Maikel Franco 2-3 with a double and a walk (wait, a walk?!?!?). Which is more surprising, Franco walking or Tony Gwynn Jr. hitting a home run? It’s the home run, but it shouldn’t be as close as it is. Logan Moore (4) and Jake Fox (22) went deep for Reading. Six CLR guys had multi-hit games and every starter had a hit except Brian Pointer, who drew two walks and stole a base, as the Threshers came from behind to beat Tampa in 11 innings. Roman Quinn was a late scratch. We’ll see if that was just an off-day they decided on late or if there’s something more going on.
Seven Ks for Jon Prosinski in a good outing for Lakewood. Mitch Walding hit his seventh home run. His August was respectable after a scalding July. Don’t give up all hope yet, I suppose, but take any success this year with a grain of salt, as he was repeating the league. Two hits a piece for Cord Sandberg and Jose Pujols as they got blanked by State College.
And a nice one from Denton Keys. His August – 5R 2ER on 20H 5BB 18K in 23 IP. He didn’t allow a home run all year and is third in the league in ERA and fifth in WHIP with just one day left for anyone to change those rankings. Good season for the late signing 2013 draft pick. The GCL club was eliminated from playoff contention yesterday. The Phils had a rain-out on the 16th and it won’t be made up, so while they’re only a game down in the loss column, NY1 is two up in the win column and clinched the division’s only playoff spot. Had they tied, a one game playoff would have occurred, but it just was not in the cards for the Phils. A bummer for those guys, I imagine, especially if they win and NY1 loses today. They should just tank to they don’t suffer from “what-if”s all winter long.
Ok, probably teaching young guys to tank isn’t wise. I’ll admit that.
Here’s the affiliate Scoreboard from MiLB. http://www.milb.com/scoreboard/index.jsp?sid=milb&org=143&ymd=20140827
Phuture Phillies 
Keys was boarderline dominate this year. Hopefully he adds something to his fastball. A big projectable lefty with some potential. Definately a guy to watch. I said this before but I think he should be in LWood next year. He deserves to play in full season ball.
borderline dominant
Definitely
I think you’re just a borderline nerd; otherwise you would definitely have also put
Lakewood
😉
Anyone else think that Jake Fox will get a call up? Could be an Eric Kratz backup catcher with pinch hit pop off the bench.
I think they should give the guy a shot. I have never seen him play, and I know he is older and likely sent down as a “good influence” on younger guys, but he sure has hit and seems to have some pop. I love a good story and we know the Phils have missed on some of these older guys in the past, so he gets my vote. : )
Fox is not on 40 man roster (necessary to play in MLB) and isn’t placed on it under any plausible scenario. So he won’t be playing for the Phils this year. Or likely ever.
If Fox played for Oakland, he would be starting everyday and have about 20 home runs, just like B.Moss
Except that Oakland HAD Fox and got rid of him. Look, I like Fox to a degree as well, but Oakland’s not going to beat down his door.
Darin Ruf may be a different story. Trust me, if the Phillies cannot put his capable bat and plate discipline to good use somebody else will and the Phillies are going to look really silly one day. Ruf can flat out hit.
Well you should temper that about Ruf…he can hit for plus power, but he will K a little more then the average guy, and he may hover around a BA of .255/.265, but OBP around .370/375.
Ruf’s career wRC+ is higher than Howard’s.
If the lineup card was filled out based on merit, Ruf would be starting every day at first.
An OBP of .370/.375 with plus power in the current (strained) hitting environment is excellent for a guy who basically will make the major league minimum and, yeah, he’s a better player than Howard right now – I don’t think it’s close to be honest.
You are right. It isn’t close at all. He’s better at every facet of the game (SSS)
Didn’t realize you were comparing Howard with Ruf.
I envision Ruf’s PAs from both LF and 1st.
Many people here know that I am an advocate of Ruf playing over Howard. I posted in the 8/24 box score I believe and made a small case for playing Ruf over Howard. Remember when Dom Brown asked for 500 ABs to see what he could do and they gave him the ABs and he had a decent season? (albeit he had a monster month that certainly helped his numbers) I think its time for Ruf to get that chance to play everyday. I am so over Howard it is not even funny. The only reason Howard bats cleanup almost everyday is because Ruben says so. He wants him to reach 100+rbi so he is more marketable. Teams are not stupid Ruben. They know how to evaluate players (unlike yourself). Ruf needs to be the primary first baseman next season. Let Ruf have a good year and build trade value of his own. Right handed power is valuable, especially with his cheap contract. We would definitely get more for Ruf at 29-30 than will will get for Howard. Even if we eat most of Howards contract Ruf would be a cheaper trade option for other teams. Give him the ABs, let him smack 20,25, who knows maybe he reaches thirty and let him draw his walks. Teams value that more than a guy who has diminishing power, diminishing plate discipline, and can’t field. If Ruf does not start over next season I will probably pull the hair out of my head. I don’t even care if Ruf doesn’t bat cleanup. If we don’t trade Byrd he can bat fourth and we can put Ruf behind him. Howard is almost no threat at the plate and any left handed pitcher that doesn’t leave something soft over the plate can get him out. Does any one remember the last time Howard turned on a fastball for a home run?
