Clearwater Threshers Recap – 7/1/2018

Box Score Recap

Sorry about yesterday’s Recap.  I forgot to hit Publish.  It was very brief any way, as I came home from the stadium unwell.  I couldn’t sit too long at the keyboard, but totally for got to hit the Publish button before retiring.  I’ve got the same problem tonight, but I’ll try to go into a little depth.  I’ll return to an expanded recap as soon as possible.

First, let me talk about McKenzie Mills’ game on Saturday.  He threw six, two-hit innings, giving up an unearned run in the first when his errant throw on a bunt eventually allowed the bunter to score later in the first inning.  He didn’t allow a hit after the first inning.  The only base runners after the first inning came on a pair of walks in the fourth inning, and he picked off the first walk.  He retired the side in order in 4 of his 6 innings.  He retired 8 batters in a row and then the final 7 batters he faced.  His FB% was 65.5 % (59/90) and his first pitch strike rate was 81.8% (18/22).  His FB% would have been higher but for a 21-pitch, 9-strike fourth inning.  He used his CH and SL a lot in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, getting only one of his 5 strike outs on a FB.  His FB was 91-95, sitting 91-92 mph in the first three innings.  His FB was 89-93, sitting 90-91 in the fourth through six innings.  He has an 8-12 mph difference between his FB and CH (78-82 mph).  His CB was 73-75 mph.

Ramon Rosso made his FSL debut with the Clearwater Threshers (39-39) who beat St. Lucie, 2-0.  Rosso (1-0, 0.00) pitched very well.  He was efficient, needing just 32 pitches (24 strikes) to navigate the first 3 innings.  He was perfect thru three while striking out five.  He completed six innings, allowing just 2 hits.  He walked one, hit a batter, and struck out nine. Rosso threw a total of 83 pitches (57 strikes, 68.7%).  He threw 73.9% first pitch strikes (73.9%).  Rosso isn’t a hard thrower.  His FB runs 85-92 and sits 88-90 mph.  His SL and CH have similar speeds and are 78-83 mph.  He has a nice, easy motion.  He reminds me of Jose Taveras. 

Grant Dyer, Addison Russ, and Kyle Dohy completed the combined shutout.  The MiLB Log for the game is wrong, though.  Kyle Dohy only struck out one batter.  The first batter he faced lifted a soft liner to left that Arquimedes Gamboa caught on the run.  I do not know what gores on in the Game Day room at the stadium, but they make far too many errors in a sport that revels in its stats and records.

The Mets’ pitchers struck out 13 Threshers and held them to 4 hits and 3 walks.  But, one of the hits was Henri Lartigue’s 2-run HR (5) in the third inning.  In fact, 3 of their 4 hits came in the third.

That’s all I can do tonight.  Let me get the Open Discussion published.

Lehigh Valley (47-34) lost to Rochester, 7-6, when the bullpen couldn’t protect a lead.

Reading (36-45) crushed Hartford, 10-3.  

Lakewood (48-31) beat Delmarva, 5-3.

Williamsport (7-7) lost to Auburn, 4-1.

Here’s the affiliate scoreboard from MiLB.

The rosters and lists are up to date as of 6/29. (I’ve got 351 players in the organization.)

44 thoughts on “Clearwater Threshers Recap – 7/1/2018”

  1. Rosso sound like he rolls into games with a plan . Spinning a baseball is a talent Jojo almost ready for AAA at 21 .

    1. I’m actually ok if romero spends the year at AA and starts next year at AAA at age 22
      no need to rush
      a lot of guys at AAA waiting for a shot in philly
      santos, Irvin, anderson

      1. Look at his last 5 starts giving up a or less . Jojo starting to dominate Reading.

  2. To help Jim let me just say that at Reading, Jo Jo had six innings, 4 hits and a run in a terrific outing. Plus Listi was 2/5 with 2 homers and 4 rbis while playing RF (anyone able to report on his OF play?), Hall homered also plus C had 2 hits.
    Lakewood won behind Andrew Brown’s pitching and 2 RBIs from Ortiz and Wsport lost as Silva gave up 3 runs in the 5th inning after 4 zeroes.

