Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

Other Stuff

AFter wins the last two evenings, Lehigh Valley has lost 7 of their last 10 games, and have gone 12-19 since May 30th.  The ‘Pigs are 41-44 and in 5th place of the Northern Division of the International League; 10 games behind division leading Syracuse. They are 6 games behind Rochester for a wildcard spot.  Lehigh Valley returns home for a quick two game series against Syracuse before leaving on a long 10 game road trip that will take them into the all star break in mid July.

‘Pigs League Leaders, Hitting:Maikel Franco is 7th in AB’s (302); Tyler Henson is 5th in strikeouts (84) and 5th in SB’s (16).

Leaders, Pitching: Barry Enright is 4th in losses (8); leads the league in HR allowed (16); has the 6th worst WHIP (1.54) has the 7th worst ERA (5.20); is tied for 4th in starts (16); Luis Garcia is 3rd in saves (15); Greg SMith is 9th in IP (94.2)

‘Pigs Prospects: Maikel Franco’s struggles continue and he has been out of the lineup over the last two days.  Franco had 105 June AB’s and hit .162/.196/.238 with 1HR and 11RBI.  Franco’s year has been a roller coaster with April and June being very poor, with a good May sandwiched in the middle.  On the year, .209/.267/.318 with 5HR 31RBI. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report →

Threshers; July 1, 2014

Game Reports

The Phillies first round pick and number 7 overall, Aaron Nola, made his home debut against the Dunedin Blue Jays Tuesday night.  The crowd of 3,394 was treated to a pitchers’ duel in a game the Threshers’ lost 1-0.

Nola made his FSL debut last Monday in Lakeland.  He was on a 50 pitch limit that night.  He started Tuesday on an unknown pitch limit, but a 5-inning limit. Continue reading Threshers; July 1, 2014 →

Minor League Organizational Leaders

Other Stuff

It aint real pretty…

AB’s: Maikel Franco, 302; Dylan Cozens 301; KC Serna 300; Peter Lavin 294; Carlos Tocci 286; Andrew Pullin 284; Carlos Alonso 276; Cameron Perkins 274; JP Crawford 272; Aaron Altherr 269

Hits: Cameron Perkins 85; Peter Lavin 85; Willians Astudillo 84; KC Serna 83; JP Crawford 78; Andrew Pullin 78; Carlos Alonso 77; Steve Susdorf 72; Leandro Castro 69; Tyler Henson 69

2B; Cameron Perkins 21; Willians Astudillo 19;  Peter Lavin 18; KC Serna 18; Art Charles 18; Steve Susdorf 17; JP Crawford 17;  Leandro castro 16; Tyler Henson 16; Maikel Franco 16; Aaron Altherr 16

3B: Peter Lavin 5; Carlos Tocci 4; Leandro Castro 3; Cameron Perkins 3; Aaron Altherr 3; KC Serna 3; Art Charles 3; Brian Pointer 3; Dylan Cozens 3

HR: Jim Murphy 10; Peter Lavin 10; Dylan Cozens 9; Samuel Hiciano 7; Art Charles 7; Carlos Alonso 7; Jake Fox 6; Aaron Altherr 6; Brock Stassi Continue reading Minor League Organizational Leaders →

General Discussion – Week of 6-30-2014 – Nautical Edition

Weekly Discussion

On the road with the Marlins and Pirates this week.

Here’s a question: Do Pirates fish? I mean, they probably do, right? Plunder is one thing, but fishing means never having to steal food from someone, and instead focusing on all the treasure. Imagine being the pirate left behind when the gang leaves because you were in the kitchen looking for a snack. That’d be super embarrassing.

Also, I wonder if Barkhad Abdi likes baseball. Strikes me as a soccer fan, but maybe that’s just me stereotyping.

Discuss.

Box Score Recap – 6/30/2014

Box Score Recap

Three Iron Pigs hit home runs and five had multi-hit games. Brad Lincoln pitched fairly well there. Kelly Dugan went 2-4 with a double, and Severino Gonzalez plodded through five uninspiring innings as Reading overcame a six run deficit to defeat New Hampshire.

Zach Green hit his third home run in two days among his 4-8 performance, and Andy Knapp hit one out in the top of the 15th as Lakewood overcame a seven run deficit to beat West Virginia. Jon Prosknski got walloped for a bit out of the gate, but the bullpen held the Power scoreless for 12.1 innings to snag the W.

Undrafted Free Agent Aaron Baker picked up the win after allowing five hits and three runs in 1.1 IP for the GCL. Jesus Alastre went 3-4 with two steals in the VZL. He’s at 7-16 on the year on the base paths. Not as bad as he was earlier. Looking forward to maybe getting a scouting opinion on him from Instructs this fall.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/30/2014 →

Reading Report: 6/23-6/29 (In Haiku Form!)

