Prospect Spotlight – Severino Gonzalez

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There have been a lot of questions about Severino Gonzalez so I thought it was time to write him up.  There isn’t a lot about him or his stuff, but now that he is in the Lakewood rotation there are more reports trickling in.

The Scouting Profile:

Fastball: The reports are that it is mostly 89-91 touching as high as 92.  There is not much about the movement on the pitch, but he can consistently throw it for strikes.

Curveball:  By most reports his best pitch, it is a low 70s breaking ball with good break. Continue reading Prospect Spotlight – Severino Gonzalez →

Box Score Recap – 7/2/2013

Box Score Recap

Severino Gonzalez was perfect through six innings, and struck out 9. That’s not too bad. 4 hits combined on both sides in that game – Willie Carmona won that slugfest when his went over the fence. Dylan Cozens went deep – his second for Williamsport. And the Lehigh Valley crew was beaten by a pitcher named Lobstein, begging the question, would you rather be a pitcher named Lobstein, as in “lob the ball over the plate”, or a hitter named LOBstein, as in “men left on base”? I might have taken up tennis, I think.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/2/2013 →

Lehigh Valley Weekly Report

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The ‘Pigs played the eighth game of a nine game homestand last evening and ended the homestand with a 5-2  loss to Toledo,. Over the course of the homestand, Lehigh Valley is 4-4 and now sit at 45-40 and in 2nd place of the Northern Division of the International League, 6.5 games behind division leading Pawtucket.  The ‘Pigs are tied for the wild card lead with Norfolk.

‘Pigs Prospects: Cody Asche has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games and is hitting .400 (16-40) over that timeframe, and is over .280 on the year, continuing to show decent power and some speed to go along with good defense. He went almost the entire month of June without an error (27 games), finally committing an error on the 30th of June. His power numbers are increasing as his last 200 AB’s have yielded 7 HR’s, after just one in his first 100 AB’s. Struggling a bit against LHP (.241) and with RISP (.236). Continue reading Lehigh Valley Weekly Report →

Box Score Recap – 7/1/2013

Box Score Recap

Cesar Hernandez has been putting on quite a show the last couple days – he’s 10 for his last 14, (all singles), and stole 3 bases last night. He’s now 26/32 on the year, or 81+%. Strong outing from David Buchanan, working into the ninth and allowing just 1R, 5H, 3BB and striking out 5 in 8 1/3IP. And for the second straight day, Cameron Rupp goes deep for Lehigh Valley. Here’s a little write-up on him from MiLB.com. It appeared on the bottom of my Box Score page as a “You Might Also Like”. They know me so well.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 7/1/2013 →

General Discussion – Week of 7-1-2013 – Halfway Home Edition

Weekly Discussion

As we pass the calenderic mid-point of the year, (calenderic?), I would like to offer my thoughts on the Phillies as a jumping off point for this week’s discussion:

1. Ugh

2. Delmon Young has a pretty decent arm, and he’s been on a couple decent streaks, (Miami earlier this year and now the recent West Coast swing). It has cost the team PAs for no one I am worried about getting PAs, (unless you really like Mayberry or want Ruf in LF and Brown back in right), and there was nothing really attractive on the OF market except Swisher who would have cost a draft pick, (which doesn’t thrill me), and the signing was not even the worst signing this off-season, (Durbin), and as such: Delmon Young on an incentive-laden 1-year deal has not turned out to be the worst signing ever. High praise, right?

3. I like Dom Brown and I always have. I briefly liked Michael Taylor better, but that didn’t last and was based on some faulty proximity argument that I no longer think makes much sense.

4. Chase Utley is still good and his health isn’t as big a concern if he can keep his knees working. The oblique was the first non-contact injury I can recall him ever having that wasn’t realted to his chronic knee issue, and if I’m a contending team right now, I might just overpay for Utley. Not by a lot. We’re not landing 2 top 50-type guys or anything, but a mildly substantial (mildly substantial?) overpay I could see.

