I’m going to be out of town this weekend and will not be arriving back till late Monday, so while I’m gone, behave yourselves and discuss the games that happen, as well as these tidbits;

* There is something very very wrong with Andrew Carpenter. Last night he went 4.1 IP — 8 ER — 9 H– 2 BB — 3 K. Now I know the jump from A+ to AA is the toughest in the minors outside of short season to Low A, but come on. Troubling as well is the 1.17 GO: AO ratio. I hinted 6 weeks ago that he had to be handled carefully because of the workload increase he saw in 2007, but it looks like he couldn’t have been handled carefully enough.

* Travis Mattair is hitting .333 over his last 10 games, with 3 of his 6 doubles for the season coming over that span. He’s racked up the strikeouts (45), but has already drawn 16 walks as well. Mattair was a three sport star in high school and turned down multiple scholarships to play baseball. I kind of suspected he’d be a bit of a project, but he is already showing signs of the raw ability. While the power hasn’t emerged yet, he seems to be making adjustments, and you have to figure the HR will come for a kid who is 6’5, 210 lbs.

* Josh Outman has given up 6 ER in his last 4 innings, covering 3 relief appearances, and that comes after a string of 10 scoreless innings. His splits so far this season;

SP: 25.2 IP — 3.16 ERA — 29 H — 15 BB — 32 K — .279 BA
RP: 17.1 IP — 4.15 ERA — 16 H — 8 BB — 16 K — .258 BA

Its still a small sample, but so far, I’m sure the results are not what the Phillies were hoping for. His control is still an issue against both lefties and righties, but he is holding lefties to a .222 BA against. I think he should be in Philly at some point this season, but it might take a little longer than some thought.

Ok, I’m off for a long weekend. Don’t burn the place down while I’m gone.

The 2008 Florida State League All-Star team will be announced on Friday, but you can say you heard it here first. Gus Milner,Brett Harker Edgar Garcia and Matt German will all represent the Clearwater Threshers at the game. Congratulations to these players on the well deserved honor.

In addition, because the Threshers are the defending FSL Western Division Champions the Threshers’ coaching staff will represent the Western Division at the game.

The game will be played on Father’s Day weekend in Viera, Florida home of the Brevard County Manatees. I will certainly be there, and I hope to see some of you there as well.

phuturephillies favorite Kevin Goldstein is doing updates of all the farm systems in baseball, and today is the NL East. He has two nuggets of note

Nailing It On Naylor: Profiled in a recent Ten Pack, Australian righty Drew Naylor has a 2.59 ERA in nine starts for Low-A Lakewood, with even better peripheral numbers, including just 39 hits allowed in 59 innings to go with 65 strikeouts and 15 walks. One scout who recently watched Naylor liked what he saw on a scouting level as well. “He needs to tighten some things up, and there is still some real rawness to his stuff, and his command is average, but he has real strikeout pitchability,” said the scout. “He sat at 91-92 with good movement and has a really good put-away curve with a big bend–-almost a 12-6 bend. I liked the arm quite a bit.”

Good Bat, Questionable Glove: Double-A Reading shortstop Jason Donald has rarely given anyone reason to question his hitting, and this year is no different, as he’s hitting .296/.409/.409 in 31 games for the R-Phils. A scout who recently saw Reading fell in with most who have evaluated Donald–-loving the bat, but wondering where he fits in defensively. “I saw the bat really good; that bat will play and carry him to the big leagues and keep him there a while,” said the scout. But the defense? “He’s such a grinder at shortstop-–he makes the plays, but nothing looks easy for him, and he sits back on too many balls while trying to make up for it with his plus arm. He could play second or third, but you wouldn’t want to over-expose him at shortstop.”

Its great to hear on Naylor, obviously, and you have to like that scouts are starting to get in line on Donald’s bat. Again, finding him a home defensively will be the issue. You know, 3B is right near SS, it might not hurt to try….

Here’s a real nice interview with Josh Outman at Baseball Prospectus, with Josh focusing on his old delivery, the difficulties of changing (both mental and physical), and the challenges he’s had to overcome. This was my favorite question/answer

DL: Phillies assistant general manager Mike Arbuckle was quoted as saying that you probably would have been drafted much lower had you not changed your motion, because people would have been afraid of the injury factor. What are your thoughts on that?

