Lehigh Valley and Reading were rained out last night. Jersey Shore had their winning streak snapped at four while Clearwater stretched their winning streak to seven.
You probably noticed that I missed three Recaps last week. I apologize for that. I tweaked my back and sitting at the keyboard was too painful. The meds I took put me to sleep before the games were finished. Sometimes in my chair before I made it to bed. I’m not looking for sympathy. I just felt you ought to know why.
Now, onto “Painter Mania”. I feel strongly that fans should rein in their expectations. Expecting a promotion as early as May 1st is just plain silly. Let me provide some facts.
- 2018 – HS frosh, 23.0 IP; plus USA Baseball 15U National Team that summer
- 2019 – HS soph, 53.2 IP; plus Under Armour All-America Game at Wrigley Field
- 2020 – HS Jr., 15.0 IP; COVID pandemic
- 2021 – HS Sr., 47.0 IP (plus any traveling teams or showcases each year)
- 2021 – Rookie Level, 6.0 IP (all in September)
- 2022 – Class A, 12.0 IP
- Painter turned 19-years-old on April 10th
- SAL League-Average – Batters, 22.6; Pitchers 23.2
- FSL League-Average – Batters, 21.2; Pitchers 22.1
- Cole Hamels was drafted in 2002 but didn’t pitch professionally until 2003
- Hamels’ first season, his age-19 season began in Class A, 13 games, 74.2 IP
- Hamels was promoted to A+ and pitched 5 games, 26.1 IP
I can’t imagine Painter will come close to Hamels’ 90+ innings in his first full season with the way pitches and innings are tracked nowadays. I don’t see a need to rush Painter up just because some are enamored with his early-season numbers. Time to cool your jets and wait for the inevitable setback from which he will rebound. That’s when he’ll be ready to advance. (This actually used to be a required part of development in the org. I don’t know if that is still the case.)
Clearwater (8-8) reached .500 and extended their winning streak to seven games with a 7-3 victory over the division-leading Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. The Threshers are now tied for second place, 2.0 games behind the Mussels. link
Oswald Medina pitched four innings. He gave up 2 runs (one earned) on 5 hits and a walk. Victor Lopez pitched two innings and gave up one run on one hit and a walk. Alex Garbrick pitched two shutout innings allowing a walk and a hit. Rodolfo Sanchez struck out two in a clean inning.
The Threshers scored 3 runs in the first inning before an out was recorded on Lee Hao Yu’s 2-run double and a throwing error on Yu’s steal of third. After the Mussels closed to within one run, the Threshers scored 3 more runs in the fifth on RBI singles by Yhoswar Garcia and Freylin Minyety and a throwing error. They tacked on a final run in the seventh on Lee Hao Yu’s solo HR.
Yhoswar Garcia went 4-5 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. Lee Hao Yu went 3-5 with 3 runs scored, a double, HR, and 3 RBI. Freylin Minyety went 2-4 with an RBI.
There was a lot of action on the base paths, mostly by the Threshers. Yhoswar Garcia stole 4 bases (10), Lee Hao Yu stole one base (5), and Alexeis Azuaje stole one base (6). Arturo De Freitas, Garcia, and Jadiel Sanchez were each caught once. Marcus Lee Sang was picked off first base. The Mussels lone attempt was gunned down by De Freitas.
The Threshers recent hot streak has lifted their pitching staff to tops in the Florida State League. Their offense has risen to fourth in the league for AVG and OBP and fifth in SLG and OPS. They have a league-leading 35 stolen bases but were also caught a league-leading 11 times. The team with the second most is the Mussels with 27 successful steals.
Lehigh Valley (9-9) at Scranton/WB postponed, makeup on April 29th.
Reading (4-11) at New Hampshire postponed, makeup on April 27th.
Jersey Shore (6-10) lost to the Aberdeen IronBirds, 10-2. link
Griff McGarry pitched 2.1 innings and gave up 3 runs on 3 hits (2 HR) and a walk. He struck out four. Ethan Lindow gave up a run in 2.2 innings on 3 hits and 2 walks. He struck out four. Carlo Reyes pitched one inning and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk. Jonathan Hughes pitched one inning allowing one hit and striking out two. Andrew Baker gave up the final 3 runs in one inning on 3 hits and a walk.
The BlueClaws scored twice in the fourth inning to get back into the game for a couple innings. Johan Rojas (13) stole home on a double steal with Casey Martin (3). Tatum McCarthy drove in Martin with a double.
Rosters and Stuff
Not up to date, yet.
Transactions
4/26/2022 – Phillies optioned LHP Bailey Falter to Lehigh Valley
4/26/2022 – Phillies recalled LHP Damon Jones from Lehigh Valley
4/26/2026 – Lehigh Valley released SS Ronald Torreyes
4/26/2022 – Reading activated 1B Aldrem Corredor
4/26/2022 – Reading placed CF Simon Muzziotti on the 7-day IL retroactive to 4/24
4/26/2022 – Clearwater activated LHP Jordi Martinez from the 7-day IL
4/25/2022 – Clearwater placed LHP Corey Phelan on the 60-day IL
4/25/2022 – Phillies transferred LHP Ryan Sherriff from the 10- to the 60-day IL, shoulder
4/25/2022 – Phillies optioned SS Bryson Stott to Lehigh Valley
4/25/2022 – Phillies selected the contract of CF Roman Quinn from Lehigh Valley
4/25/2022 – Clearwater placed C Rickardo Perez on the 60-day IL
4/24/2022 – 1B Rixon Wingrove assigned to FCL Phillies from Clearwater
4/20/2022 – LHP Corey Phelan assigned to Clearwater from FCL Phillies
4/8/2022 – Clearwater placed LHP Jordi Martinez on the 7-day IL
Phuture Phillies 
Jim concerning last week’s missing affiliates update; no explanation needed. Hope your back is better. As for Painter I also remember the development arc of a minor league player included the inevitable setback and figuring it out. I’m sure the Threshers love having him as long as they can for the attendance bump.
