Category Archives: 01. Site Features

Box Score Recap – 8/27/2013

Box Score Recap

A big night from Derrick Mitchell helps Devid Buchanan’s cause, as Lehigh Valley beat Buffalo. Buchanan induced three double-play grounders to keep his so-so night from looking like a nightmare. Jim Murphy hit a walk-off two run shot for Reading, (their second walk-off bomb in a row), after Seth Rosin and Hector Neris gave up 6 runs in the top of the ninth. Kelly Dugan was a late scratch, though I haven’t see a reason. Clearwater managed one hit but walked seven times as they best Tampa 3-2, with 2 runs in the bottom of the ninth on 4 walks and a walk-off sac fly from Harold Martinez. Nice line from Severino Gonzalez – 7 IP/1R/4H/3BB/6K. Drew Anderson pitched well, striking out six and allowing just 2 hits in 5 scoreless innings. Mitch Rupert reported that he was hitting 92-93. Here’s Mitch’s game story.

I forgot to mention that the DSL season concluded recently, with the Phillies finishing 3 games over .500, but 8.5 off the wild card pace. There were a couple interesting names there, but in my mind, no standout like Sam Hiciano from 2012. We’ll have to wait and see if we get any positive reports on any of them out of instructs, or beyond that, wait and see which guys make the GCL squad out of spring training next year. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/27/2013 →

House Keeping

Other Stuff

Just a quick note to let you know what to expect with the Minor League season ending next week.  As in previous years, I will be going through each player in the organization and reviewing their 2013 season with stats, a grade, comments and a 2014 projection. Also included will be a post season Top 40 ranking where applicable for those within that top 40 group.  We will fully cover the Arizona Fall League and Florida Instructional League as we can gain tidbits of information during the Fall months.

God willing, Matt and Brad will continue with their contributions, as put simply, the site would not function on anywhere close to the level it does day in and day out without their hard work and expertise. I am deeply grateful and appreciative of their efforts.

I am hoping my schedule allows additional time for analysis of prospects and that is something that I havent been able to dedicate myself to as much as I would like, but Matt and Brad have picked up my slack and then some. 

Phuture Phillies continues to be extremely successful thanks to all of you, the loyal readers.  During this baseball season, we have received in excess of 1.6 million page views and hope to continue to grow in the future.

GCL Game Report

Other Stuff
Todays first hand report from NYPHILSMANIAC19.   Excuse the formatting issues please…
Gulf Coast Game Report vs Yankees 1, August 27
PITCHING:
 
Feliberto Sanchez started and pitched into the 6th inning.  He looked good over all but seemed to tire late in the 5th and in the 6th.  At times his fastball seemed overpowering (I would make a wild guess at around 92-93).  He also has an effective change-up.  I think he needs to work on his move to first as a few guys stole second more on him than on Grullon.  Here are his batter-by-batter results:
 
1st:  0-2 pitch lined into RC for a base hit/Hard liner to CF that Sandberg corralled- it was very breezy and Cord sprinted back too far but then turned and came in to make the catch/weak 4-3 groundout/K looking on fastball on the outside corner
2nd: 2 Hopper, 6-3/Hard hit lineout to Left/pop-up to SS
3rd:  BB/Flyout to shallow LF/Flyout to shallow LF/RBI double that hit the Lf wall/Flyout to shallow LF
4th:  K on high Fastball/4-3 (nice play by Torres going to his left)/Foul popout to first
5th:  K looking/Deep liner over Sandberg’s head in center but he ran back and caught it/hard single into CF/Bunt single (Grullon stumbled or it probably would have been the third out)/Hard ground RBI single between SS and 3B/Walk (after going 0-2, he threw 4 straight pitches outside to a lefty batter)/Settled down and induced a 5-4 FC on an 0-2 pitch with bases loaded
At this point, he would have left the game with a very positive outing, but…
6th: Hard grounder off Hernandez’s glove at 3rd- was ruled an error but could’ve gone either way/4 pitch BB/Sac Bunt, 5-3/Hard 1B down the LF line that scored both runners.
At that point Therrien (formerly known as JDT) came in and threw some gasoline on the fire (though an error by Robinson Torres also contributed).  Therrien only gave up one runner in the 7th.
 
Lewis Alezones pitched a rocky 8th (1 run with 2 BB’s and a single), and then a scoreless 9th (with another BB and single)

Arizona Fall League Roster Announcement

Weekly Discussion

The rosters for this year’s Arizona Fall League were supposed to be announced at 2PM EST today, but they very uncoolly made us wait until nearly 2:30. The Phillies are sending Aaron Altherr, Cameron Rupp and Kelly Dugan as position players, plus pitchers Kyle Simon, Mike Nesseth, Austin Wright and Ken Giles, (per Ryan Lawrence – update – Lawrence has a roster that shows Giles – The AFL Website does not include him). The season begins October 8 and runs through the 16th of November.

As discussed last week, the Phils needed to send six guys, but they seem to typically send seven. Only one man from below A Ball is supposed to be allowed to go to the AFL from any organization, so the picks of Giles and Altherr are a little confounding. Perhaps since The Phils are sending 7 guys, they were allowed an extra A Ball player, or maybe the rules have changed and just not been posted on the AFL site. Don’t know. The roster rules also states that any man not on a AA or AAA roster by August 1 counts and an A Baller, and players from any level who are currently on or recently came off the DL cannot be included. Nothing in there has been violated by the Altherr/Giles addition, so I still don’t know. Whatever.

