At home today for the wrap-around with the Mets at 1:05, then two late-nighters at Anaheim starting tomorrow, an off day, then three at San Francisco. At least both weekend games are 4:15 EST. Back home next Monday with Seattle in town. No King Felix, but Hisashi Iwakuma looks like he’s lined up for Monday the 18th, if you’re inclined to head out for a good visiting pitcher. He’s having a really fine year.
Discuss.
Aaron Altherr went deep (12), his third in four games. I hear he’s using a piano leg as a bat. Kyle Simon would like you to take Paul Anka’s advice and “Just Don’t Look” at his line.
Tyler Viza struck out seven en route to his fifteenth loss of the year. Seven is the important number, there. Nice. Andrew Pullin 3-3 with three doubles, and Dylan Cozens had two hits including a two-bagger. He’s got 42 XBH in around 480 PAs. Not bad.
Mitch Gueller has some seriously bad road splits, but he’s getting it done at home. Not sure the remedy for that. Cord Sandberg has hit in nine straight, (h/t Phillies Insider), Jia Tromp was 2-4 plus a walk, and Rhys Hoskins is really turning it on this month, OPSing 1.167 in nine August contests.
Lots of great info in Jay Floyd’s (@phoulballz) latest interview with Joe Jordan – click through to read it. Jordan talks Morgan/Watson, JP and Quinn, upper level outfielders, Viza and Rios, many more, plus Jay gets a couple Lakewood names confirmed for instructs from Greg Legg. And one more – BPro’s Ten Pack has scouting on Jan Hernandez, and at least his part of the article is not behind their paywall, so go check it out.
The Clearwater Threshers were rained out Sunday at Brevard County. Miguel Nunez was scheduled to start and is now listed as the starter for Monday night, originally Jesse Biddle’s next scheduled start. The Threshers are scheduled off Tuesday and back home on Wednesday. No pitchers have been announced past Monday. So, maybe Biddle will get the start Wednesday at home. I hope so.
A look at Starting Pitching at the lower levels of the organization.
Lakewood
Ranfi Casimiro, 22, Signed as a free agent in 2010; 22 starts, 4-9 with a 5.21ERA; 107IP 116H 55BB 77K; 11HR allowed; 1.34 GO/AO; .269; 1.60 WHIP; 4.6BB/6.5K per 9; .265 vs. LH, .273 vs. RH; .299 with RISP; 2-4 with a 5.48ERA in 9 starts post all star game. Pretty consistent mediocrity for Casimiro all season.
Tyler Viza, 19, Phils 32nd round pick in 2013; 21 starts; 3-14 with a 5.27ERA; 110IP 151H 21BB 63K; 8HR allowed; 1.7BB/5.1K per 9; 1.14 GO/AO; .322 opp avg; 1.56 WHIP; .307 vs. LH, .338 vs. RH, .271 with RISP; I have no idea why the Phils stuck Viza in Lakewood as a 19 year old all year. He was hit around consistently and would have been better served to gain some confidence in Williamsport mid season
Jon Prosinski, 23, Phils 10th round pick in 2013; 22 starts, 4-8 with a 5.22ERA between Clearwater and Lakewood; 120.2IP 152H 27BB 68H 8HR allowed; 1.48 WHIP; 2.0BB/5.1K per 9; 1.58 GO/AO; .305 opp. avg; For Lakewood: 13 starts, 4-4 with a 4.33 ERA, 1.40 WHIP. Generally a very disappointing season for Prosinski where he was demoted mid season and been slightly above average for Lakewood. Continue reading Around the System–Starting Pitching, Lakewood, Williamsport, GCL
It’s pretty clear already that I’m not going to have time for this today – here’s the link. And no, Whach Ballier did not go deep, but he did have the walk-off hit.
Zach Collier hit two more home runs. He hit eight homers for Reading last year in about 500PAs. He has seven in his last 25PAs. At that pace, he would have hit 140 last year. I think that might have gotten him promoted. Can we start calling him “Whack Ballier”. Hmm…that sounds…not quite right.
Others going deep: J.P. Crawford (5,6 – wait, that’s TWO IN ONE GAME ALSO!!!); Aaron Altherr (11, second in two games); Angelo Mora (3); Brian Pointer (12); Mitch Walding (5, grand slam); Rhys Hoskins (6, he was 4-4).
