game this week after one inning. Better than an elbow or a shoulder, hopefully. And Roman Quinn indicated on Twitter that he’d be working on a switch to the outfield. H/T Mitch Rupert for confirming that before Quinn deleted the associated tweets. His value drops a little bit, but if he’s personally got more defensive value in CF than SS, then there’s nothing to be done but hope the bat keeps warming up. We’ve all seen this coming as a strong possibility, and it will free up the position in CLR for J.P. Crawford, whenever he’s promoted. As Matt Winks pointed out on Twitter last night, the SAL all-star break is next week at the full-season mid-point, so that might just be moving day for Crawford, among others, from Lakewood or elsewhere. I could see any of Yacksel Rios, Samuel Hiciano, Leiter or Cody Forsythe moving up as well.

Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB. http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20140611

6-11-14 boxscores

31 thoughts on “Box Score Recap – 6/11/2014”

  1. Altherr has really cut down on his strikeouts. Hopefully the wrist is feeling better and he can get on a roll. Couple more starts like this from Biddle and I’m going to lose any hope for him.

    Like

  2. It’s easy to focus on the negatives (Franco and Biddle struggling), but Altherr, Quinn, and Tocci have all been playing well recently, which is great to see. And Zach Green is back.

    Like

  3. Biddle was not good last night but he had absolutely no help from his defense(3 unearned runs) but seemed to lose his cool and the six walks is the most concerning to me. He needs to emulate Hamels who struck out two Mets to end the inning after the defense kicked the ball around.

    Like

  4. I mean, he can emulate hamels in that particular case, but in general isnt hamels notorious for getting mopey and struggling if his defense screws him over?

    either way, im definitely concerned with Biddle. Why can nobody in this organization throw strikes!!!!

    Like

  5. Figures the Phillies would wait until there’s a positive report on Quinn’s defense to move him to CF. Oh well. I’m looking forward to Crawford’s promotion and hope he can get on a bit of a roll again before they do it. Last night was a good start.

    Like

  6. Given that Crawford is the clear shortstop of the future, I really see no issue in having Quinn move to center, a position he should easily be able to adjust to given that this is where he played growing up. It would be nice, however, for the Phillies to have Quinn continue to play shorstop from time to time, to keep him sharp there not so much because he will end up being a shortstop, but because it might be best for the team to have him play an infield position at some point in the future.

    Like

    1. Agreed. SS would have been nice, but given his struggles there, his speed (which could make him a plus defender in CF), delays from the injury, and Crawford’s presence in the org, I have no problem with moving him.

      The difference in value between shortstop and centerfield is about 5 runs, so if Quinn can be a +5 run defender in center, he has as much value as an average defensive SS. So I don’t think moving him to center hurts his value much at all.

      Like

    2. Oh I agree that moving Quinn is the right thing to do. The timing is just goofy, if Quinn was actually showing real improvement at SS. He would make for a better trade chip if he could handle short, too.

      Like

      1. I agree with your assessment completely. I just hope I don’t hear the word “trade” associated with any minor leaguers out of this system for a very long time. Youth and versatility need to be embraced and not used as bargaining chips so that RAJ can cling on to his job.

        Like

    3. I don’t think we can assume that he’ll be able to slide out to center field and be good. If they’ve decided that he’ll be a center fielder, I say play him there every day and turn him into a good defender. I’d like to see them make his defense into an asset instead of an afterthought like it seemed to have been in Dom Brown’s minor league career. I’ve seen too much of Brown and Revere lately to take for granted that speed or athleticism means ability.

      Like

      1. Good luck and thanks for everything you’ve done here but why are you jumping ship? This is the place to be.

        Like

    1. What was most depressing was a comparison between the thinly stocked Phillies’ prospects and the deep pool of Giants’ prospects.

      Like

  10. Listened to the Blue Claws game last night and the announcers were saying that Green was going to play 1B for a couple of weeks and DH in between, just to ease him back slowly. He will start seeing time at 3B in approx. 2-3 weeks. I don’t believe 1B is a long term situation. Now the question is what do you do with Walding when Green is ready to fill his post at 3B again?

    Like

    1. That’s a really good question. It would seem that neither is ready for A+ and Williamsport has Jan Hernandez. I have never seen either of them play so I don’t know which is better defensively but Green would seem to be the better offensive prospect.

      Like

    2. Walding has stunk it up in his short career just as much as Larry Greene. With nearly as much bonus money wasted on him. Cut him or send him to the bench.

      Like

      1. No. Walding has not played all that well but he has certainly outhit and outfielded LGJ. Although he did sign for $800K, he was only a 5th rounder. LGJ cost us a supplemental first rounder and an even $million.

        Like

      2. The fact that Walding is struggling is concerning, especially because it is the fault of the hitting coaches.They have changed his batting style so much.If they would leave him alone he would be doing much better.Have you notice that every year he has played, he comes in and does fine at first and then they start working on him and his hitting goes bad.My opinion is let him hit the way that got him there.

        Like

    3. I think Walding and Green have very little chance of advancing too far based on what I saw in person. But I am not professional scout.

      Like

  12. I just Noticed that JP Crawford only has 12 errors. Thats surprising. It seemed like he had like 9 the first two weeks. Guys a Quick study and fixes issues.

    Like

  14. Would like to see Astudillo moved up to more age-appropriate Clearwater to see if he can continue his offense and test his defense as a catcher at that level, particularly now that Knapp is supposed to resume catching at Lakewood. Latter certainly has shown little offensively as DH either at A+ or A.

    Like

  15. Aside from Altherr, there seems to be NOBODY in our system who is center field promising. The move of Quinn to CF in time seems predestined and appropriate. SS requires more from defense than it seems he has; CF is easier since there are fewer steady challenges per AB and more quick starts-stops at SS.

    Agree on moving Astudillo up; age appropriate with hitting ability so far.

    Like

Comments are closed.