Box Score Recap – 6/22/2014

Box Score Recap

Luis Garcia gave up an earned run *audible gasp*, and BJ Rosenberg struck out two before being called up to take Ethan Martin’s spot in the big league bullpen. Ryan Demmin struck out eight in eight scoreless innings for Clearwater. He’s struck out 27 and walked two in 28 innings in CLR. Impressive line, though he’s not more than an org arm right now.

Samuel Hiciano was 3-5 with a double, Andrew Knapp was 2-4 with a walk and Larry Greene was 2-4 with two doubles, but it wasn’t enough to push Lakewood to victory. Jan Hernandez hit his first home run of the year, and Cord Sandberg remains hotter than whichever attractive lady (or gentleman) you prefer to reference in such cases. No matter the lady or gentleman, he’s hotter. Sorry, Betty White.

And Mitch Gueller gave up six runs on seven hits and five walks in four+ innings. Ricky Bielski hit two of the three men he faced, which emptied the benches and got him and his manager tossed.

Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB. http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20140622

6-22-14

63 thoughts on “Box Score Recap – 6/22/2014”

  1. Hiciano and Sandberg gave some good hitting. Not much else. Awaiting Nola’s first start in Clrtwtr Monday…23rd.

    IF Sandberg keeps up his hitting anything like so far (SSS, yes) I can see him moving up to Lakewood for 30 games or so this season. Hiciano also warms the cockles of the heart with the good things he’s been showing. We DO see that the FO is being a lot more aggressive in moving players along…see Crawford and Quinn…add in Nola, and the future is getting closer.

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    2. I think Sandbergs best bet is to stay in WPort the whole year. If this was full season ball, I could see him moving up. Beings it’s only half season let him spend the whole year in WPort. Now next years a diff. story. I think he could be next years Crawford at LWood. If he has a good 2 months or soI could see him getting a relatively fast promotion to CWater.

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      1. Well … if, as is likely, Sandberg somewhat returns to earth in the coming weeks, then yes, that’s the plan. If (unlikely) he keeps wrecking NY-Penn league pitching to the same extent that he has so far for, say, another 4 weeks, then I think the organization has to think about a promotion this year. Unfortunately, there is quite a log jam in the Lakewood OF at the moment, so maybe not even then.

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      2. Agreed. No reason not to leave him on a team and have some success. Raw minor league prospects take time. Crawford is a little different as he is not a raw prospect. Looks about as polished already as the college guys we pick.

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    3. I’m going to be so bummed if he gets promoted before mid-July, when Williamsport comes to Brooklyn. The same thing happened a couple years ago with Franco, I missed out on seeing him by a couple of days. (I got Altherr and Asche instead, although at the time I didn’t think Asche looked like anything special, shows what I know.)

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      1. I also saw Asche play vs Brooklyn and at that point he looked nothing like a major leaguer. Not related but that the scary bus accident Wport had was during that series. Also, Altherr hit BOMB out of the park in that series. I think Adam Morgan pitched a good game there also.

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        2. We were at the same game then it sounds like. There was also a bench clearing incident involving catcher Bob Stumpo (just love saying that name) if it was the game I was at. I think Altherr hit a couple dingers that series if memory serves, in addition to not dying in a fiery bus crash.

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  2. If I was ranking today, Cord would be my #5 prospect. I am extremely high on him. He is at least 4 years away. But a potential 5 tool guy IMO. Perfect size and great athlete.

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    1. I’m as excited as anyone about Sandberg’s start in Williamsport, but a No. 5 ranking would place him ahead of one of Crawford/Franco/Biddle/Nola/Quinn, which I just can’t see. That said, there’s A LOT to like about Sandberg, particularly if his BB/K rates are in the neighborhood of where they were last year along with the improved hitting.

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      1. My top 5:
        1. JP
        2. Nola
        3. Franco
        4. Quinn
        5. Cord

        I am very low in Biddle. Have been for a while. I just don’t think you “fix” poor command as a 22 year old. You can fix it at the margin, but not as portly as he commands. I just don’t think he is a quality starter. I hope I am wrong.

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          1. 01. Crawford
            02. Nola
            03. Franco
            04. Biddle
            05. Quinn
            06. Grullon
            07. Sandberg
            08. Tocci
            09. Altherr
            10. Encarnacion

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        1. He has passed his levels on the 1st try, while being age appropriate, while learning to “Switch Hit” AND learning to play shortstop as a proffesional… I’m impressed.

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    2. his swing isn’t the problem, it is his pitch recognition. so dropping him to go against worse pitches is exactly the opposite of what he needs.

      stop worrying about his day to day. let the process work. he has great talent and is only 21 at AAA. just let him learn the game.

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    4. Ahoy, looks like you and me are in the minority on Franco. It’s weird last year when he was a superstar everyone was down on his armbar swing. This year when he is less than ordinary every one says what a star he is and should be in AAA. He basically jumped over AA, only 6wks or so at Reading. At some point confidence becomes an issue. He needs to have more success than he is having to date at AAA. If they don’t move him down at least drop him to 6-7 in the order. I hope he turns it around, but currently he is overmatched.

