Sean O’Sullivan managed the Lehigh Valley game well in a losing effort, but the offense just didn’t get it done against Tommy Hanson. Maikel Franco drew his second walk in two days, which seems good, but Jim Murphy‘s solo home run (4) was all the scoring the Pigs could muster.

Severino Gonzalez didn’t have it working on Tuesday – he gave up 4R on 6H, 4BB, 2K over 6IP. He’s been struggling some this year, but as the season wears on, we’ll find out a lot more about the young Panamanian. Remember that he is one of the fifteen or so youngest guys in the Eastern League, and last spring he was ticketed for the New York Penn League. He’s going to have setbacks. How he responds over the course of this full season will tell a much greater tale than where he sits on May 6th.

Colin Kleven scattered six hits and allowed just one run in six innings, and Brian Pointer hit a two run home run in the top of the ninth to salt away Clearwater’s second victory in as many days. Colt Murray stranded two batters for a one-out save in that game, his second save in as many days. He’s on the Harold Martinez career path, though, so unless he’s promoted and starts doing good work at AA, or we hear scouting reports saying he’s “finally figured it out”, or that he’s “poised to turn the corner”, or something to that effect, I’ll choose to not get too excited about his stats.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/6/2014 →

A friendly reminder that Harold Martinez is on his third trip through the Florida State League, and that ten game samples don’t prove a whole lot, and they prove even less when you’re a 24-year-old playing against a bunch of 21 and 22 year-olds. Also 30 more PAs without another walk and his rate will round down to 1%.

Tyler Henson hit his third home run in two days, and Leandro Castro was 3-4 with a walk-off caught stealing. Yes, that last part’s bad. Wouldn’t have been an issue if the bullpen and Barry Enright hadn’t collapsed int he 7th and 8th innings. You should read the recap of those two innings. Pretty amazing.

Three hits for Cesar Hernandez. He’s clearly a big league level hitter stuck in AA. Whether the glove comes around at more than second base, at least he’s getting his time at the plate. Austin Wright threw a clean inning with 1K – it’s his first base-on-ball-free outing of the year. Like to see him string together a handful of those and put himself back in the discussion as a bullpen arm.

Not much offense for Lakewood, and Mark Leiter Jr. put up his second lackluster performance in a row. That may be generous – I’m not sure the last one qualified even as “lackluster”, though it certainly lacked something…not sure what it was…outs, I guess.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/5/2014 →

Tyler Henson hit for the Big Wheel, y’all. Two home runs, a double and a single, plus he drove in seven runs and scored twice. That’s a pretty nice day’s work. The Reading Fightins put up 15 runs on 18 hits, with home runs from Aaron Altherr (2) and Tommy Joseph (5). Jesse Biddle gave up 2R on 3H, 1HR, 3BB, 6K in 7IP. That’ll do, I guess, though three walks after the five he allowed his last time out didn’t do much to allay my main concern about his game.

Milwaukee’s 2012 1st Rounder Victor Roache hit three home runs off of Clearwater pitching. He led the NCAA in dingers in 2011 and hit 22 last year in his pro debut in Low-A. Ethan Martin worked a scoreless inning as he began his official rehab assignment on the way back from a shoulder ailment, allowing no hits and a walk with no Ks.

And on to the main event, a nine round slug fest, between a bunch of crabs and a bunch of tourists. Sounds like a day at the beach, right? Well, not if you’re a pitcher! *makes fake rimshot noise by tapping desk and going “psshh” with mouth* Lakewood beat Asheville 14-11, outhitting the Rockies’ affiliate 22-15. J.P. Crawford led the hit parade with a 4-5 day, including his third home run, and also drew a walk. Also going yard were Dylan Cozens (3), Willians Astudillo (2), Andrew Pullin (3) and Samuel Hiciano (3). All five men, plus Carlos Tocci and Mitch Walding had multi-hit games. All nine Blueclaws had hits.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/4/2014 →

Perci Garner with the line of the night – He struck out nine, walked two and allowed just two hits in six scoreless innings. Like many others, I’ve been waiting for them to turn him loose in the bullpen. If he manages his starts this well going forward, though, he’ll probably stay in the rotation for a while.

Cesar Hernandez was 3-4 with his third long ball of the year, and Ken Giles allowed one BB and struck out two in a scoreless ninth in that Reading contest. Sebastian Valle‘s home run lifts Lehigh Valley and David Buchanan to a victory. Cesar Jimenez, Justin De Fratus and Luis Garcia each took scoreless turns out of the bullpen to lock down that victory.

