I’ve kind of been holding back, but I guess its time to just make a simple statement. He’s 18. He pitched in a Northeastern state, thus his workload/exposure was more limited than say, a kid from California. He’s a true 18 year old pitching in a league where the average prospect age is 19-20, with lots of 21-23 year olds. He’s gotten off to an awesome start. He has a big arm. He throws hard. Guys with 95-97 mph fastballs are supposed to be blowing away lousy/raw/unrefined hitters. But he’s made a total of FOUR starts. He’s thrown 24 innings in full season ball. There is absolutely ZERO upside in rushing him this season. The Phillies should continue to monitor his delivery and mechanics, as well as his innings. There’s no need to rush him to A+ this season. Tell me what the downside is in him staying in Lakewood all season, throwing 130-140 innings, striking out 160 and posting an ERA of 2.35, and then promoting him to Clearwater for next year? Here’s a test case in Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner, a first round pick, was considered raw and many felt he needed time to develop because his secondary stuff wasn’t all that refined. He blitzed the SAL last year as an 18 year old (essentially 1 month older than Knapp this season), striking out 164 in 141 IP and posting a 1.46 ERA. The Giants left him in A all season, resisting the urge to rush him, and his secondary stuff improved throughout the year. He’s now their top prospect and one of the best prospects in the game, and his development wasn’t stunted because the Giants let him dominate the level he was at.

Bottom line? There is absolutely zero reason to rush him. Lets let him dominate at Lakewood this season, keep an eye on his arm and his pitches thrown, and then move him to Clearwater next year. He’s not going to make it to Philly before 2011 at the absolute earliest, and at that point he’d be 20. Everyone take a deep breath.

This was actually posted Thursday by a commenter, but I didn’t see it until now, and I think it bears mentioning.

Shoulder Surgery Likely for Kyle Slate

…an MRI has revealed a tear in his right labrum.

“Surgery looks likely,” said the 6-foot-5, 200 pound right-hander. He said the surgery would sideline  him 7-10 months.

A really tough break for a kid who missed parts of last year with mononucleosis, but who has been very effective when he’s been able to pitch.  He’s been mentioned before on this site as a sleeper, but he’s only managed to log 29.2 IP over the past 2 years.  Here’s wishing Kyle the best in his recovery.

Sorry if this has been covered and I missed it, but 2 days ago BA listed a new set of minor league transactions;

Philadelphia Phillies
Signed: RHP Rodrigo Lopez
Released: RHP William Savage, 2B P.J. Antoniato, OF Alberto Cambero, OF Casey Craig, OF Brandon Haislet, OF Jay Miller, OF Javon Moran, OF Wilkin Ruan
Voluntarily retired: 2B Rob Watson
Added to 40-man roster: 2B Miguel Cairo
Placed on 7-day DL: RHP Manny Ayala, RHP Mike Cisco, RHP Scott Mathieson, RHP Sam Walls, LHP Jason Mackintosh, LHP Walter Tejeda, 3B Terry Tiffee, OF Jeremy Slayden
Placed on temporarily inactive list: RHP Francisco Butto, RHP Edgar Garcia
Placed on military list: OF Karl Bolt

So there’s that.

Per Todd Zolecki’s twitter account, Harry Kalas has passed away. He apparently collapsed earlier and was taken to the hospital. I grew up listening to his voice, as I’m sure many of you did, and this is a monumental loss for not only the Phillies organization and Harry’s family, but for millions of fans out there who listened to baseball, NFL Films Productions, and everything else he was a part of. You’ll be sorely missed Harry, thanks for the memories.

Link.

A very difficult first inning for Andrew Carpenter who gave up 3 hits including a 3 run homer to Juan  Miranda in a 24 pitch first inning.   The ‘Pigs go down in the bottom of the first after a lead off single by Rich Thompson.  Jason Donald did hit the ball hard, lining out to shortstop.   Continue reading Live from Coca Cola Park →

With Carlos Ruiz on the disabled list, expect Lou Marson to see fairly regular time for the Phillies  over the next two weeks.  He had not been recalled to .

Orlando Guevara has apparantly been recalled to take Marson’s place on the roster.  Guevara had been in extended spring training in Florida. Guevara, 24, saw very limited time in both Reading and Lehigh Valley last year.

The Pigs set a franchise record last night, striking out 17 times.

In his first start of the year for Lehigh Valley, Carlos Carrasco was lights out going six shutout innings, yielding only four hits and didnt walk a batter.  Carrasco threw 85 pitches, 60 for strikes, while striking out four. He left after six, and the ‘Pigs bullpen immediately blew the 1-0 lead.  The game currently remains tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 7th.

—Lou Marson was pulled from the starting lineup on Friday, presumably because of the trickle down effect resulting from the strained oblique suffered in the Phillies game by Carlos Ruiz.  The Phillies are calling Ruiz day-to day, but an oblique issue is extremely difficult for a catcher. One would believe the Phils would have to make a quick decision on the possibility of placing Ruiz on the disabled list because of the risk of having only one healthy catcher.

Threshers Defeat the Bluejays 5-2

Continue reading Clearwater Picks Up Only Minors Opening Day WIn →

Here ya go

4/9

7:05 – Lehigh Valley v Scranton-Wilkes Barre (Kendrick)
7:05 – Harrisburg v Reading (Brummett)
7:00 – Dunedin v Clearwater (Drabek)
6:35 – Delmarva v Lakewood (Cloyd)

You can use this post to get yourself all geared up and then discuss tomorrow night’s games.

This is a pet project I’ve been working on, and after an extensive amount of editing work, I’ve finally finished up part 1 of my project, looking at offense in college baseball. My goal in doing this was to find out exactly how each of the major Division 1 conferences stack up against each other. We kind of know which conferences are traditionally strong (PAC 10, SEC, etc etc), but I wanted to know how strong, and I wanted to have a frame of reference to be able to compare two conferences, and eventually two players from different conferences and see how their offensive numbers differ. The one area that I can’t dig into, simply because I don’t have the resources, is park factors, which I believe plays an important role, one I just won’t be able to investigate at this point. So, check below for my findings…

Continue reading A look at college baseball, part 1 →