Not a whole lot of note in AAA or AA, so I’ll start with JP Crawford getting his first extra base hit and his first multi-hit game at Hi-A. USA Today’s man in Lakewood Steven Falk reports that Yacksel Rios has taken Drew Anderson’s spot in the rotation while Anderson is out with an elbow injury. Sounds great. Just super. Rios went three innings, allowing five hits and five runs, though only one was earned. Larry Greene walked twice and walked-off in the tenth with a single in his return to Lakewood following a one=game rehab assignment at GCL. Andrew Knapp went deep in that one.

Cord Sandberg kept his season-long hitting streak alive with a 2-3 night, and he added a walk. He’s OPSing .994 in nine games. Damek Tomscha was 3-3, and Jake Sweaney stole two bags for GCL. Jason Marquis started his rehab assignment there today, and Jim reports that after his appearance, he got himself a couple simulated innings to get to 90 pitches. May not be long until he’s pushing for a big league spot, if he’s showing good stuff and getting some guys out when he gets to the higher levels.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/21/2014 →

Cam Perkins went 2-4 with 2Ks. He’s been scuffling since his call up, OPSing just .558 at AAA. Hector Neris and Jose Garcia pitched three scoreless innings to close out the Pigs win. Aaron Altherr was 2-5 with a double for Reading. Kelly Dugan left that game after a play down the right field line that Carlos Alonso fielded. Not sure what happened as I wasn’t watching the game. Anyone see it?

Roman Quinn and JP Crawford each walked twice, and Quinn stole two bases and had an outfield assist. Art Charles and Brian Pointer went deep – Pointer’s on a nice stream right now, OPSing .955 over his last ten games. He’s been known to be streaky, so we’ll see how cool he gets after the hotness wears off. MAG pitched an inning out of the CLR bullpen tonight, which makes you wonder if that’s what they’re plan is for him the rest of the year. Could be.

Malquin Canelo was 4-4 for Lakewood, and Jesen Therrien pitched three scoreless innings out of the pen. Cord Sandberg hit in his eight straight game dating back to the last game of 2013. He’s got a pair of home runs on the year now after hitting just two all year last summer in GCL. David Whitehead pitched well in the follow-up to his remarkable pro debut last weekend.

And the GCL season kicked off, with Damek Tomscha hitting his first pro home run and Olvy Marte getting on base three times. Larry Greene was 1-4 with 3ks on his rehab assignment, I think it was Jay Floyd who first reported Greene was going to have surgery, but I guess that didn’t happen. Matt Hockenberry and Brandon Liebrandt worked 5.2 scoreless innings and struck out seven. College starters throwing strikes.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/20/2014 →

Jim had a nice write-up of JP Crawford’s not-amazing Clearwater debut – give it a look. He talked a good bit about Roman Quinn’s defense as well, which sounded really encouraging.

Seth Rosin’s been good at AA – too bad he’s repeating that level after not making it at AAA, (and MLB, though you can’t blame him for that). Hopefully this success is a precursor to him going back to AAA and hopefully turning into a useful bullpen arm that he seemed on track to be before The Phils acquired him and tried him in the rotation.

Newly-signed Aaron Brown led the way for WIL with three hits and a steal as the Cutters knocked off former Phils farmhand Marek Minarek. Cord Sandberg continued his hitting streak – it’s eight games if you include the last game of 2013. Which I’m willing to do because no one has told me I can’t. I may have been willing anyway. I’m a rebel like that.

Carlos Tocci had two singles and Zach Green was 2-3 with a walk, a double and his first 2014 home run, but The Blueclaws couldn’t get anything else on the board in support of a fine start from Mark Leiter Jr. He’s had two pretty dominant starts in a row, setting down 16 by strikeout while allowing just nine hits in 14.1 innings. Andrew Knapp left that game in the bottom of the sixth – it’s unclear why from the recap, but you just hope it isn’t related to the surgically repaired elbow he’s just starting to use at full speed again. He was involved in a game-speed throw in the fifth that pegged a runner at second after a late throw home. Maybe that or when he was caught stealing in the fourth. Hopefully we’ll get more info on that later today.

Speaking of later today – The Gulf Coast League kicks off at noon today. @statsking says he’s been asked to embargo the roster until 11am, so we’ll have to wait until then. The glut of college draftees is really going to clutter up the GCL this year, I fear. Not sure I’m happy about that – could lead to a lot of guys too often sitting on their hands until Instructs.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/19/2014 →

Cameron Rupp went 2-4 with two doubles and Cody Asche was 2-3 with a home run for Lehigh Valley. Rupp could have really stood to string together a couple multi-hit games in a row for the betterment of his offensive game, but he may be derailed from that for a bit. I imagine he won’t argue with a call-up – his brother sent him Twitter congrats last night for going back to the bigs. I guess that’s a pretty good source, even though it sounded late last night like Wil Nieves was planning to reevaluate today. I suppose Rupp could be on his way to St. Louis and get turned around if Nieves is actually ok. We should know in a few hours.

