NYPhilsmaniac19 is at it again with his insightful first hand reports:

Today Mike Drago of the Reading Eagle reported that the Phillies will be converting Austin Wright to a full time reliever (Brody Colvin back to the rotation).  The move is one that I thought would come eventually but did not expect right now.  More interesting to the move is what Joe Jordan said which piqued my interest.

Mike Drago ‏@mldrago52m

Philles are converting Reading’s Austin Wright to the bullpen. He’s 5-5, 6.09 in 16 starts; pitching better lately after DL stint #phillies

Mike Drago ‏@mldrago30m

Joe Jordan on Austin Wright: “We really feel he’s got a couple pitches that have a chance to play really good out of the bullpen.” #phillies Continue reading Austin Wright to the Bullpen and Converting Starters to Relievers →

A look back at the time period of 7/25 thru 7/31. Quick thoughts…What is the level of concern with Jesse Biddle who has led the Not Hot list for two weeks with significant control issues?  I expect Nick Hernandez to land on the DL soon…something is not right again…Maikel Franco now has 24HR’s in just over 100 games….Larry Greene and Zach Collier are back slumping again…At the lower levels, Drew Anderson and Shane Martin have gotten us to notice.

Hot Hitters: Art Charles (.448, 8RBI’s); Tyler Henson (.411, 3HR); Alejandro Vilalobos (.391); Jia Tromp (.389, 3SB); Maikel Franco (.385, 5R 3HR 6RBI); Harold Martinez (.381, 6RBI); Herlis Rodriguez (.370, 6R 7RBI); Dylan Cozens (.368, 6R); Derrick Mitchell (.350);Wilmer Oberto (.350); Nick Ferdinand (.350);  Honorable Mention: Numata, Crawford, J. Hernandez, Parr, Dugan, Perkins, Alonso Continue reading Hot or Not →

Lehigh Valley returned home last night from an eight game road trip with a 5-4  loss to Rochester and now sit at 55-56 on the year, in 4th place of the Northern Division of the International League, 5.5 games behind division leading Rochester and 4 games behind Pawtucket in the wildcard race.

‘Pigs Prospects: Adam Morgan has made two starts for Lehigh Valley since his return from the disabled list and while he has not given up an earned run, he threw close to 140 pitches in less than seven innings of work in those two starts. Bottom line, he was less than sharp which is to be expected after missing two months injured.  On the year, Morgan is 1-5 with a 4.44 ERA in his 10 starts. He has thrown 48.2 innings, given up 55 hits, walked 17 and struck out 34 while opponents are hitting .269 against him. It will be interesting to check in on Morgan in two weeks with another 2-3 starts under his belt. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report →

Lehigh Valley

Tyler Cloyd, 26, Phils 18th round pick in 2008 draft; 14 starts, 2-8 with a 6.19ERA; 75.2IP 95H 19BB 66K; 1.03GO/AO; .303 opp. avg., 2.2BB/7.8K per nine; 16 HR allowed; .267 vs. LH, .333 vs. RH, .400 with RISP; 1-1 with a 2.11 ERA in 4 July starts. Not a pretty body of work for Cloyd who has been very hittable and one of the league leaders in HR allowed.  On the bright side, he has been much better in July.

Ethan Martin, 24, Acquired from Dodgers in 2012; 21 starts; 11-5 with a 4.12 ERA; 115.2IP 94H 67BB 107K; 11HR allowed; 0.86 GO/AO; .229 opp. avg., 5.2BB/8.3K per nine; 1.39WHIP; .249 vs. LH, .211 vs. RH, .215 with RISP; 6-3 with a 3.14 ERA in 11 starts since June 1. Martin’s control was awful at the beginning of the year but has drastically improved and with it, have come very good results.  He has been excellent over the last two months and with a strong August he will likely find himself in Philly come 2014. Continue reading Around the System–Starting Pitching, Top Half →

Given the struggles of the big league club I have worked to make this as positive and uncontroversial as possible to give everyone as good a start to their week as possible.

At some point I am going to compile a full list of Twitter people to follow, but for now enjoy a quick one per level to to check out their work and thoughts (not all names associated with the Phillies exclusively)

• GCL – Chris King @StatsKing
• Williamsport – Mitch Rupert @Mitch_Rupert
• Lakewood – Tony Graham @tonygsports
• Clearwater – Ben Gellman @BenPxP
• Reading – Eric Scarcella @FightinsPR
• Lehigh Valley – Kram209 @KRAM209 Continue reading Minor League Thoughts and Notes →

Cuban pitcher with plus fastball and at least 3 other pitches.  He has a #2/#3 upside but will need a little bit of seasoning in the minors before getting to the majors.  Deal is supposedly for more than $50 million with escalators that could make it worth other $60 million.

Regardless of buying or selling this is a great allocation of financial resources, and even if he is more of a #4 he should be worth to close to the value of the contract.  This deal makes one of Kendrick, Lannan, Pettibone,Martin,  Morgan, and Biddle expendable either at the deadline or in the off-season.

Details to come later.

The Phillies place Domonic Brown on the 7 day DL for a concussion.  They have called up Steve Susdorf to take his place.  Susdorf is a great story, he is average to below in all tools except a plus hit tool.  He will make solid contact in almost every at bat.  His major league stay might be brief and his impact little, but he certainly deserves his moment.  He is likely a better option than most of the OFs on the roster waiting for him.

A look back at the week of July 18-24. Quick thoughts…when your team is struggling offensively as much as the Phillies, dont you find a way to get Cody Asche into the major league lineup? He won’t fix things, but will at the very least add some energy. (Ruf to LF, Brown to RF, Young to 1B, Asche to 3B)…Cameron Perkins has really struggled since coming off the DL with his broken wrist…Ethan Martin has been pitching extremely well over the past two months and may be positioned for a September call up…I am getting pretty excited about Kenny Giles again.

Hot Hitters: Cody Asche (.429); Cesar Hernandez (.390); Gabrial Lino (.364, 4R 2HR 5RBI); Matt Tolbert (.364); Angelo Mora (.350); Albert Cartwright (.346, 7R, 2SB); Maikel Franco (.333); Jiwan James (.333); Honorable Mention: Greene, Cozens, Dugan, Morelos Continue reading Hot or Not →

Its been a rough two weeks for Lehigh Valley, even with an 8-1 win last night, as they have gone 3-7 since the last report and now sit at 52-52, and in 3rd place of the Northern Division of the International League, 5.5 games behind division leading Pawtucket and 2 games behind Norfolk in the race for the wild card. Lehigh Valley is in the midst of an eight game road trip during which they play two more in Rochester, followed by a four game series in Pawtucket.

‘Pigs Prospects: Cody Asche has hit safely in 20 of his last 27 games and is hitting .359 during that time frame. Taking it back a bit further, Asche has hit in 38 of his last 49 games (.324). After having a fairly miserable time hitting left handed pitching during the first two months of the season, Asche has been a solid .294 since May 26th.  He continues to show the occasional pop, good base running and very good defense. On the year, Asche is at .292/.352/.451 with 12HR and 60RBI, to go along with 11SB. Extremely solid. I really hope to see him in Philly before the end of the year. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report →