Prospect Spotlight: What to do about Zachary Green

Green, Zach

Zach Green has been one of the breakout prospects so far this year.  On the surface it is for good reason as he is tied for the NYPL lead in HRs, has a sizeable lead in SLG, and is 5th overall in OPS.  The problem is that while his power has shown up in a big way and the walk rate has improved from 4.4% to 8.8%, his strikeout rate has ballooned from 23.5% to 29%.  This leaves a conundrum, on one hand the 19 year old Green is pushing for a spot in the upper echelon of Phillies prospects, and on the other you are wondering if he is going to make it out of A ball.  The truth is somewhere in between and what you are left with after walking through the tool set is the potential for a very solid prospect that has a lot of development left to do if he wants to near that ceiling.

Hitting: Green’s ability to make contact is the biggest outstanding question about him.  The swing has gotten shorter since the GCL, but it has a tendency to lengthen at time.  He generates good backspin and loft without selling out for plane.  The bat speed is average and there a questions about how it will hold up against plus plus velocity, but it shouldn’t be a fatal flaw.  His approach isn’t terrible, but he has big problems with breaking balls.  Additionally, he is really streaky at the plate so he will go through stretches where he is more susceptible to breaking pitches.  The good news is that he has gotten much better but it is something he will need to improve on to get past the high minors.  Given all of the questions it is hard to see the hit tool playing anything more than average. Continue reading Prospect Spotlight: What to do about Zachary Green →

Box Score Recap – 8/19/2013

Box Score Recap

Great, now we have to find a 2014 40-man spot for Perci Garner? THANKS A TON, PERCI. Ok, probably not yet, though, that was a pretty good start – 64% strikes, 6 hits, 2 BB and 7K in 5.2 IP. Not great, but pretty good. JP Crawford with his first 2 hits at Lakewood, helping a good start from Mark Leiter Jr. You have to wonder what they do with Leiter next year, and if there’s any upside there. He’s got the pedigree, obviously, but that only takes a player so far without results. Also impressive for Lakewood was Miguel Nunez – his K Rate is not great overall, but he’s got 7 Ks in 5IP each of his last two starts, and has walked only 2 over the same span. Maybe there’s something more coming from the 20-year-old righty.

Also of note – here’s a feature from MiLB.com on Williamsport’s Sam Hiciano’s big night on Saturday. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/19/2013 →

General Discussion – Week of 8-19-2013 – Casper Wells Starting Right Fielder Edition

Weekly Discussion

For a minute today, I almost thought Roger Bernadina would be a better option that Casper Wells. But then I remembered that they are both terrible, terrible options.

Discuss.

Box Score Recap – 8/18/2013

Box Score Recap

Three Williamsport Crosscutters combined to no-hit The Mahoning Valley Scrappers. Yacksel Rios walked three and struck out six in five innings, (not nine like I said earlier), Mark Meadors followed with three clean innings, and Manny Martinez closed out the game with another. The WIL offense put together eight runs on 12 hits, including three from CF Gustavo Martinez. Jesse Biddle with another pretty good performance at AA. Throwing strikes at a 64% clip, he allowed eight hits and struck out seven in six innings. Not as good as his last turn, but two good starts in a row is great to see.

And Tyson Gillies is hitting pretty well in August – OPSing .815 for the month, with a homer, four doubles and four steals in as many attempts. If nothing else, he’s shown his legs are healthy enough to steal some bases this year. He’s not running wild, (as they say), but 16/21 is useful. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/18/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 8/17/2013

Box Score Recap

All kinds of good stuff on Saturday. Cam Rupp with his 14th HR of the year in around 325 PAs, ISO near .200. Very strong. Tyler Henson with the Zach Green Special – 3-5 with 2 XBH, (both doubles), and 2Ks. Kelly Dugan with his 7th AA home run – his 17th overall in 2013. Zach Collier stays hot with three more hits – his post-ASB stats are actually looking pretty good. Hoby Milner and Ryan O’Sullivan allowed 7 hits and struck out 7 Dunedin Blue Jays in a combined shutout. Sam Hiciano went 3-5 with a double and two home runs – a single shy of The Big Wheel. Drove in 8 runs. Kind of a big day. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/17/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 8/16/2013

Box Score Recap

Slow news day for the Phillies, so let’s talk about some minor league news. Hmm…nothing there either. Oh well…just the games then.

Cesar Hernandez with his 30th steal. Not bad for missing about 5 weeks between the bigs and injuries. Three hits a piece for Jiwan James and Harold Martinez, and two each for Altherr and Perkins. Two total hits for The Lakewood Blueclaws spoils at fine performance from Ramon Ovideo – 2R 6H 2BB and 7K in 5IP. A similar looking effort for Feliberto Sanchez in the GCL, 1R 5H 1BB and 7K, also in 5IP – he’s shown some better peripherals in August – 11K and 5BB in 15 IP. We’ll see if he can close out his year on a high note. Not a great night from Mitch Gueller – gave up four runs on 10 hits in four innings. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/16/2013 →

Phillies Minor League Leaders

Other Stuff

Maikel Franco continues to be the primary story here, with JP Crawford now with enough AB’s to qualify and headed to Lakewood.

Note: Min 130AB’s for hitter; 35IP for pitchers.

AB’s: Maikel Franco(462); Jim Murphy(429); Chris Serritella (422); Albert Cartwright(412); Aaron Altherr(407); Willie Carmona(404); Cody Asche(404); Carlos Alonso(399); Cody Overbeck(396); Zach Collier(391)

R: Maikel Franco(72); Albert Cartwright(71); Carlos ALonso(66); Art Charles(57); Jim Murphy(55); Tyson Gillies(55); Willie Carmona(52); Aaron Altherr(52); Cody Asche(52); Cody Overbeck(51).

Hits: Maikel Franco(147); Willie Carmona(121); Cody Asche(119); Jim Murphy(117); Albert Cartwright(110); Cesar Hernandez(109); Carlos Alonso(109); Aaron Altherr(108); Kelly Dugan(107); Cody Overbeck(105) Continue reading Phillies Minor League Leaders →

Phillies Promote JP Crawford to Lakewood

Other Stuff

With three weeks left in the season the Phillies send JP Crawford north to New Jersey.  The move allows them to showcase the new star in the system while freeing up some GCL ABs.  This could mean Quinn won’t be back for the regular season or that they would like to work him back at the GCL complex.  Either way a nice chance for Crawford to get his feet wet.

Friday Q & A

Other Stuff

I haven’t had a chance to really write anything recently (though there is a Zach Green piece in the works), and I likely won’t do another mailbag for a week or so, so I thought it might be nice to have an informal thread to ask specific questions you are looking for answers from me (though anyone with a good response feel free to jump in).  If there is anything that does not fit into a quick response I reserve the right to add it to the next mailbag or write a full response column to it.

My only request is that you start a new post for each new question and make sure that your replies are in reply to the original question so that it keeps this as clean as possible.

Box Score Recap – 8/15/2013

Box Score Recap

Seve G and the Boyz (Colton Murray and Ken Giles) , struck out 13 Daytona Cubs. Now that they downed Cubs, what are they gonna do? Probably pitch again in a couple days. That’s what.

Ok, now that I have that out of my system, Cam Rupp, Tyson Gillies and Zach Collier with 2 hits a piece. Harold Martinez added three more hits, Zach Green hit his league leading 11th HR, and Deivi Grullon hit his first pro bomb. Continue reading Box Score Recap – 8/15/2013 →