Lehigh Valley was postponed and will be played as part of a double header today. Reading let Hartford walk off. Jersey Shore lacked offense after the first inning. Clearwater fell short with a late rally and lost for the second time in two games of an important series against second-place Lakeland. Their lead is down to one game. They are in danger of losing the head-to-head tiebreaker. The FCL Phillies didn’t play.
FCL Phillies (9-9) no game on Wednesdays.
- #5 Starlyn Caba (.309/.920):
- #9 Eduardo Tait (.214/.581):
- #25 Alexis De La Cruz (1-1, 19.64):
- Other players of interest
- Aroon Escobar (.304/.904):
- Guillermo Rosario (.328/1.017):
- Leonardo Rondon (.308/.982):
- Rickardo Perez (.333/.945):
- Pitchers of interest
- Adilson Peralta (1-0, 0.87):
- Danyony Pulido (4.08):
- Juan Amarante (1-0, 1.59):
- Luis Avila (4.91):
Lehigh Valley (20-30) postponed, rain. Makeup on Thursday.
- #2 Mick Abel (1-4, 6.21): DNP
- #11 Griff McGarry (1-1. 3.24): 7-day IL
- #19 Simon Muzziotti (.234/.650): DNP
Reading (20-27) lost to Hartford, 5-4. Reading took a 4-2 lead into the ninth and lost in a walk off. Konnor Ash started and pitched three innings. He allowed a run on 3 hits and 2 walks. Carlos Francisco gave up a solo HR in two innings and struck out three. Cristian Hernandez faced the minimum in two innings and struck out three. Tristan Garnett pitched 1.1 innings and gave up 3 runs on 3 hits. He took the loss. Tyler McKay faced one batter, gave up a hit, allowed 2 inherited runners to score, and blew the save.
Reading took the lead in the second inning on a solo HR (2) by William Simoneit. They scored 2 runs in the third on an RBI single by Carson Taylor and a sac fly by Trevor Schweke. They added a run in the fifth on a solo HR (2) by Schweke. They maintained a 2-run lead until the ninth.
- #1 Andrew Painter: rehabbing from TJ surgery on 60-day injury list
- #10 Gabriel Rincones: 7-day IL
- #13 Carlos De La Cruz (.208/.617): went 1-3 with a 2B and BB
- #21 Caleb Ricketts (.299/.817): DNP
- #26 Robert Moore (.225/.615): went 0-5
- #28 Jose Rodriguez (.269/.771): went 1-4 with a R, SB
Jersey Shore (26-21) lost to Brooklyn, 5-2. Samuel Aldegheri pitched five innings and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits and a walk. He struck out ten. Andrew Baker pitched 0.2 innings and walked four. Only a pickoff at second by catcher Jordan Dissin helped prevent a run. Mason Ronan stranded 3 inherited base runners retiring the only batter he faced. Rehabbing Jordi Martinez allowed one hit in one scoreless inning. Jack Dallas allowed 2 hits in a scoreless inning. Daniel Harper gave up a run in the ninth on 2 hits.
The BlueClaws started well after a leadoff HR by the Cyclones in the first. The top of the order went single by Justin Crawford, RBI double by Otto Kemp, and RBI single by Leandro Pineda. However, that was it for their offense as they accumulated just 2 singles, a walk, and a hit batter the rest of the way.
- #4 Justin Crawford (.276/.698): went 1-4 with a R
- #8 Bryan Rincon (.204/.659): 7-day IL
- #12 William Bergolla (.236/.596): went 0-4
- #14 Pan Wen-hui: on 60-day injury list
- #17 Emaarion Boyd (.211/.559): DNP
- #23 Hendry Mendez (.298/.795): went 2-4
- #24 Samuel Aldegheri (3-3, 2.51): 5.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, BB, 10 K
Clearwater (32-15) lost to Lakeland, 9-8. Micah Ottenbreit pitched four innings and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. He struck out seven. Jonathan Petit pitched one inning plus. He didn’t get an out in the sixth giving up 5 runs on 4 hits, 2 hit batters, and a wild pitch. Ethan Chenault pitched two innings allowing 2 inherited runners to score and another run on one hit, 4 walks, and a wild pitch. He struck out six, though. Rehabbing Josh Bortka walked one in two scoreless innings striking out three.