Point taken on Painter but if he somehow has 2 or 3 more dominant starts where he’s just outclassing this level, I think things could change.
Exciting to see what CWater is doing after their very slow start. They’re pitching great, not just Painter, and they’re starting to hit too. They’ve been running all year. Garcia and Lee both have big upside.
In Rojas, Y.Garcia, E.Wilson and Casey Martin…Phillies have some real speed merchants.
The org seems to be concentrating on this specific players’ strength and leaning on more aggressiveness on the base paths.
Speed definitely plays when it gets on base
I can remember the days back in the 60s thru the 90s when base stealing was an integral part of an offense….Dodger’s Maury Wills/Willie Davis days thru Vince Coleman to Ricky Henderson..and they all were plus defensive players.
It was exciting to see that part of the offense.
Willie Davis, remember listen to my Transistor radio in the back room, it was a game from California, Ninth inning, Phillies bring in relief pitcher whos name is forgot. He winds up Davis steals home game over,The dodgers used to come to town and pack the old Connie Mack stadium. I was young kid One time dodgers in town, rally in 8 th inning, take lead Dodger fans going nuts, I look down find a twenty dollar bill, a lot of money back then,
rocco…yeah I remember that game, late at night from LA.
Loads of Dodger fans in those days in Philly…..why…
…. Roy Campanella from he 40s and 50s and Tommy Lasorda from 60s and 70s.
And only sport of major consequence in those days, up to the 60s was baseball.
It’s very interesting to read Mattingly say that they won’t to build Painter up to 90-100 pitches per start. That’s great news to me be star that’s a big change from the previous regime. Mattingly also said if Psi yet continues to be this dominant that they may be hit Ed to move him up. Like I said above, if he somehow repeats his performance for 2-3 more starts, they’ll have to move him up. However, I doubt that he can keep this up. His next start will be Saturday.
Murray … I just read the same thing. Here’s Jim Salisbury’s story for those interested.
here is a link to see Painter’s 14K outing
Andrew Painter, at age 19, has a 22.5 SO rate at Clearwater in 12 innings. It’s absurd. If he continued on this path, he would be the best pitcher of all time. He’s not. So he needs to get his innings and develop.
As noted above, Hamels got 74.2 innings at low A. And Hamels was dominant with 0.763 WHIP, 0.84 ERA. Another comparison, Clayton Kershaw. At age 19, he had 97.1 innings.
There is no rush for Andrew Painter.
Agreed there’s no rush, but when a player consistently dominates at a level, it’s time to move that player up. Painter isn’t there quite yet – it hasn’t been long enough. But if he makes batters look foolish in his next 3 starts, it may be time to either promote him or force him to work on other pitches that he’s not throwing very much right now. I almost always caution patience on the promotion of prospects, but Andrew Painter is not looking like a typical prospect.
The fact that we have a prospect like this that this is even a real conversation gets me excited.
Murray et al, Saturday’s start will be an interesting test. Painter faces the Mussels for a second time. His first start was against this team. He will be facing a lineup he faced for three innings and allowed an unearned run. He gave up three hits, two doubles. He walked one and struck out NINE. He faced 13 batters. This will be kind of like facing the top of the order for a third time thru a lineup, a second time for the bottom. The Mussels are a first-place team from a decent organization (Twins). It will be interesting to see any adjustments the batters make and how Painter responds.
Still early in their young careers, but one of Yhoswar or Rojas could be a key piece in the right trade. Both possess similar tool sets and ceiling projections. Good problem to have, and again, it would have to be the RIGHT deal!
So Griff McGarry faced a legitimate stacked Orioles A+ team that had Rutschman(2), Cowser(65), Mayo. In parentheses is their top 100 ranking. McGarry needed 50 pitches to get 7 outs. I can see him staying at JS for most of the year even though he’s 22/23.
It doesn’t matter if he stays there so long as he develops control and generally as a pitcher. The stuff is the real deal – it’s everything else.
If you read my bullet points on Painter you’ll see that the average for pitchers in the SAL where Jersey Shore plays is age-appropriate for McGarry.
It was the Yhoiswar Garcia show for the Clearwater Latinos last night: four for five and four stolen bases.
His first at bat he lined the first pitch for a hit and stole second. Second at bat, bunted for a base hit on first pitch and stole second. Twice he went from second to third on fly balls to center field. Third time at bat a single through the middle. Did I mention he stole second?
Thrown out once, but everybody in the park knew he would try to steal third base, including the catcher and third baseman. Still made it very close.
Garcia is thin and does’n’t have an especially big frame, but you can envision him filling out over time and gaining some power.
In short, you can see why the Phillies paid him a lot of money.
One non Latino, short stop Yu Lee, also had a good night: three hits including a well-struck home run to center field. A couple of quick-release, hard and accurate throws to first base.
Right fielder Jadiel Sanchez made an outstanding throw to the infield and made an impressive run and catch of a foul ball near the stands.
Pitcher Oswald Medina a soft tosser, Mostly sat 89. Ditto reliever Victor Lopez though his pitches had some bite. Reliever Alex Garbrick sat 94, but he’s also the most physically developed at nearly 24 years old.