Yearly Archives: 2014

Box Score Recap – 8/24/2014

Box Score Recap

Maikel Franco was 2-4 with a double following up his Cycle from Saturday. Cam Perkins went 3-3 – his first multi-hit game since August 2. Aaron Nola gave up 1R on 4H, 1HR, 1BB and 5K in 5IP – his best outing at AA.

Art Charles hit his 19th home run, and his fifth in his last seven games. JP Crawford hit two bombs, his second two-homer game this month. Matt Imhof allowed 2R on 6H, 1HR, 1BB and 4k in 4IP. His 27K:5BB in 26.1IP at Lakewood is real nice.

Wanna see something not so nice? Check out MItch Gueller’s road splits for the year.  I showed them to my dog and he ran to hide behind the couch. True story, I swear.

One week and one day to go, folks, as four teams, LV, REA, LKW and WIL have wrap-around series ending on Labor Day. CLR wraps up Sunday. DSL ended unceremoniously with a rain cancellation yesterday. GCL still fighting for a playoff spot – they’re one game back of the Yankees to be their division’s representative and that regular season ends on Thursday.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/24/2014 →

Box Score Recap – 8/23/2014

Box Score Recap

Maikel Franco hit for the cycle. If you’re expecting a big analysis on that, here it is:

MAIKEL FRANCO HIT FOR THE CYCLE WOW!!!

Also worth noting that Franco had two homers on the day, the other was in game one of the double header. He was 6-7 on the day, proving that Syracuse’s manager hates pitch-arounds and intentional walks, I guess.

MAG has worked eight scoreless innings in a row, Jeremy horst struck out six in four innings as the bullpen starter in game 2, and Freddy Galvis wasn’t in the line-up because he was called up to Philly. He’d earned it – he had seven multi-hit games and was OPSing .867 for the month of August. Carlos Alonso hit a grand slam and Jake Fox hit his 21st home run of the season for Reading. Fox was behind the plate for that game.

Brian Pointer went deep (15) and Roman Quinn stole a base (30), while Kevin Walter worked well for the second straight start. Not at all sure what to think of that. Dylan Cozens also went deep for the 15th time this year, while Zach Green was 2-4 with two doubles. Willians Astudillo is hitting .492 for the month with an ISO of .048. Catching will be his salvation. Otherwise, he’s a singles-hitting, never walking first baseman.

Rhys Hoskins was 2-3 with a double and a homer, and David Whitehead took care of business as usual. CLR for him in April, I’d guess. And Lewis Alezones allowed 1R on 2H 0BB and 4K in 6IP in what was his longest outing of the year. The 18-year-old has an 0.87 WHIP and 27K:5BB in 30IP this season. Really impressive. Kind of excited for his prospects going forward.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/23/2014 →

Walter Wins Again; August 23, 2014

Game Reports, , , , , , , , , , ,

Kevin Walter made his third start of the season and recorded his second win with 5 solid innings against the Brevard County Manatees.  The Threshers used a four run fourth inning to erase an early deficit, and the bullpen kept the Manatees at bay to post a 6-2 victory.

Brevard County is an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.  They boast 7 of the Brewers’ top 20 prospects.  Their line up includes #1 Tyrone Taylor (2012, 2nd round, 92nd overall), #2 Orlando Arcia (2010, international free agent), #9 Victor Roache (2012, 1st, 28), and #12 Michael Reed(2011, 5th, 161).  They hold down the second through fifth positins in their line up.  The Threshers’ staff held them to 4 singles in 15 at bats with a walk and 6 strike outs. Continue reading Walter Wins Again; August 23, 2014 →

Phillies Pull Within One Game of Yankees1; August 23, 2014

Game Reports, , , , , , , , ,

The Phillies came from behind to beat the Blue Jays 2-1.  They pushed across a run in the eighth inning to gain a tie, and scored the walk off win with another run in the ninth inning.  The game featured excellent pitching by both teams.

