In the next few weeks, I’m going to try and post a few profiles of players, but the majority of it is going to be discussions to try and see where you guys are on certain prospects. The reason for this is, I am currently in the process of working on and finishing up the player grades for this past season, but this year’s model is going to be much more in depth, and I’ve spent the better part of 3 months working on this process. Not only will I have ratings for every Phillies prospect, but I’ll have positional rankings that count every prospect in the minors, as well as rankings for the other teams in our division, for comparison’s sake. All of this takes time, as I have to manually enter a lot of statistics into my formula to derive the numbers I need.

So, I ask for your patience. If something big comes up, I’ll certainly write about it, but the minor league season is over until the Arizona Fall League starts, so it will be quiet. And speaking of the Arizona Fall League…If you like this blog and you’d like to contribute, I’m looking for one person to write a daily post on the Arizona Fall League, specifically our players there. You don’t have to write 7 days a week, but I’d like someone who is willing to write at least 4 times a week while the league is in session, which is only about a month’s worth of games. So, if you are interested, send an e-mail to phuturephillies at hotmail dot com and put “Arizona Fall League Writer” in the title. I’ll review what I receive in the next few days and get back to everyone who inquires. Thanks in advance.

Click here for the gory details

After dropping both ends of the double header Thursday night against Syracuse, the Lynx began week twenty-two with a double header split Friday night, their second double header in two nights. Of course with four games in two days, there is always the possibility that one of the starting pitchers is going to have to take one for the team. Although new comer Gary Knotts, (0-1), pitched a decent game in his first start for the Lynx, he went the distance in game one and Syracuse defeated Ottawa again, this time by a score of 5-3. Ottawa lead 3-1 after two innings but Knotts tired and couldn’t hold the Syracuse club, giving up one run in the fifth and three in the sixth inning. The Lynx scored three off Syracuse starter Justin James but Chiefs bullpen, Scott Sauerbeck-(1-1), and Matt Roney, (his second save of the season), held them to only two hits over the final two innings. Adam Lind again had a big night going 3-3 with a home run, (he went 6-6 with two home runs and five RBI in his last two games and Howie Clark also chipped in with three hits. Lind and David Corrente each homered in the three run sixth. Ottawa second baseman Joe Thurston went 3-4 including his fourth home run of the year.

Continue reading Ottawa Lynx Week Twenty-Two →

Here is today’s point of discussion. Mathieson is currently rehabbing in the minors, and is looking to be ready sometime in early September to pitch in the big leagues. The Phillies want to use him in the bullpen for the rest of this season to help out the big league club. The question is, what should his role be in 2008 and beyond? He features a very good fastball, 92-95 before surgery, and reports have him dotting 97 in his rehab appearances. His slider was great in the minors last year, not so good in his major league foray, but still grades out as at least major league average, and will probably be a tick or two better. His changeup is a fringe pitch right now, but again, room for improvement and should be at least average. So, do you have him start next season in AAA with the intention of him being a callup to fill a rotation spot due to injury or ineffectiveness? Do you start him in the major league bullpen next season, with the thought of possibly turning him into the team’s closer down the road? You make the call.

You can view the full rosters here.

The Phillies will send

Joe Bisenius
JA Happ
Josh Outman
Scott Mathieson
Joe Savery
Lou Marson
Greg Golson
Mike Costanzo

Thoughts? I like it. The only change I might have made was sending Edgar Garcia instead of Bisenius, but I’ll take it.

How about that? Carpenter threw a 7 inning perfect game tonight, as Clearwater defeated Fort Myers 2-0. Of his 21 outs, 7 came via strike out, 4 on the ground and 10 in the air. I guess he read the blog earlier today and wanted to make a statement. Mr Happ, I’m not sure how you can top a 7 inning perfect game, but the ball is in your court.

I don’t have time today to crank out the indepth piece I wanted to do, so instead, I’m going to pose an open question. Going forward, not just the rest of this season, or just next season, which prospect do you think will have the better long term career; Drew Carpenter or JA Happ? State your case in the comments.