(Update on the rules – After they tweeted Giles as part of the roster, I asked the AFL Twitter account and got a response that two A Ball exceptions are allowed per team. This must be new for 2013, and the roster rules weren’t updated on the website).

Continue reading Arizona Fall League Roster Announcement →

Prospect Spotlight: Deivi Grullon and Jose Pujols

Other Stuff

On July 2, 2012 the Phillies spend just over a million combined on a pair of Dominican 16 year olds. They were both consensus Top 20 J2 prospects and the latest in a line of increased Latin American budget for signings. The Phillies brought both stateside in 2012 for the Florida Instructional League before they started their professional careers in the GCL for 2013. Both have had struggles at times but the arrow is point upwards for both of them. Continue reading Prospect Spotlight: Deivi Grullon and Jose Pujols →

Box Score Recap – 8/26/2013

Box Score Recap

AFL rosters will be announced today. I’ll try to post a link and a discussion thread as soon as I have it.

As for Monday’s results – Heroics in Reading, as Maikel Franco ties the game with two outs in the ninth on his 30th HR of the year, and Kelly Dugan walks it off with a solo shot leading off the 10th, his 20th of 2013. Mike Nesseth and Tyler Knigge both pitched well in extended innings on Monday, Nesseth in a DH spot start and Knigge backing up a not-great performance from Bobby Bramhall. Chris Serritella hit his 12th HR of the year, and Ken Giles fell apart again. Dylan Cozens was 3-5 with a double, Andrew Knapp was 4-5 with three of them, and Herlis Rodriquez drove in three runs on three singles as Williamport beat up on a good State College club – all nine starters had hits. And Deivi Grullon went 3-3 plus 2 walks in the GCL. He’s had a fine offensive season for a 17 year old – OPSing over .700 thanks to Monday’s results.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/26/2013 →

End of Minor League Season Mailbag – Question Request

Other Stuff

Only a week or so left in the minor league regular season, so it is time for another set of questions and answers. Like always I will take questions here, on Twitter, and by email. I also encourage you to direct questions at gregg (who has seen many more games than me this year) or at Brad (who is much funnier than I am and headline writer extradornaire).

Questions don’t have to be limited to the Phillies minor league system (majors, minors, life, beer, etc), but keep them tasteful.

General Discussion – Week of 8-26-2013 – Rosters Soon To Expand Edition

Weekly Discussion

We should expect to see a handful of AAA guys up with the big club next Tuesday. Lehigh Valley has a Monday game, and barring a big push, they won’t make the playoffs – there are 2 teams ahead of them and one tied with them for one wild card spot. Long odds with just a week left.

With as poorly as he’s played, I could see the team leaving Gillies out of the MLB mix, but if he’s been working hard and acting right, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him rewarded with a taste. Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis seem to be locks, as would MiniMart. I would say also every pitcher on the 40-man will be up, so we’ll get Cloyd, (I hastily typed Horst the first time. He’s not coming back this year), Garcia and Valdes back, and probably a couple looks at Mauricio Robles, plus Joe Savery whenever he’s healthy, if he’s not already back in the bigs this week.

Valle and Collier are the only guys left at AA, and I don’t see either of them making the jump. That leaves no third catcher, and I would guess it’s Cam Rupp’s turn. He’s earned a 40-man spot for the off-season anyway, so you may as well use him now. That could cost someone else their spot, but Lannan might be a 60-day candidate, especially if they intend to non-tender him. That’s another debate altogether – off-season roster management should be pretty interesting this year.

Discuss.

Box Score Recap – 8/25/2013

Box Score Recap

Aaron Altherr 2-5 with his 12th HR of the year – his OPS has crept above .800 again. JP Crawford 2-3 plus a walk. – he’s hit in seven straight since an Oh-fer in his Lakewood debut, but he’s been on base in all eight games. Larry Greene Jr. 3-4 with 2 doubles, and Cesar Hernandez, Zach Collier, Chris Serritella, Carlos Tocci, Gabe Lino and Herlis Rodriguez all with multi-hit games as well. Pretty nice line from Miguel Nunez – 3R on 5H, 1BB and 6K in 5IP – his third good start in a row. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/25/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 8/24/2013

Box Score Recap

Maikel Franco and Kelly Dugan both went deep for Reading. JC Ramirez has been pretty good since going back to AAA. Too many walks for Perci Garner tonight – 6 over 4.1 IP. A nice start from Hoby Milner saved by Dan Child after Ken Giles failed to get it done for the third time in his last five outings. JP Crawford on base twice. He’s had a successful first week at Lakewood. Ditto Mark Leiter – 8H 2BB and 11K in 12 scoreless IP over his first 2 appearances.

In the short-season leagues, Julio Reyes threw six no-hit innings for WIL – Mark Meadors couldn’t keep the no-hitter, or the shutout, alive, and ultimately took the loss. He’d had his fill of shared no-hitters for the week, I guess. And a good line from 2013 pick Tyler Viza – 3H, 1BB, 6K in 5 scoreless IP for the GCL club. He’s had a good time of it thus far, with a (SSS Warning) WHIP at 1.00 and a nice walk rate around 2.8/9IP. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/24/2013 →