Before I get into the weekend wrapup, just a brief note on what things will look like going forward. Basically from here on out, Tuesday through Friday we will have a report on each affiliate, starting with Lakewood and ending with Lehigh Valley. There might be a few exceptions if we have to shuffle things around time wise, but this will be the general plan. The reports will give you a good idea what is going on with each affiliate and keep everyone in the loop, and hopefully we’ll come up with some other cool stuff to do. Because of the help of the generous folks who have volunteered, it will give me more time to add more features to the site, something I’ve been slacking on. I’m going to do a weekend wrap up every Monday, and I’ll also write new things periodically, and also post news items as they happen. But as I mentioned over the winter, this site is turning into more and more of a group effort, and I couldn’t be happier about that. So, all of that said, lets wrap up the first weekend in the minors…
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Friday recap
Just a quick recap of last night’s action.
Lakewood drops their opener 4-0. Bob covered this one, so I’ll just say it was nice to see Dominic Brown off to a good start. We won’t know lineup positioning for a while, as I’m sure some guys will drift around, but its interesting that Dominic Brown would be leading off, as he has some power potential. Then again, getting your best prospects the most AB’s is the goal, and batting leadoff is the best way to do that.
Clearwater dropped a squeaker 2-1. Adrian Cardenas stole the show with 2 doubles in his debut. Joe Savery came on after Brad Lidge’s rehab assignment and had mixed results. He allowed only 3 hits in 5 innings while striking out 7, but he walked 5 guys. Matt Spencer, who I assumed the Phillies would conservatively start in Lakewood, went 1/4 with a run.
Reading thumped Altoona 8-3, the lone Phillies affiliate win on Thursday. Jason Donald was 2/5 with a double and 2 RBI. Jeremy Slayden 1 upped him going 3/5 with a triple. Andrew Carpenter didn’t have his best stuff but pitched well enough to win, going 5 innings, allowing 8 hits and 2 earned runs, with 2 strikeouts and no walks.
Lehigh Valley went down without a fight 4-0. Yankees expensive mistake Kei Igawa was perfect through 6 innings, with the Iron Pigs lone hit coming from 4A OF Brandon Watson. JA Happ lasted only 4 innings, allowing 3 ER on 5 hits with 1 BB and 4 K.
Also, for those of you who like quick access to the box scores, here’s what I do. In Firefox, I have a folder on my bookmarks toolbar that has links to the scoreboards for the 4 main leagues. Those links are
Low A
High A
Double A
Triple A
Just bookmark those links and you’ll have easy access.
Rumored starters for opening night
Hat tip to Squire for this in yesterday’s post.
Lehigh Valley – LHP James Happ
Reading – RHP Andrew Carpenter
Clearwater – LHP Joe Savery
Lakewood – RHP Drew Naylor
If that proves to be true, you have 4 prospects starting 4 games. That won’t happen every night, but its certainly a welcomed sight. I’ll do full recaps of the games tomorrow, and we’ll be under way.
Opening day is tomorrow
Just a heads up, for those of you who are ready to start following box scores. Opening day is tomorrow for Lakewood, Clearwater, Reading, and Lehigh Valley. We’ll get an idea what the lineups and rotations are going to look like after the first few games. This season, unlike last, there should be plenty of guys worth following at AA and AAA, and plenty of new faces in the lower levels as well. Next week we’ll start with our affiliate reports, with Lakewood on Tuesday, Clearwater on Wednesday, Reading on Thursday and Lehigh Valley on Friday. Here’s to a great minor league season.
Minor League rosters
If you look at the top of the site, you’ll now see a link called “ML Rosters”, which will basically be a simple place to keep track of who is playing at what level. I’ll work on filling them in, but any of our contributors can also edit their respective team’s roster once the season starts. Eventually, I’ll try and spruce it up a bit, but for now, it should get the job done.
Phillies claim Lahey off waivers
The Phillies claimed Rule 5 draftee Tim Lahey off waivers. Lahey had been waived by the Cubs after being taken first in the Rule 5 draft. This was BA’s assessment of Lahey back in December
Lahey was a catcher at Princeton, then converted to the mound when the Twins drafted him. He has a short, catcher-like arm action, but he throws strikes with his 90-92 mph fastball, one that has touched 95 according to Cubs officials, and the delivery adds some deception. A 20th-round pick in 2004 by the Twins, Lahey also throws a solid-average slider and a changeup. The Cubs see room for improvement, since Lahey is still relatively new to pitching.
“He’s got real good sink with a ground ball ratio of almost 3-to-1 and the makings of a pretty good slider,” Cubs farm director Oneri Fleita said. “It’s amazing—I think he has 178, 179 innings and has less than a hit per inning pitched. That’s pretty good for a guy who just got converted. We’re excited to see him.
