Its the first box score recap of 2012. Are you excited? I’m excited. The boxes are below the fold.
Tyler Cloyd’s AAA Debut
As of 930 last evening, Tyler Cloyd believed he would be the opening day starter for the Reading Phillies. That changed quickly with a phone call and off he went to Lehigh Valley to make his AAA debut and what a debut it was. Cloyd pitched six perfect innings, dominating the Scranton Wilkes Barre Yankees, striking out 8. He threw just 73 pitches in his six innings, however because of early season pitch counts was removed still perfect.
Cloyd impressed last year without overpowering stuff, with his knowledge of “how to pitch”. That translated very well to the AAA level tonight and while I expect he is likely headed back to Reading in the short term, it would be surprising if substantial time were not spent in the Lehigh Valley by Cloyd by mid season.
Unexpected Surprise
In one of the stranger baseball events in recent memory, Lehigh Valley starter Dave Bush, the planned opening day starter has been suspended for five games for an incident that occurred in Spring Training against the Pirates. Following a homer, the next pitch Bush threw was high and inside, warranting ejection according to the umpire. ‘Pigs manager Ryne Sandberg mentioned there was some “unfortunate verbiage” between Bush and the umpire, and Bush was suspended.
Benefitting from the suspension is Tyler Cloyd, who was set to start on Opening Day for the Reading Phils. CLoyd, 24, had an outstanding year last year, first with CLearwater, followed by a lengthy stint in Reading. Cloyd was a combined 9-4 with a 2.77 ERA in 146 IP last season. I was a bit surprised about his placement at Reading to start the season, thinking based on his success in Reading and in the Arizona Fall League that a spot in the Lehigh Valley rotation was likely. Given this opportunity, it should be interesting to see how Cloyd responds.
Extended Spring Training Rosters
So here’s my totally unofficial guess at who’s still in Clearwater. Some of these guys are leftovers from the Spring Training Workgroups and may have been released and a couple are guys who were in the system at the end of last season but did not appear during Spring Training, so who knows if they’re still in the system. Obviously some of these guys will end up in Williamsport, some in Gulf Coast and some back in the DSL or VSL.
Catchers
Willians Astudillo
Liam Bedford
Angel Chavarin
Chace Numatta
Kevin Quaranto Continue reading Extended Spring Training Rosters
Lehigh Valley Roster Complete
The final three names have been added to the Lehigh Valley roster after final cuts were made from Phillies camp. OF Scott Podsednik, INF Hector Luna and P Raul Valdes will all be joining the IronPigs in time for opening night tomorrow. Congrats to much maligned Joe Savery for earning an opening day roster spot with the Phils.
Joe Savery has made the 25 man roster
That’s the word on the street, at least.
This site has been around for a little more than 5 years, and Savery’s story is probably the coolest thing I’ve seen since I started closely following the minor leagues like 10 years ago. He was close to calling it a career and retiring, he switched from pitcher to hitter, then switched back to pitcher, recovered 3-4 mph on his fastball, and is now on the opening day roster of the big league club.
No matter how good he ends up becoming or what role he carves out at the major league level, his story is a great inspiration for future players, and a good lesson that anything can happen in baseball, and even when you think you have a good idea of what is going to happen, you can still be completely surprised.
Congrats to Joe, and continued success.
Open Discussion: Week of April 2nd
Spring training is essentially over. The games start soon. This is exciting. My plan is to have one of these open posts every week, and I expect you’ll keep the random chatter unrelated to specific games or news stories in this post. I’ll again be providing nightly box score recaps, and also writing a few regular features and of course covering any big news and the like. I’m also going to spend some time updating all of the profile pages, time permitting. As I’ve done many times before, I’m going to ask that you behave and be nice to one another. We’ve carved out a really peaceful little corner of the internet here, and I want to keep it that way. As always, if someone is causing trouble, don’t feed them, just email me.
I appreciate everyone checking in this winter, even when there was really nothing to talk about, and I’m hoping the 2012 minor league season is the best yet in terms of this site. Thanks again for your support.
