Put another year in the books for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs who finished the year in 3rd place of the Northern Division of the International League at 75-68, 9 games back of division leading Scranton. The season was a challenging one for Lehigh Valley. From the get go they were faced with a myriad of call ups and injuries that left the team in a state of total flux, literally all year. With the Phillies bullpen decimated by both injury and ineffectiveness, just about every pitcher in the bullpen on the IronPigs opening day roster received a shot with the big club. My perspective is that even with a record that stood well below the level of success of the 2011 team, the job done by Manager Ryne Sandberg was far better, getting alot more with less talent. On paper, this was no more than a .500 team that Sandberg took into the final weekend of the wild card hunt. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Report–End of Season Edition
Box Score Recap 9-2-2012
I’m going to go ahead and start calling Kenny Giles “KG”. Has a nice ring to it, right? KG struck out the side in his 1 IP today. Ethan “EM” Martin with a big game today, 2H/0BB/8K in 7 scoreless. Larry “LG2” Greene Jr. finished with a 14.3% BB rate and a 26.0% K rate. If he’s going to hit a mess of homers, (he only managed 2 this year but 23 doubles), that K rate is totally fine by me, and that BB rate is awesome. Maikel Franco finished with a .775 OPS, .925 after the ASB. You can make up a clever 2 letter nickname for him all on your own.
Box Score Recap 9-1-2012
Roman Quinn with his first professional (regular season/over the fence) homerun. Franco and Dugan with three hits each.
None of the three teams in playoff contention helped their cause. May and Pettibone both with less than stellar outings, and Frank Gailey, (of all people), struck out 12 Clearwater Threshers in six innings. I kid you not. Frank Gailey. Yes, the same one. Burn.
Mike and Tommy and Darin
Ok, the Mike Piazza line always gets me. The notion is this – Piazza was passed on by every team 61 times before the Dodgers took him at the end of the 62nd round. Scouts failed to get it right on Piazza and only by “friend of his dad Tommy Lasorda” did he even get a chance. And from that, proof that scouts don’t always recognize talent, and that, in this case, Darin Ruf, (or really anyone else), might just be better than scouts think. Let’s look at the story, from what I know of it. Continue reading Mike and Tommy and Darin
Polls
I am going to to make things more exciting during this off season, putting up polls fairly often to keep the conversation going…
Feel free to respond in the comment section about ideas for polls you would like to see.
Have fun, and PLEASE be respectful. First poll is in the post below. Sometime in January, I will put up a post with cumulative poll results.
What Phillies Minor Leaguer Has Been Most Disappointing This Year?
Box Score Recap 8-31-2012
Clearwater win puts them into a three-way first place tie. Cameron Rupp with 4 hits and 4 RBI. Lehigh Valley loses but stays alive – their “unmagic” number is 1. Reading falls, and Brody Colvin’s line looks very bad again.
Maikel Franco ends with a .989 OPS for the month of August. And his K rate for the year looks like it will come in under 15%. Truly impressive for a guy who just turned 20. Would like to see him walk more, but I’ll take 7+% with as much power as he’s shown.
And on the “things looking up from the bottom of the abyss” front – Tyler Greene finished August with a K Rate under 30%, a BB rate above 6%, and a .670 OPS. A sign of something good to come? Perhaps. A small sample? Undoubtedly.
Box Score Recap 8-30-2012
Darin Ruf did something. And hey, so did Justin Friend. Team records for both. Congrats!
Hot or Not, Final Edition
The last Hot or Not for the 2012 season….lets get at it.
–Is there anymore more to say about Darin Ruf. Put simply, he could not have had a better year at the plate. If for no other reason than to prevent a Ryne Sandberg type mistake (and no,I am not comparing Ruf to a Hall of Famer), the Phillies need to see what they have against major league pitching. There is no downside for the seasons final month. He needs to be in Philly.
–Brian Pointer ranks high on the 2012 disappointment list. Such a pretty swing that just can’t make contact.
–Hoby Milner is opening eyes at Lakewood making it pretty clear he is ready for a jump to High A in 2013.
–Very nice to see Trevor May have an outstanding outing after really struggling for quite awhile.
–Ethan Martin joins the not hot list after some fairly significant control issues, while Brody Colvin remains consistently “not hot”.
–Kyle Simon has opened eyes in the organization since the Thome trade and appears to be a legit prospect who could help the Phillies in 2014 in the middle to late innings. His work against very good competition in the AFL will be something to watch closely.
Now the stats: Min 11 AB’s; Stat period 8/24–8/30.
Hot Starting Pitchers: Colin Klevan (7.1IP 5H 0ER 2BB 4K); Josh Warner (6IP 2H 0ER 0BB 4K); Hoby Milner (6IP 2H 0ER 2BB 6K); Trevor May (8IP 2H 0ER 1BB 9K); Tyson Brummett (5IP 1H 0ER 1BB 3K); Manny Martinez (9IP 7H 2ER 5BB 9K);Austin Hyatt (11.2IP 10H 3ER 3BB 8K) Continue reading Hot or Not, Final Edition
Box Score Recap 8-29-2012
Roman Quinn with another triple – his 11th. Mitch Rupert tweeted that broke a Short Season record at Williamsport. Someone pointed out in the comments in the last couple days that he only has 8 doubles all year. Probably stretching singles.
Elsewhere, 3ER, 5H, 3BB and 9K in 6IP for Ethan Stewart, coming off several not great outings. 2 hits and 1 2B a piece for Asche and Ruf, who also walked twice. And an OK line from Adam Morgan – 3ER, 6H, 4BB, 6K in 6IP. Continue reading Box Score Recap 8-29-2012