The Threshers took a short-lived lead by scoring 2 runs in the first inning on a sac flies by Devin Saltiban and Dakota Kotowski. The game didn’t remain close as Lakeland continued to tack on until their 5-run sixth provided a 9-2 lead. The Threshers’ bats remained silent until they rallied but fell short with 6 runs in the ninth on a bases loaded walk by Bryson Ware, a grand slam HR (5) by Aidan Miler, and an RBI single by Jordan Viars. A wild pitch moved runners to second and third with one out. They went K, BB, K to end the game. The final out came on Raylin Heredia’s fourth strike out of the game, second of the inning.
- #3 Aidan Miller (.319/1.006): went 2-3 with 2 R, 4 RBI, 2B, HR (5), BB
- #7 Devin Saltiban (.213/.693): went 0-3 with a R, RBI
- #15 Alex McFarlane: on the 60-day injury list
- #18 TJayy Walton (.237/.755): 7-day IL
- #20 Raylin Heredia (.258/.720): went 0-5
- #22 Kehden Hettiger (.150/.546): DNP
- #29 George Klassen (2-0, 0.33): DNP
- #30 Nikau Pouaka-Grego (.297/.830): DNP
Other Prospects:
- #6 Orion Kerkering (1-0, 1.47) in 18.1 innings with the Phillies
- #27 Jalvin Arias, Rookie Level, DSL Red
Transactions –
5/29/2024 – Jersey Shore activated C Ryan Leitch from the Development List
5/29/2024 – Jersey Shore transferred RF Felix Reyes to the Development List
Aidan Miller is hitting the ball hard, so exciting.
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https://www.mlb.com/video/aidan-miller-hit-his-first-career-grand-slam
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Miller is legit, he gives us all hope. He’s probably #2 on our list at this point passing Abel and Crawford.
Aldegheri didn’t have the great bounce back game I was hoping for but he got 10 Ks and that requires many good pitches so I’m sure the Phils are happy with it.
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Heck yes – he’s the number 2 prospect right now. Very interested to see how he will do in high A ball – I suspect he’ll be promoted sometime in the next month or so (perhaps even the next few weeks – you like that, Romus?).
Agree on Aldegheri – the 10ks are huge. It was a decent game for a prospect.
Abel is going to be a wait and see thing. I care most about his ability to regain velocity and retain it over several innings.
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I would put Miller as the #1 prospect with Painter #2. The first five are fairly easy (for me). After that it gets hairy.
Miller
Painter
Klassen
Caba
Crawford
Mercado
Abel
Rincones
Pouaka-Grego
Aldgheri
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Actually I can be convinced that Miller moved ahead of Painter given the risk of returning to 100%. If Painter does return to 100%, then a true ace prospect is the most valuable asset in baseball. So rare and hard to acquire.
Your top 10 is intriguing. I love Klassen and Caba but they are both doing it at such low levels that it’s hard to know for sure. That said the tool grades by scouts are awesome for both and I can see them as 3 and 4 by year end.
I agree with Mercado over Abel at this point. And I like your last 3 too. I think by years end we need to find a spot on top 10 for Escobar. He was a big bonus signing so has great tool grades. And as Jim mentioned, his performance is right there with Caba.
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That is the reason I put Painter at #2.
2023-lost season
2024 lost season
2025 will be on a severe innings count
2026 will be the first season he can be a normal pitcher again.
2027 can be a big help to the Phillies. By then he will be 24. Not exactly ancient but no longer the 20 year old phenom.
2026 will be a key year. If he stays healthy and gets enough innings pitched in 2025 he may be able to help the Phillies then.
