Winding down – Lakewood’s finale was calcelled by weather, so there were only three games Monday. Lehigh Valley was blanked on two hits. Several members of that squad were called up after the game, including 40-man guys Galvis, Cloyd, Savery, Garcia and Mauricio Robles. Tyson Gillies was transferred to the 60-day DL, ending his hopes for a call-up, but making room on the 40-man for Cameron Rupp, who was added to the big league roster. 

Maikel Franco was not added, despite assurances from anonymous posters here that he would be, but he did cap off his fine year by going 3-4 with a double, to finish with a AA OPS of .926 after an A+ OPS of .925. Pretty remarkable. Severino Gonzalez made his AA debut in place of Jesse Biddle, (I saw no word on why exactly Biddle was held out). Gonzalez reportedly threw FBs at 87-89, according to @chrismellon from BP, which is lower than we’ve seen in previous reports. It’s been a long year for the 20-year old, so maybe we’re just seeing a little fatigue, or maybe 87-89 is closer to his norm than the 94 we saw earlier in the summer. We shall see. He’ll be a tough guy to rank this winter.

And Dylan Cozens tallied his ninth HR of the year. He’s got two games left to try to get to double digits, while Zach Green goes for 14 to potentially break the Cutters record for HR in a season.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 9/2/2013 →

Larry Greene had, by far, his best day of 2013 Sunday, as it was the day his season finally and mercifully ended. He closes out the year just above a .600 OPS. His K Rate was a whopping 35+%, though he did continue to take his walks at better than a 12% clip. I’m not writing him off completely, though, and if he comes to camp in 2014 ready to play, he’ll have a clean slate in my opinion.

Malquin “Malki”, (as I’ve decided to call him), Canelo has forced his way into the prospect conversation. A note that’s been making the rounds on Twitter and in the comments here – Canelo, the barely 18-yr old Crosscutters’ shortstop, who all but skipped the GCL this year, and fields with the best of them, (as reported at various times by Mitch Rupert and Crashburn Alley’s @Longenhagen), is sporting a .438 BA and an 1.104 OPS in his last 10 games, punctuated in his final plate appearance last night, where he walked off the home season at Williamport with his first professional round tripper.

If Canelo ever winds up on a team with the aforementioned Mr. Greene, I hope someone gets a snapshot of the two of them and captions it “Malki and Larry”. Would be perfect.

And FTR, I deleted a big note about Cam Perkins’ fine season just so I could land that reference without clutter.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 9/1/2013 →

Some notes – Cesar and MiniMart were recalled to take the place of John McDonald and Michael Young. I’d imagine Freddy Galvis, Cam Rupp, maybe Tyson Gillies, (I’d say that’s a coin toss), and a bunch of pitchers will go up agfter tomorrow’s game. CLR finishes out their season today, LV, REA and LKW tomorrow, and WIL has games Tuesday and Wednesday to close out their season.

As for Saturday’s results, Trevor May struck out 10 RPhils in a no-decision. The bottom of the lineup came through, though, with all five guys from 5-9 picking up a double, and combining for all five runs and eight hits to take the win. Nice lines from Luis Paulino and Miguel Nunez – they went five and six scoreless innings, respectively. And another in a long line of not-great-looking lines from Mitch Gueller – 5IP/5R (4 earned)/7H/2BB/1K. He finished the year with a WHIP of 1.879. He’s not walking a ton of guys – 26 in 58 innings is just a shade over 4BB/9IP, so he seems to be throwing strikes. He’s just not missing enough bats. Let the “change him to a position player” debate commence. Or continue, I guess. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/31/2013 →

Lehigh Valley keeps their slim playoff hopes alive in dramatic fashion, coming back from a 4- deficit to walk off with two runs in the ninth. Maikel Franco went 2-4 including a double, and Kelly Dugan had three hits as Reading lost to Miguel Sano and his New Britain Rock Cats and his two homeruns. Clearwater shutout for the fourth game in a row. They did manage to get one hit, though, so they have to be feeling pretty good about that. Mark Leiter threw down again for Lakewood – his A- WHIP sits at 1.00 with 20K in 16 scoreless innings. Impressive.

And finally, Zach Green took his place in the Williamsport record books Friday, hitting his franchise record-tying 13th home run, matching Walter “Junior” Young’s mark, set back in 2001, when he was Pirate property. Wikipedia notes, (without citation), that Young, who had a cup of coffee with Baltimore in 2005, was “listed at 6′ 5” and 322 pounds, giving him a Body Mass Index of 38.2 (over 30 is considered “obese”), the second highest BMI of any major-league player in history, behind Prince Fielder 5’11, 275 lbs with a 38.4 BMI”. So if Zach Green hits one more homerun this year, Young will be second in two things. Bummer for him.

