I was at the Lehigh Valley game Thursday.

Savery’s outing was interesting. First, he came into the game in the third inning after a reliever (Concepcion) had started, and finished things out.  I don’t know why they brought him in out of the pen, but it seemed to hep him. He mixed in a lot of pitches, threw a lot of 84-86 mph sinkers. Threw one FB at 89, which was his maximum velocity. He got a lot more swings and misses than he usually does, and really only gave up a couple hard-hit balls (one was a 450-foot HR, his only run). IF he could recover three or 4 mph on his FB, he could be a help in the majors. If not, I just can’t see him being more than a AAA/AAAA guy. He’d have to be the next Jaime Moyer, and he doesn’t seem to have the consistent control in the strike zone to do that.
Continue reading Brief write-up of LV game Thursday night →

Back again with another Reading Report after 4 weeks.  I’ll try to make this a bit more regular for the rest of the summer now that work has settled down.

Reading has been on an unreal offensive run this month.  They’ve played 26 games.  They’ve scored seven or more runs in 15 of those games.  They did, however, manage to lose three of those games, scoring 26 runs in those three losses.

Continue reading Reading Report 6/1-6/28 →

Giant economy report–3 weeks at once.

Reading was 10-10 over the last three weeks (now 7 games under .500 and 9.5 games out of first place), with a lack of offense being the culprit in most of the losses. A lingering hamstring injury to Tyson Gillies and a cool-ish Domonic Brown didn’t help.  Promoting Matt Rizzottti from Clearwater seems to have given a bit of a spark to the offense, although Rizzotti hadn’t many men on base for him with Brown slumping and Quentin Berry having not returned to his usual form after nursing an injury during April.

Continue reading Reading Report 5/10-5/31 →

Watched from the picnic area today.

Game was pretty dull. Lots of he pitchers for Reading were prospects.

The bad news was Aumont–pitched 4+ innings and produced maybe 1 bad swing all day. Flying Squirrels (yeah, I know) hit rockets all over the yard. Aumont topped at 90 (one time) with his FB and consistently hit 88. His best pitch was a 73 mph curve. He now throws from his ear a bit, which explains the loss of velocity. I have no hope for him a future major leaguer with this delivery and velocity–his FB just doesn’t move that much. He never got a lot out of his lower body when he pitched, but it seems like the Phils have shortened his arm motion and are working on being on-balance and hitting spots with him.  Hope he still has the 95 mph stuff around after they change his delivery.

Continue reading Report from Today’s R-Phils Game →

LV loses 6-3: Mayberry 0/3, walk; Zagurski 3-run inning, loss; Mathieson 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, K

Reading loses 12-7: Berry 1/4, 2B; Gillies 1/4; Brown 2/4, HR; Galvis 0/4; Stutes 1 IP, 1 BB, 2 K; Aumont 3.1 IP, 8! BB–I’m pretty sure he’s hurt

CLW wins 8-3: Gose 0/4, BB; Overbeck 2/5, 2 2B, 3 K ;Rizzotti 0/3, 2 BB; Sussdorf 2/3, HR, BB; Kennelly 2/3, 2B, HR, BB; Hanzawa 2/4; Sanchez 7 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Lakewood wins 3-1 (on only 3 hits): Hewitt 1/3, HR; Santana 1/2, BB; Villar 1/3, 3B; Way 7.2 IP, 5 H , 1 R, 0 BB, 10 K; Shreve 0.1 IP, 1 K; Zeid 1 IP, 2 K, save

I went to the Pigs’ game tonight, so I thought I’d post a few brief observations (from my earlier message board at philliesphans.com):

First, Savery. He had decent control for the most part, threw an 86 mph fastball (touched 87, occasionally sunk to 84), an 80-79 mph slider, and a slower change-up (around 73). This guy will never pitch in the majors. Every single batter on the Indians squared him up pretty much every at bat. Line-drive outs, hard hit foul balls, and their share of hits. Savery seems to nibble when he’s behind in the count, but on the few occasions he gets ahead, he almost invariably throws a waist-high FB that gets smacked. He clearly needs another pitch, an out pitch to use when he gets ahead. Without that pitch, he’s not even a LOOGY.

Continue reading Report from LV tonight →

Reading is still struggling to find a way to win consistently, going 2-5 since my last report.  2 of the 5 losses came in spectacular fashion, with the previously solid bullpen surrendering large 9th inning leads.  On the good news side, Quentin Berry, Tyson Gillies, and Domonic Brown are back playing, and Brown and Gillies seem to have found their strokes (it’s a bit too soon to tell for Berry).

Continue reading Reading Phillies Weekly Report 4/24-5/1 →

Reading wins, 2-0

Gillies 0/4; Galvis 0/3, BB; Brown 1/3, 3B, BB

Aumont 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K; Chapman 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Schwimer 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, save

Nice 1-hitter by the staff! Only hit was a ground-ball single to right.

Continue reading Sunday Boxscores 4/25 →

LV wins 6-2

Mayberry 2/4, HR; Mazone a solid start, and a scoreless inning for Villarreal

Reading wins 3-2

Gillies 2/4; Brown 1/2, BB

Worley 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K; Escalona 1 IP, K, save

Continue reading Saturday Night 4/24 Boxscores →