    1. And the system’s new #1 prospect, Rodolfo Duran (i’m joking, mostly), had the day off.

  4. Sorry you weren’t feeling well – I hope you feel better soon.

    On the prospects, as I said at the end of his tour in Clearwater, we need to start taking Austin Listi seriously. I want to see how his next 100 ABs go, but he could get promoted once again to AAA where he would be perfectly age appropriate. If he ends up there, he will have climbed from rookie ball to AAA in a year which is impressive no matter how old you are. I think this dude can play.

    1. If you haven’t seen Listi in person or on TV, let me tell you, he’s one strong, fit individual. I saw both of his home run at bats yesterday on MilbTV and his bat appears to be quick too. He’s built like a cross between Dan Uggla and Jeff Bagwell. Physically, he’s very, very impressive (or as Gabe would say “he presents beautifully” – damn it’s hard to type that even as a joke).

      1. And, after a rough start, JoJo has been very good. His WHIP has gone down and his performance has improved every month. AA/Eastern League is hard, so if he can end the year with his ERA in the mid-3s that would be a fine accomplishment.

  5. Agree on JImP on Rosso’s Taveras comparison. I mentioned this before as well, although Taveras has plus pitch in CU (probably the best CU in the farm) which he’s confident to throw to get an out. I thought Rosso’s best pitch is a Cutter, but I might be wrong.

    The promotion of Hall and Listi not only helped REA offense but it looks it helps JoJo’s confidence too. With the Hall and Listi anchoring the offense, JoJo feels more easy as he doesn’t need to carry the team anymore so he doesn’t try to overthink. A friend of mine who’s frequent in REA told me that JoJo is giving up too many BBs. He’s not sure if JoJo is trying to do something with his pitches, but JoJo’s delivery is slightly differently when we watched him in LWD.

    Silva doesn’t have a good feel of his control last night and 1 bad pitch burned him. I’m following Mitch Rupert’s tweets and it looks like it is still a good game for Silva. IMO, Silva is the best LH prospect below AA.

    1. For his age and where he is, Silva is a fine prospect- but he looks to me to be quite a bit like Ranger Suarez at the same level. Which is to say his stuff needs to take another step forward to really vault into prospect-hood. Damon Jones and Dave Parkinson at Lakewood both have much better stuff, and Kyle Young has that 7 ft thing going for him.

      1. @Bobby – Ranger knows to throw strikes at an early age but it took him >200IP and reach the age of 21 to really show good stuff.

        Manuel Silva at 19 yo is already showing FB better than Ranger (it tops 96 yesterday) and 2 good looking breaking balls. Ranger has the better command and an awesome CU at the same age, but projection wise, Manuel Silva will pass any LH in the farm. Silva’s FB-CB-SL can be plus.

      2. @Bobby – I don’t know if you really follow Damon Jones (23) and David Parkinson (23) but their stuff are average and age appropriate. Parkinson is the better prospect than Jones and Parkinson’s stuff is average across the board.

        Parkinson is the LH version of Ben Lively, although I think Parkinson will be better than Lively because his FB has movement and his SL can be plus.

        Mezquita made it to MLB Top 30 and Manuel Silva projects to be a better prospect than Mezquita.

          1. Silva is still listed at 145 but more muscular than his built. So what?

            BA reported that Damon Jones major issue is command. He can dial up his FB but mostly in relief (reportedly go as high as 97) and secondary are average. Damon Jones is a prototypical bullpen guy.

            I don’t think we can agree in evaluating prospects. I look at physical projections, watch the players and follow scouting reports reported by people who watch the prospects in the field. You rely mostly on milb,com and baseballreference.com.

            1. That’s a bunch of BS right there . I know a scout and get reports from him. I follow the same people you follow . Damon Jones this yr in an interview said he sits between 90 to 95 hit 96 once. He came out of the bullpen 4 times in college.

              I was taught to look at how far SP goes into his starts . If cant go beyond & ings he getting hit the second time around the hitters are figuring out.
              1. On Howard he can’t go more then 5 ings . I was taught that if happens he can’t though the line up twice. Which was very true Howard was pounded the 2nd time around on most of his starts.
              2. Damon Jones is a big man who could easily in time be a 3 of 4 .

