Mitch Gueller pitched 5 tough innings this afternoon. He started off with a solid 1st inning, striking out the first batter and throwing 9 consecutive strikes in 12 pitches. Starting in the 2nd inning, he had difficulty maintaining consistent control of his pitches. He threw 51 strikes among his 90 pitches. He allowed 11 base runners over the next four innings. Some of the pitches that he left up were hit hard by the Yankees. He gave up 4 doubles among the 6 hits he allowed. He did have some nice movement on his slider or chang up. Most of the swing-and-miss he induced seemed to be on that pitch. His line was 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K. Continue reading XST; May 12, 2014
Category Archives: 01. Site Features
Box Score Recap – 5/11/2014
Tyson Gillies has it going on a little bit right now. He’s OPSing .908 in seven games this month, including 2-3 with a BB on Sunday. Maikel Franco also had two knocks in that one, while Sean O’Sullivan, Cesar Jimenez and Justin De Fratus held Gwinnett to two runs on five hits and three walks, all given up by O’Sullivan. De Fratus hasn’t walked a man in his last five outings, and has struck out eight over those six innings.
Cam Perkins is coming back to earth a little. He’s still been on base in all but one of his last ten games, but he’s OPSing just .579 over that span. Severino Gonzalez should have stayed in bed Sunday. He allowed 10 runs and couldn’t escape the fourth inning. Austin Wright didn’t manage to stop the bleeding, as he allowed 5 runs over 3 1/3 IP. Both men threw more than 2/3 of their pitches for strikes, they just weren’t fooling anyone with them. First baseman Brock Stassi pitched a scoreless eighth inning, so there’s that.
Mark Leiter Jr. managed his start well, leaving with two men on base in the sixth. Delvi Francisco couldn’t strand them, but the Blueclaws offense was one better than Delmarva on the day. All but Dylan Cozens had base hits, and Willians Astudillo, Mitch Walding and Jan Hernandez had two hits a piece. J.P. Crawford extended his hit streak to 12 games, walked, stole a base, rescued a cat from a tree, performed the Heimlich Maneuver on a wounded combat veteran, helped an adorable old lady cross the freeway and manned the grill at the post-game tailgate. I heard he let the burgers on the flame too long, though, and they got all dried out. Luckily, he made a really fine Garlic Aioli for the grown-ups and a homemade ketchup for the kids. Hard working young man, there.
Box Score Recap – 5/10/2014
J.P. Crawford extends his hitting streak to 11 games, as he went 3-3 with a double and drew another walk to match his season K total. He’s OPSing 1.242 this month thus far, no big deal.
Delmarva, Orioles affiliate in the SAL, has a guy with a familiar last name – Mike Yastrzemski. He is, in fact, Yaz’s grandson, and he was a home run shy of the cycle to help The Shorebirds take down The BlueClaws. Not sure how I missed young Yaz last season in the NYPL. I blame Mitch.
Maikel Franco had a double and drew a walk in the Iron Pigs extra inning loss. He’s now drawn five walks in his last seven games, after drawing just six on the year prior to that point. He’s OPSing .959 in May. Clearly he’s turned the corner from his slow start.
Reading’s game was suspended by rain in the 13th inning. Chris Serritella had three hits, including two doubles. Colton Murray gave up an unearned run and walked two in his AA debut. They’ll finish up that game on Sunday, and I suspect Tyler Knigge will come out for the 13th so as not so burn another pitcher. They’re quickly running out.
And finally, don’t forget to read Jim’s game story from CLR tonight. Good notes there on a couple guys.
Threshers; May 10, 2014
Highlights and lowlights from the Threshers’ game Saturday night.
Dunedin’s #6 prospect (per BA), Daniel Norris, took the mound. The left hander took the mound with a 3-0 record in 6 starts and a 0.63 ERA and 38 Ks in 28.2 innings. He had only given up 2 earned runs this season, both against the Threshers. The Threshers loaded the line up with 8 right-handed batters. The righties went 2 for 16 with a BB. The lone lefty in the line up, Pete Lavin, collected 2 singles in 3 AB. Norris left the game after pitching 4.2 innings and runners on first and second. The reliever allowed an inherited runner to score when Darin Ruf greeted him with an RBI single, his only hit of the night. Continue reading Threshers; May 10, 2014
MAG pitches at XST! May 10, 2014
I arrived at the Carpenter Complex and prepared to watch Cord Sandberg, Trey Williams, Luis Encarnacion on Ashburn Field. Adam Loewen was warming up for the start, so I walked over to see who would start for the GCL squad on Roberts Field. Miguel Gonzalez and Cameron Rupp were to be battery mates, and I was going to watch this game instead.
Gonzalez started off with 2 fast balls for balls. They were low and at 92 and 93 mph. Continue reading MAG pitches at XST! May 10, 2014
Box Score Recap – 5/9/2014
Maikel Franco went 2-5 with his third home run of the year. Justin De Fratus and Cesar Jimenez worked clean innings of relief, before Ken Giles made his AAA debut – he walked one, allowed a hit and a run and struck out one. Some guy named “Derrick Mitchell” hit three home runs off of Lehigh Valley pitching. Never heard of him.
Jesse Biddle with another poor showing – 5R, 4ER, on 8H, 3BB and 6K over 5.1IP. He only threw about 57% of his pitches for strikes. Cesar Hernandez was back in the lineup after a groin tweak made him a late scratch Thursday. Tommy Joseph left the game early. Jay Floyd (@PhoulBallz) reporting it as a left wrist issue, which is better than a head/concussion issue.