JO: I think that was an assumption made under faulty information. What I was taught actually took stress off of my arm, so there wasn’t full comprehension on how my motion worked. Using a vertical arm position freed up my rotator cuff and enabled the use of the larger pectoral and abdominal muscle groups rather than the smaller deltoids and various other shoulder muscles. It used my lats to slow my arm down rather than just the posterior deltoids, and because those are larger, stronger muscles that can withstand more force it took a large workload off of my shoulder muscles. And eliminating the leg kick in lieu of a normal walking step, I was expending less energy to get the same production from my body, while sparing my throwing arm much of the wear and tear associated with pitching.

This is just another in the long line of instances where because something “doesn’t look right”, a guy is downgraded or given less attention, even though what he is doing might be working just fine. It’s good to see Josh has been able to climb the ladder and progress as a prospect while basically learning how to pitch again from scratch.

When Threshers fans learned that the Phillies #1 draft pick from 2007 would be part of the 2008 squad it was assumed he would be the staff ace and lead the team following their 2007 Championship run. Unfortunately Savery has not lived up to the hype as he has been less and less affective as the season has progressed.

Continue reading Savery? Not so Much. →

Found at the bottom of this article. At this point, just cross your fingers, hope for the best, and cast all expectations for Mathieson, including time tables, right out the window. All you can hope for is that the surgery is successful and he can recover. The Phillies will surely be as conservative as possible with his recovery this time, which they should done last time. Lets just hope for the best.

The news on Mathieson isn’t good.

He’ll visit Dr. James Andrews for an arthroscopic procedure Thursday in Birmingham, Ala., though there’s a good chance Mathieson will need another ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.

Mathieson said he was told by Andrews that a scope might solve the issue, which would keep him out for a shorter time frame. He’s not ready to concede his season, yet.

“I’ll wake up [Thursday] and I’ll either be out four to six weeks or a year,” Mathieson said by phone.

There really isn’t a lot else to say. Its a shame to see a promising arm struggle with injuries, especially right after he reached the big leagues. We can just hope that he doesn’t need a second TJ, and if he does, that he can recover quickly.

It’s Monday, that means its time for a discussion question. JA Happ is one of the few reasons to check the Lehigh Valley box scores. After a rough 2007, largely marred by injury, Happ has come out in much better fashion this season;

46.1 IP — 2.72 ERA — 34 H — 23 BB — 55 K — 4 HR — 1.35 GO/AO

Happ’s 2.72 ERA is probably a bit low considering the number of base runners allowed coupled with the 4 HR. His biggest problem is still the free pass. He’s walked 12 in his last 25.1 innings over 5 starts, and before that had walked 5 guys in back to back starts. Is it a case of true wildness, or is he just nibbling too much? The swings and misses are still there, that’s evident in the strikeout numbers, but are the walks due to his not having control/command of his pitches, or a case of him trying to be too fine? Last season in his major league debut he was nibbling way too much. Obviously he was fighting nerves that day, but its something he’s going to have to work on to be successful. He doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he needs to be aggressive and cut down on the walks.

So, at what point will Happ be ready to step into the rotation?

The performance tonight of prospect JA Happ is worthy of special recognition.  Happ started and went seven dominant innings giving up only one run (in the 7th) on 4 hits.  He walked two and struck out thirteen.  He threw 110 pitches, 75 of them for strikes and lowered his ERA to an outstanding 2.72.  He was pinch hit for in the bottom of the 7th and left with a 3-1 lead.  This is the fourth consecutive excellent performance by Happ, and I would hope discussions have begun about the possibility of replacing Adam Eaton, who has drifted back into the same doldrums that have followed him the last several years as a Phillie.

The kid is on FIRE since coming back from his hand injury. His overall season line now looks like this

80 AB: .350/.453/.488 — 12 BB, 17 K, 4 SB

The only “downside” is just 6 extra base hits. But we’re nitpicking now. He’s quickly adapted to AA, the toughest jump for a prospect, and is hitting the ball extremely well. Now, do we ask him to give 3B a try at Reading?In any event, hes elevating his profile, whether it means hes our utility infielder next year or used in a deal to acquire a player of need for the big league club.