Affiliate Playoffs

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The affiliates are approaching the end of their seasons.  The Rookie Leagues have already ended.  What’s upcoming?

The regular season for both Class-A teams has ended.  Both Jersey Shore and Clearwater have qualified for the playoffs.

Clearwater won the Florida State League West Division first half.  Most of the guys who won that playoff berth were promoted to Jersey Shore and won the second-half title for them.  The Threshers were a little less powerful in the second half but still posted a winning record at 35-29.  As first-half winners, they chose to start the three-game playoff on the road against the second-half winner, Lakeland.

Jean Cabrera gets the nod in game one on Tuesday with Hans Crouse and Eric Uelmen making their final rehab appearances during the game.  Estibenzon Jimenez gets the home start on Thursday.  Friday, if necessary, is TBD.  The finals are scheduled to start on Sunday.

Jersey Shore put up a 35-30 first half and finished in third place.  They and their new arrivals pushed “Threshers North” to the South Atlantic North Division second-half championship.  They clinched the playoff berth with an extra-inning win over first-half winner Hudson Valley on the road.  HV chose to start the playoff on the road.

Christian McGowan gets the series opener at home on Tuesday.  Mitch Neunborn gets the nod back at HV on Thursday.  Friday, if necessary, is TBD.  The finals are scheduled to start on Sunday.

Reading was eliminated from playoff contention.  They will play out the string these final two weeks.  Mick Abel pitches Wednesday at Binghamton.

Lehigh Valley is 13 games over .500 and in second place in the International League East division.  They are two games in back of first place Durham (TB).  The Triple-A playoff format is confusing.

The season ends on September 24th with the best of three LCS starting on the 26th.  The two LCS winners (International and Pacific Leagues) advance to Las Vegas for a one-game playoff.

It looks like the LCS participants are decided by the best record between the two divisions each half.  Norfolk is the International League’s first-half winner.  They had a better record than the West Division winner (Iowa).  So, it looks like the IronPigs need to win their division and finish with a better record than the West Division winner.

The FCL Phillies finished 30-25 in second place in the FCL North Division.

The Dominican Summer League Phillies Red finished with a 27-26 record, tied for fifth in the DSL South Division.  White finished first in the same division with a 42-13 record.  White beat the DSL Angels two games to one in the quarterfinals.  They lost in the semis to the DSL Pirates Gold, two games to one.  The clincher was an exciting 10-9 game they dropped in ten innings.

Reminder:

Instructs are underway at the Dominican Academy.  They will run through September 23rd.  Most of the participants will be from the two DSL teams.

The Phillies will hold a high-performance camp at the Complex.  It will focus on strength, conditioning, speed, and agility.  Camp will run from October through mid-November.  There will be very little baseball activity during the camp.

After Instructs at the Academy, there will be a high-performance camp at the Academy at the same time as the HPC at the Complex, run along the same guidelines.

A second high-performance camp will be held in January and February along the same guidelines as the other HPCs.  Phantasy Camp will interfere with this timeline.  The camp ends about a week before spring training report dates.

Note that teams cannot hold any kind of camp camps from the Saturday before Thanksgiving thru January 1st.

54 thoughts on “Affiliate Playoffs”

  1. The playoffs are so confusing because most of the year the players that got you the excellent record are gone and now you are going into battle with different and maybe lesser warriors. Also rehab players are allowed to play in the playoffs, not really fair.

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  2. Sorry to see FILs –stateside are cancelled and replaced with the HPCs.
    I do not get it …kids need to continue to develop their baseball skills to meet MLB standards……and they can still work on their conditioning, most do that anyways on their own. They all know the drills. Aidan Miller’s father has his own performance center in nearby Clearwater and MLB players go there in the off-season.
    Wish MLB would give the reason for cancelling the FILs for the North America kids.

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    1. I don’t think MLB cancelled Instructs. Organizations have been phasing out their participation in Instructs over the past half-dozen years in favor of these high performance camps. The Phillies, as usual, were just slow in making the transition. However, I would love to see Instructs in the old way. I have nothing to do during the fall without them.

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      1. Ok……so it is the organizations phasing them out.
        I have to assume they still have the players, when indoors, working in the batting cages when they get the chance or pitching or throwing bullpens off indoor mounds.

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  3. Jim ….have teams (Phillies) released their AFL participants for the 2023 season?
    ….players are suppose to report on Sept. 26, with opening day slated for Oct. 2.