Lewis Alezones started for the Phillies and logged six innings of 2-hit ball.  Austin Davis chipped in two inning of 1-hit ball.  Jared Fisher threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning and picked up the win. Continue reading Phillies Pull Within One Game of Yankees1; August 23, 2014 →

Box Score Recap – 8/22/2014

Box Score Recap

I love that the Red Sox employ a guy at their AAA affiliate called “Steven Wright”.  Any ballplayer out there named “Denis Leary” will always have a home. Nice night from Adam Loewen for Reading – 3R 2ER 3H 4BB 8K in 7.2IP. Colt Murray pitched well in relief again, 1H 1K in 2.1 IP and he stranded Loewen’s last runner. Jason Parks wrote up Murray at recently Baseball Prospectus, in case you missed it. Reading came back in the ninth on a tying homer from Raywilly Gomez, and you know I wasn’t going to miss a chance to mention that name. Pete Lavin walked it off with a single in the 12th.

Art Charles had home runs in both games of CLR’s double header (17,18). He’s got homers in four of his last six games, and four in the last four days, (they’ve had two double headers in four days – poor pitchers). Charles, Roman Quinn, Jessie Valentin and Herlis Rodriguez all had two-hit games in the opener, Chris Serritella followed suit in the night cap. Cody Forsythe has struck out 42 and walked just 9 in 32 A+ innings this year. Impressive numbers for last year’s 25th round pick. Expect him in AA next year.

Lakewood’s Yacksel Rios threw 6.1 shutout IP, allowing 6H 2BB with 4K. He’s worth considering in the back of the Top 30, IMO. Willians Astudillo is now 29-59 on the month. All but two of them have been singles. OPSing 1.042 in August. And Dylan Cozens stole his 21st base. For whatever that’s worth. Ricardo Pinto struck out nine men in six innings of one run ball for WIL. Solid once again. And 21-yr-old UDFA Josh Taylor, a big lefty from Georgia College & State University, which sounds like a collegiate merger gone horribly wrong, pitched really well for the GCL – 2BB and 5K in 4.1 hitless, shutout innings in relief of Sam McWilliams. There seems to have been an uptick in interesting UDFA activity since the draft dropped rounds 41-50 a couple years ago. Maybe those next 300 guys are producing about as many interesting names as they would have otherwise, and it’s just magnified since they stand out as undrafted guys more than they would have as 47th round picks.

Failed to mention this yesterday – Marc Narducci of the Inquirer is reporting that Jesse Biddle is shut down for the rest of the year after his quad injury on Saturday night. Not a real surprise there. Probably not enough time to properly rest and rehab even a middle-of-the-road muscle injury before the end of the season.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/22/2014 →

… And Threshers Can’t Overcome 6-0 Second Inning Deficit; August 22, 2014

Game Reports, , , , , ,

The Threshers followed up their come-from-ahead first game loss to the Brevard County Manatees with a 7-2 loss in the second game of the double header.  They continued their passive offensive ways with 4 hits in the night cap.  Newcomer Jesmuel Valentin was replaced by Angelo Mora in the second game.

Jeb Stefan was touched for a run in the first inning.  He allowed the first 5 batters to reach base in the second inning on the way to giving up another 5 runs.  He settled down after that and retired 13 consecutive batters before surrendering a solo home run in the sixth inning.  His final line was – Continue reading … And Threshers Can’t Overcome 6-0 Second Inning Deficit; August 22, 2014 →

Threshers Blow 6-0, First Inning Lead; August 22, 2014

Game Reports, , , , , , , , ,

The Threshers had a fun first inning in game one of a double header tonight.  For the first time all season, I had to change the innings on the score sheet as the Threshers sent 10 batters to the plate.  The big damage came on three-run home runs by Art Charles and Chris Serritella.  Unfortunately, the Threshers’ offense packed it in for the rest of the game.

Roman Quinn, Jesmuel Valentin, Brad Pointer, and Harold Martinez all hit singles in the first to score ahead of the home runs.  The Manatees’ Taylor Williams rebounded from a 33-pitch first inning and shut down the Threshers through the end of the fifth.  Williams is the Brewers’ #13 prospect.  He was their 4th round pick in 2013, #122 overall.  He was recently promoted and came into this game with a 1.80 ERA and 1-1 record in 3 Florida State League starts.

The Threshers’ starter was Colin Kleven.  Kleven is among the league leaders in lowest walks per innings pitched at 1.92 per nine.  He came into the game having allowed 27 walks and striking out 95 batters in 126.2 innings.  He had an easy 1-2-3 first inning.  However, he didn’t appear to have his best stuff, and the plate umpire seemed to squeeze him on a couple of occasions.  He battled but surrendered single runs in the second, third, and fourth innings before a complete implosion in the fifth allowed the Manatees to tie the score.