Also, there were some nice pitching performances in there – my favorite, Ranfi Casimiro – 1R on 6H 1BB and 7K in 5 innings for Lakewood.
Enjoy your Saturday. Charlie Manuel’s Wall of Fame induction is tonight. If you’ve got nothing else going and are around town, it should be a beautiful night – 84 degrees with no noticeable humidity. Good night for a game. Those of us living out of town will be disgusted by you if you don’t go. Well, not disgusted, so much as…*sighs*…disappointed. *shakes head, sighs again, pauses, shakes head again, turns slowly, walks away with Wawa bag in one hand.*
J.P. Crawford belted 2 home runs as he went 3 for 4 with a stolen base to lead the Threshers to an 8-7 victory over the Daytona Cubs. Crawford’s 2 home runs sailed over the Oakley sign in right field for those familiar with Bright House Field. The first cleared the back fence and left the stadium. Continue reading Crawford Clubs Cubs; August 8, 2014
Since I’ve been mentioning it pretty much all week, here’s closure for you – the VSL squad lost today on a walk-off error. Two unearned runs in the last couple innings spoiled a fine performance from Ranger Suarez, who ended the year having given up just one walk and striking out 84 in 88.2 IP. Our main man Jesus Alastre was 2-3 on the day. Nice job by both guys all year, and I imagine we’ll hear from them stateside this fall and next spring.
Here’s a link to the box score.
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2014_08_08_vphrok_vtirok_1&t=g_box&sid=milb
Maikel Franco was 3-5 with a home run (10). His season OPS approaches .700, his wRC+ approaches 90, and I think we sometimes forget, he is still one of the youngest players in the league. Cubs prospect Javier Baez’ recent promotion makes him 2014’s youngest National Leaguer. Maikel Franco’s only about three months older than Baez. Just some perspective. And here’s a note for you – the last Phillie to be the youngest National Leaguer in a particular season was Larry Christensen in 1973. The Braves and Dodgers have had the youngest six times a piece since 1990.
Also for LV – Ethan Martin went three strong innings backing up Jo Jo Reyes, and Hector Neris ran his scoreless streak to 15 innings, (16 if you count that one in the bigs the other night). At AA, Chris Bootcheck, Kyle Simon and Colt Murray combined to throw a two-hit, two-walk, 14k shutout. Mercy. Kelly Dugan was 2-3 with a double and a walk, and Jake Fox (17) and Aaron Altherr (10) went deep. Dugan’s taking no prisoners right now – he’s OPSing .946 over his last ten games. He’s been on base in all but four games since July 1. And it was just one of those days for CLR – Mark Leiter got shelled, and the bullpen behind him did the same, allowing 18 Daytona runs. Art Charles hit his 14th home run and Herlis Rodriguez was 3-3. I imagine we’ll see Charles in Reading next year, and he may hit a ton of homers in that environment.
Andrew Pullin was 3-6 with his eighth home run of the year, and Zach Green was 2-4 with two walks as Lakewood lost in 12. Cord Sandberg went deep (4), his first in a while, and Jia Tromp was hit in the jaw with a pitch, but X-Rays were negative, per Ian Catherine (@IanCatherine27) on Twitter relaying from Jan Hernandez, who got a text from Tromp. Jose Pujols went deep for the second straight game (5) and catcher Jesus Posso hit his first – @statsking wrote up here last week (behind BPro’s paywall). Franklyn Kilome was strong over six innings, getting nine ground ball outs. And the VSL championship series finale was postponed by rain. We should get Ranger Suarez today on regular rest. We’ll see how it goes.
Since there are things to discuss, specifically the Roberto Hernandez trade, here’s a fresh thread. Also, VSL was rained out, so we should get Ranger Suarez tomorrow on regular rest.
Also, hey, while I have ya – I wrote a thing on Nola and Biddle at Crashburn Alley –
http://crashburnalley.com/2014/08/07/aaron-and-jesse-wait-aaron-paul-jesse-pinkman-whoa/
Enjoy, if you’re so inclined.
Discuss.