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Not sure why you don’t think he will be a big help to the Phillies in 2026? I suspect he will get a September cup of coffee with the big club in 2025 and be penciled into the rotation the next year.
Painter was going to open with the team in 2024 before the injury so assuming he returns fully healthy, he’s not going to spend all of 2026 in AAA.
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I hear all of that and respect those thoughts, and the innings limitation for 2025 is an important caveat. But he’s still my #1 by some distance. First, the majority of guys come back from TJ surgery at roughly the same level, so, while it’s a risk, the risk favors Painter and the Phillies. Second, Painter isn’t just another prospect. He’s a potential generational player. Not even Cole Hamels ran through the minor leagues as this guy did in his first full year in minor league ball. It was astonishing. His ceiling is the HOF – not an exaggeration. So I still have him at #1, but obviously, that could change, especially if Miller gets to AA next year and just dominates and Painter looks like a diminished player after surgery.
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I hear all of that and respect those thoughts, and the innings limitation for 2025 is an important caveat. But he’s still my #1 by some distance. First, the majority of guys come back from TJ surgery at roughly the same level, so, while it’s a risk, the risk favors Painter and the Phillies. Second, Painter isn’t just another prospect. He’s a potential generational player. Not even Cole Hamels ran through the minor leagues as this guy did in his first full year in minor league ball. It was astonishing. His ceiling is the HOF – not an exaggeration. So I still have him at #1, but obviously, that could change, especially if Miller gets to AA next year and just dominates and Painter looks like a diminished player after surgery.
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LOL…..yeah like the promos…..will be interesting and new experience for him playing outside the state of Florida and down the road from home, for an extended period of time. Nothing like playing in the Northeast outside the Big Apple.
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Miller is easily our 2nd best prospect. He is a top 30 prospect in all MLB.
I expect Abel to drop out of the top 100 by season’s end. In addition to the velo drop that Catch mentioned, his command has been poor and has gotten worse at every level. At this point he is closer to McGarry than he is to Painter.
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Sometimes these guys will turn it around on a dime. Maybe the Phillies ought to put him on the Development List for awhile and let him reset.
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The signs have all been there that Abel would struggle as he moved up. These walk rates are not good. very concerning really.
Season BB/9 BB%
2021 A: 5.44 / 14.30%
2022 A+: 4.01 / 10.20%
2022 AA: 4.7 / 12.10%
2023 AA: 5.13 / 13.50%
2023 AAA: 5.79 / 12.50%
2024 AAA: 6.21 / 14.90%
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Looks like another big time signee has bitten the dust with the org…..Starlyn Castillo was released almost 6 years from the date July 2018, when the Phillies signed the DR international player for $1.6M. Wish him well.
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Some good details
https://x.com/Mitch_Rupert/status/1795992058865254628
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Am just curious – how many folks who comment here actually have seen players play more than five times ? Also not sure what scouting reports are being referred to ? I know of no scouts who post publicly? Just curious is all.
Steve Potter
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I can speak for myself…I comment here a lot. I almost never see the prospects in person. I try to read a lot. The scouting reports that I refer to are from public scouting services (MLB.com, Fangraphs, KLaw, ESPN, etc). It’s not perfect but I have been pretty consistently right on prospects over the past few decades.
Either way it is fun to comment even if you turn out to be wrong. Who cares if you make a prediction and it turns out to be wrong? This is a fan blog that is community driven. The point here is entertainment.
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thanks for the quick response. Never said ya were wrong – just was curious. One tidbit is that those sites you reference are most often supplied names by the organizations themselves. No worries – carry on 🤓. I often wonder if I’m wasting my time by watching games and practices each day but I love doing it – to each their own eh.
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If you love doing it than you are definitely not wasting your time. The best way to spend time is on an activity that you enjoy. I enjoy the banter on this blog. No one here is an expert. We all have our opinions based on years of enjoying a game that we love. No one should take our comments seriously. As the saying goes…Opinions are like a**holes, everyone’s got one.
