Lakewood and Clearwater both squeak out wins in their respective slugfests. Yacksel Rios got hit around a little in his start, while Josh Warner has been looks pretty good in relief. And Lehigh Valley went 12 scoreless innings with Columbus before Justin Friend finally gave up a solo HR in the 13th. I’ll have to skip the graphic for now, maybe get it up later, but here’s a place to discuss. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/20/2013 →

Maikel Franco back above .400 after a 3-5 night. Kelly Dugan with three hits as well, giving him 4 multi-hit games in his last six. That’s a nice little run after a slow start at AA. And Zach Collier hit his 6th HR of the year and brought his BA back above the old Mendoza line. Sounds like he made an adjustment after a video session a couple days ago that has helped his swing (read Mike Drago’s story about that – from the Reading Eagle). Ken Giles struck out 4 and walked 2 in 2 scoreless innings. He’s got a 14/4 K/BB ratio in 7.1 IP since coming back from injury. I’d say he’s healed, (though 4BB in 7.1 IP is not ideal). And a disappointing performance from Wilmer Oberto. 2-5 with a triple and ZERO HOMERUNS! Can you believe that? Shameful. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/19/2013 →

If not for Jesse Biddle’s really nice outing, the entire write-up for today may have been “If Wilmer Oberto isn’t the player of the week, we all know the fix is in” or “O My Berto” or “Wilmer is Spanish for Grand and Oberto is Spanish for Slam”. Or something. But alas, quite the performance from Mr. Biddle. Too good to not mention.

He picked up his first win since the beginning of May or something, (though he did have that career altering Futures Game W), while going 7 innings, allowing 2 runs (1 earned), on 3H 2BB with 7K. Threw 66% strikes. Very nice.

And while I’ve spoiled my week-long Wilmer Oberto love fest with other results, I may as well mention a decent game for Ethan Martin, (though he still didn’t throw enough strikes to work at the big league level), 3-5 from Maikel Franco, (though he did have an error in the field), and 2 HR for Sebastian Valle, (though he remains Sebastian Valle). Every GCL Phillie reached base, and only debuting Venn Biter did not have a hit (in 2 PAs). And do not stare directly at Mitch Gueller’s line. I REPEAT – DO NOT LOOK AT MITCH GUELLER’S LINE WITHOUT PROPER EYE PROTECTION. Not even one out. Let’s hope Mitch himself doesn’t look at that one too much. Better forgotten.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/18/2013 →

One of the better games of Zach Collier’s season, 3-4, a HR short of the cycle, and a steal. Jim Murphy with 2 HR…a friendly reminder that he turns 28 in 2 months. Severino Gonzalez back in CLR and his start went…poorly. After throwing 6 no-hit innings last time out, Jeb Stefan only goes 3 innings. He allowed 1R on 4H 2BB and 3K. Curious why he was pulled so early. Gabriel Lino 2-4 with 2 doubles.

A nice line from Adam Morgan rehabbing at GCL – 3H and 5K in 4 scoreless innings. I imagine he’ll work some more down there, maybe with CLR, and hopefully he’s back in AAA in August.

And Wilmer Oberto, with whom we all got a little acquainted yesterday after his 2HR game on Tuesday, added his 3rd HR in 2 days. I told Matt I have been pronouncing his name like Mr. Ed says, “Wilbur”. Also worth trying – yelling it like Fred Flintstone yells “Wilma”. Good times…yes…indeed…good times.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/17/2013 →

So, on a light day, I guess we’ll talk about Wilmer Oberto. A 20-yr old, LHB, Oberto is listed at 5’11”, 185 lbs, which may or may not reflect his current size, as opposed to his size at signing. He comes to the states after 3 years in the VSL, in which he was decent, then bad, then good, respectively, and played all three outfield spots – mostly RF – and some first base. He OPSed .884 last year as a 19-yr old on his third turn through the league, though to be fair, the first two years only netted him about as many PAs as the third. He walked a good bit last year, and did not strike out all that much – 31bb and 38K in around 250 PAs. On Tuesday, he hit his first and second stateside homeruns. As such, his 2013 OPS is through the roof.

I have no guess as to whether this guy should be consider a prospect. His career trajectory would suggest not. I asked Chris King (@statsking) from Baseball Prospectus, who covers GCL and FSL, if he has an opinion. He says the bat is “intriguing”, and that he’ll be watching for Oberto today when he’s scouting the Phils’ double header with the Astros squad. FYI – Chris is a good Twitter follow for, (oddly enough), GCL and FSL stuff. Give him a try. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/16/2013 →

Kelly Dugan hit his first AA homerun. Kenny Giles struck out the side in order in his inning of work. A good sign for him. I’d guess he’s a candidate for Arizona in the fall, or possibly for winter ball in Venezuela or the DR, since his workload was extremely limited by injury this year. Lakewood managed only as many singles as errors, 4, either of which would have spoiled a pretty nice outing from Nic Hanson – 8H 0BB 4K in 6IP. He’s been respectable as a starter, save the couple games before he hit the DL in late May. And 2012 draftee Ricky Bielski is throwing some good stuff out of the bullpen in the GCL – 6H 1BB and 8K in 7.1 scoreless innings on the year. Wouldn’t be surprised to se him moved up to WIL, or into the rotation, if he keeps it up.