Julian Sampson made his debut, following one of our better prospects, Heitor Correa, in the GCL Phillies 6-0 win today. Sampson’s line

2.0 IP, lots of 0’s, 1 K

All 5 of Sampson’s non-strikeout outs came via the ground…nice. Correa, who has been awesome since his first few appearances, went 5 innings, giving up 1 H, 1 BB, and striking out 1.

About 2 months ago, I noted that Brad Harman was starting to piece things together and was rebounding nicely from his slow start. Today, I noticed a comment in that old post that caught my eye. Here it is;

1. Chris Harman Says:
   August 23rd, 2007 at 6:34 pm eI’m Brads dad just to let you know his Mum didn’t pass away in 2006 and is still going strong he just strugled with the jump to Clearwater and being a long way from home. I speak to Brad on a regular basis and he is working hard on his hitting and the move to 2B I think has helped. We speak mainly about his mental approach and his mechanics, we all know he can play defence and every thing else will come with experience remember he is only 21.
   Cheers.
   Chris Harman.

Now, anyone can leave a comment here, using any name they’d like, but this strikes me as something that doesn’t feel made up. In fact, I checked the IP address, and it comes back as being from Australia. So, Mr Harman, thank you for checking. This comment is real interesting to me. Baseball America, as well as other major prospect outlets claimed that Brad’s mother had passed away, I think everyone thought this was the case, and it’s obviously great to hear that she is fine. With that said, here’s a quick snapshot of Harman’s numbers from the beginning of the year till now;

APR  : 99 PA — .226/.242/.323 — 2.1% BB — 31.3% K — 28.6% XBH — .093 ISO
MAY:  84 PA — .221/.307/.221 — 10.7% BB — 20.2% K– 0.0% XBH — .000 ISO
JUN: 89 PA — .272/.337/.457 — 9.0% BB — 20.2% K — 45.5% XBH — .185 ISO
JUL: 76 PA — .313/.392/.597 — 13.2% BB — 22.4% K — 38.1% XBH — .297 ISO
AUG: 104 PA — .330/.385/.564 — 7.7% BB — 21.2% K — 48.4% XBH — .234 ISO

As you can see, it’s been a tale of two halves for him. He turns 22 in November, and is on track to start next season in AA, where he will still be on track in terms of age relative to level. The key is to continue to hit for power, as he’s done over the last three months, while keeping his walk rate somewhere around 10% and his K rate at no more than 22-23%. Harman has definitely regained some of his prospect status with a solid 3 months.

Remember yesterday when I mentioned the long list of injured Phillies pitches and those being called up to replace them? Well now that our best starting pitcher is headed to the DL, who will replace him? The obvious answer is that no one can really replace the excellent performance we’ve gotten from Hamels this year, but there are a few candidates.

JA Happ: He’s been throwing better of late, control is still spotty, but he’s one of the few options we have in the upper minors

Carlos Carrasco: I really hope they don’t go this direction. Carrasco has really struggled of late at Reading, but threw a gem last night. I’d let him build on that, and if they want to use him at the ML level, I’d wait till September 1 when the rosters expand and put him in the bullpen where they can manage his innings.

Andrew Carpenter: Carpenter has been our more reliable starting pitching prospect since June 1, but he’s only in Clearwater, and that seems like a big jump, even for a polished college starter.

Happ really seems like the only viable option, unless they decide to use newly promoted Fabio Castro as a starter and then bring up a pitcher from Reading or Ottawa to use in relief, maybe an Anderson Garcia or  Joe Bisenius, even though he’s struggled. Remember, moves like this are complicated based on the management of the 40 man roster, so if they choose to bring someone up that isn’t on the 40 man roster, it will probably lead to them having to outright someone off the current 40 man.

Who do you think should start in place of Hamels, and who do you think should take the last spot on the current 25 man roster when he hits the DL?