So, here’s how this works, to my knowledge. The Rule 5 process still applies. Lahey must go straight onto the 25 man roster and must remain there all season. The Phillies were able to get JD Durbin through waivers and to AAA, so thats one less obstacle. If Lahey can’t stick, he will be placed on waivers. If no one claims him, he has to be offered back to Minnesota. If Minnesota refuses to take him back for $25K, we can outright him to AAA. I don’t really see how he will fit into the team, but then again, any new warm body is probably better than a bunch of the old warm bodies, so stay tuned.
Friday thoughts
No real news to report today, things are shaping up, and the only real developments I can forsee between now and Monday would be a trade of Wes Helms, but it looks like there is zero interest around baseball. Maybe the Phillies can move him for a reliever out of options and take a flier on a guy, who knows. But, this weekend I plan to put in a bunch of work on the site to get things ready. I won’t be around Monday, so we’ll resume normal service on Tuesday and start getting prepared for the minor league season.
Today’s open ended question; which Phillies prospect will get the most AB’s for the big league club this season? Your choices are limited, but we did one for pitchers, so we’ll do one for hitters as well.
Blackley update
Update: Thanks to reader BC for providing the latest from Scott Lauber. Blackley was not taken back by the Giants, and thus, is now Phillies property. This is a positive development.
Rotoworld sums up the situation as it stands
Rule-5 pick Travis Blackley was released by the Phillies.
The Philadelphia Daily News reports that he’s cleared waivers, and as a two-time Rule 5 pick, Blackley has two choices: accepting an assignment to the Triple-A affiliate of either the Phillies or the Giants (if they buy him back), or becoming a free agent. The Giants would have to pay the Phillies $25,000 to get Blackley righ
So there ya go. Hopefully he’d realize that he has a shot to pitch in the big leagues, possibly in a pennant chase, if he stays in Philly.
Carpenter’s big day
As you know by now, Andrew Carpenter turned in a gem of a performance yesterday, and everyone is raving. Scott Lauber with the recap
In their final Grapefruit League game at Bright House Field, the Phillies brought Carpenter over from the minor-league complex to relieve Brett Myers. He tossed four scoreless innings against the Yankees in an outing that featured several highlights. Take your pick:
– Sixth inning: He walked Bobby Abreu with one out, then got Alex Rodriguez to ground into a double play.
– Seventh inning: He struck out the side, including Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada.
– Ninth inning: After loading the bases with no outs, he struck out Nick Green, got Jose Molina to foul out to the catcher and caught Chris Woodward looking at strike three.
The last time a young Phillies pitcher looked so good against the Yankees in spring training, Cole Hamels was striking out Tony Clark, Derek Jeter and A-Rod in 2004. That wasn’t enough to get Hamels, then a Class A pitcher, a spot on the roster, and Carpenter’s performance today won’t win him a job, either. But Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee were effusive in their postgame praise of Carpenter, and if he gets off to a good start at Class AA Reading, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get called up to Philly.
Here’s the thing. Just like folks were getting excited over Carrasco’s great outings earlier, this has to be taken in context with Carpenter’s pro career and his scouting report. I ranked him #9 on my Top 30, and I think that still fits. He doesn’t have the raw stuff of Outman, Savery or Carrasco, but he does have the best control out of the group. He’s likely to be the first one of the group called up because he has the most polish, but he might still be behind JA Happ on the depth chart.
These performances are great to see in spring training, but they are just that, spring training performances. Carpenter wasn’t pitching for a roster spot, there was no pressure on him, and he pitched well. If he carries that over with him to Reading and pitches in the same fashion, he’ll be just fine.
Kevin Goldstein’s “State of the Systems”
KG is doing his updates for all 30 MLB teams, going division by division, just giving a brief overview of the systems, and picking out one prospect he likes more than the consensus, and one he dislikes more than the consensus, as well as handicapping who the team’s #1 prospect will be the following season. The article is subscription content, so I won’t post all of it, but here are the snippets
Pivotal Season: After missing most of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, Kyle Drabek will likely miss the first half of 2008, putting him well behind the development curve, which is confounded by the fact that he wasn’t especially impressive before the procedure.
I Like Him Better Than Most: A slow recovery from a minor shoulder procedure dropped Joe Savery to the No. 19 overall pick last year. If he can have a full return to form this year, that will look like a steal.
Don’t Believe The Hype: After 173 strikeouts against just 23 walks, including a 49-2 ratio at Double-A, Greg Golson is looking like nothing more at this point than a more expensive version of Reggie Abercrombie.
He pegs Carrasco at 2.5:1 and Savery at 3:1 to be the top prospect at this time next year.
If you don’t have a Baseball Prospectus subscription, you really should. The wealth of information trumps any other baseball site on the interweb. I’m still hoping to do another Q/A with KG in the near future, so keep an eye out for that.
Phuture Phillies 