Daily Archives: November 18, 2014

Phillies Announce Affiliates’ Coaching Staffs

Phillies Chatter

Earlier, the Phillies announced that they would be keeping their major league coaching staff intact.  Today they announced the coaching staffs for their minor league affiliates.  Bold represents a change, Italics indicates the change is from outside the organization.

Lehigh Valley remains intact

  • Dave Brundage, Manager
  • Mickey Morandini, Coach
  • Sal Rende, Coach
  • Ray Burris, Pitching Coach

Reading

  • Dusty Wathan, Manager
  • Frank Cacciatore, Coach – steps up from Clearwater, replacing Rob Ducey
  • David Lundquist, Pitching Coach

Clearwater

  • Greg Legg, Manager – steps up from Lakewood replacing Nelson Prada
  • Rob Ducey, Coach – dropping down from Reading replacing Frank Cacciatore
  • Steve Shrenk, Pitching Coach – jumping up from GCL

Lakewood

  • Shawn Williams, Manager – moving up from Williamsport replacing Greg Legg
  • Nelson Prada, Coach – former Clearwater manager replacing Lino Connell
  • Aaron Fultz, Pitching Coach – moving up from Williamsport replacing Les Lancaster

Williamsport

  • Pat Borders, Manager – from outside org replacing Shawn Williams
  • Eddie Dennis, Coach
  • Les Lancaster, Pitching Coach – moving down from Lakewood replacing Aaron Fultz

GCL

  • Rolano de Armas, Manager
  • Brian Sweeney, Pitching Coach – from outside the org replacing Steve Schrenk
  • Rafael Delima, Coach

The odd men out so far seem to be Bob Milacki, the Threshers pitching coach; Lino Connell, the Blue Claws batting coach; and Matt Tolbert who had been added to the Crosscutters as a coach after retiring mid-deason.

AFL – Ethan Stewart

8. Arizona Fall League

Ethan Stewart was a 47th round JUCO pick in 2010 out of New Mexico Junior College. This past season was his second full year in Clearwater.  He improved on the numbers he had posted during the 2013 season. However, though improved, his walk rate probably led to the organization’s decision to convert him to a reliever after 16 starts. His 2014 numbers –

  •                G       IP       H     R   ER  HR HB  BB  K    Avg.  WHIP  G/A    ERA   K/9    BB/9   K/BB
  • Start   16    81.2     89    5   44    9      1   53  46  .284   1.74    0.98   4.85   5.10    5.84    0.87
  • Relief  12    21.0     28  11  11    0      0     5  24   .311   1.57    1.11   4.71 10.29  2.14   4.80
  • Total   28  102.2  117  66  55    9      1   58  70  .290   1.70    1.00   4.82   6.14    5.08    1.21

The stats that jump out are the big increase in his K/9 and the big decrease in his BB/9. Even though opponents batting average jumped 27 points to .311, his WHIP saw a 17 point decrease. I watched 10 of Stewart’s starts. It was frustrating to watch him struggle with the strike zone. He pitched better out of the bullpen, but like a lot of the Threshers’ relievers he struggled coming into games with runners on base. He allowed 6 of 11 inherited runners to score for a mere 45.5% Strand Rate. Continue reading AFL – Ethan Stewart →