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    1. The Phillies won’t release their list until they have contacted all their intended participants. I believe they have to replace a fellow whom they didn’t realize was getting married. I do know that they may be sending more than the allotted number of players, they will send 2 SP instead of the required one, and there will be a couple of surprises.

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        1. I can’t believe that Hans Crouse is still only 24 (turning 25 on the 15th). But his injuries is limiting his innings (only 33 innings the last 2 seasons combined). And his walk rate has skyrocketed.

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          1. Just as the Phillies brass realized Spencer Howard may not be able to sustain success at the MLB level, the Rangers’ probably assessed Crouse in the same fashion.
            A wash of a trade.

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  5. Anyone know anything on Tristan Garrett, i was looking at his numbers looks pretty good, but i dont remember anyone talking about him

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  6. I’m wondering if the Phillies might consider starting Christian McGowan at Reading next season. He’s already 23 (drafted in 2021) and his minor league career consists of only 35 innings. His numbers are decent and the Phillies need all the pitching help they can get.

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  7. Clearwater won their division series 2 games to one. Top draft pick Aidan Miller drove in the Threshers only two runs in the deciding game with a 2-run HR. He saved the game and preserved their 2-1 lead in the ninth inning when he started a game-ending double play with the bases loaded.

    Jersey Shore lost their division series 2 games to one. They dropped the third game by a score of 3-2. Their last gasp came in the eighth inning when with one out and runners on second and third, Felix Reyes who was 3 for 3 with a double, run scored, and RBI was intentionally walked. The Renegades reliever retired the next 5 batters.

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  10. Getting tired of not being able to post off of either iPad, but the cell still works.

    So, with the exception of DLC @ Reading it appears there are few position players ready to move up. There are some really anemic batting averages being displayed there. Are we going to see a number of releases to make room for some of the A ball performers? Who gets the promotions?

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    1. Lot of guys were promoted late in the season so I don’t think we’ll see a lot of big names at new levels to start off next year. Crawford, Rincon, Miller and Heredia are probably going to start where they finished this time.

      DLC has had an okay year at Reading but probably moves up. Rincones may start in AA but it wouldn’t be surprising if he doesn’t. So I think it’ll be the lower tier guys that will move: Boyd, Viars, Pineda, Simmons, etc. I’m guessing that Caba comes stateside and Bergolla stays in Clearwater.

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  11. The Phillies have promoted Abel, Kerkering, Parkinson, Moore to Lehigh at the conclusion of Reading’s season.

    It seems a foregone conclusion that Kerkering is going to dazzle at ST and make the opening day roster for 2024.

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  12. The Mariners have Gilbert (age 26) and Kirby (25). Would be nice if Painter and Abel could be like them over the next five years.

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  13. One older prospect who’s getting the job done is Matt Osterberg. He’ll be 25 in April and he should be at Lehigh soon enough in 2024. He and Abel should be the primary pitching depth.

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    1. Digging into Kroon it appears most of his games at Reading were at 3B and it wasn’t all that pretty for him. He has logged some innings in the OF. Some in CF and some in the corners.

      At 26 I would think he’s going to have a tough time carving out an MLB career without some MIF positional flexibility. (I disagree a little MLL). I see virtually no MIF in his BR page.

      I hope he does get a chance somewhere.

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  16. The Phillies will have some interesting 40 man decisions to make, depending upon whom DD moves in trades or releases. Kroon has great positional flexibility, has all of his options intact and, I believe, can be a minor league 6 year free agent this year if not added to the 40-man. They will also need to decide what they will do with Weston Wilson’s 40-man slot. I could see this being the first year in a while that the Phils actually lose a player or two in MLB portion of the Rule 5 draft.

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    1. We always have this conversation every year about older players getting a chance. The fact is, every team has players like this. And if the Phillies lose 1 or even 2, it won’t matter because the Phillies already have Marsh, Rojas, Pache. And that’s not including Crawford in the minors.

      Remember Luke Williams? He’s now on his 5th team. Dalton Guthrie? He got DFAd 3 times this year.

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      1. You are right we do, I think prompted by the fear that we might lose a “pearl” to some other organization and not get any compensation out of it. But, that’s the minor leagues.

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  17. Looks like Christian McGowan is getting promoted to Lehigh to make a spot start. He’s 23, but has battled a lot of injuries since getting drafted 2 years ago. It should be a good test, Worcester is a decent team.

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  18. MLB.com writers Jim Callis, Jon Mayo amd Sam Dykstra picked one prospect from each ball club that they want to see selected to play in the AFL this year.
    The Phillies player they most want to see…..