Other Stuff

Listen, things haven’t been so great lately for your Reading Fightins. They have lost 12 games in a row (maybe the only thing that stopped them from racking it up to 13 this week was a rain out), Jesse Biddle was shut down after another disastrous performance, and the offense continues to struggle, save for a few names.

I can only offer a haiku at this point, in hopes to change the team’s luck a bit.

Biddle has been shelved
They’ve lost twelve games in a row
At least Fox can hit

That is all for the week.

Box Score Recap – 6/29/2014

Box Score Recap

Leandro Castro had three hits and  a walk in five trips to the plate and Grady Sizemore was 2-5 for Lehigh Valley. Kelly Dugan announced his return from the post-DL doldrums with two home runs, and Jake Fox matched that feat for Reading.

Brian Pointer ended his hot June (CLR is off Monday) with a 3-4 day, that included a double a and a home run. He OPSed .953 for the month. I will temper my enthusiasm, as he’s run off a couple nice stretches the last couple year only to fall off a cliff thereafter. Also for CLR, Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez worked scoreless innings on a back-to-back day this weekend. In five rehab appearances during his most recent stint, he’s been in control, striking out eight and walking none, while allowing one run on six hits in six innings. Be sure to check out Jim’s report from yesterday’s outing for more on MAG.

Zach Green went deep twice and Andrew Pullin kept his hitting streak alive at 12 games. Pullin’s got just three multi-hit games and only one extra base hit during the streak, so it hasn’t really spiked his season numbers too much, though he was having a pretty nice June anyway, with five multi-hit games and four doubles in the first 14 days of the month, just before this current streak. I guess he’s been hitting well, one way or the other.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/29/2014 →

Threshers; June 29, 2014

Game Reports

Miguel Gonzalez threw 14 pitches in a relief appearance today, his first back-to-back appearances since restarting his rehab as a reliever.  It was reported that his fastball peaked at 95-96 mph Saturday night.  He followed that up with 92-94 mph on 10 of his 11 fastballs on Sunday.  One fastball dipped to 91.  He threw 3 off-speed pitches, two 77 mph curve balls and an 81 mph slider(?).  The first batter fell behind 0-2 and fouled off a pitch before hitting a soft cue shot that found space between Art Charles and Angelo Mora on the right side.  It barely reached the outfield grass.  Gonzalez struck out the next batter after falling behind 2-0.  The third batter lined a ball back through the box that Gonzalez grabbed between his ankles.  He easily doubled up the runner off first. Continue reading Threshers; June 29, 2014 →

Box Score Recap – 6/28/2014

Box Score Recap

Sorry, but I’m not getting to this today. Here’s a link and a place to discuss if you like. JP went deep again, and other things happened, if I recall correctly. GO JP CRAWFORD!!!

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/28/2014 →

Around the System–Relief Pitchers, CLearwater, Lakewood, WP and GCL

Around the System

Clearwater

Dan Child, 21, Phils 18th round pick in 2013 draft; 19 games; 1-1 with a 5.12ERA; 1 save; 31.2IP 47H 16BB 21K; 2.30 GO/AO; .356 opp. avg; 1.67WHIP; 4.5BB/6.0K per 9; .426 vs. LHH, .281 vs. RHH, .356 with RISP.  With opponents hitting over .350 against him, it has been a miserable season for Child.

Cody Forsythe, 23, Phils 25th  round pick in 2013 draft; 25 games between Lakewood and CLearwater; 3-2 with a 2.59ERA; 9 saves; 31.1IP 29H 6BB 27K; 0.77 GO/AO; .234 opp avg; 1.11 WHIP; 1.7BB/7.8K per 9; Forsythe was promoted just last week to Clearwater and had an excellent year, albeit as a 23 year old in Lakewood.

Jordan Guth, 23, Phils 9th round pick in 2012 draft; 23 games, 1-3 with a 2.76ERA; 4 saves; 29.1IP 33H 18BB 19K; 0.79 GO/AO; .282 opp. avg; 1.72 WHIP; 5.5BB/5.8K per 9; .340 vs. LHH, .240 vs. RHH, .250 with RISP.  When you look at the numbers as a whole, Guth has been very average this year.  Too many walks and not enough dominance to see long term success.

Lino Martinez, 21, Signed as a free agent in 2009; 22 games, 0-3 with a 3.67ERA; 3 saves; 41.2IP 28H 29BB 40K; 0.93 GO/AO; .193 opp avg; 1.36 WHIP; 6.3BB/8.6K per 9; .228 vs. LHH, .170 vs. RHH, .139 with RISP. Martinez’s line is dominant until you consider the walks.  If his control improves, we may really have something here… Continue reading Around the System–Relief Pitchers, CLearwater, Lakewood, WP and GCL →