Miguel Nunez pitched another gem tonight, and the Threshers lost 3-1. Nunez faced a Daytona line up that featured 3 through 6 hitters – Kyle Schwarber (#4 overall in 2014), Dan Vogelbach, Rock Shoulders, and Bill McKinney (#24 overall in 2013). They are all built like blocks of granite and all bat left-handed. Vogelbach and Shoulders have combined for 27 home runs in the FSL this year. Nunez’ line was – Continue reading Nunez Stifles Cubs, Threshers Lose, Yada Yada, Biddle; August 5, 2014
Yearly Archives: 2014
VSL Phillies Make Playoffs – (update) WIN GAME ONE!
The VSL Phillies finished their season Monday, going 36-32 on the year, to finish two games up on the third place Mariners and into the playoffs against a 45-23 Detroit squad. The two leaders begin their three-game championship series today.
Phillies ace Ranger Suarez pitched Saturday, which I believed would have lined him up to pitch a decisive game three Thursday, but he’s been taking five or six days rest all year, so maybe not. The schedule for the five team VSL is such that teams have an off day at least every five days, so to get a five man rotation going, you’re going to see that extra rest for everyone.
In reality, it may not be a necessity for Suarez to throw Wednesday, if it gets that far, even though the team will have been without an off-day since Friday. Short rest for the first time all year in the last game of the year is probably not wise, and the club used Carlos Salazar as a starter Monday, I believe in an attempt to clear three of their regular starters in order, Victor Delgado, Luis Carrasco and Carlos Indriago to work the series. Delgado will likely start today on six days rest, and Indraigo would be out of turn but on five days rest tomorrow, so if they wanted to squeeze him up, they could, as Carrasco had the weakest season of the three. That might leave room to use Suarez on four days rest for the rubber match, if they really wanted to. Still not sure that’s wise. Maybe using him out of the pen today or tomorrow would be smarter.
In terms of stalwarts at the plate and in the field, the Phils have five guys who played pretty much every day, 19 yr-old 1B Joseph Miranda, 16 yr-old CF Jesus Alastre, 19 yr-old SS Jose Antequera, 16 yr-old LF Luis Mendoza and 21-yr-old 2B/3B Alexander Perdomo. The younger two you might consider prospects, while the rest are a bit old for the league (or way old, in Perdomo’s case). Miranda is the slugger, having led the team with 5HR (tied for 3rd in the league). Alastre got on base at a .409 clip, (league leader) and had 13 steals (tied for eighth), and Mendoza had a very nice year for a guy who won’t turn 17 until Thursday. Perhaps he can celebrate a championship and a birthday on the same day.
Keep an eye out in the box score recap tomorrow for an update on game one, and we’ll go from there.
**UPDATE** – Victor Delgado and closer Alejandro Garcia shut out Detroit. Phillies lead series 1-0. Delgado allowed three hits over eight innings. Mendoza and Alastre each pushed runs across, and 17 yr-old 2B Daniel Romero had two hits and scored twice. Game two tomorrow could be the clincher.
Box Score Recap – 8/4/2014
Maikel Franco was 2-4 with a double, and MAG and Luis Garcia worked scoreless innings in relief of a nice start from Greg (not Matt) Smith. Kelly Dugan was 2-3 plus a walk and Zach Collier had two hits, including his sixth home run – that makes four in three days for the Reading centerfielder. It was perfectly reasonable to waive him earlier in the year to make room on the 40-man roster, but I don’t think the club will totally give up on him when he does things like hit four homers in three days. He’s been off the field so much this year, yet he has managed to marginally improve his overall offensive game while repeating AA. Still striking out too much (>25%), and unless he’s really going to hit homers in bunches, that’s not a great profile going forward. Someone close to the club should let him know to keep hitting homers. Thanks.
Nic Hanson was not terribly sharp in his first FSL start of the year, while JP Crawford was 2-3 plus a walk. Roman Quinn was 2-5 with a double and a steal, his 23rd in 30 attempts and has a 19-game on base streak going back to the second game of a double header on July 17. Over that 87 PA span he’s got 8 XBH, 11BB, just 13K and 14 steals in 17 tries. His wRC+ is 152 from July 17 thru Sunday – Fangraphs is a day behind still, and it won’t let me set my arbitrary endpoint between the bad and the good games in the 17th. Bummer.
