Michael Taylor Q/A at Baseball America

Other Stuff

Check it. Its pretty standard, but he does give some thoughtful replies. I liked this answer though;

BA: What kind of approach do you like to take to the plate for every at-bat?

MT: I try to have a plan for every single at-bat for every single pitch. I’m not saying it always works out, but I feel like the less at-bats I give away over the course of a 500 AB season, if I give away 50, I may not scrape out 15, 20 more hits, and that’s the difference between hitting .275 and .300. For me, I try to go up there, take every pitch, have my plan—and I know we’re not supposed to be stepping out—but just to clear my head, take what happened and just get my new plan for that next pitch. If I do that, I feel that I have a chance to be successful with my approach.

Iron Pigs Report

7. Lehigh Valley

A difficult week for Lehigh Valley as they went 1-6, falling to 49-71 on the year, 24 games behind division leading Scranton in the Northern Division of the International league.  The ‘Pigs are struggling with a makeshift lineup and pitching staff as they have recently lost several key players to various consequences including call ups (Cervenak, Walrond, Happ), Olympics (Green, Swindle), Japan (Ennis), and the DL(King).  Between all of those variables Lehigh Valley has lost 25% of their team over the passed two weeks or so.  League leaders still include several ‘Pigs not on the current roster.  Hitting leaders include Mike Cervenak who is leading the league in average (.320), and 6th in the league in hits (124). Brandon Watson is 7th in the league in hits (124).  Rich THompson is 10th in the league in stolen bases (24).  Andy Tracy is 8th in OBP (.380), 5th in walks (57), 4th in RBI’s (74), and 3rd in doubles (28). Les Walrond leads the league in ERA (2.61, is second in complete games (2), and tied for the league lead in shutouts(2). JA Happ is 7th in ERA (3.30), second in strikeouts (127), and 4th in WHIP (1.18).  Brian Mazone is 6th in homers allowed (17), 3rd in innings (141), and 2nd in starts (23).  Matt Childers is 3rd in the league with 19 saves. Continue reading Iron Pigs Report →

Phillies trade Brian Schlitter

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for Scott Eyre, per Todd Zolecki. Schlitter was drafted last year, he’s a fringe guy, but having a nice run at Clearwater. Eyre is, of course, a “proven veteran” and will give Manuel someone else to choose from instead of having to use Romero, Durbin and Lidge in 5 run games.

Predictions for the Arizona Fall League?

9. Winter Leagues

The rosters were announced at the end of August last year, and the Phillies sent 9 guys; Bisenius, Happ, Outman, Mathieson, Savery, Marson, Golson, and Costanzo. Reminder on eligibility, for those who are unfamiliar with the process;

Each Major League organization is required to provide six players subject to the following requirements:

  • All Triple-A and Double-A players are eligible, provided the players are on at least a Double-A level roster no later than Aug. 1.
  • One player below the Double-A level is allowed per Major League team.
  • One foreign player is allowed, as long as the player does not reside in a country that participates in winter ball, as part of the Caribbean Confederation or the Australian winter league.
  • No players with more than one year of credited Major League service as of August 31 are eligible, except a team may select one player picked in the most recently concluded Major League Rule 5 Draft.
  • To be eligible, players on Minor League disabled lists must be activated at least 45 days before the conclusion of their respective seasons.

So. Donald, Marson, Happ, Carrasco, Garcia and then maybe Savery again? I believe some teams end up sending fewer than 6 and then other teams send more, as the Phillies did last year. Any other suggestions?

Reading Phillies Weekly Report (7/30-8/5)

6. Reading

Time for another Reading Phillies weekly report.  Lets start off with a bit of a summation.  Josh Outman, traded.  Lou Marson, olympics.  Jason Donald, olympics.  Antonio Bastardo, injured.  What does that leave?  Well, apparantely not much, if we are to judge by the Phillies 1-6 record on the week.  Anyway, believe or not, there are still several interesting players at Reading, headed by an impressive group of young pitchers.  Lets take a look…

Continue reading Reading Phillies Weekly Report (7/30-8/5) →

Nice quick hit on Lou Marson

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Baseball America ran an article today talking about some of the better performers on Team USA thus far, and Marson made the short (well, 10) list.

5. Lou Marson, c, Phillies

Marson defended well behind the plate, though he lacked the sub-2.0 pop times and well above-average arm of teammate Taylor Teagarden. But Marson, 22, was impressive at the plate in BP and in games, showing an easy, balanced swing. Though he only had 10 plate appearances while splitting catching duties with Teagarden, Marson showed an easy, balanced swing in BP and in games. He squared up balls with authority, and his outs were generally well-hit balls in play. Marson also has likely the best batting eye on the team, as he drew nearly as many walks (65) as strikeouts (69) this year with Double-A Reading and leads the Eastern League with a .434 on-base percentage.

Even though Mike Arbuckle thinks he stinks, its nice to see BA hyping him up.

Daily Discussion; 8/6

Daily Discussion

Time is short today, I’d like to do some more work on site enhancements, so with that I’ll just give you an open avenue for random discussion again. I did make one big change last night. If you look on the left side of the page, I’ve created a new set of categories. The first one is “Player Mentions”, which is essentially any article or tidbit that I or the other authors have written about that prospect. Previously, all of the profiles were linked under the player, and while this might have been somewhat useful, I was never really happy with how it looked. So I’ve separated all of the player profiles into their own separate category, which comes underneath. It might take a bit of getting used to, but I think it looks much better. But anyway, onto today’s action…

Continue reading Daily Discussion; 8/6 →

New features

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Just a quick note. I changed a few layout type things on the site. I reduced the number of posts you see on the main page, but I added a link on the right side where you can see the last 15 posts on the site. I’ve also started adding RSS stuff on the right side so you can get the latest news, and I also added an RSS feed for this site on the left side, as well as a login type thing for the site contributors. More to come.

Daily Discussion; 8/5

Daily Discussion

I’m short on time today, so I just have a few real quick thoughts, and then I’ll open the floor for discussion.

* When I look at prospects and try to determine their overall worth as a prospect (I’m sure they are all fine people), I focus on very specific traits. If you don’t find these traits important, you’re likely going to disagree with my rankings/evaluations. I welcome this, I just like when you back up your beliefs with reasoning and evidence. If you do that, we all learn something. This is just a general comment based on feedback I’ve seen in recent days/weeks/months.

* I’m going to be making some big changes here over the next few months. Many of these changes will be individually small, but I hope the cumulative product is an easier to read, more informative website with even more content. I’m ALWAYS looking for suggestions on how to improve things, and if you have them, please e-mail them to me. I read each and every email I get and I try to respond, though sometimes it takes me a few days. If you see something that is wrong, if there is something you want to see here, or anything else, just drop me a line. One thing I do want to address; this site will never contain ads and it will never be sold for a profit. I enjoy going to sites and not being inundated with pop ups and various embedded ads, and I’d never subject you to that treatment here. I’ve had numbers offers made to integrate my site with larger, cookie cutter sites, and I’ve turned down all of them. I’m here for the long haul, and I hope you are too.

So, onto today’s games. Discuss anything you’d like, just keep it prospect related….

Continue reading Daily Discussion; 8/5 →

Williamsport and GCL Weekly Report (7-28/8-3)

2. GCL, 3. Williamsport

Williamsport

The Crosscutters went 3-4 this week. Their season record stands at 23-21, leaving them in 4th place in the NYP Pinckney Division, 5 GB of first place Jamestown.

Continue reading Williamsport and GCL Weekly Report (7-28/8-3) →