Closing day for Lehigh Valley , Reading, Lakewood and WIlliamsport. Nothing terribly exciting to report in the upper levels. Lakewood got multi-hit games from Canelo, Cozens, Green and Greene. Cozens had two doubles, and Green (6) Greene (2) and Aaron Brown (1) all went deep.  Willians Astudillo finished his year by posting an 0-5, finishing second in the league in batting average.

For the year, I would say we saw some pretty good performances compared to expectations, including a fair number of guys who came pretty much out of nowhere. Most pleasant surprise for me? Brian Pointer doing things that he was expected to do when he was drafted. Most disappointing development? Watson and Morgan not pitching all year. Most interesting guy I would have never guessed I would pay any attention to as of April? Ranger Suarez and his video game K:BB rates. 

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 9/1/2014 →

Lots to talk about today – A good start from Brad Lincoln and Ethan Martin struck out five in two innings. Roman Quinn was 2-2 plus two walks, though he was caught stealing. CLR bullpen backed up a good start from Miguel Nunez. Malquin Canelo and Zach Green had two hits a piece, and Andrew Pullin was a triple short of the cycle. He’s got nine homers on the year. Wonder how many he’ll hit in a better hitting environment in Florida next year. Prediction – 14. And for WIL, Cord Sandberg hit his fifth home run and Rhys Hoskins his ninth. Hoskins 2015 HR prediction? 22. The last 8 at Reading. I’m being bold this morning.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/30/2014 →

Let me say this first about Aaron Nola – he’s a 21 year-old coming to the end of the longest season of his life. He’s managed to get guys out at A+ and AA this year to the tune of a 1.07 WHIP. So that’s all well good and fine. But his K Rate at AA is only 5.63 or a K% of 15.3. His FIP at Reading (in a small sample, like the rest of these stats) is 4.90. Anyone who expects him to walk into the Phils rotation next year without some hiccups is asking to be let down, IMO. Not saying this guy isn’t going to be a mid-rotation guy for the better part of his career, barring injury – scouting eyes that know their stuff think that’s still the case, and I have no reason to doubt their consensus will fall apart. Just saying he’s young and has things to work on just like everyone else.

Couple game notes – Cam Perkins went deep – just his second AAA home run and fifth overall. Roman Quinn hit his seventh homer and stile his 31st base. Brian Pointer was 1-3 plus a walk and two steals. His wRC+ sits at 120 for the year. Nice job by him of overcoming that nightmarish start. In the second half he’s got 27 BB and 27 XBH. He’s not showing a hug platoon split, either – just 60 OPS points. I’ll take it. Jia Tromp hit his 14th home run, breaking a franchise record. Take that, Zach Green! And a nice line from David Whitehead, finishing up a comeback from TJ season. He’ll likely need to strike more guys out, but he does keep the ball on the ground, so that’s useful. We’ll see how he fares in 2015.

And one last note – Yacksel Rios? More like Yucksel Rios, amirite? Not a great closer for the promising righty, is what I’m trying to say.

With that – here are the boxes. Three days left, folks.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/29/2014 →

Maikel Franco again – this time, not as good a story. He was pulled in the fifth inning of last night’s game. Not called up, as some had speculated, but rather pulled by his manager for unknown reasons. Speculation on Twitter was that it was related to his dropping a pop-up, though he wasn’t even charged with an error, so unless he dropped it because he didn’t hustle to get to it, I don’t know. Didn’t see it. At least he wasn’t pulled for throwing food items at a team employee, like some people.

MAG struck out five in 1.2 IP, but he did allow two of Phillippe Aumont’s runners he inherited to score. Cesar Hernandez had four hits and a walk, and Cam Perkins had three plus a walk. Cesar was a home run short of the cycle, while Perkins is back about .200 on the year, and has hit in five straight, including a three-hit game at the beginning of that run. I imagine it’ll be a good boost for his off-season if he hits a bunch over this weekend, too. Hoby Milner proving once again why wins are especially dumb in the minors – he allowed seven hits and walked five in six innings for the win. Do you want that kind of performance to be counted as “good”? I don’t. Good for him that he managed to work around all that mess and allow only one run, but even David Blaine couldn’t keep up that act over a full season.

Roman Quinn was back in the lineup after a late scratch the night before. So that’s nice. Hope you all have been reading Jim Peyton’s reports from CLR and GCL all year. He wrapped CLR up yesterday evening, and GCL yesterday afternoon, as CLR is done with home games and GCL is just done. Franklyn Kilome pitched well for GCL – he’s one to watch.

Willians Astudillo pushing for the SAL batting title is now hitting .340 after a 3-4 yesterday. He’s got something like nine hundred singles this month, and four doubles, no triples or no homers. I was criticized in the comments for calling him a “singles hitter”. He does have 35 XBH on the year, and Lakewood is a low power environment, so maybe we’ll see some more homers next year in CLR, but the guy is ISOing .104 – that’s Jose Altuve territory. Not exactly a slugger. I hope we see him behind the plate as much as possible, wherever he’s playing, as that’s where he’s got a chance to add value to a team.

And finally, a really nice night from Ricardo Pinto. I’ve mentioned him before, but this one was really impressive. 1R 1HR 3H 3BB 9K in 7IP. And to drive home my point from earlier – he got the loss. He’s struck out 48 and walked just 15 in 47 IP for WIL this year and he’s got a 1-5 W/L record. WINS ARE DUMB, is my point. I know for most of you I’m preaching to the choir. Just something I saw last week got me amped up about pitcher wins again. To be honest, I can’t even remember what it was anymore.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/28/2014 →