Lets get right to it..

* Jason Donald was promoted to Clearwater yesterday and went 0/3 with an RBI in his debut for the Threshers. Will the Phillies move Cardenas back to SS now or leave him at 2B? He played 2B last night, but if he can play shortstop, I’d move him back there for the time being. We’ll see. Also of note at Clearwater, Lou Marson is now hitting .286/.361/.367. The low slugging % isn’t good at all, but he still doesn’t turn 21 until later this month, and he’s holding his own at High A, that’s a positive sign.

Continue reading Tuesday morning notes →

If you’ve been following the blog here, you probably have a general idea that I don’t get too excited over guys who are too old for their level and putting up good numbers early. I warned you about Javon Moran when he was hitting .400 in the first month, and I warned you about Landon Jacobsen after two great starts. However, I can say that Jesus Merchan has me completely baffled. A few people had asked about him a few weeks ago in the comments section of an entry, and I kind of just dismissed it. However, I keep staring at his numbers, and I wonder if something is going on here. With all of that said, I wanted to take a closer look and see if I was missing something, see if this appears to just be another flash in the non-prospect pan, or if it’s something else all together.

Continue reading Jesus Merchan….should we believe? →

Ottawa Lynx Press Release: Lynx OF Lou Collier announced his retirement today, ending his 14-year professional baseball career. Collier, 33, retires with a career .297 Minor League batting average, spanning 14 seasons and more than 3,800 at-bats. He made his Major League debut in 1997 with Pittsburgh and had a .241 average with eight home runs and 78 runs batted in over 315 Major League games with the Pirates, Brewers, Expos, Red Sox and Phillies. Collier previously played for the Lynx in 2002. He hit .313 with 8 HR and 74 RBI in 132 career games with the Lynx.

Got an e-mail back, Happ left last night’s game for precautionary reasons due to his arm tightening up. I’m not a doctor, so I won’t even bother going further. However, I don’t like the sound of it. Ah heck, it’s a blog, I’m supposed to speculate. His control has been really bad this year, much more so than any stop in his career to date. I hate to even bring it up, but it might be ligament damage. I’m sure they’ll try rest and rehab, but you know what the ultimate outcome is. Again, this is all speculation. It might be nothing. But his lack of control was worrying to me, and this is as logical an explanation as any. Stay tuned.

I just want to clarify again. The e-mail I got simply said he left the game as a precaution due to his arm tightening up. The speculation part was all me.

I figured it was time for another update on the guys I spotlighted before the season started. To read the original piece, click here, and to read the first update, click here. Also, I wanted to give a heads up that I will be starting the mid season evaluation of every prospect I ranked in the system over the offseason. I’ll probably just go in reverse, starting with the last guys I graded and working forward. I’ll probably start working on that after the draft is over and we have time to analyze what happened, so stay tuned. Onto the update..

Continue reading Arms to Watch Update #2 →

Let’s take a look back at the week that was and find out who was bringing it, and who was stinking up the joint.

Hot:

Quintin Berry: .448/.515/.552 — 7 R – 6 SB
Welinson Baez: .379/.419/.448 — 2 2B – 4 R
Carlos Monasterios: 13.2 IP, 2 ER (1.36 ERA) — 5 H — 7 BB — 8 K

Not:

Lakewood Trio (Cardenas, Milner, Henry): .179/.267/.284 — 12/67 — 3 XBH
Will Savage: 2.2 IP, 5 ER (20.46 ERA), 5 H, 4 BB, 0 K
Edgar Garcia: 6.1 IP, 6 ER (8.85 ERA), 12 H, 1 BB, 7 K, 2 HR

Notes:

* Brett Harker pitched four perfect innings, picking up 4 saves for Clearwater.

* Gus Milner, despite his struggles hitting the ball, still drew 5 walks last week

* Kyle Drabek had a nice week, just missing the list. 12 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 5 BB, 8 K

* James Happ continues to struggle with his control….not a good sign.

* Matt Smith had a decent week, pitching 3 scoreless innings, but he did allow 3 walks. That’s not good.

