Welcome to this week’s edition of the weekly notes column. As I mentioned last week, I’m going to use this as my space to kind of tie a bow on the week that was, and more specifically, share my thoughts on what I’ve noticed and what I’m thinking about with regard to the Phillies minor league system. Its also going to give me a chance to talk about a few things I’m working on for the site, and lots of other stuff. So check below for this week’s column.
All posts by giventofly41
Box Score Roundup; 4/14
Before we get to the box scores, two quick notes on “prospects” on the big league team. I got a good look at Antonio Bastardo tonight, and really he’s the same guy he’s always been. He struggled with his command and lost the strike zone a number of times, but also flashed solid fastball velo, hitting 93 a few times and sitting 91-92. He didn’t control it particularly well, but when its around the zone its tough to hit because of the velocity. He didn’t throw many changeups, instead going with his slider. It was inconsistent, but when he snapped off a good one, it was an unhittable pitch. He still lacks consistency with it. David Herndon, on the other hand, looked excellent, and this was probably his best appearance I’ve seen from him. His fastball had excellent life, sitting 90-93, and he kept it out of the middle of the plate. He really didn’t need his secondary offerings, as his fastball was sinking and moving and he disposed of the three Nats hitters he faced with great ease. That’s 4 scoreless appearances for him. Because Kendrick has options, he will surely go to AAA when Blanton returns. Bastardo might make way for Romero, again because he has options. The decision on what to do when Lidge comes back will be tougher, but I have to think the Phillies would want to work out a deal with Los Angeles for Herndon’s rights, allowing them to keep him on the 40 man but take him off the 25 man and option him down. He certainly won’t clear waivers at this point, and the Angels would almost definitely take him back. Now, onto the box scores…
Box Score Roundup; April 13th
It wasn’t a banner evening down on the farm tonight, as you’ll see with the box scores. But one thing I wanted to address, before it becomes a topic for discussion. Don’t worry about any slow starters in the first week, two weeks or three weeks. Some guys start slow, some guys start fast. It’s not really worth being overly concerned about anyone until at least May. Tyson Gillies was drawing rave reviews from scouts like 3 weeks ago, he didn’t forget how to play the game in 3 weeks. Things will turn around. Now, onto the lines
Implications of Rollins possibly hitting the DL
I received a number of e-mails today asking me if I thought the Phillies would entertain the idea of Freddy Galvis coming up from AA to play SS should Rollins go on the DL. My immediate reaction was “no chance”, and even after I started to actually think about it more, and wonder if it was plausible, my response is still the same; no chance. Galvis turned 20 in November, and though he reached AA last year, his career batting line in the minors is .235/.284/.288. Yes, his glove is big league ready. Yes, he wouldn’t be expected to carry the slack for Rollins offensively. But he’s not ready to hit major league pitching, and despite his solid start at Reading, I don’t know many people who thought he was even ready to hit AA pitching, let alone MLB pitching. While its likely that he’d be very good defensively, the Phillies signed Juan Castro because they believed he could legitimately hold down SS if something happened to Rollins. Galvis doesn’t have to be placed on the 40 man roster till after the 2010 season. Calling him up now adds him to the 40 man, and it would burn up his first option year. It just doesn’t make sense.
Bocock would seem like the most logical choice to fill the bench MI spot. Galvis is where he belongs right now, getting regular AB’s and trying to adjust to AA pitching.
Box Score Roundup; April 12th
Welcome to the box score roundup. My goal is to publish just a bare bones recap of the night’s action every night and then have that serve as the springboard for discussion during the following day. As always, I ask that you keep the discussion on the site prospect relevant, but I’ll basically just create one of these per day, you can use it to talk about the previous night’s action, and then if side conversations break off relating to prospects, so be it. Gregg is going to put up new posts during the day if something newsworthy breaks, as he did today with the BJ Rosenberg to the DL post. I’ll write posts during the week if something major happens and I want to give my spin on it, and as I mentioned last night in my weekly notes column, I’m hoping to have a long piece once a week. We should have affiliate reports for the 4 full season affiliates throughout the year, hopefully Jeff pops in from Clearwater every once in a while, and lots of other stuff. But for now, let’s get to the box scores, check below…
Sunday/Monday notes column, 1st edition
My goal is for this post to become a recurring weekly feature, where I kind of work on a longer piece and post it sometime Sunday night/Monday morning, kind of just going over some things I’ve noticed, some trends I might see developing, and things to watch for as we progress through another minor league season. As the draft gets closer, I might throw some draft tidbits in there, and just basically a bunch of other stuff. I know that my output here has been sporadic, sometimes its a whole lot, sometimes its not much, and I want this to serve as my weekly reminder to make time for the site and stay involved. Gregg and everyone else do a fantastic job here, and I’m eternally grateful, but just as a parent sometimes gets jealousy of the bond with the nanny/caretaker, I sometimes feel like I need to be a responsible parent to the baby I’ve created here. So lets get started…
Opening Night Wrapup
Gregg covered the happenings at Lehigh Valley, so I’ll just add the notes from Lakewood, Clearwater and Reading. Feel free to use this post to discuss anything/everything, and also if you have LHV specifics, you can put them in gregg’s post.
Lakewood won 10-7.
The good;
Jonathan Villar; 2/5 with 2 runs and a SB
Jiwan James; 2/5 with a 2B and 2 RBI
The bad;
Nick Hernandez allows 6 runs, 2 earned, and 2 HR in 6 IP.
Domingo Santana goes 0/5 with 3 K
Check below for more…
State of Phuture Phillies address
I wanted to take a few moments to talk about the website here, kind of recap what’s been going on, what I expect to happen going forward, and a bunch of other stuff. The minor league season is almost here, and with that will come an increase in traffic. With that comes more comments, more discussion, and mostly good times had by all. I wanted to briefly discuss some of the nuts and bolts here, as well as put in a request for help, and a bunch of other things. I tend to write best when I’m using bulleted points, and to keep this short and readable, I’ll do just that, so check below for more…
SONAR Top 30 prospects lists posted
If you head on over to the SONAR Scores archives, you can check out the top 30 lists churned out by SONAR, as well as notable players in each org who didn’t make the top 30 and how they scored. Again, these lists are simply a readout of a formula, they do not take raw tools/projectability/signing bonus/how much scouts love the prospects into the mix. The lists should prove interesting when comparing them to the lists from the other big prospect outlets. This essentially concludes my work on the 2009 data. 1 year won’t be enough to tell us how valuable the system is, but it will be very interesting to go back and look at these lists/results in a year’s time and see how players played, which guys SONAR was high on that succeeded, which guys fell flat, and which guys SONAR pegged as overrated who struggled.
Note number 2. I recently started a new job, and my job will keep me off the grid for most of the day during the week. Gregg is in charge when I can’t get to the computer to post a newsworthy item, and though I shouldn’t have to say it, please be respectful. I’m planning on writing a daily wrap up piece every night that can function as the next day’s general discussion, gregg will have his affiliate report for Lehigh Valley once a week, and I’ll also be working on some other projects for the site, but I won’t have access during the day, so behave yourselves.
Updated Minor League Workout Groups
Thanks to reader “TJ” for supplying me with the latest update, which came on March 23rd. Click here to see the image. I uploaded it to Google Photos and checked it on another browser, but if you have trouble viewing the image, I’ll also upload it to another external source. Check below the fold for more.
Phuture Phillies 