And for CLR, Kuis Paulino pitched pretty well – 1R on 2H, 3BB and 5K. Ethan Martin loaded the bases in the sixth before being pulled – he was bailed out by Jeb Stefan. Our friend @BaseballBetsy said Martin appeared to be laboring through the inning. Darin Ruf had two hits in his second rehab appearance.
XST and Threshers May 9, 2014
Okay, before I start with the notes from the XST game, let me give you the big news. Ethan Martin pitched in the Threshers’ game tonight. He gave up a single and walked 2 batters. He lasted only 2/3 of an inning. He threw 23 pitches, only 8 for strikes. Now for the bad news. He hit 92 only once. (Dunedin’s Florida Exchange Stadium posts the pitch speed.) He was in the 89-91 range for all of his other fastballs. After ground balls to first on 3-1 counts for each of the first two batters, he surrendered a single on a 1-0 pitch. Then he walked the next batter on 4 pitches. After a visit by Milacki to the visibly aggravated Martin, he ran a deep count before walking his last batter to load the bases. I’m not so much concerned about his command, the umpire was erratic all night, prompting catcalls from the fans all night. But the lack of velocity was alarming.
So, let’s finish the Threshers’ report. Darin Ruf started in left field. Continue reading XST and Threshers May 9, 2014
Around the System–Corner Infield
A first look at corner infielders throughout the system. Next up will be middle infield, early next week.
Lehigh Valley
Maikel Franco, 21, Signed as a free agent in 2010; .215/.280/.322 in 121 AB’s; 2HR 10RBI; 1SB; 8%bb/18%k rates; .222 vs. LHP; .212 vs. RHP; .176 with RISP. 24 games at 3B with 2 errors (.970); 7 games at 1B without an error; A very disappointing first 6 weeks for Franco, but some recent signs of life to hang onto. He ultimately will come around, question is how long it takes.
Jim Murphy, 28, Phils 17th round pick in 2006; .277/.354/.482 in 112 AB’s; 4HR 18RBI; 9%bb/23%K rates; .200 vs. LHP; .312 vs. RHP; .273 with RISP; .321 in May. 26 games at 1B without an error; Murphy has been one of the most consistent performers for Lehigh Valley this year swinging a good bat and playing well at 1B.
Reading
Cesar Hernandez, Soon to be 24, Signed as a free agent in 2006; .353/.423/.518 in 85 AB’s; 3HR 13RBI; 1/3 SB; 11%bb/11%k rates; .367 vs. LHP; .345 vs. RHP; .368 with RISP. 14 games at 3B with 7 errors (.829); 7 games at SS with 1 error (.962); 2 games at 2B without an error; Hernandez has simply scalded the ball since being sent to the minors in mid April. The Phils have tried to get him acclimated at 3B and that has proven to be an uphill battle with some significant troubles at the hot corner.
Chris Serritella, 24, Phils 4th round pick in 2012; .216/.260/370 in 46 AB’s; 2HR 7RBI; 6%bb/32%k rates. 3 games at 1B with 1 error; Has shown very little in his limited playing time this year. Has been used almost exclusively at DH. Continue reading Around the System–Corner Infield
Box Score Recap – 5/8/2014
Maikel Franco was 2-4 plus a BB, and Reid Brignac hit two three-run home runs in Lehigh Valley’s win over Charlotte. With Freddy Galvis demoted, and Brignac swinging a hot bat, you wonder if maybe that’s the move, especially after Cesar Hernandez was scratched yesterday with a sore groin.
Darin Ruf began his rehab assignment with CLR last night. He walked and struck out in 4PAs. Ken Giles put up 2Ks in a clean inning for Reading. Tommy Joseph seems to be doing fine after his latest concussion scare – he’s hit in four of the five games since he came off the DL. He’s OPSing .905 on the year, though he’s still well under 100 PAs.
And last, but (as they say) certainly not least, J.P. Crawford extends his hit streak to 10 games with his third double in two days. He’s OPSing 1.178 over those ten games. I think he might be pretty good at baseball. He should seriously consider it as a career.
XST and Threshers May 8, 2014
I was all set to watch the Williamsport squad with Denton Keys starting when I went over to see Davis Whitehead warm up for the GCL game. He throws a heavy ball with some movement. He’s 6’4, 240 and reminds me of a thin Joe Blanton. I decided to watch him pitch since I hadn’t seen him since his return from TJ surgery last May. Since I went back and forth between the 2 fields, I don’t have a whole game summary for either game, but rather a few observations of individual players.
David Whitehead. The 34th round pick out of Elon University broke the bat of the first batter he faced but the third baseman air mailed the throw over Luis Encarnacion. The second batter broke his bat on a ball he punched into shallow center. Herlis Rodriguez charged and fired home preventing the runner from scoring. Unfortunately, the cut off man couldn’t handle the throw and the batter was able to take second. The third batter hit a line drive that Olvy Marte missed twice at second. He leaped to glove the ball but couldn’t control it. The ball landed on him as he hit the ground, but again he couldn’t get a handle on it. The runners had to hold. So, after breaking two bats and facing three batter the bases were loaded with no outs instead of a runner on first with two outs. The clean-up hitter lofted a double to left center and the Pirates scored 2 unearned runs. Whitehead’s one inning line was 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K. He deserved a better fate. I left to watch the Williamsport squad and hopefully better defense. Continue reading XST and Threshers May 8, 2014