All nine R-Phils were on base, eight by hit and Logan Moore drew a walk. Zach Collier hit his first home run of the year, and Jesse Biddle worked through early trouble to put up a decent start – he threw 63% for strikes, which is almost halfway between really not good (<60%) and good (>2/3), so I’ll call it “meh”. Marginally ok. He allowed two home runs among the four hits and three walks he served up, while striking out five in seven innings.

J.P. Crawford’s A+ debut was rained out, and Lakewood was on the last day of their All-Star Break, while Williamsport needed 11 innings to beat Jamestown. Aaron Brown debuted with a 1-4, Cord Sandberg continued his season-long hitting streak and Jia Tromp went 4-5 with a double. He’s outclassing the league. Maybe someone can move up to A+ from Lakewood to get him time on the field there, but who that would be remains a question. I’d say pushing either Cozens or Tocci seems unwise right now, but Hiciano has probably proven himself enough at the plate, so maybe that would work. I’d guess they won’t do that for a couple weeks now that they’ve sent Tromp to WIL, but they could push it whenever if they really want to.

And in all the Jesus Alastre talk, I’ve kind of ignored Luis Mendoza, but the 17-year-old outfielder is OPSing .844 in nine June games and close to .700 on the year now. You’ll see below that I included a stat view of Manny Chavez, Phillies guy on loan to the Mexican League. Keeping in mind he’s never pitched stateside, and he’s facing lineups that include guys like Jake Fox, Chris Roberson and many former high-level minor leaguers and mostly-cup-of-coffee major leaguers, (plus Willy Taveras), this assignment is a huge test for him. Seeing how he handles himself after a couple bad outings like he’s had recently could tell us a lot about where he stands right now. I’ll try to remember to check back in a few weeks.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/18/2014 →

Cody Asche was 3-3 with a double on his rehab assignment, and Leandro Castro hit his fourth home run of the year as Lehigh Valley came from behind to beat Charlotte. Cesar Jimenez, B.J. Rosenberg and Luis Garcia each tossed scoreless innings of relief. Logan Moore hit his first AA home run, and Jake Fox hit two to give him three in four games for Reading thus far. Kelly Dugan and Zach Collier returned from the DL; Collier had two hits and stole a base. Nefi Ogando got hit around for four runs on four hits and two walks.

Art Charles had two triples as Clearwater blanked Lakeland. Jeb Stefan allowed nine baserunners in six scoreless innings, striking out five. Jia Tromp had three XBH including two home runs, and Cord Sandberg and Rhys Hoskins each had two XBH, Sandberg including his first bomb of the year. He’s got nine hits in five games. Mitch Gueller allowed two hits and three walks and struck out three in four scoreless innings. And Bryan Martelo had his first professional hit in the Dom Rep. Only took him 20 PAs. Let’s hope the next one comes a little sooner.

I included the SAL All-Star Game box – all three Lakewood hitters were on base, though J.P. Crawford struck out three times and both he and Samuel Hiciano were charged with errors. Cody Forsythe worked a perfect inning for the North Division. The game ended in a tie after the South scored twice in the top of the 10th, then Crawford walked, Hiciano hit a double to move J.P. to third, and both would later score. WIllians Astudillo had a chance to win the game with a man in scoring position but he grounded out to end the game.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/17/2014 →

Maikel Franco went 1-3 with a double and a walk to raise his OBP for the month to a whopping .408. Oh wait, that’s his OPS for the month. That’s not so whopping. But I may be weeping for a minute.

David Whitehead threw six hitless innings in his professional debut. The 2013 34th round pick, who missed last year after having Tommy John surgery a couple months before the draft, walked two and struck out five. Whitehead was #89 on BA’s 2013 pre-season Top 100 Eligible College Prospects, (one spot ahead of Andy Knapp), so he’s got more talent than round 34 would suggest. So everyone freak out.

Also in WIL, Cord Sandberg had his third two hit game to start the year. Perci Garner walked six in five+ innings for Reading, while Tyler Viza gave up nine hits in three+ for Lakewood. Willerker Isava went 3-4 in the VSL. The 2012 six-digit signee has been used sporadically this year, like he was last year.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/15/2014 →

Leandro Castro was 2-4 with two doubles and a walk. He turns 25 Sunday, and I think he’s next in line for an outfield spot at this point. He’s improved his game this year and I’d say he’s earned a shot ahead of any of the other options. Hoby Milner struck out six in seven innings, and Kyle Simon and Seth Rosin worked scoreless innings of relief to beat Altoona. Carlos Tocci stays hot with two hits on the night. I didn’t include the box from the FSL All-Star game, but I can tell you Art Charles was 0-1 with a K as a reserve.

Cord Sandberg had two his as well, his second straight multi-hit game. He also stole a bag. 20-year-old Venezuelan Ricardo Pinto struck out eight in 5.2IP in his stateside debut. Mitch Rupert had him touching 95 with his fastball. Things kind of fell apart for him in the sixth, but an eye-opening performance nonetheless.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/14/2014 →