Justin Friend’s ERA comes in at 0.23. What a year. Reading clinched a playoff spot. Playoffs start Wednesday in Baseballtown. Good stuff.
In Lakewood, Kelly Dugan went 3 for 3, raising his BA to .300. Listen, I don’t value BA all that much, especially as a predictive tool, but if you think that’s not a good thing for that guy’s confidence, I don’t know what to tell ya. So good for him, and really, a good year all around for him. Mostly healthy and generally raking. Nothing wrong with that.
I’m going to go ahead and start calling Kenny Giles “KG”. Has a nice ring to it, right? KG struck out the side in his 1 IP today. Ethan “EM” Martin with a big game today, 2H/0BB/8K in 7 scoreless. Larry “LG2” Greene Jr. finished with a 14.3% BB rate and a 26.0% K rate. If he’s going to hit a mess of homers, (he only managed 2 this year but 23 doubles), that K rate is totally fine by me, and that BB rate is awesome. Maikel Franco finished with a .775 OPS, .925 after the ASB. You can make up a clever 2 letter nickname for him all on your own.
Roman Quinn with his first professional (regular season/over the fence) homerun. Franco and Dugan with three hits each.
None of the three teams in playoff contention helped their cause. May and Pettibone both with less than stellar outings, and Frank Gailey, (of all people), struck out 12 Clearwater Threshers in six innings. I kid you not. Frank Gailey. Yes, the same one. Burn.
Clearwater win puts them into a three-way first place tie. Cameron Rupp with 4 hits and 4 RBI. Lehigh Valley loses but stays alive – their “unmagic” number is 1. Reading falls, and Brody Colvin’s line looks very bad again.
Maikel Franco ends with a .989 OPS for the month of August. And his K rate for the year looks like it will come in under 15%. Truly impressive for a guy who just turned 20. Would like to see him walk more, but I’ll take 7+% with as much power as he’s shown.
And on the “things looking up from the bottom of the abyss” front – Tyler Greene finished August with a K Rate under 30%, a BB rate above 6%, and a .670 OPS. A sign of something good to come? Perhaps. A small sample? Undoubtedly.
Darin Ruf did something. And hey, so did Justin Friend. Team records for both. Congrats!
Roman Quinn with another triple – his 11th. Mitch Rupert tweeted that broke a Short Season record at Williamsport. Someone pointed out in the comments in the last couple days that he only has 8 doubles all year. Probably stretching singles.
Elsewhere, 3ER, 5H, 3BB and 9K in 6IP for Ethan Stewart, coming off several not great outings. 2 hits and 1 2B a piece for Asche and Ruf, who also walked twice. And an OK line from Adam Morgan – 3ER, 6H, 4BB, 6K in 6IP. Continue reading Box Score Recap 8-29-2012
Congrats to Darin Ruf on his franchise-tying 37th HR of the year. We can argue about what to make of his future, (we don’t have to, but I’m sure we will…again), he’s been absolutely crushing it the last month+. Asche, Joseph and Gillies all had 3 hits in that game, Gillies and Joseph each with a HR.
Elsewhere, Maikel Franco was 4-4 plus a BB and drove in a run. What a second half that guy’s had. He was OPSing .607 at their all-star break, after – .910. And 6 Ks in 4 IP from Kevin Brady for WIL. 2BB also, bringing his NYPL total to 5. Versus 44K. In 34 innings.
Light schedule Monday, with the DSL season ended, a rainout in Daytona and an off-day for Lakewood. FYI – DSL is into the playoffs now, and the Phils did not make it into the tourney. They finished 32-36, well off the pace in the Boca Chica South division.
Worth mentioning 2H and 2R each from Darin Ruf and Cody Asche, (including Ruf’s 36th HR, if that kind of thing interests you), but what a line from Trevor May: 8IP, 2H 1 R, 0BB, 9K. 3 flyball outs, 8 on the ground. That’s top notch.
Elsewhere, every Williamsport Crosscutter had at least 1 hit, as Josh Warner shut down Jamestown on 4 hits over 6 scoreless IP.
Ok, so Cody Asche’s ISO in AA is .225. That’s pretty remarkable. See the list here for the qualified .220 and higher ISO MLB seasons over the last 10 years for third basemen:
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/ueXSd
I’m not saying Asche will do this in the bigs – quite the opposite. Look at how few 3B really show power of that kind in full seasons in the bigs. Some of us, myself included, might want to temper our expectations a little as he advances.
But man has he been mashing at AA. I mean, good freakin’ gracious.
Hard to complain about this line from Hoby Milner – 6 scoreless IP, 2H, 2BB, 6K. Curious to see what kind of year he puts together in 2013. A transition from the U of Texas bullpen this season to starting in A ball seems to have gone fairly well, with a very strong August.
One more – Franklyn Vargas. 6K, 1H, 1 BB in 3 scoreless IP today. For a 6’4″ 205lb lefty who turned 18 years old 4 days ago, I’ll take more than a K per inning in the GCL, even with a high walk rate. Very intriguing.
Phuture Phillies 