I don’t have time today to crank out the indepth piece I wanted to do, so instead, I’m going to pose an open question. Going forward, not just the rest of this season, or just next season, which prospect do you think will have the better long term career; Drew Carpenter or JA Happ? State your case in the comments.

Julian Sampson made his debut, following one of our better prospects, Heitor Correa, in the GCL Phillies 6-0 win today. Sampson’s line

2.0 IP, lots of 0’s, 1 K

All 5 of Sampson’s non-strikeout outs came via the ground…nice. Correa, who has been awesome since his first few appearances, went 5 innings, giving up 1 H, 1 BB, and striking out 1.

About 2 months ago, I noted that Brad Harman was starting to piece things together and was rebounding nicely from his slow start. Today, I noticed a comment in that old post that caught my eye. Here it is;

1. Chris Harman Says:
   August 23rd, 2007 at 6:34 pm eI’m Brads dad just to let you know his Mum didn’t pass away in 2006 and is still going strong he just strugled with the jump to Clearwater and being a long way from home. I speak to Brad on a regular basis and he is working hard on his hitting and the move to 2B I think has helped. We speak mainly about his mental approach and his mechanics, we all know he can play defence and every thing else will come with experience remember he is only 21.
   Cheers.
   Chris Harman.

Now, anyone can leave a comment here, using any name they’d like, but this strikes me as something that doesn’t feel made up. In fact, I checked the IP address, and it comes back as being from Australia. So, Mr Harman, thank you for checking. This comment is real interesting to me. Baseball America, as well as other major prospect outlets claimed that Brad’s mother had passed away, I think everyone thought this was the case, and it’s obviously great to hear that she is fine. With that said, here’s a quick snapshot of Harman’s numbers from the beginning of the year till now;

APR  : 99 PA — .226/.242/.323 — 2.1% BB — 31.3% K — 28.6% XBH — .093 ISO
MAY:  84 PA — .221/.307/.221 — 10.7% BB — 20.2% K– 0.0% XBH — .000 ISO
JUN: 89 PA — .272/.337/.457 — 9.0% BB — 20.2% K — 45.5% XBH — .185 ISO
JUL: 76 PA — .313/.392/.597 — 13.2% BB — 22.4% K — 38.1% XBH — .297 ISO
AUG: 104 PA — .330/.385/.564 — 7.7% BB — 21.2% K — 48.4% XBH — .234 ISO

As you can see, it’s been a tale of two halves for him. He turns 22 in November, and is on track to start next season in AA, where he will still be on track in terms of age relative to level. The key is to continue to hit for power, as he’s done over the last three months, while keeping his walk rate somewhere around 10% and his K rate at no more than 22-23%. Harman has definitely regained some of his prospect status with a solid 3 months.

Remember yesterday when I mentioned the long list of injured Phillies pitches and those being called up to replace them? Well now that our best starting pitcher is headed to the DL, who will replace him? The obvious answer is that no one can really replace the excellent performance we’ve gotten from Hamels this year, but there are a few candidates.

JA Happ: He’s been throwing better of late, control is still spotty, but he’s one of the few options we have in the upper minors

Carlos Carrasco: I really hope they don’t go this direction. Carrasco has really struggled of late at Reading, but threw a gem last night. I’d let him build on that, and if they want to use him at the ML level, I’d wait till September 1 when the rosters expand and put him in the bullpen where they can manage his innings.

Andrew Carpenter: Carpenter has been our more reliable starting pitching prospect since June 1, but he’s only in Clearwater, and that seems like a big jump, even for a polished college starter.

Happ really seems like the only viable option, unless they decide to use newly promoted Fabio Castro as a starter and then bring up a pitcher from Reading or Ottawa to use in relief, maybe an Anderson Garcia or  Joe Bisenius, even though he’s struggled. Remember, moves like this are complicated based on the management of the 40 man roster, so if they choose to bring someone up that isn’t on the 40 man roster, it will probably lead to them having to outright someone off the current 40 man.

Who do you think should start in place of Hamels, and who do you think should take the last spot on the current 25 man roster when he hits the DL?

Though it wasn’t his prettiest game of the year the bullpen picked him up and helped get Andrew Carpenter his record tying 15th win of the year. Andrew joins Ezequiel Astacio of the 2003 Clearwater Phillies as the only Clearwater pitcher to have ever earned 15 wins in a season. Andrew currently has a record of 15-6 and is 8-2 since the all-star break with an ERA of 2.22 over that stretch.

Continue reading Andrew Carpenter Picks Up Record Tying 15th Win in Clearwater →

I hope Fabio has paid up his insurance premiums, as he’s the next guy to walk through the revolving door in the Phillies bullpen, a door which has ultimately led to the trainer’s room and then the disabled list. Mike Zagurski got the tap when Eaton went on the DL, and was injured almost immediately. Enter Yoel Hernandez, and he gets hurt almost immediately. So, Fabio, best of luck!

Today’s question; do you see Castro as a starter or reliever going forward? If he were to pitch a full season in the big leagues next year, what kind of numbers do you see him putting up?

We sometimes get caught up in ranking guys on prospect lists, wondering what so and so will become, etc etc, and sometimes we forget that not every guy in the minors is a prospect, and not every guy is going to make it to the big leagues. Many of these guys know that, yet they continue to play in hopes of one day getting their shot, much like Chris Coste did last season. For every Chris Coste, there are hundreds of guys who won’t make it, but they keep plugging along in hopes of one day getting their shot. Donald Leypoldt, a freelance writer from the Manchester Silkworms of the NECBL, and he passed along a nice article he wrote on Gary Burnham, so I felt I’d share it here. Your feedback, as always, is appreciated.

Continue reading Nice Gary Burnham piece →

Andrew Carpenter kept his solid pitching going for the Threshers on Wednesday night by picking up a complete game win for his 14th victory of the year.   The all-time Clearwater record for wins in a season is 15, and with at least three if not four more starts on tap before the season is over Andy has an excellent shot at eclipsing that mark.

Andrew was a member of the Western Division All-Star team, and since the all-star break he owns a record of 7-2 with a 1.95 ERA allowing opponents to hit just .228 against him.

Continue reading Andrew Carpenter Closing in on Clearwater Record →

Kevin Goldstein gave props to Jason Donald today in his ranking of shortstop prospects in the minors, ranking Donald 8th. The list

1. Reid Brignac (TBD)
2. Chin-lung Hu (LAD)
3. Carlos Triunfel (SEA)
4. Brent Lillibridge (ATL)
5. Jed Lowrie (BOS)
6. Hector Gomez (COL)
7. Chris Nelson (COL)
8. Jason Donald

A third-round pick last year, Donald never lived up to expectations in college, but he’s been the most pleasant surprise in the Phillies organization this year. Donald is one of those players who is more valuable than the sum of his parts. The are no real weaknesses in his offensive game, as he hits for average with gap power and draws his share of walks. Defensively, it’s much of the same, as he rarely makes the spectacular play, but he’s fundamentally sound and consistently converts every ball he gets to into an out. He’s a solid but unspectacular talent with no real career path within the organization due to the presence of both Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley

9. Elvis Andrus (TEX)
10. Brian Bixler (PIT)

Not really THAT big of a shock really. The Phillies needed to clear a spot on the 40 man roster for Russell Branyan, so someone had to go. Geary was optioned to Ottawa again, another non-shock. Segovia was always kind of a fringe guy, and it was tough to figure out if he could get by with a lack of velocity and true out pitches, and we found out the answer this season. When a player is designated for assignment, a team has 72 hours to trade or release him. Best of luck to him wherever he ends up.