All posts by giventofly41

Monday notes

Other Stuff

Just a few notes today to give you something to think about.

* Josh Outman, after a rough transition to the bullpen, seems to be getting things on track. Over his last 10 games he’s put up this line;

17.0 IP — 1.59 ERA — 12 H — 5 BB — 9 K

I still disagree with the decision to move him to the pen, but at this point, it has to soon be time to bring him up and get his feet wet. If the goal was to have him available for the stretch drive, its better that he gets into games now instead of being thrown into the fire in September.

Continue reading Monday notes →

Futures Game notes

Other Stuff

Due to flipping around, I only caught the first few innings of the game and I missed Golson’s time in the spotlight, so I figured I’d just post the thoughts of others who saw the game. If you find more accounts/summaries of the game, post them in the comments and I’ll add them here. Click below

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Futures Game Discussion Thread

Other Stuff

The Futures Game is today at 12:30 Eastern on ESPN2. If you’d like to share your thoughts while the game is happening, do it here. I’ll maybe do a little writeup tomorrow and hit on our players, but feel free to discuss the game here.

Cardenas’ stock is rising

Ten Pack/Hot Sheet

Baseball America did a midseason update of sorts today, giving their Top 25 prospects at the midseason point. Cardenas “just missed the cut” for the Top 25

Just missing the cut: Lars Anderson, 1b, Red Sox; Adrian Cardenas, 2b, Phillies; Alcides Escobar, ss, Brewers; Michael Saunders, of, Mariners; Max Scherzer, rhp, Diamondbacks.

This is obviously excellent news. Cardenas was ranked 76th overall heading into this season.

Friday discussion

Daily Discussion

I’m feeling a bit under the weather this morning, so I’ll keep this short.

* Travis d’Arnaud’s hot start continues, and with this, I was again thinking about our depth at catcher. Here are the stats

Jaramillo, AAA (age 25): .255/.316/.367
Marson, AA (age 22): .322/.444/.425
Kennelly, A- (age 21): .333/.409/.472
Naughton, A- (age 21): .268/.335/.368
d’Arnaud, SS (age 19): .342/.391/.474
Valle, RK (age 17): .293/.328/.517

Kennelly should probably be playing every day in Clearwater at this point, just so we can see what we have in him. Both he and Naughton are a touch too old for Lakewood. d’Arnaud is off to a great start at Williamsport, and Valle has adjusted well above expectations in his US debut. Jaramillo even looks like a big league backup because of his defense, and he hit the ball better in June. The Phillies catching depth is better now than I can ever remember it in the past.

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Project wikispaces

Project Wiki

I’ve been waiting a few days to unveil my latest project, but I figure now is a good time, because its also a plea for help. I decided to go ahead and create a wikispaces page, which you can see here. Basically, its just the template right now. I’ve laid out a few things, I created a few pages just to get a feel for how the site works, but I obviously have a massive amount of information I’d like to add to the page. My goal is to eventually have the wiki site integrated seamlessly here. I think it will make this site much easier to navigate and filled with less clutter and disorganization. The wiki site should make player profiles easier to do, it will be easier to organize things, and generally, will be a lot easier on the eye. This site will still be the main discussion hub, but the wiki site will have all of the information neatly organized. I’m more than prepared to spend the bulk of the time adding information, but I’ll of course open it up to volunteers who would like to spend some time adding information to the database. The obvious caveats apply; be a good writer, be willing to put some time in, etc etc. Right now, the plans for what I want to add are still kind of rough, and its going to be an ever developing project. If you have an interest, drop me an email with “wiki project” or something like that in the title. I’ll wait a few days to try and get a better grasp on it and to see who replies, and then I’ll send out a general email to everyone (anyone) who gets back to me. Thanks, and happy Thursday. Oh, and VOTE FOR PAT.

Wednesday notes

Other Stuff

Happy Wednesday, some random thoughts…

* With the signing of Trevor May, the Phillies draft board is now taking shape. The Phillies took lots of high school kids in the first 10 rounds, and so far, they’ve followed through on a number of those picks. They now have 3 unsigned picks in the first 10 rounds, plus James Weber in the 12th round. My general thoughts on the likelihood of these guys is as follows

Pettibone – 75%
Shreve – 90%
Coy – 0% (he enrolled in classes, he’s gone)
Weber – 40%

Pettibone wasn’t a highly touted guy, but he has everything the Phillies look for in a pitching prospect. I’d imagine he’ll sign, probably close to the deadline, probably for slightly above slot money. I still believe that Shreve was a pre-draft deal, and that it will be announced right near the deadline, probably for mid-late 2nd round money. Coy is gone, it was a decent risk to take, it seems that the Phillies really made an effort, so I won’t fault them. Weber seems less likely, he has a good college commitment, but I’ll hold out hope.

Continue reading Wednesday notes →

Heitor Correa update

Other Stuff

I touched base with a few people who would know, if anything was available on him, and this is the best I could get

He’s currently listed as “supended for team violation” — I have no insight as to what the is or means necessarily

So, your guess is as good as mine at this point. Correa was praised for his makeup prior to this season, so it seems odd. Hopefully we’ll be able to find more in the next few weeks.

A huge day for the site

Other Stuff

Today is a big day for the site here. I’ve added a new feature, thanks to a suggestion from a reader. If you check at the top of the site, you’ll see a link for “Top 30 Prospects“, and basically this is an updated version of my Top 30 prospects. Soxprospects.com is basically the gold standard for me, and was my inspiration for starting this site, and this is a feature they use, so I figured I’d use the same general idea. My plan is to update it once every 2 weeks or so until the end of the season. Its basically a gut feeling type update, and at the end of the season I’ll obviously put in more time and thought to my ordering of the Top 30, but I thought it would be fun to kind of think about the Top 30 as we progress. Feel free to share your comments on the rankings, or point out a guy I might have missed, or a guy that shouldn’t be there.

But the real reason that today is a huge day for the site is this;

Starting this site in December 2006, never in my wildest dreams could I imagine this place getting 1 million hits. I just want to thank all of my contributors who help make this site go, and especially all of you readers who send in information, feedback, and very nice comments, as well as posting comments here. This site would be much less informative if it was just me rambling on. So, a big thank you again to all of you, and here’s to hoping for more positive discussion on our way to 2 million hits.