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      1. No he doesn’t need to have more success. You are having extremely high standards for him. Struggling is a good thing because he will adapt better. I’m glad you aren’t in charge of any prospects. You would dump them as soon as they slumped.

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        1. This dry spell for Franco, along with Perkins has to help them toughen mentally.
          For the most part up to now, they have experienced success, though Franco had a few months struggle at Lakewood early on, but this has to be beneficial for their character. Once they come out of it, they will be better for it.

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          1. Agree that it’s helpful for Franco. But we still don’t know yet whether Perkins is merely being tested or exposed. Every year we keep telling folks the same thing – the jump from AA Reading to AAA Lehigh Valley is huge. It makes you realize how good someone like Cody Asche is – he actually got quite a bit better in AAA and I think he’s about to take the same type of leap forward in the majors.

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        2. he struggled in winterball,spring training and half a year in aaa(so far) guess if you were gm we would still be waiting on hewitt and golson,maybe even jeff jackson

          not sure there isn’t a point where struggles affect the confidence and then you have nothing to build on

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      2. No, last season ‘everyone’ here was criticizing the pundits who said he had an armbar swing and the few on this board who gave any credibility at all to that critique. I wouldn’t drop him down the lineup. He needs maximum number of AB to try to correct his problems. Depending upon how the new draftees and Quinn perform the rest of the year, unless Franco turns his season around, I think he drops to the second half of our top 10 over winter. There are legit concerns about Franco’s hitting. He has hit a major speed bump. A lot of guys his age progress and learn and overcome the problem, but a lot of guys don’t. This year’s results lower the probability that Franco approaches his ceiling. I don’t think the ceiling estimate should be revised down at this point, but the odds definitely appear longer than at the end of last season.

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        1. Dropping Franco to the back half of the Top 10 seems like a major overreaction. Who do you have jumping him besides Nola? Quinn, who’s just dropped down a notch in terms of positional value and is making slow progress at Clearwater? Sandberg, who is tearing up a level that Franco destroyed several years ago? Tocci, whose polarizing issues are well documented? Grullon? Biddle?

          Maybe if a bunch of other guys who were in our Top 10 had taken huge steps forward I could see it. But we all agreed on a couple things this offseason, and one of them is that there was a huge gap between #3 in the system and #4. So Biddle and Franco have fallen back a little and couple members of the pack have caught up, but I don’t see a bunch of guys leapfrogging Franco.

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        2. Offseason is still a long way away. It’s not even July yet. I don’t think anyone (besides Crawford and Nola) have leapfrogged Franco just yet. If he keeps struggling all season, and some other guys play well, then maybe someone else passes him, but I don’t expect that to happen.

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  4. A ss but asche numbers. are as good or better than castellanos, maybe we has a guy in our system just as good.

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  5. Very off topic, but can anyone confirm if Jared Cosart has lost velocity or is throwing softer in an attempt to throw more strikes. Watched his last start and he was sitting 92-93 almost the entire game, albeit with good movement. I remember him sitting 95 last season for the Astros and while he was in our system. He really does not strike out a high %, especially considering the stuff he has, but he’s been pitching very well lately.

    Very depressing to watch our former top prospects succeed for other teams.

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    2. Yes, I think people need to get over this. Sometimes prospects pan out, sometimes they don’t. I don’t see anybody complaining about the prospects the Phillies gave Cleveland for Cliff Lee.

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      1. Boy oh boy did you guys miss the point…. Wasn’t dwelling about or lamenting the Cosart trade, simply had a legitimate question about whether or not he’s lost some velocity because I GENUINELY enjoy following our former prospects in the majors.

        If you’re going to reply to a post, try reading the entire post (the question I was asking) rather than the last sentence.

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    3. Fangraphs’ pitch f/x says his fastball velo is down a little less than 1 mph on average. I’m not sure if it has to do with trying to improve his control or not.

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    4. It’s actually better to have some of our traded prospects succeed with other teams. If they all or most of them flop or have very replacement-level careers then it reduces other teams’ willingness to accept their stats and scouting reports at face value when considering trades with the Phillies. It also says that our farm was a lot worse than even the pessimists said it was, if we trade our top prospects and they mainly flop and the one guy we absolutely would not ever consider trading because he is such a potential superstar (Brown) fizzles. At that point, you would have to question our scouting and evaluation of our minor leaguers. Guys like Taylor, Carrasco, D’Arnaud, Cosart, Singleton, Santana, Gose were among the crown jewels of the farm. I certainly want to see the majority of them succeed, both because I have become attached to them from following their careers closely and because I don’t want to believe our farm was quite that awful.

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    5. I believe Jarred is throwing more moving fastballs that are slower than the faster but straighter fastballs he was throwing previously. His curve ball is very good when he can throw it for strikes.

