All posts by giventofly41

First Hand Report, 18 March 2012

Scouting Reports, Spring Training 2012

Thanks to Murray for this quick first hand summary. Enjoy.

Good time at the minor league complex today. In the CWater game, Colvin pitched very well, allowing one run but threw a good fastball and a very good curve. He is definitely in much better shape than last year, having dropped some weight. Their lineup was Myers 8, Eldemire 9, Thome 3, Franco 5, Altherr 7, Rupp 2, Pointer dh (he was originally batting 3rd before Thome came), T Greene 6, Ford 4. Noteworthy: Eldemire said he feels great, swung the bat well, and is much faster than I thought. T Greene looked good but is young and very thin. Franco had two hits (batting 4th!) and looked very good at 3rd. Malcolm played 2nd for half the game and looked good to me. Morgado did fine. Pettis closed and looked very good. In the LWood game, Lino started and looked just ok with some control issues. Lineup was Quinn 6 (looks 16! he’s very fast but didn’t do much), Hudson 8 (looked ok), Walding 5 (batted 3rd and looked very good with a couple hits), L Greene dh (he’s huge – hit some balls hard and ran ok), Duffy 3 (in MUCH better shape than last year and hit the ball very well), Logan Moore 2, Numata dh (looked over matched), Amaro 7, Cardozzo 4. Musser pitched 2 good innings but gave up a long homer. Best was ok. Nick Hernandez told me he’s hoping to pitch in CWater by the all star break. As in previous years, the size of the pitchers is amazing.

I need your help, 2012 edition

Other Stuff

I wanted to write up a quick post here as the minor league season approaches. I hope each and every one of you here will read this and take it to heart.

When I started this site, I had no idea what it would turn in to. In the 5+ years this site has been around, its grown exponentially. Along with this growth, there have been challenged. I’ve changed jobs and have less time to write. I’ve brought in a bunch of really great resources who have helped me provide great content year round. We’ve gone from a handful of comments a day to…well, a lot more. People have contributed lots of great stuff here, both in the comments, via email, and in the way of guest posts. As I mentioned, I’m a very busy person, and I’m only one person. I do not have hours a day to police the comments section of posts. I don’t have time to yell at every person being offensive and disruptive. For the most part, and considering the internet message board medium as a whole, we have far fewer problems here than elsewhere. For those of you who have been here for a while, you know that my request of you is to simply ignore the people trying to inflame the discussions and get a rise out of you. The post tacked to the top of the site features a link to the FAQ and rules. You can find it by clicking here. I welcome any and all opinions, but I require civility at all times. At all times. If you continually buck the rules and insult others, you won’t be long for this place.

Now that I got that out of the way, here are the ways you can help this site improve in 2012:

* Go to games, make notes on our prospects, and send these reports to my via email. I will post them as “First Hand Scouting Reports” and everyone will be very grateful for what you give us.
* Take video.

9 players optioned/re-assigned to minor league camp

Spring Training 2012

Per this quick post, the following players have been re-assigned:

Dave Bush
Austin Hyatt
Pat Misch
JC Ramirez
BJ Rosenberg
Sebastian Valle
Cesar Hernandez
Harold Garcia
Tyson Gillies

No real surprises here. A lot of these guys will benefit from regular ABs/innings in minor league ST games instead of sitting on the bench for the MLB spring games.

Spring Training Chatter, Week of 12 March

Spring Training 2012

Here is your outpost for this week’s random spring training happenings. Get after it.

JC Ramirez to the bullpen

Other Stuff

Per Matt Gelb.

This was a fairly predictable move, as Ramirez never developed a reliable third pitch, and his second pitch is inconsistent as well. The hope is that he can add a bit to his fastball now that he doesn’t have to pace himself, and sit in the 93-95 range. He’ll need to improve his slider to have any kind of high leverage reliever upside. I’d guess he will go back to Reading to start 2012.

Kevin Goldstein releases his Phillies Top 20 Prospects List

Top Prospect Lists

You can check it out here. The scouting reports for 1-11 are behind the BP pay wall, so please don’t copy/paste that stuff here. His one line blurbs for 12-20 are free to read. I’ll add in a one line summary of his thoughts for 1-11, but check BP for the full content.

Four-Star Prospects
1. Trevor May, RHP – 3 good pitches, has improved command, still tends to lose his release point and works high in the zone which is dangerous.
2. Jesse Biddle, LHP – 3 good pitches, inconsistent fastball velocity, needs to focus on repeating his delivery.
Three-Star Prospects
3. Phillippe Aumont, RHP – Huge fastball, still struggles with his mechanics.
4. Freddy Galvis, SS – Defensive wizard, might hit enough to be a regular.
5. Sebastian Valle, C – Good power potential, improving defense, zero approach at the plate.
6. Jonathan Pettibone, RHP – 3 good pitches but no real out pitch right now, looks like a durable #4 SP.
7. Larry Greene, OF – Huge power, huge question marks about the rest of his tools.
8. Roman Quinn, SS – Great speed, good pop for his size, defensive home is yet to be determined.
9. Julio Rodriguez, RHP – He’s a magician.
Two-Star Prospects
10. Maikel Franco, 3B – Good upside as a hitter, good defender but not a great athlete.
11. Brody Colvin, RHP – Bad year, stuff was down, delivery was a mess.

