With the A’s/Cubs trade in the books, it’s just about “hug watch” time around the bigs. So let’s all talk about the trades we think could happen for the Phils. I will have a tweet opened to @BadMLB just in case any of you go off the rails, so watch out.
Discuss.
Another good line from Severino Gonzalez, though he allowed another longball – his HR/9 rate is something like 1.25. That’s quite bad. And before we “Hey, doesn’t he pitch in a bandbox” this one, I’ll note that his rate on the road is almost twice as bad as it is at home. Nefi Ogando has been horrendous lately, but he threw 9/12 pitches for strikes and struck out two men in a clean inning of work. Speaking of…Phillippe Aumont threw 12 of his 13 pitches for strikes en route to an identical result to Ogando. Aumont had a stellar June, walking just two men and striking out 13 in 9.2 IP. His July was of to an inauspicious start, as he walked four men in his first two appearances. Hopefully Sunday’s turn is a precursor to more success.
J.P. Crawford hit his third A+ home run, (matching his A- total in far fewer PAs), and Cliff Lee worked two scoreless innings before the skies opened up over Brevard County. Zach Green had three hits and Yacksel Rios pitched well again as a starter, going seven strong innings for Lakewood. Frank Rivas is having a fine year out of the WIL bullpen in his stateside debut. The soon-to-be-22-year old has 13K to just five walks in 13.1 IP. Jia Tromp hit his sixth home run of the year, second in the league to State College’s Rowan Wick’s 11. Wick’s been in a bit of a slump lately, though, he’s only OPSing 1.182 over his last 10 games. Weak.
Doing things a bit different and extending the hot or not time frame to 10-11 days rather than a week to get a better sample size.This is a look back at June 26–July 5. …Min AB’s to qualify as a hitter is 17…Is there any legitimate reason to not give Leandro Castro a big league cup of coffee at tis stage to see what he may have??Maikel Franco heating up…Very nice to see Kelly Dugan healthy and on the hot list…Cameron Perkins is really struggling over the last several weeks…Mitch Guellar has seemed to have figured things out over the last two weeks…Perci Garner hits the starter and reliever “not hot” list….EThan Martin has been just awful since being sent down to Lehigh Valley.
Hot Hitters: Willians Astudillo (.423); Leandro Castro (.405, 9R 1HR 6RBI); Derek Campbell (.378, 5rbi); Angelo Mora (.360); Maikel Franco (.355, 1HR 7RBI); Matt SHortall (.348, 3R 4HR 6RBI; Russ Canzler (.344, 9R 3HR 8RBI) Kelly Dugan (.333, 6R 2HR 8RBI); Emmanuel Marrero (.333); Damek Tomscha (.320, 5R); Brock Stassi (.320); Tyler Henson (.320); Roman Quinn (.310, 7R 1HR 5RBI, 2SB); Honorable Mention: Z. Green, Sizemore, Lavin
Not Hot Hitters:Trey Williams (.053); Albert Cartwright (.087); Larry Greene Jr. (.100); Carlos Alonso (.111); Logan Moore (.125); Cameron Perkins (.136); Sebastian Valle (.148); Mitch Walding (.152); Samuel Hiciano (.160); Gabrial Lino (.176); Aaron Altherr (.179)
Hot Starting Pitchers: Jason Marquis (13IP 7H 1ER 3BB 12K); Mitch Guellar (12IP 7H 1ER 3BB 9K); David Whitehead (13IP 10H 2ER 2BB 3K); Sean O’Sullivan (6IP 5H 1ER 2BB 7K); Greg Smith (11.1IP 7H 2ER 1BB 11K); Matt Imhof (6IP 3H 1ER 3BB 5K); Aaron Nola (4IP 1H 0ER 0BB 3K); Mark Leiter (6IP 8H 2ER 0BB 6K); Adam Loewen (13.2IP 6H 4ER 4BB 8K)