5. Ugh, again, I guess.

6. JC Ramirez struck out the side in his first big league inning. I’m excited for him, if not all that much about him.

7. Wheels < Sarge < TMac < Murph

Ok, discuss.

July 2 Preview

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There really is no bigger boom or bust day in professional sports than the opening of baseball’s international signing period on July 2.  Starting tomorrow teams will sign 16 year olds to contracts for hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping they have found the kid with superstar potential.  Many won’t get past complex league,  others will change body shape too much, more will fail to go from showcase player to baseball player, but some will emerge as real prospects.  The amount of ways to bring talent into your system are finite and the international signing period remains one of the most exploitable.

The Phillies have been more aggressive in recent years signing three “top” players in 2012 in RF Jose Pujols, C Deivi Grullon, and RHP Lewis Alezones, in addition to 100k+ signees Gregori Rivero and Wilker Isavas.  While they may not sign the top player available they certainly will spend close to their allotted slot money on guys more in the 50k-200k range.  Continue reading July 2 Preview →

Box Score Recap – 6/30/2013

Box Score Recap

Maikel Franco cannot be stopped – 3-5 with a HR and he’s now OPSing 1.309 in his first ~50 AA PAs. Nice outings from Martin and Colvin.  Martin again got by without throwing a lot of strikes, 56/100 or 56% (#math), while Colvin was around 64%. Also an effective spot-start from Lakewood’s Jeb Stefan, going 5, allowing 1R on 3H and 1BB with 5Ks. His peripherals look pretty good out of the pen this year, (albeit as a 23-year-old in low-A), with 17BB (3.5/9) and 42Ks (just shy of 9/9), in 43.1 relief IP, and 4HR allowed, which rates out high (0.83/9), but is in a pretty small sample to look at HR rates. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him get moved up to the CLR bullpen sometime soon.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/30/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 6/29/2013

Box Score Recap

Pretty nice bounce-back game from Hoby Milner – 2R on 7H 1BB and 5K in 7 IP, after a couple bad performances in a row. Jesse Biddle slogged his way through giving up 2R on 9H 2BB and 2K over 6IP. Threw just 57% strikes. Cesar Hernandez with 4 hits, Cody Asche with 2 including a double, and Cameron Rupp with his first AAA homerun.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/29/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 6/28/2013

Box Score Recap

Tyson Gillies is probably ready to go back up to AAA. Maybe that’s the move that clears an outfield spot for Kelly Dugan without sitting down Anthony Hewitt. Not that I’m worried about sitting down Anthony Hewitt, but he’s hitting fairly well, and is still young enough to want to keep on the field, I guess. And, as has been the case a half dozen times in the last couple years, I have now spent more time thinking about Anthony Hewitt than anyone should. Still rooting for the guy, mind you.

Mario Hollands the definition of hard-luck loser. Gave up 2 runs on 7 hits and no walks, and struck out 9 in 7 innings. Darin Ruf and Cody Asche both stroked their 19th doubles of the year. Dylan Cozens with his first HR of the young season. Johnathan Knight hosed two baserunners from left field. Braden Shull pitched his third professional inning. 2H, 1BB, 2 wild pitches. But he’s out there an not injured and that’s nice.

And finally, 19 year-old VSL LHP Jesus Chavez dominated in his start, throwing 6 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits and striking out 8. He’s been excellent so far, and young enough to keep an eye on. You can check out what AndyB had to say about him and most everyone else on that team in his Early Season VSL Report.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/28/2013 →

Box Score Recap – 6/27/2013

Box Score Recap

New face in the GCL – it’s top pick JP Crawford. Some decent pitching from Wright and Stewart tonight. Maikel Franco sitting at .500 after a 3-5 night, including a triple.  He’s kind of impressive right now.

Continue reading Box Score Recap – 6/27/2013 →