Lehigh Valley Roster
The Lehigh Valley roster came out today, albeit in an incomplete fashion as the final roster will be dependant on the last couple roster moves the Phils need to make. This is where we are at currently…
Catcher: Erik Kratz, 31, Kratz, a 2010 IL All Star was a key member of the team last year, hitting .288 with 15 HR and 53 RBI.
Tuffy Gosewisch, 28, had a very good season for Reading last year. His strength continues to be his defense, however, he provided some punch at the plate last year hitting .247 with 13 HR and 66 RBI.
John Suomi, 31, typically moves up and down the minor leagues filling in where the Phils need a spare catcher. I would expect the same role in 2012. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Roster
Lakewood Roster
The Lakewood Roster is as follows:
Catcher: John Hill (19th round, 2011); Logan Moore (9th round, 2011)
Infield: Chris Duffy (26th Round, 2010); Kelly Dugan (2nd round, 2009); Maikel Franco (FA, 2010); Gustavo Gonzalez (FA, 2011); Tyler Greene (11th round, 2011); Drew Hillman (18th round, 2011); Carlos Perdomo (FA, 2007)
Outfield: Aaron Altherr (9th round, 2009); Gauntlett Eldemire (6th round, 2010); Kyrell Hudson (3rd round, 2009); Brian Pointer (28th round, 2010)
Pitchers: Gabrial Arias (FA, 2007); Ryan Duke (25th round, 2011); Kenny Giles (7th round 2011); Colin Klevan (33rd round, 2009); Ervis Manzanillo (FA, 2009); Lino Martinez (FA, 2009); Bryan Morgado (4th round, 2010); Colton Murray (13th round, 2011); Mike Nesseth (17th round, 2010); Ryan Sasaki (13th round, 2009); Colby Shreve (6th round, 2008); Ethan STewart (47th round, 2010)
Pitcher Nicholas Hernandez will start the season on the DL and OF Zach Collier is suspended for the first 50 games of the season.
Some quick thoughts on J-Rod and Lisalberto Bonilla
I watched bits and pieces of last night’s Phillies game and got to see Julio Rodriguez and Lisalbert Bonilla both take their shot against the Yankees reserves and backups. Neither guy had a night they will cherish, but both flashed some positive things, and I think both are definitely interesting guys to watch in 2012. Here are some very brief thoughts on both guys
Rodriguez:
* His fastball was mostly 87-90, consistently hitting 89 from what I saw. It did have a little bit of late life with movement in to righthanded hitters
* The deception people talk about is very real. Though he’s not the wiry skinny kid he was when he was drafted, he still creates a lot of funk with his arms and legs in his delivery, and some of the hitters took late, defensive swings because they weren’t able to really see the ball.
* His location wasn’t great, and he did miss up a few times, which we’ve heard about before.
* His slow curveball was in the low 70s and it did not look like a swing and miss offering. Definitely the big thing he’ll need to work on this year.
* He threw one or two solid changeups, a weapon he’ll need against lefties.
Nothing in his performance really changed my opinion of him. Because of the deception he creates, I think he will be able to generate swings and misses at the next level. I do think his future is likely in the bullpen. Tyler Clippard has proven you don’t need to throw 95 mph to be a successful short reliever, and he gets by with deception. Rodriguez is going to need to tighten up both his changeup and curveball significantly to get to that point, but I think he does have that potential.
Bonilla:
* What struck me about Bonilla is how calm the first part of his delivery is, as he stays compact until his arm crosses his body, but his follow through is really violent, and he ends up falling off the mound to the first base side almost every time. This is going to cause command problems.
* His fastball was generally 90-92 from what I saw, I think I saw one 94. He has average or better arm strength.
* Like Rodriguez, his command was pretty poor, probably a case of nerves. He gets a pass.
* He threw a couple of really wicked changeups with excellent tumble and fade away from the lefthanded hitters. I believe he also hung one that got belted.
* His breaking ball was fringy, but he threw mainly fastballs.
I should have tivo’ed the game so I could have tried to capture the video and post it here, but this is from memory. If anyone else watched them pitch, please share your thoughts.