Kleven’s pitching notes and some game notes –

  • Kleven – 4.0 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
  • 21 batters, 12 first pitch strikes
  • 92 pitches, 57 strikes
  • Of the 57 strikes – 5 swinging, 19 called, 20 fouls, 13 balls in play
  • Of the 13 balls in play – 6 infield ground balls, 3 fly outs to CF, 4 base hits
  • Of the 4 hits – triple off the top of the CF wall, home run to CF, line drive single, ground ball double down the left field line
  • 5 three-ball counts – 3B, SF8, BB, K, and a bases loaded BB on the final batter faced
  • Kleven allowed 1 run in a 32-pitch third inning where he faced 5 batters and struck out two
  • Kleven’s hard luck fifth inning included an HBP on an 0-2 pitch, a failed fielder’s choice when Crawford was ruled off the bag on Valentin’s throw (blown call) on a 1-2 pitch, an errant throw to second by Martinez on another failed fielder’s choice on a 2-2 pitch, then a 6-pitch walk to end his night
  • Quinn, Valentin, and Charles each had 2 hits
  • Quinn got picked off first after a leadoff walk in the 4th

Forsythe came in with the bases loaded and the score 6-4, nobody out.  Gabriel Lino allowed a passed ball on a pitch where he gave less than minimum effort.  Forsythe did give up a run-scoring single, but his 2 strike outs and inning ending fly ball limited the damage.  Ridenhour gave up a lead off single in the eighth and couldn’t stop the Manatees’ momentum as they pushed ahead the go ahead run.

The Threshers went quietly in the bottom of the eighth, they managed only 4 hits after the first inning, and we’re getting set for another game in 25 minutes.  Yippee.

Romus #2

Other Stuff

For those of you who don’t follow the comments at all, you can probably ignore this, but it’s been brought to my attention that someone’s been using one of the regular commenter’s handle to make up posts under the other name. So you all know, I’ve identified the guy via the site’s administration pages, and he’s posted in the comments under his own name before, though he’s not what I would call a regular. He used Romus’ name today to comment. While what he said wasn’t necessarily offensive or anything of the like, it’s just in poor taste and shows a lack of respect for the site and for Romus himself.

So, listen up, “guy”. I am being far too nice to right now in not identifying by name. If this happens again, we’ll get your IP blocked from commenting on the site, and just for fun, I’ll comment under your name and say all kinds of dumb things that make everyone here think you don’t know what the heck you’re talking about/are too dumb to be taken seriously/are a terrible person otherwise. And if you gripe about it, we’ll all know that you were the one who started it all.

So drop it, and we’re cool. Or keep it up and see how creative I can get in trying to shame you when you treat part of our community poorly.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Lehigh Valley Report

Other Stuff

The final conclusion is that put simply, Lehigh Valley is not a good team.   They have little to no timely hitting and their starting pitching has been simply abysmal which has led them to where they are which is at the bottom of the Northern Division of the International League.  Entering the seasons final week plus, the ‘Pigs are 59-73 and in last place, 17 games back.  Lehigh Valley finishes their four game series with Pawtucket tonight, trying to salvage a win before returning home for a 9 game home stand before closing out the season with two on the road against Scranton.

‘Pigs Prospects: Maikel Franco has hit in 3 of his last four games, including a walk off HR last Sunday.  Prior to that, Franco had been in a 3-30 funk, during which he saw his average drop from a season high .251.  Over the last 33 games, Franco is hitting .285 with 6HR and 22RBI.  He is the ‘Pigs leader in HR(12) RBI(64) and 2B(29). Continue reading Lehigh Valley Report →

GCL Phillies Beat Jays, Josh Taylor Shines; August 22, 2014

Game Reports, , , , , , , , ,

The Phillies topped the Jays 8-3 today.  They remain 2 games behind the Yankees with 5 games remaining.  They play the Yankees twice next week in games that will likely determine the division winner.

Sam McWilliams drew the start for the Phils.  His fastball was 86-87 mph.  He also had a change up at 82, slider at 78, and a slow curve at 68.  He allowed single runs in each of the first two innings, and was pulled when he reahed his pitch count in the fourth inning.  His pitching stats – Continue reading GCL Phillies Beat Jays, Josh Taylor Shines; August 22, 2014 →