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🤓 have a good day sir 👍
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I think when it comes to prospects the vast majority of us will be wrong far more often than we are right. But that’s the fun of it, trying to figure out what matters and what doesn’t. Largely, the minor league process is so long and difficult and there are so many variables involved.
Me personally, I couldn’t care less about being right or wrong. I enjoy the conversation and the process. Anybody remember Calvin Rayburn or Manaure Martinez? Two of my favorite Phillies prospects of all time with absolutley nasty stuff that never got out of A-Ball. Don’t love them any less, it just didn’t work out for them. I hope they’re happy and healthy wherever they are.
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It’s fun to be excited about our prospects, but the reality is, 90% of them fail. I’ve mentioned this in the past, if a GM can select 1 starter level player in a draft, he’s actually doing his job. So while it’s great that Klassen and Miller are getting it done in Clearwater, I’ll need to see them do it at Reading before I get really excited.
Remember Pat Combs and his “uncommon command of 3 pitches”? I bought into the hype and thought he was going to dominate. Instead, his ML career consisted of 305 innings.
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I agree Mitch. 100%. Who cares if we make a wrong prediction. Actually I hope to be wrong because I am usually a negative Nelly on prospects.
I also don’t think seeing them in person matters much. There is so much prospect video now and also public site scouting reports.
Nothing in life is 100% but you can generally be correct.
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on that we disagree – watching in person is a huge advantage – no one can do a true evaluation otherwise – from a fan’s perspective it doesn’t matter but from a professional view it is absolute. That will never change.
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I have never seen proof that seeing a prospect in person has any correlation to being more accurate with scouting reports than watching them on video. If you have actual evidence proving that, I would love to see it and would then admit that I am wrong.
Professional hitting and pitching coaches rely on video over eye test. Teams use high speed video from multiple angles to break down mechanics. No matter how experienced you are, there are things that you miss with the naked eye in real time. Especially sitting in the stands.
I am not saying in person scouting is useless, but if a team had a choice:
I am certain that any team would choose option 1 so long as the video is good quality.
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I will do ya one better – will ask the professionals – gives me a future article to write
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I would love to read that article.
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I actually agree with Steve that I always got better information by being able to watch people in person, but that comes with a caveat or two or three:
Now I don’t think one way is more right than the other. But I always suggest to people that if you have the opportunity to see people play in person, you should absolutely go see them in person. There’s a reason scouts go to games and watch BP. But considering none of us are professional scouts, you can still gather a ton of information from a live stream.
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Follow up reply:
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You are putting words in my question – I never said you can’t formulate an opinion unless you have seen a player five times in person, I simply asked the question how many folks had actually seen the players five times or more. I would even extrapolate that to seeing them five times or more even in video. Of course you can formulate an opinion based on anything and any number of occurrences. As you said everyone has and is entitled to their opinion. To me I just attempt to do more legwork before writing something but hey to each their own.
In regards to writing the article I have doubts you can do so fairly without bias and btw it is not just scouts I have reached out to, it’s front office folks in player development, scouting, baseball operations as well as coaches, managers and skills evaluators from four different franchises. I will not bias the remarks as is not my style so don’t insult me my insinuating that you could already write the article before even hearing the responses. I’m done – what started out on my part as just being a simple inquiry has taken a different path. It’s all good – apologies for interrupting the comments bar on my friend’s page – I will leave it be going forward. Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️ I will let Jim know when the article is done – I’ve gotten about seven responses from the twenty five inquiries I sent out back thus far.
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You’re way over reacting. Relax. I didn’t say you would be biased I said humans are biased by their own historical experience. So of course scouts will say that all of the travel they do is worth it.
I do think you implied by the context of your question that opinions formed without seeing the prospect in person 5 times are less informed.
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Am just curious – how many folks who comment here actually have seen players play more than five times ? Also not sure what scouting reports are being referred to ? I know of no scouts who post publicly? Just curious is all.