Samuel Hiciano pulls off what I believe is the first “Zach Green Special” of the year – that’s 2-5 with 2K and 2 XBH, for those who don’t recall – Hiciano was 2-5 with a homer, a double and two strikeouts, and is now OPSing near .800 in a reasonable league for his age. His K rate is just below 25%, which is about as high as you’d like it for a power hitter, and he’s got 10 XBH in just over 100 PAs. I remain intrigued. J.P. Crawford, Mitch Walding and Dylan Cozens each added multi-hit games as Lakewood starter Tyler Viza and reliever Keivi Rojas pitched well enough to allow their offense to come back against Asheville’s bullpen.

And finally, Clearwater was rained out again and again. Both games of their double header in Daytona were sacked by rain for a second straight day. The whole series was a washout, as The Threshers start a traditional three-game Sunday thru Tuesday set at Brevard County today.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/3/2014 →

Maikel Franco was 2-5 with a double and Jim Murphy hit his second home run of the year in support of Jonathan Pettibone, who allowed 1R on 4H, 1BB, 5K in 5IP. His bullpen backed him up well, throwing four scoreless innings, including two from Phillippe Aumont, who allowed one hit and had one K. Tyson Gillies left the game in the third inning after diving back into first on a Ronny Cedeno line drive. @TomHousenick says it sounds like trouble with his left wrist. We’ll have to wait and see how that pans out, but figure a guy with Gillies luck will probably miss a ton of time that someone with reasonable karma on their side would not.

Cesar Hernandez went deep, Aaron Altherr had two hits, including a run-scoring double off of a rehabbing Doug Fister, and Cameron Perkins was on base twice. Unfortunately, Hoby Milner gave up four bombs to Harrisburg. That’s not a recipe for success, in case you were wondering, but it does beat…

Mark Leiter Jr. couldn’t escape the first inning. He recorded just one out while allowing six earned runs. He left the bases full, but Carlos Tocci threw out a runner at the plate trying to tag on a flyball out off of reliever Julio Reyes. Neither Reyes, nor Delvi Francisco, nor Cody Forsythe could stop the bleeding, however, as Asheville put up 14 runs on 16 hits and four Lakewood errors. I’m not the kind of guy who likes to tell people how to do their jobs, but were I, I would suggest they do it “better”. Damn, I should be a manager.

On the bright side, four Lakewood Blueclaws had two hits a piece – Dylan Cozens had two doubles, Andrew Pullin had a single and his second home run, Samuel Hiciano had a single and a double, and Willians Astudillo had two singles.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/2/2014 →

Maikel Franco went 3-5 with a double and a home run, his second on the season. It’s a little early to assume he’s turned a corner from the trash fire that was his first three weeks of the season, but he’s got three doubles and two home runs compared to only two Ks in his last five games, and is OPSing over .800 in his last ten. Encouraging, if nothing else.

Luis Garcia closed things out for Lehigh Valley, allowing a hit and recording three ground ball outs. I could bang the drum again on pushing him to the bigs, but you can just go back and read it again – everything’s the same except all the stats are bigger except for the goose-egg in front of the “R” would now be only a goose-egg in front of an “ER”. I realize Garcia’s not the Savior of the big league bullpen – we all know that’s Ken Giles, (praise be His Name) – but he’s probably got a better shot at not making me yell at my TV and wake up the dogs than Jeff Manship or Shawn Camp.

And a couple notes on Lakewood. Glad to see Drew Anderson shake off the rust – he allowed 1R, 4H, 1BB, with an encouraging 7Ks in 5.2IP in his second start of the year. Deivi Grullon and Jan Hernandez both hit their first full-season home runs, and J.P. Crawford continues to get on base – his OBP sits at .402 after getting on four times in yesterday’s twin bill. He’s got 10BB and just five Ks in his last 10 games. I remain, as always, down with JPC. But I feel like you already knew that, because you’re aware of my ways.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 5/1/2014 →

Ken Giles finished up his month with his seventh save, allowing 1R on 1H, 1BB and 1K. He ended the month striking out 25 of the 50 men he faced. Math tells us that’s a pretty good rate of…uh…carry the two…err…Fifty Percent?!?!?! That can’t be right. In all seriousness, the fact that he only walked four of those 50 is almost as impressive, and even more encouraging than the Ks, which we all assumed he’d be able to produce at a high level.

