It’s getting to be that time, time to take a look at how our prospects are doing this year, who’s stock is up, who’s stock is down, and who has fallen off the prospect map. I still haven’t decided how I want to start, but I may just go in reverse order of grades, so the players with the lowest grades will come first. I’ve spent the last 4 or 5 months tinkering with and developing a better evaluation system to assign a value or number to a prospect’s performance. As I’ve detailed in the past, not all .300 averages are the same, and 20 home runs isn’t just 20 home runs, that the context is important. When I roll out the grades, each player will have the following information given

Continue reading Mid-season prospect grades…a preview →

With the recent injury to Freddy Garcia, the Phillies are going to need to make a roster move when his spot comes up in the rotation. With the signing of Jose Mesa (vomit), they will go with an extra reliever until that point. Zagurski has options, so he could be sent down, but he’s thrown the ball well, I don’t know why they’d go that route. Clay Condrey fits the bill of fungible veteran who probably will clear waivers, so he’s my choice to get the tap. But that brings us to who should get a shot to start.

Continue reading Give Kyle Kendrick a chance →

The DSL season started last Saturday, though the web site has been slow with updates.  The roster for the team was finally posted today.

DSL Roster

Lots of new players on the roster this year.  Notable holdovers include pitchers Yohan Flande (age 21), Daury Luna (age 21), and OF Vladimir De Los Santos (age 20).  These guys are probably not prospects any more and should dominate the league.  It will be interesting to see which new players get lots of playing time.  The younger players that get regular playing time are most likely the prospects to watch, regardless of how well they play this year.

Continue reading Dominican Summer League Roster →

* In his second start at Clearwater, Jason Donald ripped a triple and a home run in Clearwater’s 8-0 victory over Palm Beach. Greg Golson also hit his 5th of the year in support of Josh Outman, who went 7.2 IP, allowing 0 ER, giving up 6 hits and 2 walks to go with 5 strikeouts. Outman’s ERA now sits at 2.94 after 65 IP. He is still walking way too many hitters, but the strikeouts are up, he’s keeping the ball on the ground, and he’s not allowing as many runs as he did in April….all positive signs.

* E-mailer Ken also pointed out this from Phillies.com

Kyle Drabek, 2006. The son of Major Leaguer Doug
Drabek, Kyle has shown the inconsistency expected from
someone a year removed from high school. He’s shown
his electric fastball, curveball, slider arsenal in
some dominant outings, and gotten beaten up in others.
Still, he’s compiled a 5-1 record and a 4.17 ERA
before being placed on the disabled list with right
elbow inflammation, but the Phillies don’t believe the
injury is serious.

Doesn’t sound serious, that’s a good sign.

Lets get right to it..

* Jason Donald was promoted to Clearwater yesterday and went 0/3 with an RBI in his debut for the Threshers. Will the Phillies move Cardenas back to SS now or leave him at 2B? He played 2B last night, but if he can play shortstop, I’d move him back there for the time being. We’ll see. Also of note at Clearwater, Lou Marson is now hitting .286/.361/.367. The low slugging % isn’t good at all, but he still doesn’t turn 21 until later this month, and he’s holding his own at High A, that’s a positive sign.

Continue reading Tuesday morning notes →

If you’ve been following the blog here, you probably have a general idea that I don’t get too excited over guys who are too old for their level and putting up good numbers early. I warned you about Javon Moran when he was hitting .400 in the first month, and I warned you about Landon Jacobsen after two great starts. However, I can say that Jesus Merchan has me completely baffled. A few people had asked about him a few weeks ago in the comments section of an entry, and I kind of just dismissed it. However, I keep staring at his numbers, and I wonder if something is going on here. With all of that said, I wanted to take a closer look and see if I was missing something, see if this appears to just be another flash in the non-prospect pan, or if it’s something else all together.

Continue reading Jesus Merchan….should we believe? →

Ottawa Lynx Press Release: Lynx OF Lou Collier announced his retirement today, ending his 14-year professional baseball career. Collier, 33, retires with a career .297 Minor League batting average, spanning 14 seasons and more than 3,800 at-bats. He made his Major League debut in 1997 with Pittsburgh and had a .241 average with eight home runs and 78 runs batted in over 315 Major League games with the Pirates, Brewers, Expos, Red Sox and Phillies. Collier previously played for the Lynx in 2002. He hit .313 with 8 HR and 74 RBI in 132 career games with the Lynx.

Got an e-mail back, Happ left last night’s game for precautionary reasons due to his arm tightening up. I’m not a doctor, so I won’t even bother going further. However, I don’t like the sound of it. Ah heck, it’s a blog, I’m supposed to speculate. His control has been really bad this year, much more so than any stop in his career to date. I hate to even bring it up, but it might be ligament damage. I’m sure they’ll try rest and rehab, but you know what the ultimate outcome is. Again, this is all speculation. It might be nothing. But his lack of control was worrying to me, and this is as logical an explanation as any. Stay tuned.

I just want to clarify again. The e-mail I got simply said he left the game as a precaution due to his arm tightening up. The speculation part was all me.

I figured it was time for another update on the guys I spotlighted before the season started. To read the original piece, click here, and to read the first update, click here. Also, I wanted to give a heads up that I will be starting the mid season evaluation of every prospect I ranked in the system over the offseason. I’ll probably just go in reverse, starting with the last guys I graded and working forward. I’ll probably start working on that after the draft is over and we have time to analyze what happened, so stay tuned. Onto the update..

Continue reading Arms to Watch Update #2 →

Let’s take a look back at the week that was and find out who was bringing it, and who was stinking up the joint.

Hot:

Quintin Berry: .448/.515/.552 — 7 R – 6 SB
Welinson Baez: .379/.419/.448 — 2 2B – 4 R
Carlos Monasterios: 13.2 IP, 2 ER (1.36 ERA) — 5 H — 7 BB — 8 K

Not:

Lakewood Trio (Cardenas, Milner, Henry): .179/.267/.284 — 12/67 — 3 XBH
Will Savage: 2.2 IP, 5 ER (20.46 ERA), 5 H, 4 BB, 0 K
Edgar Garcia: 6.1 IP, 6 ER (8.85 ERA), 12 H, 1 BB, 7 K, 2 HR

Notes:

* Brett Harker pitched four perfect innings, picking up 4 saves for Clearwater.

* Gus Milner, despite his struggles hitting the ball, still drew 5 walks last week

* Kyle Drabek had a nice week, just missing the list. 12 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 5 BB, 8 K

* James Happ continues to struggle with his control….not a good sign.

* Matt Smith had a decent week, pitching 3 scoreless innings, but he did allow 3 walks. That’s not good.

* Josh Outman’s command remains a problem (4 BB in 5 IP), but the K numbers are returning.