Andy Knapp, Dylan Cozens, Mitch Walding and Malquin Canelo all with XBH for Lakewood, while Green and Greene both had singles and walked twice. LGj has continued to take his walks, hanging around 10% for the season, and his 28% K Rate is a marked improvement over his 35% last year. He is OPSing 1.271 in August, So that’S Something. Jia Tromp hit his 12th home run, and his third in as many days. One shy of tying the team record of 13, held by Zach Green and Walter Young. Brandon Leibrandt pitched really well over five hitless innings, and then it all went wrong in the sixth – he allowed four doubles and a single in the frame and ended with 4ER, 5H, 10k, 1BB in 6IP.
Look for a brief post from me shortly about the VSL club – they made the playoffs, starting today.
Mets Drub Threshers; August 4, 2014
Nic Hanson made his first start of the season with the Threshers after 3 rehab starts in the GCL where he pitched 5 hitless innings in his last appearance. Hanson pitched well in Lakewood last season before being promoted to Clearwater for 5 so-so August starts. He’s tall at 6’7 and features 3 pitches – a high 80s fastball that ranges from 86-90, a change up, and a slider. The slider is still a work in progress, but the change up is an effective secondary pitch. Hanson came into the game on an 80 pitch limit. Continue reading Mets Drub Threshers; August 4, 2014
General Discussion – Week of 8-4-14 – Waivers Edition
I’ll post a bit of news here – Phils have signed Panamanian SS Jonathan Arauz for $600k, per Jim Salisbury and other media reporting. Arauz joins SS Arquimedes Gamboa, ($900k) SS/CF Daniel Brito ($650k) and C Lenin Rodriguez ($300k) as six figure signings from the International Amateur market. Including P Jhon Nunez, who got $90k, the club has now spent $2.54M on five known signings. With a budget of $3.22M, and lots of other guys sure to be signed for dollar amounts over $10k, (under $10k is a freebie, essentially), this is probably the last of the high dollar signings. I was a little surprised to even see this many, but more power to the club for getting some nice looking guys for fairly reasonable dollars. We’ll see how many of them make their way stateside for instructs this fall.
Back home, the first round of revocable waivers were discovered, with Howard, Burnett, Bastardo, Kendrick and Roberto Hernandez reported earlier by Ken Rosenthal. Teams can claim the players and their contracts, or the Phillies can negotiate trades if they don’t want to let the player walk. I would imagine they’d let Howard go if someone wanted him, and insist on a return for the rest, or pull back the waiver. Once cleared, the men in question can be traded just like they would have been in July, with no-trade clauses and options in place.
Discuss.
Hot or Not
A look back over the last 10 days…..Roman Quinn is putting up some eye opening numbers on the basepaths…An awkening from the dead for Zach Collier….Dylan Cozens has emerged as a “must watch” and is as exciting a prospect as there is in the organization…What has happened to Cameron Rupp? He looks totally lost at the plate…Cord Sandberg stays on the Not Hot list….Aaron Nola continues throwing well for CLearwater, the transition to Reading should be interesting in the short term…Colin Kleven is quitely bouncing back over the last month, pitching very well…As one of the very few high schoolers the Phils decided to spend money on, Sam McWIlliams has gotten out of the gate very slowly.
Hot Hitters:(16 AB min) Roman Quinn (.389; 8RS, 1HR 5RBI, 6sb)Tim Zier (.375, 4RBI); Willians Astudillo (.371); Andy Knapp (.355); Jim Murphy (.350, 5RBI); Zach Collier (.333, 7R 3HR 6RBI 2SB); Clete Thomas (.333); Jake Fox (.325, 4R 1HR 9RBI); William Cuicas (.318, 5R); Dylan Cozens (.316, 1HR 7RBI, 2SB); Maikel Franco (.306, 6R 3HR 8RBI, SB)
Not Hot Hitters: Cameron Rupp (.000, 0-17); Albert Cartwright (.034, 1-29); Angelo Mora (.050); Koyie Hill (.059); Derek Campbell (.087); Anthony Phillips (.115); Trey Williams(.115); Deivi Gruillon (.143); Aaron Altherr (.146); Cord Sandberg (.148); Wilmer Oberto (.158); Art Charles (.161); Brock Stassi (.162); Aaron Brown (.167) Continue reading Hot or Not
Box Score Recap – 8/3/2014
Zach Collier hit his third home run in two days. Roman Quinn was 1-3 with a walk and a steal. His OPS is above .700. Boss. A fine line from Colin Kleven – 4H 3BB and 7K in 6 scoreless IP. Three hits for Zach Green, Dylan Cozens stole his 19th base, and Carlos Tocci hit his second professional home run. Matt Imhof went six, allowing three runs on six hits, no walks, and struck out seven.