* Josh Outman’s command remains a problem (4 BB in 5 IP), but the K numbers are returning.

Here are some things I’m working on, with a schedule*

Monday: Monday Morning 6 Pack
Tuesday: Thinking about our 2nd round pick in the draft
Wednesday: Arms to Watch Update
Thursday: TBA
Friday: More draft stuff

* tentative, of course.

Some miscellaneous thoughts

– Carl/CJ/WhateverHeWantsToBeCalled Henry is now playing some outfield as well as 3B….hmm. It seems that most really athletic guys who struggle as infielders eventually move to the OF, where they can just let their athleticism take over and not micro-manage their defense. We’ll see if it helps Henry.

– Mike Costanzo can’t play defense….really, he can’t. With his error on Monday, he now has 17 errors on the season. For someone who was praised for his defense, this is disappointing.

– Javon Moran has 16 SB….and he’s been caught 9 times. Not good. Quintin Berry has stolen 21 bases, and been caught 7 times. That’s also not good, but he’s more raw than Moran and the speed is nice, as is his .360 OB% this season.

Press release.

Not really surprising, you can’t run the risk of hurting Myers further by having him out there less than 100%. Good luck to Zagurski, pray he throws strikes, and if he does, he should be up to stay. As for Coste, this isn’t surprising either, as he hasn’t really gotten AB’s since being recalled. The sad thing is, this means Barajas will remain a Phillie for a while longer.

Update: Mike was hitting 92-93 tonight. His velo is definitely up from 2005 and it looks like it’s up even from last year. If he throws like that consistently, he won’t be going back to the minors.

Just had an e-mail hit my inbox stating Zagurski has been called up and will be in the bullpen on Friday. This leads to me to believe, if true, that Myers is headed to the DL. Stay tuned, nothing official yet, and it could just mean one of the guys who never sees the light of day (Hernandez, Yoel) could be waived.

* Kyle Drabek’s full season debut has been a success on a lot of levels. Some of his numbers, particularly his walk rate and home run aren’t where you want to see them, but his strikeout numbers have been fine, and more importantly, he’s getting a lot more groundballs than flyballs, with a 2.1 GB:FB ratio to this point. His control was great in April, not so good in May, but it’s all part of the learning curve. Lefties are hammering him to the tune of a .923 OPS, while righties have only posted a .650 OPS. To me it says that his changeup isn’t where he wants it to be yet, but it will get there.

* Adrian Cardenas has been miserable against LHP. This isn’t uncommon, for a player getting his first taste of full season ball, against good pitching, to struggle against lefties. Cardenas’ batting average has been constant from day 1, around .272, but his OB% has gone from .297 in April to .326 in May, that’s a step in the right direction, but more importantly, his slugging jumped from .388 to .481, a vast improvement. Cardenas is also hitting much better away from pitcher friendly Lakewood, with an away line of .333/.370/.533 compared to his home line of .194/.234/.306. I’ve detailed it before, but Lakewood is basically the toughest hitting park in the SAL.

* Greg Golson has had an interesting season. His splits really indicate he is two different players. Against LHP, his line is .240/.291/.280, and against RHP, his line is .314/.347/.471. This isn’t a one year trend, because while he generally sucked it up all around last year, he was better against righties than lefties. In May, Golson has drawn 7 walks in 95 PA’s, while he drew only 4 walks in 110 PA’s in April, but his slugging % has dipped from .490 in April to .337 in May. Is he becoming too passive? Is he just not making solid contact? Does he just stink? Who knows.

* Josh Outman has been a bit of a disappointment to me. I knew coming into this year that his success hinged directly on his ability to throw strikes, and so far, it’s been a struggle. He’s averaging 5.86 BB/9 to go with only 8.23 K/9, and that just isn’t going to get it done. If he can’t lower his walks into the 3.00/9 range, his future lies in the bullpen, but even that will be a struggle. His home run rate has also climbed a bit this year, as he’s given up 5 in 47 IP (0.96/9) as opposed to the 5 he gave up in 155.2 IP last season. Again, the Lakewood factor can’t be stated enough.