Steve Potter
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Generally, I see Phillies prospects several times when they hit AA, usually when they visit the Nationals AA affiliate in Harrisburg.
Been to a handful of games at Reading last couple of years.
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PhilPhan – I have been going to spring training, not as long as you perhaps, but at least for 25 years or more. I frankly find watching the players, not always the same ones, as I move from team to team – but I have tried to see the Phillies primarily for most of that time. I take great enjoyment in seeing the nuances of the player in the context of the game and among his teammates. I have always felt that the eye teaches us much more about a player than an opus of stats and I still believe that the “old time scout” is an invaluable tool. That does not mean I dismiss all the video and stat data that dominates the game today – it is but a valuable adjunct to visually seeing the player, his energy, his stamina, his strengths, and weaknesses. When I first saw Willie Mays – no statistics could describe him, nor could any video do him justice. I felt the same way when I first saw McCutcheon of the Pirates in Bradenton – I didn’t need anything but my eyes to tell me this was going to be a wonderful player for a long time. No video of Utley could describe or pick up the great intelligence of watching that player in the field – or even an at bat. I would lean on the visual side for my assessments – and look to the stats etc. to confirm what I saw.
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Catch – just an fyi – Painter’s numbers have been great so far, no doubt, but Hamels’ numbers were just as good if not better. He moved up quicker than Painter I think. It doesn’t matter, we’re splitting hairs. We all hope Painter returns from the TJ surgery in the next version of himself next season. Fingers crossed because he’s a legit 1 or 2 if he does.
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Painter moved up way quicker.
Hamels had great stuff but he was plagued with injuries in the minors and he broke his hand in a bar fight. Considering how injury prone he was in the minors, it’s almost a miracle that he was very durable in a Phillies uniform.
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The bar fight, he is so awesome, I have his championship cream jersey 🤣
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Hamels’ numbers were fantastic all the way through the minors – and comparable to Painter’s. But people forget that Hamels was injured for most of his second and third years in the minors and was not fully healthy and promoted until his fourth year in the system. But Hamels did not go as far in his first year in the minors as Painter did.
But, overall, yes, both players dominated in the minors and were tremendous talents with almost unlimited upside. I mean, Hamels ended his career with 59 WAR – if he had been healthy for a little longer, he might be HOF worthy – he’s right on the edge (probably the wrong side of that edge, but still . . . ).
If you called Hamels prospect 1A and Painter prospect 1B (or vice versa) you’d have a justification for doing so.
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And one reason he lasted until the 17th pick…he broke a bone in his arm in high school,….and the Phillies gambled and picked him.
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Actually, not that much disimilar to what they did with Aidan Miller , who had the hamate fructure in high school.
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Or the Sixers, with Embiid. No way he falls to them at 3 if he hadn’t been injured.
Or Sidney Jones for the Eagles . . . it doesn’t always pan out.
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Sidney though was not their top pick that year. Howie waited until the 2nd round to take the futile gamble
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Are there any more top 10 talented players with broken bones in this year’s draft?
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Yep two high schoolers with recent injuries that may turn a few teams off, and probably be there in the late 20s for the Phillies…OFer Slade Caldwell of Arkansas (fibula) and Inf. Theo Gillen from Texas (shoulder surgery and then a knee issue)
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Jordan Viars breakout game? 3-3, 3 HRs, 8 RBIs. He should have another AB left.
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Must have gotten tired rounding the bases three times … He only hit an RBI single in that next at bat!
He also had a walk in the game
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hoping he gets promoted to see if he’s the real deal. I’m butchering it but I believe he had previously been held back to do some maturity issues and not being coachable
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Still only 20
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I know Steve P has been a Viars fan, btw Steve I LOVE your site!!!! I’ve been a regular here since the Anthony Hewett pick in 2004. When PP went dark I found myself visiting your site more and more. These 2 plus Matt W’s site are easily the 3 best minor league websites for incredible FREE info. I actually joined Twitter just to get more milb info when PP went dark.
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