Category Archives: 01. Site Features

Box Score Recap – 7/5/2013

Box Score Recap

Kelly Dugan with a base hit in his AA debut, while 2 hits for Maikel Franco keeps his hot start going – he’s OPSing 1.104 for Reading. Ethan Martin doing Ethan Martiny things – 5bb in 5IP, to go along with 5R and 7H allowed, plus 4ks. After a strong outing last time, Brody Colvin got absolutely bombed on Friday night. I’ll spare you the details, and recommend you avert your eyes at that point in your box-browsing.

Elsewhere, Cameron Perkins returns from the DL with a 1-4 day, while teammate Chris Serritella had a double and a triple in 5 trips to the plate. 16 hits for Lakewood in a losing effort, including 4 from Angelo Mora. And after 2 more doubles, Zach Green’s ISO sits at what I would call a ridiculous .388.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/5/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 7/4/2013

Box Score Recap

Kelly Dugan announced on social media late Thursday that he’s been called up to Reading. Should be a good test to see how he can handle another caliber of pitching.

A busy day for names of note – on the hill, Jesse Biddle gave up 1R, 3H, 1BB and 9K in 6 IP. Kenny Giles back on the bump for Clearwater – he touched 99, according to @baseballbetsy on Twitter. A fourth strong start in a row for Shane Watson since a meltdown outing 4 weeks ago.

As for position players, Cesar Hernandez got his first start in the outfield, playing in the rain make-up half of the double header – an interesting addition to his value if he can cut it. Tyson Gillies went deep. He’s hit in four straight since coming back up to AAA.  Dylan Cozens with his third HR of the year, while Zach Green had another double, and Andrew Pullin had 4 hits, including a triple.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/4/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 7/3/2013

Box Score Recap

Nice line from Perci Garner – 3R on 4H, 2BB, and 8K in 7IP. Kelly Dugan was 2-6 with his 10th HR. Zach Green 3-4, with 2 more doubles. He’s got 14 XBH already this year, in 66 PAs. Yes, he’s striking out too much, but he’s walking some also. Will be interesting to see how his stats look in another month. 3R 5H 1BB and 5K in 6IP for Drew Anderson. He’s a 2012 High School pick, and a guy I’ll be keeping an eye on.

And oh what a day for Jesen Therrien. He recorded just one out, and allowed 6 hits, 1BB and 8 (8!) earned runs. For the day, that’s a 216.00 ERA. It’s said that experience is the cruelest teacher (h/t JDeF). If so, hopefully there’s a lesson for JDT in that third of an inning.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/3/2013 →

Hot or Not

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A look back at the week of June 27-July 3. Huge week for Cesar Hernandez, who is beginning to make the Phils decision making at 2B interesting…Andrew Knapp is hitting well, even while suffering from an arm injury that is keeping him from catching…Tommy Joseph’s 2013 is turning into a lost season…Pitching lines simply dont get better than that of Severino Gonzalez last week…Minor league hitters continue to mash Tyler Cloyd.

Hot Hitters: Michael Martinez (.571, 4RBI); Cesar Hernandez (.464, 4R 4RBI, 4SB); Albert Cartwright (.455, 3HR 5RBI, 2SB); Cody Asche (.420); Logan Pierce (.417, 5R, 5RBI); Tyson Gillies (.417); Andrew Knapp (.375, 3SB); Chris Serritella (.353, 2HR); Maikel Franco (.333, 6R, HR 4RBI); Gustavo Martinez (.333). Honorable Mention: Duran Continue reading Hot or Not →

Prospect Spotlight – Severino Gonzalez

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There have been a lot of questions about Severino Gonzalez so I thought it was time to write him up.  There isn’t a lot about him or his stuff, but now that he is in the Lakewood rotation there are more reports trickling in.

The Scouting Profile:

Fastball: The reports are that it is mostly 89-91 touching as high as 92.  There is not much about the movement on the pitch, but he can consistently throw it for strikes.