Cameron Perkins continues to hit – I feel like I say that every couple days. He had two doubles last night, and 11 for the month of April, and averaged an XBH every 7PAs or so. Impressive. I’ll guess he’s in line for a promotion to AAA by mid-June at the latest if he doesn’t fall off a cliff, or get swept away by a flood, as it were.

And poor Anthony Hewitt – guy had a really bad April, capped off by ye olde golden sombrero last night. He struck out 22 times in 17 games in the month (48PAs), for a Giles-esque 46% K Rate. Props to Hewitt for how hard he must have worked, and how hard we’ve heard he works, to improve over the years just to make it to AA, but I have a feeling we’re witnessing the end of his Phillies career right now.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 4/30/2014 →

Lehigh Valley was shutout over a rain-shortened five inning contest by Red Sox off-season #11 prospect (per BA) Anthony Ranaudo. Phillippe Aumont allowed just one base runner (by walk, of course) and struck out the side in his only inning, if we’re looking for things to be happy-ish about. For a guy who revamped his delivery in the off-season, I have no problem giving him a while to work it out, especially with so many questionable arms (and bats) holding roster spots that aren’t nearly as exciting as his often-filthy movement. I will not, however, refrain from making light of his bad outings with “Aumont is French For”s. I just don’t have it in me.

Cam Perkins had one hit and Ken Giles struck out the side in order in a most-decidedly non-save situation, with Reading down 10-2 in the eighth. Boston’s #7 (BA) Mookie Betts is crushing Eastern League pitching, OPSing 1.159 on the year. He tagged the Fightins with a 3-4, HR, 3RBI performance. Also his name is Mookie Betts. It’s no “Rock Shoulders“, but it’s an easy 70. Also, apparently he was a good bowler in high school. Thanks for that nugget, BA Prospect Handbook!

A thing happened in Clearwater. It resembled a sporting contest, but I don’t think anyone would confuse it with an actual contest. Chad Carman, a guy who’s usually a catcher, was the best pitcher for one side. That’s not normally a good sign.

And, what’s this? Hitting? I don’t believe it!!! Yes, Lakewood used the sticks well in their 9-4 rain-shortened affair with Lexington, pounding out 13 hits, including 8 doubles, in their seven innings at the dish. Notable were Dylan Cozens and Willians Astudillo, who each tallied two doubles, and Samuel Hiciano, Jan Hernandez, and Mitch Walding with two hits a piece, all including one for two bases. Walding is just back from rehabbing after rib-removal surgery, to get rid of the bum rib he possessed that could be broken by getting off a couch. I’m sure there’s a joke to be made there, but I’m struggling to find it. Rest assured, it wouldn’t have been that funny anyway, as most of you probably already assume with most of my material.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 4/29/2014 →

(Forgot to mention B.J. Rosenberg when I posted this – he took a liner off the head in the 11th and had to be removed. He walked from the field under his own power, but it sounded like he was having concussion-like symptoms – I’m sure we’ll hear more about it today or tomorrow after testing. I follow @GJoyce9 on Twitter for Pigs’ news, FWIW. I’m sure he’ll have updates around the same time as anyone else).

As much as we’d like to believe Jesse Biddle is an ace, most of us are resigned to the idea that his ceiling is likely a mid-back of the rotation guy. With starts like he had a couple times in a row before this, I understand why some of us, (myself included), get a little excited about him.  But after last night, we’re reminded why no professional is assuming he’ll be an #1 or #2 type starter. He’s young enough to build on bad games like this – he can try to learn to mitigate the damage and fix his mechanical issues on the fly, so hopefully in 2015 or 2016 when he’s a full-time big leaguer, these five and six walk nightmares become three and four walk bummers, and leave his team a little better shot at pulling the game out of the fire for him.

As for Greg Smith, he’s really got it working right now. Gregg (@PhuturePhilz) said on Twitter last night that Smith should be the first man up if you need another starter. I personally wouldn’t go that far, but I think Smith could get a look at some point. He costs you a roster spot, so Jonathan Pettibone makes more sense right now, IMO, but I’d take Smith over David Buchanan at the moment, if only for the fact that Smith can be waived off the 40-man with minimal risk when he’s done in the bigs, and Buchanan would need to stay on or risk losing a young, serviceable arm to a waiver claim.

Also, FTR, I spent three minutes on BRef trying to figure out why I couldn’t find the right “Matt” Smith to link to. I like to think I’m pretty smart sometimes. Other times…

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 4/28/2014 →