Great, now we have to find a 2014 40-man spot for Perci Garner? THANKS A TON, PERCI. Ok, probably not yet, though, that was a pretty good start – 64% strikes, 6 hits, 2 BB and 7K in 5.2 IP. Not great, but pretty good. JP Crawford with his first 2 hits at Lakewood, helping a good start from Mark Leiter Jr. You have to wonder what they do with Leiter next year, and if there’s any upside there. He’s got the pedigree, obviously, but that only takes a player so far without results. Also impressive for Lakewood was Miguel Nunez – his K Rate is not great overall, but he’s got 7 Ks in 5IP each of his last two starts, and has walked only 2 over the same span. Maybe there’s something more coming from the 20-year-old righty.

Also of note – here’s a feature from MiLB.com on Williamsport’s Sam Hiciano’s big night on Saturday. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/19/2013 →

Three Williamsport Crosscutters combined to no-hit The Mahoning Valley Scrappers. Yacksel Rios walked three and struck out six in five innings, (not nine like I said earlier), Mark Meadors followed with three clean innings, and Manny Martinez closed out the game with another. The WIL offense put together eight runs on 12 hits, including three from CF Gustavo Martinez. Jesse Biddle with another pretty good performance at AA. Throwing strikes at a 64% clip, he allowed eight hits and struck out seven in six innings. Not as good as his last turn, but two good starts in a row is great to see.

And Tyson Gillies is hitting pretty well in August – OPSing .815 for the month, with a homer, four doubles and four steals in as many attempts. If nothing else, he’s shown his legs are healthy enough to steal some bases this year. He’s not running wild, (as they say), but 16/21 is useful. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/18/2013 →

All kinds of good stuff on Saturday. Cam Rupp with his 14th HR of the year in around 325 PAs, ISO near .200. Very strong. Tyler Henson with the Zach Green Special – 3-5 with 2 XBH, (both doubles), and 2Ks. Kelly Dugan with his 7th AA home run – his 17th overall in 2013. Zach Collier stays hot with three more hits – his post-ASB stats are actually looking pretty good. Hoby Milner and Ryan O’Sullivan allowed 7 hits and struck out 7 Dunedin Blue Jays in a combined shutout. Sam Hiciano went 3-5 with a double and two home runs – a single shy of The Big Wheel. Drove in 8 runs. Kind of a big day. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/17/2013 →

Slow news day for the Phillies, so let’s talk about some minor league news. Hmm…nothing there either. Oh well…just the games then.

Cesar Hernandez with his 30th steal. Not bad for missing about 5 weeks between the bigs and injuries. Three hits a piece for Jiwan James and Harold Martinez, and two each for Altherr and Perkins. Two total hits for The Lakewood Blueclaws spoils at fine performance from Ramon Ovideo – 2R 6H 2BB and 7K in 5IP. A similar looking effort for Feliberto Sanchez in the GCL, 1R 5H 1BB and 7K, also in 5IP – he’s shown some better peripherals in August – 11K and 5BB in 15 IP. We’ll see if he can close out his year on a high note. Not a great night from Mitch Gueller – gave up four runs on 10 hits in four innings. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/16/2013 →

Seve G and the Boyz (Colton Murray and Ken Giles) , struck out 13 Daytona Cubs. Now that they downed Cubs, what are they gonna do? Probably pitch again in a couple days. That’s what.

Ok, now that I have that out of my system, Cam Rupp, Tyson Gillies and Zach Collier with 2 hits a piece. Harold Martinez added three more hits, Zach Green hit his league leading 11th HR, and Deivi Grullon hit his first pro bomb. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/15/2013 →

Tyler Cloyd has been a different pitcher in July and August – 39H and 6 BB in 52.1 IP for a WHIP of 0.86, plus a respectable 36K. And how about this – 11 of his hits and one of the walks were in his first start of July. So since that time, he’s gone 47 innings, allowing just 28H and 5BB, for a WHIP of 0.70. He went the distance last night, striking out 7 and allowing just 3 hits. With John Lannan out, and a need for a starter on 8-20, Cloyd could be the man for the job. However, if Pettibone only needs the one rehab start tonight, (possible since they kept him up north rather than sending him to CLR or GCL), his turn would fall on the 20th, and Cloyd may be left out. Not for lack of recent results on his part.

Maikel Franco 2-2 with a walk. Harold Martinez 3-6 with 2 doubles in the CLR doubleheader. Nice job by Luis Paulino and his bullpen mates to shut out Daytona. Watch out for Delvi Francisco’s line for Lakewood – it burns the eyes. And two new names in the GCL bullpen – Jordan Elliott and Chris Motta. I will guess these were UDFA signings – they’re both the right age and have no prior pro experience.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/14/2013 →

A good result from Jesse Biddle, after one questionable and three bad results his prior four times out. He struck out nine in six innings, and though he needed 109 pitches to get through six, around 2/3 went for strikes. Hopefully that’s a turning point for him. XBH for Franco and Dugan, two doubles for Valle and two triples for Collier. Cam Perkins went deep for CLR in the nightcap, where Mark Leiter Jr. pitched well in his first pro start. Probably an org arm, there. Wilmer Oberto was 4-4, and Jose Pujols had what’s sure to be his first of, I don’t know, let’s say “several” professional triples. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/13/2013 →

Light day yesterday, with WIL on their all-star break (the game is tonight), and Reading and Lakewood on scheduled off-days. Gillies, Susdorf and Galvis with two hits a piece. Clearwater hitters managed just four knocks while Hoby Milner had a decent outing – 7IP, 3R, 7H, 2BB, 2K. A good chunk of the GCL lineup continues to hit – spots 1-6 had either XBH or multi-hit games, and Robinson Torres and Herlis Rodriguez had both. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/12/2013 →

Maikel Franco 3-5 with a grand slam. Kelly Dugan also went deep for Reading as the Fightin’s pounded out 16 hits. Cesar Hernandez took a pinch hitting opportunity – his first action in what feels like about 2 weeks. Clearwater took the lead in the top of the 11th on a Harold Martinez RBI single, but Ken Giles gave up two runs in the bottom of that inning to let that one slip away. Very strong outing from Miguel Nunez – allowed one hit, struck out seven, walked two in five scoreless innings. Andrew Pullin went 3-5 with his second HR of the year – He’s OPSing .744, which is a bit less than I’d hoped for out of his bat, but passable. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/11/2013 →

Cam Rupp went deep, his fifth at AAA. Trevor May pitched ok in beating Reading. Severino Gonzalez was very good for CLR, and Kenny Giles blew the save there. Wille Carmona OPSing .824 since the SAL all-star break. As a 22 yr-old, that doesn’t tell me much. Drew Anderson was strong in a loss for WIL. Nick Ferdinand with his second HR in two days, and JP Crawford is OPSing .977 on the year for GCL. He leads the league in AVG, OBP, OPS and is fifth in SLG, tied for fifth in SB and sixth in BB. Stellar.

Here’s a place for your discussion on Saturday’s action. I went out to Nats Park last night at the last minute for the Phils game, and that threw off my whole weekend plan, so I’m going to have to skip the graphic today. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/10/2013 →