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    1. Seeing this reminded me of Jason Knapp who is currently pitching in Hi A ball for the Rangers…doing pretty well for not having pitched in 4 years or so.

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  8. My first 10 ten (based on who I think they will become)
    1. Cord Sandberg
    2. JP Crawford
    3. Maikel Franco
    4. Aaron Nola
    5. Ken Giles
    6. Roman Quinn
    7. Jesse Biddle
    8. Ethan Martin
    9. Deivi Grullon
    10. Yoel Mecias

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    1. I’m thrilled about Cord Sandberg – positively thrilled. But can we at least let him play six weeks in the minors before we pronounce him the top prospect in the system (by the way, even if he keeps doing this the rest of the year, I don’t think he’s a better prospect than J.P. Crawford at ths point – Crawford is the same age, plays a more critical defensive position and is two levels ahead of him)?

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      1. This is the same SSS phenomenon that happens every April/May, there’s always some guy who comes out guns blazing and people are like, “Platoon Dom Brown with Cameron Perkins!” We’re just getting a delayed effect with Williamsport. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something legitimately exciting about seeing a guy with Sandberg’s ceiling do some fun things in the box score, but let’s just all take a deep breath and remember he’s way behind Crawford, Quinn, Tocci, Cozens and others on the developmental ladder (and I’m just mentioning high-ceiling outfielders here).

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  9. Excited to see Williamsport tomorrow evening. Calling for Thunderstroms though.

    Wednesday night, hope to catch the R-Phils in Binghamton.

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  11. Ugh. I suspect tomorrow’s box score recap will approach a daily high for comments (Nola, Biddle, Sandberg).

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  12. And Nola gets rocked in his first outing.

    4 runs, 3 walks, 3 Ks.

    So much for a guy having a lot of control…. haha. Our entire organization sucks.

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      1. And he fits in with just about every “prospect” so far. Our organization may not find good players, but we find the best excuses.

        1. He is hurt
        2. He is young for the competition.
        3. Its his first start
        4. Hes adjusting.

        You know what I say…. they arent being productive. Biddle is done. Franco regressed. Gonzalez regressed. Joseph is done. On and on and on.

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        1. So being hurt isn’t a valid excuse? Being a year or two younger than everyone else isn’t a valid excuse? Making a jump from being a college pitcher to a professional pitcher isn’t an excuse? You are just being ignorant if you don’t think that prospects will struggle at various times throughout their careers.

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          1. Other than Crawford and the start of Sandbergs year…. tell me one prospect who has impressed to the point where you think they can be a major league player.

            We dont have a single impact player at AA or AAA who can help this year or next year. And dont give me Franco, this year is wasted and will have to repeat AAA and prove he belongs.

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            1. Pullin, Grullon,Giles just off the top of my head. Easy to forget Giles since he’s in the bigs already. I guess Hollands falls into that category as well, though I didn’t see that coming at all.

              Agree the upper levels are pretty barren of impact players – Dugan may not be a star but he’s been touted as a big league regular by a couple scouts, and Altherr is coming along after a bad start coming off injury, and his .692 OPS on the year, even adjusted down 10-15% to big leagues, (my link to equivalency calcs is broken), would still put him roughly into the middle of the pack of big league CFers offensively.

              Also three of our best prospects play for Houston now, which we could rehash, and Trevor May looks to be coming around finally. Unless you’re sure our development team would have failed those four guys, (hard to prove one way or the other), it seems to indicate that the system in place can produce players. We just traded the bunch of them that would be knocking on the door this year. You indict the leader who moved those four guys, not the team that worked with them until they were moved, IMO.

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            2. Crawford have not done any damage look at the hitting in Lakewood and tell me who’s on top

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  13. How about our young bullpen Giles, De Fratus, Diekman, Mulholland, Rosenberg.they all came up the last 3 yrs plus having Murray , Kniggle, Regis all coming up . What we need now is younger Sp besides Hamels. Let us not forget Ache, D Brown, Herandez. Yes we do need more prospects in the upper levels. One day we mite have an outfield of Dugan, Cozens, Sandberg, Hiciano, Perkins, Brown, Quinn . OK I add a couple extra geez so what is Nola got creamed in his first outing . I remember Curt schilling being getting hit around when he young, then a future HOF had a talk with him . there all prospects most are very younger. I almost forgot Morgan, and Mag throw 2 ing of relief no runs 2 ks.

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  14. Shame anonymous. you only said the truth, but alias we have a bunch of homers on here, who will just thumb you down, They believe everything the Phillies do is right, Looking at the pitching in this organization is a embarrassment to any city and team. my god they stink the bullpens, the starters. all these drafts since Cole Hamels and you have a couple of one inning bullpen guys, from the drafts and trades. Look at the four starters at lvh and reading terrible. and the hitters, we only get excited at lower a or short season, cause soon as these guys get up to high a or better they stink, no power, no average, nothing.

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