    Phillies: Justin Crawford, OF (No. 3/MLB No. 77)
    “We knew the Philles’ first-rounder from 2022 had speed that would show up on both sides of the ball during his full-season debut and Crawford stole 47 bases while playing an outstanding defensive center field. Yes, he still needs to grow into a little more impact, but he’s already ahead of the curve, earning a promotion to High-A as a teenager and slashing a combined .331/.390/.465. He’s excelled against older competition, so the AFL won’t faze him one bit.”

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    1. By this time next season….both Miller and Crawford could be at Reading….I expect Crawford to be there by mid season, and Miller towards the end….that is, if both continue on the current progressions.
      I do not think that is rushing them or force feeding them if they can handle and do well at the the levels they are at.

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      1. Miller will be 20 next June so you’d expect him to progress faster than a typical HS pick.

        Witt Jr as an example was drafted at age 19 in 2019. He barely played that season just 37 games in the Fall League. Missed all of 20.

        in 2021 they started him at AA then moved him to AAA (Age 21) by 2022 he was in the MLB.

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        1. DMAR….why not!
          Physically he is already a man-child, and works out like a gym-rat at his Dad’s place with other big leaguers. I am sure he also does a lot of cage work to go along with the weight training.
          So he will be at Jersey Shore next season, maybe a brief start at CLW for a month or so, and if he does well at JS, why not a promo to Reading in late August or early Sept to get a few bats in against AA pitchers.
          His ETA for the majors……dunno that, but 2026 sounds about right…he will be 22-years old then.

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      2. Miller getting to AA in his first pro season out of HS would be amazing but seems unrealistic to me. A dominating year split between Clearwater and JS would be awesome.

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  21. Congratulations to Weston Wilson becoming Ironpigs first 30-30 guy. Weston is definitely one of my favorite stories this season. I hope Darick Hall gets a shot with some team next season.

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    1. Yes big shout out to him. I was very impressed by Weston’s season even his brief call up he showed a great approach 6 BBs in 12 PAs.

      By comparison Sosa has 8 BBs in 275 PAs. And I’m not trying to pick on Sosa. Ask me who I’d rather have in that role though and it would be WW

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    1. Yeah. There’s no way Castro will be on postseason roster. Would think he’ll be replaced with Wilson, Clemens, or maybe Hall.

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  23. I’m still scratching my head over that Castro trade. Starting pitching is so much more valuable than utility infielders. Even though Bailey Falter was no Steve Carlton, I think he’s so much more than Castro… especially when we already have Kingery in AAA.

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  24. Curious… It seems to me we will be losing Darrick Hall and Simon Muzziotti via free agency this winter. Is there a site where I can look to confirm this? As well as other guys we might lose? Also, where can I look to find out who will be eligible for the major league Rule 5 draft? Curious as to who the Phillies will have to (possibly) protect.
    Thanks guys,

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    1. Looking at their Pipeline top 30, it’s really only Carlos De La Cruz. The other players haven’t accrued enough time in the minors to be added to the 40.

      And if the Phillies are promoting prospects faster than ever before, the Phillies will not get to the point where they have to protect a lot of prospects on the 40. They’ll know soon enough whether the prospect is part of the future plans and will act accordingly i.e. yes to Mick Abel, no to Casey Martin.

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  26. Arizona Fall League rosters announced.

    Phillies send Threshers manager Marty Malloy to manage the Scottsdale Scorpions which will include prospects from the Angels, Cardinals, Giants, Phillies, and Nationals. Strength and Conditioning Coach Joseph Miranda.

    Players include – C Caleb Ricketts, LHP Jordi Martinez, RHP Christian McGowan, RHP Andrew Baker, RHP Mitch Neunborn, RHP Dominic Pipkin, INF Oliver Dunn, INF/OF Matt Kroon, and OF Gabriel Rincones.

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  27. In other news, Orion Kerkering was called up to the big club.

    Mick Abel makes his AAA debut tonight.

    Christian McGowan made his AAA debut on (/20 with 2.2 innings, 51 pitches, 2 hits, 0 runs, 3 walks, and 3 Ks.

    Kerkering was voted the Phillies 2023 Minor League Player of the year by Baseball America.

    Justin Crawford was selected as the Top MLB Prospect in the Florida State League as well as the FSL MVP.

    Crawford and Pan Wen-Hui were selected for the FSL All-Star team.

    Kerkering and Johan Rojas were Paul Owens award winners.

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