Category Archives: 01. Site Features

Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

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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 →

Box Score Recap – 7/29/2013

Box Score Recap

Harold Martinez with 2 more hits. Same from Cameron Perkins. Dan Child works an inning for CLR after spending time in the GCL thus far. Brian Pointer goes deep – his sixth. He’s been slumping pretty badly, though he has drawn 5 walks in his last 10 games. Man can take his walks. Speaking of…Dylan Cozens hit his 5th HR of the year. He’s also keeping up a good pace for his bases on balls, 11+%, while limiting his Ks to around 22%. It’s a 2:1 ratio there, 34K, 17BB, and with ISO near .200, you’d have to call his first half of this short season a success.

At the lower levels, Deivi Grullon threw out two would-be base-stealers and picked off another, while JPC stole his 7th and 8th bags, added a triple, drove in and scored 2runs. And 19 yr-old mini second sacker Lucas Rojo (listed at 5’6″, 153 lbs), hit his 7th VSL homer. He’s got 19 XBH in around 170 PAs. That’s some pop from a small frame. Another guy to look for in instructs in the fall and the minor league camp in the spring.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/29/2013 →

Around the System–Starting Pitching, Top Half

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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 →

Box Score Recap – 7/28/2013

Box Score Recap

Jesse Biddle really has not had it the last couple times out. After not making out of the first last start, he lasted just 1.1 on Sunday, retiring just 4 of the 13 men he faced. He walked 6 and allowed 3 hits, striking out 2, before being relieved after throwing just 20 of his 50 pitches for strikes.

Ethan Martin living outside the zone again, throwing just 57/104 pitches for strikes. 5H, 3BB, 8K in 6 scoreless innings. Hard to complain about it if you’re rooting for the Pigs to win a ballgame. Hard to not remain concerned if you’re pulling for him to be a big league starter for the Phils. Does this count as harping yet? I feel like I’m “harping” on the subject.

Cody Asche with a double – he’s OPSing over .900 since June 1. Maikel Franco with 2 hits – he’s OPSing 1.015 since his call up to Reading. And Kelly Dugan continues to hit – he’s got 12 hits, including 6 for extra bases, in his last 10 games, as his AA OPS moves towards .800. That’s a pretty nice crop of position players standing on the stoop, if not already knocking on the door.

And one more note – Harold Martinez OPSing .965 over his last 10 games, and .803 in still limited action in July, even after Franco was promoted to make some room in the field. He’s 23 years old in his second stint in A+, so there’s that. He’s playing pretty much every day right now, so I will guess he’s hot and will cool off and continue to be essentially a non-prospect, but I guess I’ll keep an eye on him for the next couple weeks. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/28/2013 →

Minor League Thoughts and Notes

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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)

Box Score Recap – 7/27/2013

Box Score Recap

Maikel Franco went 3-4 with a double, Cody Asche hit his 13th HR, and Cam Perkins with 2 doubles, to bring his shortened season total to 25. In under 300 PAs. Impressive. Adam Morgan with another pitch-counted start at AAA – he gave up 1 hit, walked 3 and struck out 2 in 3 scoreless IP. Nic Hanson and Seth Rosin did some nice work from the bump as well. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/27/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 7/26/2013

Box Score Recap

With all the MAG excitement, let’s not forget that there was a full slate of oh who am I kidding. Big splash for RAJ in the Int’l market. Huge. Paired with what looks like a likely $1m amateur FA in a couple weeks, and the handful of $500k plus signings in the last couple years, and perhaps the team has finally turned the corner on big International spending.

Ok, some results, in verse, because it’s a lovely Saturday out there or whatever –

Kelly Dugan with a bomb, Aaron Altherr, too;

Andrew Knapp’s first in the pros and Mikey F. hit two.

Mario looked pretty good, Nick Hernandez, not;

Herlis, Wilmer, Nitty Ferd, and J.P.C. stay hot.

Yacksel Rios got a start, Braden Shull done broke my heart;

Denton Keys and Tyler V., and two, times, two, for, Big, Sir, Art.

– Yes, I rhymed “too” with “two”. Deal with it. Also , yes: “Mikey”. And I hope you catch the drift of my pacing at the end. It slows down, like a breath between every word. Calming, I hope. Have a nice weekend. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/26/2013 →

Phillies Sign Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez

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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.

Box Score Recap – 7/25/2013

Box Score Recap

In February, had I asked you to fill in the blanks on the following sentence: “By July 25, Larry Greene will have twice as many ____ as ____.”, how many of you would have said stolen bases and homeruns, respectively? Be honest.

The story of the night, clearly, is Austin Wright. A fine line for him – 1 R on 4H, (1HR), 3BB and 10K. Jason Guarente at The Reading Eagle has some insight as to what helped Wright on Wednesday. If Wright can have success with a three-pitch mix, he’s got a much better chance to stick as a starter. We’ll see how his newest offering holds up.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/25/2013 →