All posts by giventofly41

Odds and ends

Spring Training 2008

Two articles for you today. First, this article talks about Savery’s much better performance in his second outing and how he’s handling himself so far. He seems like he has a good head on his shoulders (which was evident in the Q/A he did for the blog a few months ago) and understands he has work to do, but he knows where he wants to get to, which is good. Also, an article talking about the Phillies presence in Australia. It offers up an in depth look at the Phillies efforts in Australia, and highlights guys like Travis Blackley and Brad Harman, while also indicating Harman’s signing bonus at a mere $10,000. We all know the Phillies began investing in Australia because it was cheaper than the Latin American market, but guys like Harman are starting to give hope that it wasn’t just a cheap route, but also a productive route.

Based on my early impressions, I think Blackley has a good chance to make the team, either as a long man or the #5 starter. If the Phillies don’t think they can keep him out of spring training, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a deal brokered with San Fran.

edit, Blackley was with the Giants last year, not Seattle. Good catch

Monday Wrapup

Spring Training 2008

Yesterday the Phillies beat the Pirates 3-1, with Joe Savery leading the charge.

Savery: 2.0 IP — 2 BB — 1 K
Outman: 3.0 IP — 3 H — 2 BB – 2 K
Bisenius: 1.0 IP, — 2 H

Jason Jaramillo’s struggles at the plate continued, albeit in only 1 AB, and someone actually retired Greg Golson

Jaramillo: 0/1
Golson: 0/1

I have video of Saturday and Sunday’s games, I’m going to dice it up and will eventually post it on the respective players profile pages.

Carrasco wants 5th SP spot

Spring Training 2008

Please, Pat and Charlie, if you are reading this, DO NOT DO THIS. This article talks about Carrasco’s hot start this spring, and his desire to remain with the big club. Putting him in the rotation would be a mistake, unless the team plans to leave him there, for better or worse, and we know they are not in a position to do that. I wouldn’t mind Carrasco competing for a middle reliever spot, not mopup duty, where he can get regular work and be broken into the majors in that fashion, but I don’t think Manuel would trust him, much like he didn’t trust Castro when we got him and had to keep him on the roster. Carrasco needs to either be starting every 5th day in Reading or Allentown, or pitching 2-3 times a week out of the major league pen. Please don’t yo yo him around when he’s not ready for the rotation in the bigs.

Weekend wrapup

Spring Training 2008

Just a quick rundown of the performance of our prospects in the last 3 games

Friday, 5-4 win over Pittsburgh

Jaramillo, 0/2
Happ, 2.0 IP — 1 BB — 1 K
Bisenius, 2.0 IP – 1 BB

Saturday, 9-3 loss to the Yankees

Golson, 1/1 — 1 HR
Harman, 0/1
Jaramillo, 0/2

Sunday, 7-7 tie vs the Yankees

Jaramillo, 0/1
Golson, 1/1 — 1 SB
Carrasco: 3.0 IP — 3 H — 3 K
Holdzkom: 1.0 IP — 2 H — 1 uER — 1 K

Greg Golson is on FIRE.

Rough day for the kids

Spring Training 2008

As some of you may have found out, yesterday was not kind to Joe Savery and Josh Outman, both making their first spring training appearances.

Savery: 1.0 IP — 4 H — 5 ER — 1 BB — 2 K
Outman: 1.2 IP — 5 H — 4 ER — 0 BB — 2 K

Also making his debut was Rule 5 pick Lincoln Holdzkom. He also had a tough time throwing strikes, but came away unscathed.

Holdzkom: 1.0 IP — 1 H — 3 BB – 1 K

And finally, Jason Donald got his first taste of spring training. He went 1 for 2 with a run scored, committed an error at SS and also started a double play. Jason Jaramillo went 0 for 1 with a BB

Continue reading Rough day for the kids →

Spring Training games begin

Spring Training 2008

The Phillies started off their Grapefruit League campaign with an 8-1 win over Cincinnati. Carlos Carrasco pitched a perfect 8th inning, which is nice to see. No other real prospect action yesterday, but a good start for Carlos. He’ll probably stay with the club for a few weeks before being re-assigned to the minor league complex. There was also an article written yesterday about Carrasco’s unfortunate circumstances off the field earlier this winter. We’ll hope that everything gets sorted out in that regard.

I’ve also completed the Quintin Berry profile page, so check that out. It’s good to have baseball back.

BA’s Top 100 list

Top Prospect Lists

As Ducky pointed out in another post, BA released its Top 100 today, which is a consensus list of all the main writers at BA. The Phillies had 3 representatives

54: Carlos Carrasco
76: Adrian Cardenas
90: Joe Savery

Not bad, not bad. Boston and Tampa Bay, the two best systems in baseball, each had 7 guys listed. On the other end of the spectrum, the White Sox had zero. Milwaukee, Arizona, San Francisco and San Diego all had 2, while Houston, Toronto, the Mets and Detroit had only 1 guy each. I don’t necessarily agree with BA’s list, but its interesting to ponder.

Heres the plan

Other Stuff

I wanted to just give a brief update and explain whats going to happen over the next month or so. I’m pretty much going to just be doing a post every day recapping the events of the spring training game the day before, highlighting the performances of the prospects involved. If any other news comes up, then we’ll get that in of course, but I’m going to spend the bulk of my time between now and opening day working on player profiles, trying to get as many of them as I can completed. I’m also going to be getting in touch with my correspondents for Lakewood, Clearwater, Reading and Allentown and giving them some details on future plans.

So heres what I need from YOU, the loyal reader. If you come across any biographical tidbits/articles/pictures/videos of our prospects online, and I don’t already have the info posted on that player’s profile, please post it. If I’ve already created a player’s profile page, you can post a link there or you can post it on the new “Info Dump” page at the top of the blog. You can also get there by clicking here.

Thanks again for all of the contributions from all of you, thanks for continuing to come back, and I’m really looking forward to this season, both for the big league club and all of its affiliates.

Spring training pitching order

Savery, Joe

The Wilmington News Journal has released the order for pitchers in the first handful of exhibition games.

Tuesday vs. FSU: Joe Savery, J.A. Happ, Josh Outman, Carlos Carrasco, Joe Bisenius
Wednesday vs. Reds: Jamie Moyer, Travis Blackley, Clay Condrey, Ryan Madson
Thursday vs. Pirates: Kyle Kendrick, Francisco Rosario, Lincoln Holdzkom
Friday at Pirates: J.D. Durbin, Shane Youman, John Ennis, Bisenius (Brett Myers will pitch B-game)
Saturday vs. Yankees: Adam Eaton, Chad Durbin, Madson, Condrey, Tom Gordon
Sunday at Yankees: Cole Hamels, Fabio Castro, Carrasco, Holdzkom
Monday vs. Pittsburgh: Savery, Outman, J.C. Romero, Bisenius (Moyer will pitch B-game)

Also, here’s a nice article on Joe Savery and his spring training experience so far.

Pitching call up order?

Other Stuff

Happy Monday. I’m short on time today, but I was thinking about this earlier, and I figured it would be interesting to get opinions on this topic. What order do you see the Phillies pitching prospects in with regards to being called up to the majors in 2008? Obviously you need to take into account which guys are on the 40 man roster already, and then who is the most polished/ready for the occasion. You can break it down by starters and relievers as well, since that will likely be the biggest factor after the 40 man roster. I’ll be interested to see the order you guys place them in, as I have an idea myself, but mine is probably going to be different than yours.