As promised, today we’ll talk about the biggest disappointment of the 2008 minor league season for the Phillies. Again use whatever criteria you see fit, and give as much or as little explanation for your choice in the comments. I’ll have more on both today and yesterday’s poll on Monday. Thanks.

I’m going to run this poll today, and biggest disappointment tomorrow, and then I’ll do the tallying of the votes over the weekend and discuss the results on Monday. Today, vote for your biggest surprise of the season. Feel free to explain your choice or simply post your vote. You’re voting for the player who had the most surprising season to you, using whatever criteria you choose to determine what a “surprise” is. Thanks.

I figured this would be a decent topic today, since the winter leagues haven’t started and there isn’t much else going on. I’m sure many of you watched Happ’s start last night. I did as well, and here are a few thoughts I had while observing…

* His velocity is still consistently in the high 80’s. Last year and the year before there were reports of him hitting 91-94, but according to MLB Gameday, which is the most accurate reading you’ll find, more accurate than the TV guns, he was 87-89 the entire night. What makes that seem faster is the way he hides the ball behind his back, and the fact that he’s very tall and lanky, meaning the ball gets on the hitter quicker because it’s released closer to home plate. This should also be a lesson, don’t always believe the velocity numbers you hear from scouts, they have a reason to embellish at times.

* Happ leaned very heavily on his fastball and changeup. By my quick count, this was his breakdown

Fastball: 57 (61.3%)
Change: 26 (28.0%)
Slider: 9 (9.7%)
Curve: 1 (0.01%)

You can argue over whether he throws a slider or a curve, its kind of a tweener pitch, so just make that 10 total, which would be 10.8%. He clearly was leaning heavily on his fastball and changeup, which seems like the smart thing to do. His one big mistake came on the slider, which Kelly Johnson deposited into the seats in RF. This winter and in spring training, tightening the break on his slider/curve should be his #1 priority.

* If he is a two pitch pitcher, he’s still better than the 1 pitch pitcher he replaced in the rotation. He needs to refine his location a bit, but last night he kept the ball down when he had to. The book on him will get out, and he’ll need to do a good job of mixing his pitches. If he can tighten the break on his slider, I see no reason why he can’t win a rotation spot next season.

What were your thoughts?

If anyone has some free time and would like to help, I have a very specific request for research help. For the minor league project I’m working on (a massive project), I need to collect signing bonus information for all international signings, from the July 2005 signing period through this past summer. I still have a ton of work to do in other areas of the project, so if anyone would be willing to help here I’d greatly appreciate it. Scout.com sometimes lists bonuses under the profiles for the players, but the information is spotty at best. I’ve essentially just been googling things like “Phillies international signings” and trying to find what I can. I need information for all 30 teams. Anything you can provide me would be of great assistance. If you do have some time and find anything, just post in the comments here or email me, this format will work;

Team – Player’s name, year signed, bonus amount

Example

Phillies – Carlos Carrasco, 2003, $300,000.

Thanks again.

Update –> I have a few names, but for now, just assume I have zero information. Redundancies are not an issue here, the more information the better.

hat tip to “Ricky Branch” for posting this one, Michael Taylor, Dominic Brown and Chris Kissock are heading to Hawaii.

hat tip to andyb for locating the list on the Crosscutters website

its a large image, so click below so it doesn’t stretch out the page….

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