Jia Tromp hit his 11th home run of the year, and second in as many days. He’s two shy of the WIL team record, and tied with Hunter Lockwood for second in the league – the leader Rowan Wick (14) was promoted a couple weeks ago. Mitch Gueller threw five scoreless innings for the Cutters, allowing just three hits, no walks, and striking out four. Nice work.
Box Score Recap – 8/2/2014
Hector Neris was added to the Phillies active roster this morning. As I mentioned yesterday, he’s been on a pretty nice streak since early/mid-July. He would have needed to be added to the 40-man this off-season to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft in December, so this will be a nice tryout. If he succeeds, great, if not, he has options, or he can be waived and every team will have a shot at him that way instead of via Rule 5.
MAG earned his first AAA save in LV’s win. Cam Perkins had two hits there – he’s hit safely in five straight, including two multi-hit games. Maybe he’s turning the corner. Kelly Dugan 1-3 plus two walks and scored three times. Zach Collier was 3-5 with two home runs (4) and Jake Fox was 2-4 with a walk, a double and a homer (15). Roman Quinn 2-4 plus a walk and a steal (21) and JPC was 3-5 with a double and a steal (4). Quinn’s recent base-stealing is super encouraging.
Jia Tromp with his tenth home run of the year, and David Whitehead pitched well for WIL – 1R 0ER 4H 0BB 5K in 6IP. And 21-year-old RHP Edubray Ramos, a Cardinals signee in 2010, who started the year in the VSL after a three year layoff from MLB affiliated pro ball, has worked 7.2 nearly perfect innings for Williamsport thus far – he’s hit one man and struck out seven. That’s it.
Nice game from Julsan Kamara out in the Dom Rep – 2-3 with a double a triple and a walk. And Ranger Suarez put up another gem, going eight scoreless innings and allowing no walks, just three hits and striking out four. 78:1 K:BB on the year now.
Around the System, Starting Pitching, Top Half
A look at starting pitching throughout the upper levels of the organization. You will learn quickly that July was an awful month for starting pitching across the board. Next up, a look at starting pitching in Lakewood, WIlliamsport and GCL.
Lehigh Valley
Sean O’Sullivan, 26, Signed as a free agent in 2014; 20 starts; 4-9 with a 4.77ERA; 117IP 126H 38BB 69K; 15HR allowed; 0.88 GO/AO; .279 opp avg; 1.40 WHIP; 2.7BB/5.3K per 9; .307 vs. LHH; .255 vs. RHH; 1-3 with a 6.14ERA in 5 July starts; Pedestrian numbers for O’Sullivan, who is an innings eater.
Brad Lincoln, 29, Acquired from Toronto in 2013; 21 games (16 starts); 5-7 with a 4.73ERA; 91.1IP 88H 37BB 80K; 0.80 GO/AO;.251 opp. avg; 1.37 WHIP; 3.6BB/7.9K per 9; .276 vs. LHH, .231 vs. RHH, .284 with RISP; 1-4 with a 6.04ERA in 5 July starts; Has pitched very well at times this year but had a very difficult July.
David Buchanan, 25, Phils 7th round pick in 2010; 12 starts for Lehigh Valley; 6-2 with a 3.95 ERA; 57IP 67H 21BB 46K; 0.97 GO/AO; .300 opp. avg; 1.54WHIP; 3.3BB/7.3K per 9; .320 vs. LHH, .285 vs. RHH; .234 with RISP; The results are good, the splits are not, but Buchanan is poised for a call up, most likely for the remainder of the season to take Cliff Lee’s rotation spot. Continue reading Around the System, Starting Pitching, Top Half
Nola Promoted to Reading
Gas up the car. Aaron Nola has been promoted to Reading for what looks to be his final three starts of the 2014 season. Nola has pitched extremely well for CLearwater after being drafted by the Phillies 7th overall, in the first round of the 2014 draft. Nola has thrown in 7 games (6 starts), and has gone 2-3 with a 3.16ERA and an outstanding 0.92 WHIP. In 31.1 innings, Nola has walked just 5, while striking out 30 holding opponents to a .214 batting average.
Expect Nola, 21, to remain on a 80 pitch count throughout the rest of the season.
Phuture Phillies 