Young is, apparently, a corrections officer now. If Green manages one more bomb, hopefully the inmates don’t hear about it. Poor Junior will never hear the end of it. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/30/2013 →

The Lehigh Valley game quickly got out of hand when Mike MacDougal came on to pitch the 8th. It took Josh Fields getting the last out to get out of that inning. Lehigh Valley’s playoff hopes are all but dead. Things also got out of hand in Hagerstown, as Lakewood’s Josh Ludy had to get the last out there. Took him five batters to do so. Maikel Franco went deep for Reading – his 31st of the year between 2 levels. Clearwater was shut out again – that makes three in a row. A multi-homer game for Zach Green – one of them just happened to come in June when they started that game – he took over sole possession of the league lead with 12 home runs on the season, while his K rate remains right around 29%.

And GCL closed out the year at .500, after getting blanked on the last day. Tyler Viza had a nice season – 32IP/5R/21H/10BB/20K/1HR. Though you’d like to see him strike more men out, the walk rate is good and you can’t argue with the WHIP. One to watch, likely at WIL next year.

A couple notes – Jeff Schuler of The Morning Call reported that Adam Morgan left last night after a mound visit from manager and trainer, as a precaution due to tightness in his shoulder. Does not sound good, but we shall see. Schuler also mentioned that Cameron Rupp’s glove-hand thumb injury would have held him out of last night’s game, though he was already scheduled for the day off. Does not sound serious. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/29/2013 →

Not a banner night for the full-season teams. They combined for seven runs in five games. Lost all five. Cameron Rupp left the Lehigh Valley game with an apparent thumb injury. Jesse Biddle had another wild performance. Walked seven in three innings, but allowed just one hit and one run, while striking out four. Not sure what to make of his year. Ethan Stewart was not bad for CLR – he’s been not bad for a couple turns now. Exciting, I know. And Alejandro Arteaga had a good start in his FSL debut – 6IP/0R/2H/2BB/4K – after showing nice, if not thrilling number in the GCL most of the year.

In the short season leagues, Yacksel Rios pitched well for WIL again – 5IP/1R/6H/1BB/5K – while Venn Biter was 2-5 with a double and a triple and Trey Williams hit his third homerun of the year for GCL. The GCL season wraps up today, as the Phillies have been eliminated from playoff contention. They are, at least, guaranteed a .500 season, which will probably feel better than a sub-.500 season…I did the math in my head. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/28/2013 →

A big night from Derrick Mitchell helps Devid Buchanan’s cause, as Lehigh Valley beat Buffalo. Buchanan induced three double-play grounders to keep his so-so night from looking like a nightmare. Jim Murphy hit a walk-off two run shot for Reading, (their second walk-off bomb in a row), after Seth Rosin and Hector Neris gave up 6 runs in the top of the ninth. Kelly Dugan was a late scratch, though I haven’t see a reason. Clearwater managed one hit but walked seven times as they best Tampa 3-2, with 2 runs in the bottom of the ninth on 4 walks and a walk-off sac fly from Harold Martinez. Nice line from Severino Gonzalez – 7 IP/1R/4H/3BB/6K. Drew Anderson pitched well, striking out six and allowing just 2 hits in 5 scoreless innings. Mitch Rupert reported that he was hitting 92-93. Here’s Mitch’s game story.

I forgot to mention that the DSL season concluded recently, with the Phillies finishing 3 games over .500, but 8.5 off the wild card pace. There were a couple interesting names there, but in my mind, no standout like Sam Hiciano from 2012. We’ll have to wait and see if we get any positive reports on any of them out of instructs, or beyond that, wait and see which guys make the GCL squad out of spring training next year. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/27/2013 →

AFL rosters will be announced today. I’ll try to post a link and a discussion thread as soon as I have it.

As for Monday’s results – Heroics in Reading, as Maikel Franco ties the game with two outs in the ninth on his 30th HR of the year, and Kelly Dugan walks it off with a solo shot leading off the 10th, his 20th of 2013. Mike Nesseth and Tyler Knigge both pitched well in extended innings on Monday, Nesseth in a DH spot start and Knigge backing up a not-great performance from Bobby Bramhall. Chris Serritella hit his 12th HR of the year, and Ken Giles fell apart again. Dylan Cozens was 3-5 with a double, Andrew Knapp was 4-5 with three of them, and Herlis Rodriquez drove in three runs on three singles as Williamport beat up on a good State College club – all nine starters had hits. And Deivi Grullon went 3-3 plus 2 walks in the GCL. He’s had a fine offensive season for a 17 year old – OPSing over .700 thanks to Monday’s results.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/26/2013 →