            2. @tim – then I like to hear what your friend scout is sharing with you. i like information that milb.com and baseballreference don’t provide like velocity, quality of pitches, physical abilities, opinions about the prospect potential, etc.

              Everybody here can type and go to milb.com to see how a prospect did the last then games.

          2. @tim – i checked your favorite Mr. Milb.com and Baseballreference.com to see how Damon Jones is doing. His BB/9 is 6.9 in 2017, 4.5 in 2018 and 5.2 to date. That’s a lot of free passes, which is consistent to what BA initially reported pre-draft. Without a decent 2nd and 3rd pitch – Damon Jones is a good PROJECT not a good PROSPECT.

            1. I never said he was but being LhP with a fb and working on his off speed stuff. His bb rate is coming down almost a 1.7 bb per 9. Parkinson the better prospect he has 4 pitches down his CB is much improved . Parkinson pitchability is also very advanced .
              Stewart ground ball % is very good so is his control . He was also a bonus baby 100,000.

          3. The inning thing might be an issue if they are keeping an innings limit. Not sure you can really use that in the lower minors Hi A and below.

        1. Will Stewart is a good prospect because of his improved stuff not because he’s dominating Low A. There are a lot garbage players who dominate low minors. AA is the ultimate test for most prospects since AA is where legit prospects play.

          The good thing about Stewart is that his current development increased his physical projection. FB ranging up to 93, tight CB and a good CU with the biggest of them all is the much improved BB rate. If Stewart can continue to improve in this projections, the Phillies will not care what his minor leagues stat will say.

          1. So true Steward also has 9 bb this yr . He’s also 20 so he’s young .

          2. Alot of people here on this blog would disagree with that . Many compare minor stats like a high walk rate and k % to hitters. Wether or not a pitcher will have swing and miss stuff .

            1. @tim – scouts and player development coaches will tell you that they are always playing the long ball. Stats below AA are literally useless as this stats are not reflective of the prospects abilities and the experience in the low minors are mainly for developmental purposes so some of the numbers will be skewed.

              for example, if a coach wants a pitcher to develop or tweak a pitch, they might the prospect to focus on that pitch alone – this might result to high BB% and lower K% especially if the coaches asked them to lay off their best pitch.

              minor league stats only becomes relevant when the eye test matched the progression. there’s a reason why scouts and player development goes to see the prospects play in the field and not just pull out their laptop and look their stats.

            2. The new pitch or 3 Rd pitch I usually guess At that first . I know Medina went though that last yr . However I’ve were a high k% for a hitter in the minors holds true in the Majors. Not all the time but must of the time. I do think you can learn how to walk more.

          3. That’s a 2 trick pony. Stewart domaining low a because of his improved stuff.

  6. With VV on the DL is it finally time to give Irvin, Anderson or De Los Santos a chance? Or will they just have leiter or Jake Thompson do a couple spot starts.

    1. With off days today and Thursday, they may hold off until they see how VV feels in 10 days and go with four SPs, maybe a bullpen game mixed in. The 40man roster is probably the biggest factor in that decision, ultimately. But a lot of movement should be expected over the next month.

  7. Is McKenzie Mills back to the rotation or is someone injured? What’s the report on him and does he have any chance of being a starter in the mlb

    1. Romus,

      Thanks. Interesting that Listi was an all-conference outfielder, so he’s done more than a few games there this season.

    1. I know I looked at that days ago . So the Phillies still have 1.8 Mil left. 2 more prospect Nava the Catcher the SS .

  11. “C” had a really nice game in Reading yesterday, getting out in front of the ball a couple times, and working a walk when there was nothing to hit. He’s still young and I’m still hoping. Hitting behind the gauntlet of Listi, Hall and Green might help him, too, get some better pitches to hit.

    That was my first look at Listi yesterday. So far I’m liking the show. Both those guys (with Hall) are going to have some fun in Reading.

    1. I hope they keep playing Listi in RF. It would be encouraging, if he moved up to AAA and continued hitting. Altherr and Williams are big disappointments, A power bat in RF would be essential in eventually competing for the big prize.

      1. Seemed like he let a few drop in front of him out there. Will need to see more—and from a better angle—to have a strong opinion.

        1. One key component on almost all MLB RFers is….the arm
          If he has a strong one…then he at least fills that square.

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