Curveball:  By most reports his best pitch, it is a low 70s breaking ball with good break. Continue reading Prospect Spotlight – Severino Gonzalez →

Box Score Recap – 7/2/2013

Box Score Recap

Severino Gonzalez was perfect through six innings, and struck out 9. That’s not too bad. 4 hits combined on both sides in that game – Willie Carmona won that slugfest when his went over the fence. Dylan Cozens went deep – his second for Williamsport. And the Lehigh Valley crew was beaten by a pitcher named Lobstein, begging the question, would you rather be a pitcher named Lobstein, as in “lob the ball over the plate”, or a hitter named LOBstein, as in “men left on base”? I might have taken up tennis, I think.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/2/2013 →

Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

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The ‘Pigs played the eighth game of a nine game homestand last evening and ended the homestand with a 5-2  loss to Toledo,. Over the course of the homestand, Lehigh Valley is 4-4 and now sit at 45-40 and in 2nd place of the Northern Division of the International League, 6.5 games behind division leading Pawtucket.  The ‘Pigs are tied for the wild card lead with Norfolk.

‘Pigs Prospects: Cody Asche has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games and is hitting .400 (16-40) over that timeframe, and is over .280 on the year, continuing to show decent power and some speed to go along with good defense. He went almost the entire month of June without an error (27 games), finally committing an error on the 30th of June. His power numbers are increasing as his last 200 AB’s have yielded 7 HR’s, after just one in his first 100 AB’s. Struggling a bit against LHP (.241) and with RISP (.236). Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report →

Box Score Recap – 7/1/2013

Box Score Recap

Cesar Hernandez has been putting on quite a show the last couple days – he’s 10 for his last 14, (all singles), and stole 3 bases last night. He’s now 26/32 on the year, or 81+%. Strong outing from David Buchanan, working into the ninth and allowing just 1R, 5H, 3BB and striking out 5 in 8 1/3IP. And for the second straight day, Cameron Rupp goes deep for Lehigh Valley. Here’s a little write-up on him from MiLB.com. It appeared on the bottom of my Box Score page as a “You Might Also Like”. They know me so well.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/1/2013 →

General Discussion – Week of 7-1-2013 – Halfway Home Edition

Weekly Discussion

As we pass the calenderic mid-point of the year, (calenderic?), I would like to offer my thoughts on the Phillies as a jumping off point for this week’s discussion:

1. Ugh

2. Delmon Young has a pretty decent arm, and he’s been on a couple decent streaks, (Miami earlier this year and now the recent West Coast swing). It has cost the team PAs for no one I am worried about getting PAs, (unless you really like Mayberry or want Ruf in LF and Brown back in right), and there was nothing really attractive on the OF market except Swisher who would have cost a draft pick, (which doesn’t thrill me), and the signing was not even the worst signing this off-season, (Durbin), and as such: Delmon Young on an incentive-laden 1-year deal has not turned out to be the worst signing ever. High praise, right?

3. I like Dom Brown and I always have. I briefly liked Michael Taylor better, but that didn’t last and was based on some faulty proximity argument that I no longer think makes much sense.

4. Chase Utley is still good and his health isn’t as big a concern if he can keep his knees working. The oblique was the first non-contact injury I can recall him ever having that wasn’t realted to his chronic knee issue, and if I’m a contending team right now, I might just overpay for Utley. Not by a lot. We’re not landing 2 top 50-type guys or anything, but a mildly substantial (mildly substantial?) overpay I could see.

5. Ugh, again, I guess.

6. JC Ramirez struck out the side in his first big league inning. I’m excited for him, if not all that much about him.

7. Wheels < Sarge < TMac < Murph

Ok, discuss.

July 2 Preview

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There really is no bigger boom or bust day in professional sports than the opening of baseball’s international signing period on July 2.  Starting tomorrow teams will sign 16 year olds to contracts for hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping they have found the kid with superstar potential.  Many won’t get past complex league,  others will change body shape too much, more will fail to go from showcase player to baseball player, but some will emerge as real prospects.  The amount of ways to bring talent into your system are finite and the international signing period remains one of the most exploitable.

The Phillies have been more aggressive in recent years signing three “top” players in 2012 in RF Jose Pujols, C Deivi Grullon, and RHP Lewis Alezones, in addition to 100k+ signees Gregori Rivero and Wilker Isavas.  While they may not sign the top player available they certainly will spend close to their allotted slot money on guys more in the 50k-200k range.  Continue reading July 2 Preview →