Speaking of the Crosscutters, be sure to read our pal Mitch Rupert’s Mid-season Top 15 prospects. Dude loves him some Cody Ashce, folks. http://www.sungazette.com/page/blogs.detail/display/1206/Mid-season-Phillies-Top-15-prospects-list.html 

And hey, while you’re at it, read some of Mitch’s other recent stuff, too – here’s a search to get you started: http://www.sungazette.com/page/search.results?nav=-1&keywords=mitch+rupert&btnSiteSearch=Search&StartDate=&EndDate=

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/15/2013 →

Cesar Hernandez in CF again. ICYMI – He will forego the AAA All-Star Game in favor of playing some CF with Reading. He could see time there in the bigs shortly. Honestly, with his bat, if he can run a decent route in CF, he could be valuable there. The arm will be a question, though as 2013 Phillies fans, we know how little arm can be allowed to play in an MLB centerfield. Miguel Nunez with a fine outing for Lakewood – 3 H and 3K in 6 scoreless IP. Zach Green with another double, now has 20 XBH in ~110 PA. His ISO isstill hovering around .300. Walking enough, striking out too much on the year.

And I’ll call that a perfect segue to Larry Greene – he did not start Sunday, but he did get into the game, and managed a double and 2Ks in 3PA. 7 hits including 4 doubles in his last 5 games, though he’s struck out 7 times in that span. For the year, he’s sporting a BB rate of 12.2% and a K rate of 33.8%. Take a look at his stats this year versus last, and it’s easy to see the lack of progress in a similar number of games. Essentially, everything is worse, except he’s somehow stolen 5 bases versus 1 last year. He’s got 6 more weeks of action to push his game forward or risk repeating the level.

And finally, Jesse Biddle struck out Maikel Franco in the Futures Game – took three pitches, Curve, FB, Curve. Nasty curves. Filth. Biddle added another inning of hitless ball, though he did walk one batter, and was credited with what’s sure to be a career-defining “W” 😉 Franco was 0-2 as a DH while Miguel Sano took time at 3B ahead of him. I tacked on the first Futures Game Box I found at the bottom of the graphic here.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/14/2013 →

So, last night, there was a bit of a Larry Greene incident at the Lakewood/Hickory game. Hudson Belinsky, who I mentioned the other day when he commented positively on Jeb Stefan, said on Twitter that Greene had allowed a homerun by not playing a ball hit into the left field corner. He called it unprofessional, as if it appeared Greene did not see the ball, and possibly was not paying attention. Also, Belinsky stated Joe Jordan was in attendance, and “looked very upset”.

Now, here’s the way it was described by Hickory’s write-up:

“Leading off the inning, Vickerson launched a high fly ball deep into the left field corner off of BlueClaws starter Jonathan Musser. Lakewood left fielder Larry Greene Jr. immediately threw his hands up indicating he had lost the ball in the sky, and by the time the ball landed on the warning track Vickerson was already rounding second before coming home without a throw.”

If you choose to believe that a leftfielder playing at this level, paying proper attention, can simply lose a ball off the bat and never find it, that’s fine. Reasonable that it could happen that way. If you choose to believe that one way this happens is through a momentary or consistent lack of concentration, that’s fine, too. If that’s the case, I would consider that unprofessional. It could have happened that way. Either way, Greene misplayed a ball into a run. That’s generally bad, but is it a misplay, a ding on his defensive grade, or a red flag?

The team’s response will likely give us some idea what they thought of the play. Greene finished the game, so it would seem manager Mickey Morandini didn’t feel it warranted immediate discipline. Jordan saw the whole thing, so hopefully one of the couple media members who regularly cover Lakewood will track down an answer on what he thought about the whole thing.

Larry Greene could be fined for the incident and allowed to keep playing. We may never hear about that if it happens. If Greene is out of action today, we could guess it was a result of this incident, but until we hear it from the team, I won’t make that assumption. If he’s out for a week, that’s a pretty safe bet. If Greene is playing today, one would likely assume that the team is ok with this incident as simply part of the game – sometimes guys lose balls in the lights or the sun or the high evening sky.

Other things happened last night. Here’s the short version: Brody Colvin walks guys. Anthony Hewitt, Chris Serritella, Brian Pointer and Andrew Knapp with big nights. Another nice start from Drew Anderson. First pro HRs from Trey Williams and Nick Ferdinand.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/13/2013 →

Holy Severino Gonzalez. 11K, 3H and 2BB in 6 scoreless. The most shocking thing there might actually be that he walked 2 guys on the same day. 6 K in 3IP for Yacksel Rios in his first start of the year at WIL. His K/BB on the year sits at 15/1. Maybe something’s clicked for him. Time will tell. Rehab start for Adam Morgan at GCL – 2R, 3H 3K in 3IP. Good to see him back in action. And the first professional homerun from Jose “Don’t Call Me Albert. No, Seriously, Don’t. It’s Jose.” Pujols. Weird nickname. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/12/2013 →

Three Lakewood starters combined for a no-hitter tonight. Jeb Stefan did the heavy lifting – 6 innings, 4BB and 5K. Ramon Oviedo struck out 4 in two innings, and then apparently hurt himself, per @hudsonbelinsky, and Chris Burgess closed it out.

Stefan’s an interesting guy – he’s been in the pen a lot since being drafted last year as a 4th year junior. This year, though, he’s been pretty good in his couple of starts, allowing 16 baserunners and striking out 18 in 21 innings as a starter. He was a BA Top 500 guy in last year’s draft. Belinsky had him sitting 88-90 tonight, with what he called a plus change and a repeatable delivery. BA said last year that he had been touching 94. Worth watching his progress in the rotation.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/11/2013 →