You’ve given your opinion on biggest surprise and biggest disappointment, now I’ll go ahead and give my take. I gave this a good deal of thought, and I tried to distinguish between guys I wasn’t that high on (Carpenter and Golson), guys I expected to struggle (Galvis, Mattair) and focus more on guys that I had real high hopes for. I’ll give my biggest disappointment/surprise as well as two runners’ up for each, and then a little bonus at the end. So, lets get to it.

Continue reading My biggest surprise/disappointment of 2008 →

As promised, today we’ll talk about the biggest disappointment of the 2008 minor league season for the Phillies. Again use whatever criteria you see fit, and give as much or as little explanation for your choice in the comments. I’ll have more on both today and yesterday’s poll on Monday. Thanks.

I’m going to run this poll today, and biggest disappointment tomorrow, and then I’ll do the tallying of the votes over the weekend and discuss the results on Monday. Today, vote for your biggest surprise of the season. Feel free to explain your choice or simply post your vote. You’re voting for the player who had the most surprising season to you, using whatever criteria you choose to determine what a “surprise” is. Thanks.

I figured this would be a decent topic today, since the winter leagues haven’t started and there isn’t much else going on. I’m sure many of you watched Happ’s start last night. I did as well, and here are a few thoughts I had while observing…

* His velocity is still consistently in the high 80’s. Last year and the year before there were reports of him hitting 91-94, but according to MLB Gameday, which is the most accurate reading you’ll find, more accurate than the TV guns, he was 87-89 the entire night. What makes that seem faster is the way he hides the ball behind his back, and the fact that he’s very tall and lanky, meaning the ball gets on the hitter quicker because it’s released closer to home plate. This should also be a lesson, don’t always believe the velocity numbers you hear from scouts, they have a reason to embellish at times.

* Happ leaned very heavily on his fastball and changeup. By my quick count, this was his breakdown

Fastball: 57 (61.3%)
Change: 26 (28.0%)
Slider: 9 (9.7%)
Curve: 1 (0.01%)

You can argue over whether he throws a slider or a curve, its kind of a tweener pitch, so just make that 10 total, which would be 10.8%. He clearly was leaning heavily on his fastball and changeup, which seems like the smart thing to do. His one big mistake came on the slider, which Kelly Johnson deposited into the seats in RF. This winter and in spring training, tightening the break on his slider/curve should be his #1 priority.

* If he is a two pitch pitcher, he’s still better than the 1 pitch pitcher he replaced in the rotation. He needs to refine his location a bit, but last night he kept the ball down when he had to. The book on him will get out, and he’ll need to do a good job of mixing his pitches. If he can tighten the break on his slider, I see no reason why he can’t win a rotation spot next season.

What were your thoughts?

If anyone has some free time and would like to help, I have a very specific request for research help. For the minor league project I’m working on (a massive project), I need to collect signing bonus information for all international signings, from the July 2005 signing period through this past summer. I still have a ton of work to do in other areas of the project, so if anyone would be willing to help here I’d greatly appreciate it. Scout.com sometimes lists bonuses under the profiles for the players, but the information is spotty at best. I’ve essentially just been googling things like “Phillies international signings” and trying to find what I can. I need information for all 30 teams. Anything you can provide me would be of great assistance. If you do have some time and find anything, just post in the comments here or email me, this format will work;

Team – Player’s name, year signed, bonus amount

Example

Phillies – Carlos Carrasco, 2003, $300,000.

Thanks again.

Update –> I have a few names, but for now, just assume I have zero information. Redundancies are not an issue here, the more information the better.

hat tip to “Ricky Branch” for posting this one, Michael Taylor, Dominic Brown and Chris Kissock are heading to Hawaii.

hat tip to andyb for locating the list on the Crosscutters website

its a large image, so click below so it doesn’t stretch out the page….

Continue reading Instructional League rosters →

Part 1: Rounds 30-50
Part 2: Rounds 20-29
Part 3: Rounds 11-19
Part 4: Rounds 1-10
Part 5: Overview of the draft/comparison to last 2 drafts

Today we’ll get to rounds 11-19, where you need to find good value and start to move away from the org filler and into the legit prospects. Before we dig into each pick, some thoughts regarding yesterday’s post

Continue reading 2008 Draft Recap; Part 3 →

Hello everybody.  This is Zac, the typical Reading Phillies Weekly Report guy.  Just wanted to chime in with a new post so that we can all direct our focus solely where it belongs, on the Pharm.  Also, I just wanted to note, that I think it would be prudent if everyone stopped bickering about the subject of bickering.  This is PP’s site, so lets try and keep the subject of conversation focused on what he believes to be appropriate.  I think if we accomplish this goal, we will all be pleasantly surprised by the amount of knowledge we will all again about the Phillies minor league teams and players.

On to the topic of conversation, irrational loves.  We all have them, I know I do, and so I was just wondering which players some of you guys see turning into a star, or even turning into a much better player than currently projected as (whether that be a star, regular, or bench guy).  I will start off with my number one irrational love in the system, Drabek.  I do not know what it is about him, but I have these starry eyed dreams of Drabek and Hamels leading us to five straight world series championships.  So, who do ya got?

I’m actually paying for my internet right now in Boston. I signed online to check email that needed to be checked. And I decided to stop in here just to make sure everything was ok. And I come back to people still making condescending remarks in the “Off the grid” post. Seriously, you couldn’t pick up the joke in “e-beatdowns”….? I attempted to change the format here, to require people to register at wordpress, thinking that if people really wanted to be a thorn in the side, they wouldn’t take the time to actually sign up and continue to be that way. But that isn’t going to stop people. So I’ve opened up the flood gates again. You know longer have to log in. I’m done trying to “stifle discussion”, but I’m also done posting in the comments section here. I’m going to get back to doing what I intened for this site. I’m simply going to write and share my opinion in the main piece. If I have anything else to add, I’ll update the main post. But I’m not posting in the comments anymore, I’m not going to allow myself to be drawn in to any more of the ridiculous back and forth banter. So, those of you who were so put off that I decided to add a registration process (that would take all of 60 seconds), you win, the site is yours again, feel free to make the snide remarks, the mindless banter, and whatever else you want. I’m going to enjoy the rest of my vacation. The flood gates are back open. Enjoy.