Zach Green went deep again, his tenth. He leads the league in HR and is second in Ks…just to temper your enthusiasm a little. 19 year olds don’t hit double digit homeruns in 200 NYPL PAs without real power, and real power will take you a long way up the ladder if you can harness it. If his K rate is exploitable, (you’d have to think it will be at some level), then he may crash and burn, but for now: WOO DINGERS!!!!!

Elsewhere, Jesse Biddle somehow walked 7 men in 6 innings and did not allow a run. WOO NO RUNS!!!!!

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

Zach Green hit a home run (9, puts him in sole possession of the league lead), added a double, and struck out twice. 2-5 with 2XBH and 2K shall henceforth be know as the “Zach Green Special”. Let’s see if that catches on.

2 HR from Andrew Knapp (2,3), and he went 2-5 with 2K. HOLY COW HE HIT A ZACH GREEN SPECIAL!

Jiandido Tromp was 2-4 with a homer, (1), a double and 2K. One more ground-out and he could have had a “Zach Green Special”.

And Dylan Cozens was 1-4 with a bomb (6) and 2K. Just a late-inning XBH shy of a “Zach Green Special”.

Boy, that really caught on fast. And all that from the same game? Wow.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/7/2013 →

I’ll take that line from Adam Morgan – 1R on 7H, 0BB and 5K in 5IP. He’s been pretty good since his return – 21k and 6BB in 23.2 IP. Kelly Dugan with his 2nd HR in as many games, this one off of AJ Cole (who’s easily one of the Nats top 3 or 4 prospects right now). Lakewood with 2 whole hits in their contest, though they did draw 4 walks, and Jonathan Musser pitched ok, so I guess that’s “something”. Gustavo Martinez stole his 14th base (at a workable 82.4% rate). That’s about 2 per week for his season. Over a full season, that could be interesting, especially if he can figure out how to get on base more often. Zach Green’s ISO has cooled off to .252. Still pretty nice. He has more XBH than singles almost 2 months into the season, though his K rate remains near 29%.

And in the GCL, JP Crawford  hit his first pro home run, and Wilmer Oberto hit his sixth of the year. Oberto’s OPS is back over 1.000 and – I noted this on Twitter yesterday – he’s got more RBI than all but three Phillies. If the club thinks he’s a prospect, they’ll push him to Lakewood next year. If they don’t, likely he’s just an old, undersized 1B dominating mostly younger pitchers. Still fun to see a guy mashing, either way.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/6/2013 →

Phillippe Aumont struck out the side in order on 17 pitches, and only 4 of them were called balls. Not sure what that proves, but it’s nice to see. Dom Brown went off in his rehab start for Lakewood – 3-5 with a homer. And 4 GCL Phils went deep, including Cord Sandberg, Jose Pujols and Wilmer Oberto, who happened to drive in 4 runs with his. That’s the second time he’s done that this year. Grand. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/5/2013 →

Nice AAA debut for David Buchanan. I would guess he’s a big league arm at some point in 2014-2015 – whether it’s for the Phils or not remains to be seen. There would seem to be a ton of guys ahead of him on the depth chart for starting roles, but you never know when he might be called upon for a bullpen role. Kelly Dugan with his 4th HR in AA – his AA OPS climbs close to .800 in over 100PAs. And Dylan Cozens’ 2-run double was plenty for Drew Anderson and the Cutters bullpen, as they blanked the Staten Island Yankees.

We’re in the home stretch here, folks. Basically 4 weeks left in the stateside MiLB seasons, 3 weeks of the DSL, from what I can tell, and today is the last day of the VSL season. VSL Phils did not make the playoffs there. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/4/2013 →

Larry Greene bombing away from the 2-hole. Prototypical 2-hole hitter, there. Lots of contact and good speed. Nice line from Tyler Cloyd – he’s taking care of business his last three starts – 7 IP and 1 R each time out, with a total of 14h, 3bb and 16k in those 21 innings. Herlis Rodriguez is on fire in his second turn through the GCL, but there are so many fringy/full-on prospect-type OF in WIL also, it’s hard to see where he fits up there. Not hard to se why they let go of Jan Olmo earlier this summer, I suppose. There was really nowhere to play him.

And as always, it’s fun to see a position player on the hill – well done Brock Stassi, working a scoreless inning with no hits and one walk. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/3/2013 →

Big night from Zach Green – 3-4 with 2HR. Just a double short of The Big Wheel. Sam Hiciano with his third bomb in three days. I’d say he’s locked in. Read our friend Mitch Rupert’s fine article on the subject (and notes on team basestealing). Jesse Biddle pitched better than he has lately – 5IP – 3R on 5H, 2 HR, (including one to a certain guy who’s about to be suspended for a pretty long while), 2BB and 6K. Threw about 62% for strikes. Much improved over his last two turns. After on oh-fer on Wednesday, Harold Martinez has three hits in his last 2 games. Joes Pujols with another HR, a 3-hit game for JPC, and another scoreless outing for Ricky Bielski, while Denton Keys had what you hope, for him, is a forgettable performance. Avert your eyes.

And Larry Greene, ever stylish, wearing that Golden Sombrero on Friday. It’s quite the fashion statement.

Sorry I’m not going to get the graphic up right now. Maybe this afternoon. Until then, click through for yourselves and enjoy the discussion. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/2/2013 →

Happy Ethan Martin Day, everyone! Raise your hand if your significant other questioned why you would so very much need to watch a game of a team you unequivocally stated two days ago was a lost cause. *raises hand*

Anyone who cares about W-L records in the minors, (or at all, really), take a look at Seth Rosin’s line from last night, and tell me why you care he got the “L”. Rosin’s had a pretty nice year. He limits walks, but doesn’t strike out enough guys – around 6.7/9. His GB rate of 41% (per firstinning.com), is not as strong as you’d like for a guy like that. To me, he’s destined for the bullpen, where he excelled in 2012 for the Giants, albeit as a 23-yr-old in A+. It’s probably worth letting him continue to start and hope he can find more sink and get a ton of groundballs or more life on something and get more Ks. He’s built to last, at 6’6″/25olbs, so he could be a workhorse starter if he can miss more bats or induce more weak contact.

Elsewhere, a nice night from Nic Hanson – 8 strong innings. Sam Hiciano with his second HR in as many days – he was last year’s “guy to watch” in the DSL boxes, and he’s sticking at WIL so far in somewhat limited action. Mitch described him as having had a wrist injury for a while, so now that he’s back, it’s nice to see his power hasn’t been completely sapped. And two doubles from Malquin Canelo – speaking of which, be sure to check out @Longenhagen’s post on the Crosscutters http://crashburnalley.com/2013/08/01/longenhagen-scouts-williamsport-gonzalez-updates-bites-from-reading/

Good info on a bunch of guys, Canelo included, plus Rios, Cozens, Pullin, Green, Knapp, plus  more on MAG and other notes.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/1/2013 →

Franco, Dugan and Hewitt all hit bombs for Reading. Hewitt, in fact, hit 2. If he hits 20 more in August, we may have something there. Mario Hollands scatterred 9 hits over 6 innings, allowing just one run. Larry Greene hitting out of the two hole, his natural spot, of course 😉 Ricky Bielski continues to hold the GCL at bay – he’s allowed just 9 hits and 3 walks in 14 innings, while striking out 12.

And Zach Green hit his sixth HR of the year. He’s striking out a ton, though. 13 in his last 10 games, (38PAs), and his rate for the year is near 29%. He’s walked a good amount, but his 2012 Ks are what led me to keep him out of my top 30 this off-season, and it seems like they’re continuing as an issue.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/31/2013 →