All posts by phillychuck

Quick Summary of Off-season Minor League Acquisitions

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I wrote a couple of posts outlining most of our minor league free agent signings and other acquisitions this off-season for another site–I’ll copy them (and extend them a bit) here.  There aren’t a lot of Jason Werth-type players on these lists, but some decent AAA insurance here and there, and a couple of players who might surprise if they get healthy or find their confidence. The post is organized by position players first, then pitchers.

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Cocaine possession charges dropped against Gillies

Gillies, Tyson

According to David Murphy at “High Cheese”, the possession charges have been dropped stemming from an incident where police allegedly found a bag of white powder after Gillies’ exited a police vehicle:

According to a story in his hometown newspaper, authorities in Florida have dropped the cocaine possession charge against Phillies prospect Tyson Gillies.

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Report on Williamsport morning game 8/11

3. Williamsport

Courtesy of poster nyphilsmaniac (promoted from comments):

–Cesar Hernandez got the day off so Duran (SS) led off. Duran looked fine in the field making all routine plays. He one nice single, stole 2nd but then got picked off.
–Miguel Alvarez had only one hit but hammered a line drive that was right at the second baseman in another AB.

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Reading game 8/8 — live report

6. Reading

Two games in two days–made it to Reading today (with family, so I missed the start and end of the game).  I was interested in watching Harold Garcia and Cody Overbeck as position players (Galvis got the night off) and seeing Drew Naylor throw.

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Iron Pigs game 8/7

7. Lehigh Valley

I went to the Iron Pigs game tonight, sat in the picnic area down the LF line about even with the left fielder.  Great seats to watch the action in the IF, and you could really see the movement in a lot of the breaking pitches thrown.

The IPs lost 11-7 to the Gwinnett Braves, largely because of bad BABIP luck and mistakes that came back to bite them.  The Braves had four flare doubles fall in down the lines, and, to their credit, made two difficult catches of flares hit by IPs batters.  IPs also hit more than their share of “at ’em balls”.

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Phils release Kevin Angelle

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This has to be one of the most surprising moves we’ve ever made in the low minors.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_trn&lid=127&sid=t449

He had a 1.89 ERA in 12 starts for GCL last year with a 1.05 WHIP

This year he “slipped” to a 1.36 ERA in 8 starts, and a 0.86 WHIP.  He moved his strikeouts from 6 per 9 IP up to almost 9.

At 22, he was about a year old for WMPT, maybe 2 years.  I suspect he must have stolen money from the bat boy, or set the snack stand on fire (kidding, of course).  I’m looking for more details.

Reading Report July 21st-31st

6. Reading

Reading went 6-5 over the last 11 days, including the completion of a suspended game, and another game that was suspended until mid-August.  Harold Garcia was the hitting star of the period (along with the usual suspect, Matt Rizzotti), batting .356 and throwing in an unexpected .600 SLG.  He hit in 10 of the 11 games, with a double, two triples, and 2 home runs.  Garcia has been killing lefties in AA, posting almost a 1.200 OPS, albeit over only 30 plate appearances.

Of course, calling Garcia the ‘star’ shortchanges the monster of the Eastern League, Matt Rizzotti, who posted close to his usual stats, .414/.614/.655 for a 1.269 OPS.  His most unusual stat was drawing 15 walks in the 10 games, with Akron simply refusing to pitch to him in the last two games of their series.  Rizzotti now leads the EL in batting by 53 points, in SLG by 103 points, and in OBP by 20 points, currently holding the sabermetric triple crown. Continue reading Reading Report July 21st-31st →

Reading Report July 15-20th

6. Reading

Reading got off to a horrible re-start immediately after the EL all-star game losing their first three games to Trenton (2 by one run) but rebounded to take three in a row after shutting out Trenton on Sunday.

Matt Rizzotti went 7/20, hitting in all six games, blasting 3 HR and drawing 3 walks.  He’s slugged .900 since the break and has a .370 OBP giving him a 1.270 OPS over the last week.  Honestly, people need to start looking past his age, since as soon as he qualifies by reaching 2.7 PA per Reading game (which should happen next week), he’ll be leading the EL in BA, OBP, and SLG (currently at .355/.425/.645/OPS 1.071, better than Domonic Brown’s stats in Baseballtown).

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Reading Report 6/29-7/14

6. Reading

Back after two weeks, the first complete period without Domonic Brown, who was the main reason for watching this team.

Without its star, Reading split the last two games in June, lost the first two in July, then went on a 7-game winning streak.  Arch nemesis Harrisburg terminated the streak, taking the last three games before the all-star break.

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Harold Garcia ties Joe Altobelli’s FSL hitting streak record

Other Stuff

Last night, in a game that finished very late due to a 2-hour rain delay, Harold Garcia, the Clearwater Threshers’ 23-year-old second baseman, tied a record that had lasted almost 60 years in the FSL (Joe Altobelli, 1951), hitting in his 36th consecutive game (he was 1/3 with a first-inning HR and a HBP).

NOTE: GARCIA BROKE THE RECORD SUNDAY, JULY 4th, WITH AN RBI SINGLE IN THE FIRST INNING.

Below are some details on his Philies’ career.

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