Fourteen games into this 2007 season, Lynx third baseman Brennan King struck the first Lynx home run of the season Tuesday night. But Ottawa hasn’t needed the long ball to this point to win games. This version of the Ottawa Lynx managed only eighty three all of last year while in Scranton, (twelfth in the International League), but finished on top of the Northern Division. Ottawa had scored seventeen runs against Scranton three days previously- seventeen runs with nary a long ball. Pitching, defence and clutch hitting. Home runs simply make a win easier to come by-it can erase any previous mistakes or failings in a game. The pitching staff have given up only eleven this year the strangest stat being Brian Mazzone having given up three home runs but only four earned runs. This proves the importance of not giving up walks.
Player Profile: Jason Jaramillo
(courtesy ottawalynx.com)
Player profiles return today, and as I mentioned yesterday, I’m hoping to crank out more of these going forward. Next up is Welinson Baez, but if anyone has requests thereafter, I’m all ears. So far, we’ve done Zach Segovia, Mike Zagurski, Adrian Cardenas, Michael Bourn, Edgar Garcia, Brett Harker, Dan Brauer, Andrew Carpenter, Fabio Castro, and Mike Costanzo. Today, we profile the top catching prospect in the Phillies organization, and one of the hottest hitters in the young season, 2004 second round draft pick Jason Jaramillo.
Thinking about the 2007 draft
Some various odds and ends on the brain today, so let’s crank through them. First, take a few minutes and head over to the Ottawa Lynx blog and check out the various pictures, and even some video footage of our affiliate north of the border. Second, a bit of troubling news yesterday, as Dan Brauer left after two innings pitched in Clearwater. I’ve looked, no indication yet as to what happened, but let’s hope it isn’t serious. If you hear/find anything, drop me a line. With the addition of new correspondants who will be helping with the weekly reports for each affiliate, I’ll be getting back to writing more feature pieces and profiles. First up is a profile of Jason Jaramillo (hopefully tomorrow), I’d like to also look at Welinson Baez, but after that, I’m open to suggestions. To read all past profiles, check here and if a guy you’d like to see hasn’t been done yet, let me know and I’ll do my best. I’m also planning a piece on minor league park factors, something that I think is of real importance when looking at minor league statistics. But for today, let’s take a look at the upcoming 2007 draft. I’m also pleased to announce that JE at PhilliesDraft.com has agreed to provide some insight on who the Phillies might target, as well as scouting reports on players as we get closer to the draft. Be sure and check out his site for more info than you could ever ask for on past Phillies drafts.
Reading Phillies– Week Three
Im starting off my rookie year as a correspondant with Phuture Phillies focusing on the Reading Phillies. Im a long suffering Philadelphia sports fan and my goal is through my focus on the Reading Phillies, to quickly forget the horrid year the Sixers and Flyers had and not have to listen to the Eagles explain why they took “the best athlete on the board” next week.
A tale of three pitchers
Tuesday night proved to be an interesting night for the Phillies stable of pitching prospects, as three of the most interesting guys in the system all took the mound, and two of the three were pitching against highly rated pitching prospects for their respective teams. The night also proved to be a continuation of early trends for all three pitchers.
Prospect v Non-Prospect, Part 2
Way back when, when this blog first started up, I wrote a piece about the timetable for prospects, and how to look at a player and properly assess his “prospect status” and things like that. I wanted to write a followup, go over some of those ideas again, and expound on them a bit, because I’ve been getting a bunch of questions via e-mail, and here in the comments section, asking about guys like Landon Jacobsen and Greg Jacobs. So, I felt like I’d try and answer them in a broad manner and give sort of guide for you to make things easier.
Lakewood Report, Week 3
(Kyle Drabek, courtesy of Blueclaws.com)
Lakewood’s defense of their Sally League title has gotten off to a somewhat slow start, as the Blueclaws sit at just 7-7, 4.5 games behind front running West Virginia in the Northern Division of the SAL. The two biggest culprits to date are the bullpen and the weather, the latter of which the Blueclaws obviously can’t control. Garrett Hill and Michael Dubee have been a bit shaky in the pen, and Andrew Cruse is looking to get back on track after a rough outing last week.
Another call for help
I’m pleased to announce two new members to the phuturephillies staff, Jeff who will be giving the Clearwater weekly report, and Gregg, who will be giving the Reading report. I still have an opening for someone interested in writing a once a week report on Lakewood, so if interested, or if you know someone interested, get in contact via email. I’d also like to ask for help of a different kind. I’m looking for a way to make tables to present statistics, and then save the table as an image so I can upload it and insert it into the middle of a post here. I don’t need anything elaborate, just a simple table that allows for columns and rows. If you know how to make something like this and would be willing to help, drop me an e-mail at phuturephillies at hotmail dot com. Finally, you may start to notice that posts are shorter with a “Click here to read more” link. I’m going this route because I want to make the first page easier to read. Thus, shorter posts with a link to read the rest of the writeup. This seems like a win-win type thing, but if it doesn’t go over well, we’ll revert back.
And just a brief thank you to those who keep coming back every day. This has been an enjoyable process, I have a lot of cool ideas for future development, and it should be fun. Thanks to those who just found the site, thanks to those who keep checking back, and please pass along the link to the site to anyone who you think may be interested.
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not, Week 3
It’s Monday, that means it’s time to find out who the hottest and coldest players were for last week’s games. Also, if you notice, there is a display problem with the category tags on the left side of the page. This is a WordPress issue and should be fixed sometime today. So, onto the list, and this week, I’ll add a small blurb with each player.
Hot….