Nine More:

12. Justin De Fratus, RHP: Could pitch in the Philly bullpen this year; ceiling is set-up man.
13. Carlos Tocci, OF: High-profile international sign has plus-plus speed and line-drive swing.
14. Lisalberto Bonilla, RHP: Smallish Dominican throws strikes with three average pitches.
15. Jiwan James, OF: Still as toolsy as they come, but has made little progress.
16. Cesar Hernandez, 2B: Impressive pure hitter, but pressure is on bat due to defensive limitations.
17. Aaron Altherr, OF: Anticipated breakout player collapsed at Low-A, but ceiling is still high.
18. Mitchell Walding, SS: Fifth-round pick is big athlete with plenty of upside.
19. Jake Diekman, LHP: Lefty side-armer with more velocity than most of his type.
20. Perci Garner, RHP: Power reliever who could move quickly with health.

Sleeper is Kenny Giles.

Harold Garcia to miss 4-6 months after microfracture surgery

Other Stuff

Per Matt Gelb.

This is close to the death blow for his prospect status. He lost nearly an entire year last year to an ACL injury, and microfracture surgery will likely wipe out his entire 2012. I left Garcia out of my top 30 prospects list, largely because I needed to see a healthy, productive year from him before I was convinced that he was more than a cup of coffee guy. This obviously sets him back even more. Microfracture surgery is tough to come back from (especially since it is the same knee as the blown ACL) though he is only 25 and its not impossible. That said, he turns 26 in October and will have likely logged a total of about 300 AB at the AA level in the past 2+ years. A tough break, and I hope for the best for him, but you can probably remove him from your lists at this point.

Spring Training Discussion, Week of March 5th

Spring Training 2012

Here is your weekly discussion outpost. Thoughts so far? I’ve only watched bits and pieces of the first 2 games, but here are a few of my quick observations:

* Its great to see Tyson Gillies healthy. The speed is obvious, it’s going to take time for him to shake the rust off since he hasn’t played much in the last 2 years, but I think its promising that he made it through the entire winter and hasn’t had any setbacks.
* Aumont’s control and command looked spotty yesterday, but he was consistently in the 94-96 range and even popped a 99 on the tv gun. With him, it’s always going to be about command and control.
* Galvis has looked good, except for that one wind blown pop-up he couldn’t pull in.

Who else is catching your eye early, from a prospect perspective?

Baseball is back, Austin Hyatt is a boss

Spring Training 2012

Sure, it was a college team, but baseball is back. The Phillies beat Florida State 6-1 today, kicking off the exhibitions before the exhibitions. Some notes from the game:

* Austin Hyatt was given the start, and he responded with 2 clean innings, striking out 3 and walking none. I wrote rather glowingly about Hyatt in my Top 30 writeup, where I ranked him 12th.
* Michael Schwimer and Jeremy Horst both pitched clean innings
* Jake Diekman, Joe Savery, Phillippe Aumont, and BJ Rosenberg pitched scoreless innings
* JC Ramirez gave up the lone FSU run, getting a blown save and a win in the process, or what I like to call “The Tyler Clippard”
* Freddy Galvis was 0/2 with a run
* Tyson Gillies went 1/2 with 2 runs, an RBI, and a SB
* Cesar Hernandez was used as a pinch runner

David Hale interview with Austin Hyatt

BASEBALL!

Open Discussion, week of 27 February 2012

Spring Training 2012

The Phillies have tabbed Austin Hyatt to start the first exhibition game of the spring. As you know from my Top 30 write-up, I’m very optimistic about Hyatt’s 2012 and I think it’s a great sign that the Phillies have rewarded him with the first start of the spring. Joel Pineiro is probably ahead of him on the depth chart as the next starter in line should an injury pop up, but Pineiro can opt out of his deal if he’s not on the 25 man roster at the end of spring training. Because Hyatt doesn’t have big time velocity and is older for a prospect (because he was older when drafted) he’s going to have to really put up numbers at AAA to stay on track, but I think he’s capable.

Also scheduled to pitch:

Jake Diekman
Jeremy Horst
Michael Schwimer
Joe Savery
J.C. Ramirez
B.J. Rosenberg
Phillippe Aumont

So, discuss this and anything else you’d like. I’m glad baseball is back.