Not Hot Starters: Ryan Demmin (3IP 7H 10ER 3BB 1K); Jon Prosinksi (8.1IP 16H 11ER 3BB 5K, 2 starts); Julio Reyes(2 starts, 5.1IP 12H 8ER 4BB 2K); Perci Garner (3.1IP 4H 6ER 8BB 2K); Jeb Stefan (2 starts, 8.2IP 18H 12ER 5BB 3K); Ryan O’Sullivan (3.2IP 7H 4ER 2BB 1K); Miguel Nunez (4.2IP 9H 4ER 1BB 4K); Chris Bootcheck (2 starts, 9.2IP 13H 9ER 5bb 8k); Francibal Alejo (3.2IP 3H 5ER 5BB 4K); Ranfi Casimiro (2 starts, 11.2IP 14H 8ER 12BB 5K)
Hot Relievers:Matt Hoffman (5.2IP 3H 0ER 2BB 6K, SV); Will Morris (5.1IP 3H 0ER 0BB 3K); Ulisses Joaquin (5IP 3H 0ER 0BB 5K, SV); Edubray Ramos (3.2IP 2H 0ER 2BB 5K, SV); Brian Sova (3.2IP 4H 0ER 0BB 1K, SV); Keivi Rojas (3.1Ip2H 0ER 0BB 2K); Matt Hockenberry (3.1IP 2H 0ER 1BB 1K, SV); Lee Ridenhour (3IP 2H 0er 2BB 3K); Austin Davis (3ip 3H 0ER 0BB 1K, SV); Scott Harris (6.2IP 2H 1ER 1BB 7K); Honorable Mention: Keys, M. Martinez, Walter, M. Gonzalez
Not Hot Relievers:Hector Neris (6IP 10H 10ER 2BB 10K); Ethan Martin (5.1ip 7h 6er 7bb 5k); Nefi Ogando (2.1IP 8H 5ER 3BB 3K); Perci Garner (1.2IP 2H 3ER 4BB 1K); Seranthony Dominguez (4IP 6H 5ER 4BB 3K); Chris Oliver (1.2IP 3H 3ER 2BB 3K); Lino Martinez (4IP 6H 5ER 3BB 4K); Dan Child (3.2IP 6H 5ER 1BB 3K); Aaron Baker (4IP 10H 4ER 0BB 5K); Lewis Alezones (4IP 6H 4ER 1BB 2K)
Lehigh Valley outlasted Rochester. Maikel Franco had three hits including a double and a home run, (albeit in 8 ABs over 16 innings). Russ Canzler hit two homers. Cam Perkins 1-7 – he’s really scuffling. Kelly Dugan 2-4 for Reading, and MAG allowed one hit and walked one while striking out four over 2 scoreless innings. Carlos Tocci and Mitch Walding both had two doubles, while Dylan Cozens had two steals for Lakewood. Cozens has 15 on the year. Not bad for a monstrously large human being.
Aaron Brown and Emmanuel Marrero with multi-hit games in support of a good start for Alejandro Arteaga in Williamsport. The GCL squad walked seven times versus Yankees pitching, though they managed just four hits. Denton Keys worked four scoreless innings after Jeff Manship worked the first as the opening test of his rehab assignment.
Maikel Franco was 2-5 with a double and a triple after a 4-4 on Thursday. He’s absolutely mashing in July. It’s just those two games, but still. Reading I don’t really want to talk about. Ok, same with Clearwater. Way to honor your nation’s birthday, dudes. Except the Latin guys. They get a pass.
Williamsport’s Mitch Gueller tossed a seven inning complete game shutout. Mitch Rupert mentioned he was sitting at 89 with his FB, but says he’s looking pretty comfortable with his slider. Encouraging. Jia Tromp hit his fifth homer of the year in game two of the double header. It’s the first time he’s hit just one home run in a game, and I guess one’s nice, but it does seem like kind of a letdown. Two’s better. He should try that again next time.
Big lefty Austin Davis earned his first pro save for the GCL, and Hugo Arrocha was 2-5 with two doubles in the DSL. Edwin Rodriguez also collected two hits in that game. Luis Mendoza had two hits, giving him multi-hit games in three of his last for in the VZL.
Roman Quinn was 3-5, and JP Crawford was on base three times as well, with a hit and two walks. Carlos Tocci had gone a little cold, OPSing .469 since the SAL all-star break (13 games), though he did manage a triple on Thursday, his first XBH of that span, and he’s got seven hits in his last five games, so I’d say he’s turned the corner on that slump. Sam Hiciano’s been slumping since the ASB also. He went 2-4 with a double. His K Rate this year is a very respectable 22%. Tyler Viza managed his way through six innings, allowing 1R 4H 0BB and 4K. He could use a couple more games where he doesn’t get hit around, like he’s been since pretty much the start of May.
