Some breaking news out of Reading this morning, OF Tyson Gillies, acquired in the CLiff Lee deal was placed on the DL with a left hamstring strain.  Gillies had been playing better lately after really struggling initially this year.  He had a 7 game hitting streak snapped on Monday, With speed being Gillies game, the Phils are sure to be conservative with this injury.  Gillies was hitting .247 with 2 HR and 6 RBI, to go along with 1 stolen base in his 97 AB’s this season. See below for Aumont commenatry from todays game. Continue reading Gillies Placed on DL, Aumont Update →

The Lakewood BlueClaws have been kind enough to arrange for a Question and Answer with reliever Josh Zeid.  Zeid, a 6’4, 210 reliever was named the Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Month for the Month of April.  Zeid, 23,  was chosen in the 10th Round of the 2009 draft out of Tulane University.  Zeid spent the first two seasons of his collegiate career at Vanderbilt, and then transferred to Tulane.  He was the Gatorade Connecticut High School Player of the Year his senior year in high school.

Continue reading Q and A with Josh Zeid →

A look at the Lehigh Valley weekend.  See below for summaries and notes.

Friday–AFter a strong start in which Lehigh Valley took the early lead on a Melvin Dorta RBI single and Ryan Vogelsong struck out 5 of the first 6 hitters he faced, things went downhill quickly in the 6-3 Lehigh Valley loss to Columbus. Columbus took the lead with a two run third, however Lehigh Valley quickly answered with two of their own on a Neil Sellers two run double.  Columbus tied the game in the 4th, off of starter Ryan Vogelsong who went 5 inningd, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits.  He walked 2 and struck out 9.  The wheels fell off in the 8th when a crucial error by Luis Maza led to three unearned runs, sealing the game for the Clippers. Mike Zagurski (0-1) took the loss.  Neil Sellers was 2-3 at the plate with 2 RBI’s, while Cody Ransom was 1-3 with 2 runs scored and 2 stolen bases. Continue reading ‘Pigs Weekend Update →

Thanks to the amazing resource that is Prospectube.com, I found five new videos of Jarred Cosart. They were uploaded just a few days ago, and come from his April 14th appearance.

Part 1, 4/14/2010
Part 2, 4/14/2010
Part 3, 4/14/2010
Part 4, 4/14/2010
Part 5, 4/14/2010

Old scouting bureau video pre-2008 draft.

Just a few thoughts. His tempo is still very slow, and that hitch from his pre-draft delivery is still there. But it appears the Phillies have smoothed out his motion a bit, and he seems a bit more under control. The arm speed is still blazing fast, and you can see the fastball explode out of his hand. The big difference I see is that he comes from a lower arm slot, so I don’t think he’ll be able to throw a traditional curveball, and I wonder how well he’ll be able to command a changeup from that slot. He throws a few hard sliders in the video, which will probably be the preferred secondary pitch he sticks with. I wonder if maybe he’ll be able to pick up a split finger grip on a changeup, similar to the pitch Roy Halladay uses. Halladay’s “changeup” sits in the 83-85 range, from what I’ve seen, and with Cosart’s 93-96 mph fastball, that would be an ideal range for his changeup as well. Still, impressive stuff here. Massive arm strength.

You can also check out other good videos of Lakewood guys by looking at the channel for this user, PhillesProspects, here.

As a regular reader, you know that I generally (almost always) discourage talking about the big league team here. This site was started with a very targeted purpose, to focus solely on the minor leagues. There are some situations where it is important to discuss the big league team, ie, how current prospects fit in to the big league team, or if a player gets injured and the speculation is to who replaces him. But in general, I don’t really care about the latest Phillies game with regard to this site. We’re here to focus on the Phillies minor league system. That said, when I see something consistently get brought up over and over again, and it does tie in somewhat directly with the minor league system, I feel it does warrant attention and discussion. This is the case with the idea of Jayson Werth’s future in the Phillies organization. In my opinion, the “analysis” of Werth’s future beyond 2010 has been somewhat shoddy. So I’m going to do my best to explain why I think its far more likely that Werth re-signs here than goes elsewhere. After that, you can make a judgment, but hopefully when someone brings it up and uses the incorrect assumptions, you correct them and maybe show them this post. I’m going to try and be as detailed as possible. Check below for more

Continue reading The economics of keeping Jayson Werth →

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

A couple of news worthy items this Tuesday evening. First, Clearwater second baseman Fidel Hernandez was suspended for 50 games following a postive test for a performace enhancing substance, according to the AP. He been hitting .278 with 0 HR and 6 RBI as the starting 2B for the Threshers.

Pitcher John Ennis was activated and assigned to Reading after his year long recovery from Tommy John surgery. The 6’5 righty last played in 2008 for Lehigh Valley (he did pitch 0.1 innings last year) going 4-3 with a 3.67 ERA in 40 games (12 starts).

Oh, and Anthony Gose has 3 stolen bases this evening, giving him 10 on the year.

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 →

A tough day for the Reading pitching staff with both Mike Cisco and Jason Stephens placed on the DL, both with right elbow inflammation.  Cisco, a starter is 1-3 with a 3.68 ERA in his 4 starts, to go along with a WHIP of 1.08.  Stephens has thrown 13.1 scoreless innings to start the year all in relief.  Jason Anderson was sent from Lehigh Valley to Reading to take one of the two roster spots in Reading.  Lehigh Valley needed to make a move after Antonio Bastardo was returned to Lehigh Valley from Philadelphia.

A quick look at the ‘Pigs weekend, along with a view notes.

Friday–Lehigh Valley closed out their series in Rochester with a 10-3 loss to the RedWings, splitting their series.  The ‘Pigs jumped to an early 1-0 lead, however starter Brian Mazone was hit hard in the 5th inning, giving up 5 runs, allowing Rochester to take a lead they didnt relinquish.  Back to back homers by Ransom (5) and Tracy (2), cut the lead temporarily to 5-3, however the lead grew once again when Rochester added a run in the 6th.  Mazone left after five innings, having allowed 5 runs on 7 hits.  He didnt walk a batter and struck out 3. Both Ehren Wasserman and Mike Zagurski got shelled in relief, resulting in the 10-3 final. Continue reading ‘Pigs Weekend Update →