Speaking of Tony Gwynn Jr.’s prolific power, I would love to see a home run derby between him and Ben Revere.
And they would still hit more home runs that you could.
Take it easy there, BJ. Some of us played baseball past age 12 and do have some legit bp power. How many times have we seen big power guys hit zero homeruns in a homerun derby? So I think some of us could realistically compete against Ben revere in a homerun derby at CBP.
Time is running out but Perkins needs a couple of hits to finish over 200 at LHV. I never expected that after all his previous success. I agree that we have to be impressed by Keys, a little more velocity is required though for him to be a top prospect.
Yeah I have been surprised that Perkins has been as bad as he has at AAA. Hopefully he can make some adjustments and put up better numbers next season. He will turn 24 next month so time is starting to work against him. Best case scenario he has a good start at AAA next year and can get called up around the second half of the season. If Byrd continues to hit like he has especially into next season I do not see how a team doesn’t take a chance on him by next July (at the latest). With Byrd possibly moving and other questions in the outfield if Perkins hits he could very easily play a significant amount of time next season, That is a big if but if Perkins gets back to making consistent contact and hits like we have seen he can, it will be hard for the Phillies not to call him up.
I’ve had significant doubts about Perkins. He’s never had the discipline and power profiles to project well as a corner outfielder in the majors – hopefully that changes and I guess we’ll see.
But I knew he was going to be in big trouble later when, earlier this year, he was interviewed about his approach at the plate and his response was just that he would wait to swing until he got a good fastball to hit. Now, I don’t know who is coaching these guys or tell them how to approach things, but I’m pretty sure that most players are not talented enough to succeed in AAA or the majors if all they are doing is waiting for a juicy fastball. One thing older pitchers in AAA will do is curveball you to death if you can’t handle a breaking pitch and I’ll bet that’s what happened here.
I don’t know about that. As I understand it, almost all ML hitters look FB almost all the time. The idea is that you can recognize and adjust to a breaking ball if you’re looking FB, but not the other way around. Also, most pitcher’s can’t consistently throw offspeed pitches for strikes, so if you lay off those you’re doing well.
As I recall, the bigger problem with Perkins’ approach is that he talked about (I believe) emulating Guerrero in being a guy who can hit anything. That’s an approach that works for very few, and is probably ideal for nobody.
He should still be in AA, Perkins, was rushed
Perkins had a .900 OPS at Reading. He absolutely deserves to be at Lehigh. He’s struggling now, that’s what happens sometimes. He needs to adjust.
too young too high a jump you see the results
Lol no
I don’t know if I am in the wrong place, but Dave Montgomery has taken a medical leave of absence from the team and replaced by Pat Gillick. I wish him good health, and could this be the excuse to make changes throughout the organization?
Agree, wish him well and a full recovery.
That is sad. I don’t always agree with how he and the management group run the team, but from everything I’ve ever seen, he really seems to be a good person who genuinely cares about other people, the team and the fans. Best wishes, Mr. Dave.
I am very critical about how the major league team is run but I sincerely hope that Montgomery fully recovers from his health problems and can attend opening day next season.
It does appear to be an opportunity for Phillies to make some changes. This is independence of a hopeful full recover for Montgomery. I know how was dealing with Cancer recently.
The silver lining is that he’s being replaced with Pat Gillick.
Matt Gelb stats on Ryan Howard:
“Howard, before this weekend’s games, batted with 402 men on base, tying Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria for most in the majors. But Howard drove in those runners at a 15.4 percent rate, which ranked 57th among 159 batters with at least 400 plate appearances.
More alarming is Howard’s inability to knock home runners from third base. He has batted with a league-high 82 runners on third; 28 of them scored. That 34.1 percent conversion rate ranked 111th out of 159 batters.
A player who bats cleanup as frequently as Howard is bound to accumulate RBIs. Howard is on pace for 608 plate appearances from the No. 4 spot. There were 316 batters from 1914 to 2013 with at least 600 plate appearances in one season as a cleanup hitter, and 273 of them (86.4 percent) collected 90 or more RBIs. Just two of those 316 players had a lower OPS as a cleanup hitter than Howard’s current .696”.
Sorry wrong thread…..have to go into General Discussion.