Cord Sandberg and Matt Shortall hit home runs in the twelfth inning to make Williamsport a winner. Both had multi-hit games, as did Jia Tromp, Aaron Brown (who added 2 steals) and Derek Campbell. David Whitehead threw six shutout innings, giving up three hits and walking one, but striking out just one. Scott Tomassetti celebrated his 21st birthday was his first professional hit. It was a double, pinch-hitting for rehabbing big leaguer Wil Nieves. I bet he’ll never forget it. I celebrated my 21st birthday by going to the store and buying beer. The guy who carded me wished me a happy birthday. Then I drank the beer at a party and I really don’t remember much else. Ahh…memories.
Out on the island, Julsan Kamara went 3-4 with a triple, his first multi-hit game and first XBH as a pro. Guy’s OBP is .385. He’s drawn seven walks in 10 games. Nice. Old-ish DSL rookie Ismael Cabrera threw five shutout innings and struck out six a day after his old-ish DSL rookie teammate Jose Taveras threw a CGSHO. Two guys to keep in the back of your mind and nothing more, I’d say. Cabrera’s walk rate is very high, and Taveras is almost 21 years old already, so not being stateside doesn’t inspire a lot of hope that the org thinks they have what it takes.
As much as I enjoyed posting reports on Wednesday’s Threshers’ game and the GCL game this afternoon, I did not want to report on this one. The Threshers fell behind early and lost 14-6 to the Dunedin Blue Jays. Jeb Stefan started and quickly dug a hole from which the offense could not recover. Relievers, Dan Child and Ramon Oviedo were also ineffective. Continue reading Threshers; July 3, 2014
The humidity was a little lower than it had been during the past 10 days, so I went to the Complex to watch the GCL game between the Phillies and the Braves. Yoel Mecias got his third rehab start. He pitched 5 uninspiring innings. His fastball maxxed out at 87 mph. By the third inning, he had lost the ability to throw it consistently for strikes and relied heavily on his 82-83 mph changeup. The Braves bunched 6 hits and a walk into the third and fourth innings to score 3 runs. He threw 49 strikes in his 78 pitches. His final line was –
Darrin Ruf and Wil Nieves both hit line drive singles in the first inning with 2 outs. Continue reading GCL Phillies; July 3, 2014
Just a quick note – Aaron Altherr will make the start in left field tonight for the Phillies. Altherr was called up in June while Tony Gwynn was on bereavement and took one PA, and he was recalled yesterday when Dom Brown went on the paternity list. The German-bron Altherr, nicknamed “The Rhineland Rocket” (by me – I am beating it into the ground, folks), OPSed .930 in June at AA Reading, but is OPSing .688 on the season between two MiLB levels.
Jason Marquis pitched well again, and could be a trade chip if they bring him up and get him a couple starts in the bigs pretty soon, IMO. Might not net you much, but maybe a low-level flier type guy from a position of depth in someone’s org. If you were contending and needed a fourth/fifth starter on the cheap, would you give up someone like Malquin Canelo or maybe Jia Tromp for someone like Marquis? Probably.
MAG debuted in Reading with a scoreless inning and 2K. Roman Quinn hit his second HR of the year, and Brian Pointer his sixth. Ethan Stewart worked out of the bullpen for CLR for just the second time in his four-year pro career. We’ll see if that’s permanent, and if it helps his stuff play up to more Ks, helping to nullify his soul-crushing walk rate. Dylan Cozens went deep for the third time in five games. He struggled in June, but he’s OPSing .927 over his last ten games.
In the short-season leagues, second rounder Matt Imhof got the starts for WIL, pitching to a line of 1R 1H 2BB 3K in 3IP. Luis Encarnacion was 2-4 with a double for the GCL, while Darin Ruf and Wil Nieves rehabbed. 20-year-old Jose Taveras pitched a complete game shutout for DSL. Julsan Kamara logged his first pro hit in that contest and Bryan Martelo had two in that one.
Look for my July 2 recap at CrashburnAlley.com later this morning.
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