Jason Jaramillo: 10/21, 2 BB, 6 R, 4 RBI
It’s been an interesting 6 months or so for Jason. Thought of as a highly touted defensive catcher who wouldn’t hit much, he drew mixed reviews on his defense after last season, and we started to wonder what kind of prospect he’d really be if his defense wasn’t great. Now, he’s tearing up the International League, and looks like an offensive asset. It’s only 3 weeks, but this is certainly a promising start. I hate to get ahead of myself, but the thought of a Ruiz/Jaramillo major league catching tandem next year, for the league minimum, is a really great prospect.
Pat Overholt: 13.2 IP, 0.68 ERA, 12 H, 2 BB, 10 K
The “Overholt to starter” experiment looks like a winning bet thus far. When talking about starters and relievers, generally a starter is more valuable than a reliever, unless you’re talking about a fungible 5th starter/longman versus a closer. If Overholt proves to be more capable of being a #3 instead of a #5, then this move is fine. He’s generated a ton of groundballs but is still striking guys out, and that bodes well going forward.
Carlos Carrasco: 7.0 IP, 1.29 ERA, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 K
I put Carlos on the “Cold” list last time after 1 bad start, so I felt I should give him a fair shake and put him on the “Hot” list after one good start. The 1 walk is a promising sign, the 4 K is a tad low, but you can’t have your A+ stuff every time out. The key for Carrasco is handling aversity and learning how to battle when you don’t have your best stuff. That’s easier to do in Low A than High A, so this is a valuable learning lesson for an immensely talented prospect.
Gus Milner: 6/20, 2 BB, 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 4 R
I wrote this about Milner, in giving him a C+ grade a few months back…
“Milner despite being HUGE, (6′5, 240 lbs), played CF in college, and apparently played it well, which means that when he moves, he might move to RF, not automatically to 1B. Milner is a great athlete with great size, but based on his offensive numbers, is far from a finished product. He did log 6 triples in 70 games, but only stole 4 bases in 7 attempts. I like the upside on Milner, but he was 22 and will be 23 in 2007, so he needs to have a big year at Lakewood, along the lines of Jeremy Slayden’s 2006, in order for him to improve his grade.”
So far so good….
Anderson Garcia: 3.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 4 K
The inclusion of Garcia as the 5th name is more an indication of the general struggles of the offense and the lack of another great pitching performance. I could have given the nod to Carlos Monasterios for his last start, but I went with Garcia. A waiver pickup in the offseason, he’s thrown his mid 90’s fastball by just about everyone so far. He still doesn’t appear to have a reliable offspeed pitch, or at least he hasn’t shown he needs it yet. He’s a fringe prospect right now, but with a huge campaign in Reading, could earn his way into a possible late season callup when the rosters expand.
Not…
Adrian Cardenas: 5/24 (.208), 2 2B, 1 R, 3 RBI
Adrian really hasn’t gotten it going yet. He’s been kind of up and down, which is certainly to be expected. In a recent article I linked, he mentioned how much tougher it is to make adjustments in pro ball, whereas in High School, he really didn’t have to adjust and everything just happened. It’s a long season, and the mental part is just as tough as the physical part. He seems capable, he understands at an early stage what it takes, and I think given time this season, the results will be there. To put up a great season in a full season league at age 19 takes a lot of talent, both physically and mentally, and I’m convinced it’s going to click into place. Also remember, this is his first exposure to playing in cold weather. The Jersey shore is a bit different than sunny Florida in April.
Carl Henry: 2/13 (.154), 1 HR, 2 RBI
New name, same results. The home run is nice to see, but there’s little else there. Henry is still young, the tools are still there, but it’s time to turn on the jets and go on a 2 or 3 week tear.
Jeremy Slayden: 3/24 (.125), 5 BB, 1 HR, 4 RBI
Slayden is off to a slower start than one had hoped, considering many of us felt he should have been double jumped to Reading because of his age and experience. The walks and plate discipline are nice, the lack of extra base hits is a tad troubling, but he should get it going.
Greg Golson: 6/30 (.200), 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 4 RBI
Golson hit for the “weekly cycle”, but hit little else. Complete lack of plate discipline still appears to be a problem, and one that, at this point, we shouldn’t wait around and hope to see fixed.
Mike Costanzo: 5/22 (.227), 1 HR, 1 2B
A cold list regular, Costanzo makes a re-appearance this week. Another home run, but another truckload of strikeouts, and just as alarming, more errors. The most disturbing Costanzo stat; through 15 games, he has more than twice as many errors (7) as walks (3), and has struck out 26 times in 53 at bats. That’s just….well….the opposite of good.
As always, feedback is welcome.
Light Sunday reading
The Blueclaws are developing a disturbing pattern, losing heartbreakers in the late innings….sounds a bit like the big league club. Also in the article, Adrian Cardenas talks about making adjustments and dealing with the transition from high school ball to pro ball. Also, here is a nice article talking about John Russell and the job he’s done in Ottawa. The article mentions Russell’s offseason interviews for managerial positions, and hints at him being a possible replacement for Charlie Manuel, should the big league club get impatient. Not directly Phillies related (a Phillies scout gives a quote), by Ty Reynolds writes this excellent article on the art of scouting, and just how grueling the life of a pro baseball scout can be.
In Rashad Taylor news, it appears in the last few weeks he’s begun to switch hit, and has picked up a few extra base hits over that time. The last sentence of the article says that him switch hitting might “raise his stock to be recruited by a Division 1 school”…..it would be nice if the Phillies made the kid a quality offer, but something tells me it isn’t going to happen.
