Minor League Games - August 6th, 2025

[phillychuck]

He has been hot for a month now. Nice to see...

[kmc1019]

3 hits for Rojas, 2 for Crawford, and - most necessary - a good line for David Robertson at AAA tonight.

[fish]

Miller with his 40th SB today. I know he had 23 last year but I admit thinking it was more a low minors thing taking advantage of bad pitchers and catchers than a major part of his game. When drafted we all assumed he was less athletic and destined for 3B but now the athleticism seems at least similar to Stott (not knowing the sprint speed numbers yet).

Miller's obviously not on the same level as a hitter, but after watching Gunner Henderson this week, squinting you can see some similarities.

[fish]

Seems to me that Nori is ready for a promotion.

After the start of the season when teams could play him shallow, he’s been impacting the ball to the gaps. His numbers are certainly way better than I expected him to finish with. On a separate note, Burkholders season ended with another undisclosed injury. Curse of the Phillies second rounders.

[Squire]

Nori is up to 12th in the FSL in OPS. Of course some of that is the byproduct of the better seasons getting promoted out of the league and losing the qualifying plate appearance number.

[bigegypt0417]

Nori has definitely been much better over the last couple of months...he's in the top 20 in a few categories...

[Austinfan]

I suspect the reason Nori hasn't been promoted is they have better coaching staff/facilities in Clearwater.
Probably have been working with him on his swing all season, and are more concerned with his mechanics than challenging him this season.

[andyb]

Nori has not been promoted because the organization probably wants him to have a little bit of sustained success. He has been very good the past 6 weeks after struggling much of the first half. This likely has nothing to do with coaching. Just trying to give the kid some room to breathe.

He'll probably spend the last 2-3 weeks of the season at Jersey Shore to give him a taste because there are lots of promotions late in the season these days. Upper level kids get released to bring the draft kids in under the organizational limit. Plus the top levels play further into September.

Nori's lack of power will probably show in Jersey Shore so maybe they'll think another winter of work could help in that regard. It is just not a big deal that he gets promoted though. It is probably more of an issue in 2026 and 2027 as after that he'll be 40-man eligible and it would be nice for him to get to AAA before that happens.

[bigegypt0417]

Nori was not great in April or May but has hit since June...the XBH's have really come over the last two months which is a good sign. His 66 k's to 57 walks is pretty impressive but speaks to the need to maybe be a little more aggressive.

Definitely an encouraging season overall...

[phillychuck]

He shouldn’t try to be more aggressive I don’t think--the selectivity is a good thing. Just get stronger, and be OK with a 650-700 OPS at JS, which really isn’t bad in that context. His power should show in Reading the following year.

[andyb]

I think I agree that aggressiveness is less important for Nori than for hitters with more power. Hitters like Harper and Schwarber are often very aggressive at favorable points in the count. Casty is very aggressive and it pays off. When guys like Bohm are aggressive the results are more mixed because he does not do enough damage. For Nori he is probably better off being more selective until he adds more power. The trick will be at higher levels of course when pitchers can throw breaking balls for strikes. Then he won't be able to be as selective and still be successful.

All of that is more for next year. This year he should just finish strongly and head into winter with a plan to get stronger physically. Maybe he is even a candidate for Australia if we are still sending some lower level prospects there.

[phillychuck]

I don’t mind if he plays in Australia this winter, or in another winter league, but his focus should be on the strength component above all else. He has to figure out what the limit of his physical build is, and get there in a year or two before he (hopefully) becomes a big-leaguer. It’s sort of exciting that he seems to have big-league potential; I was pretty skeptical earlier this year.

[fish]

He has to figure out what the limit of his physical build is, and get there in a year or two before he (hopefully) becomes a big-leaguer. It’s sort of exciting that he seems to have big-league potential; I was pretty skeptical earlier this year.

I was thinking he’s starting to look like a Brett Gardner-type player. Gardner didn’t really start to develop pop until he turned 30, yet somehow posted a 7.4 WAR in 2010 while hitting .277 with 24 doubles, 7 triples, 5 homers, 47 RBI and 47 steals.

[fish]

Imagine if you knew how to do this- crawford’s bunt roll fair after being a good 6 feet foul.
https://x.com/paulpozluvr/status/1953283057055670494

[andyb]

I have seen that on bad fields in my games. Is anyone being taught the rules these days? The fielder is supposed to touch the ball to make sure it stays foul and the runner is of course supposed to run.

In high school or even little league both teams would be running after the game as punishment.

[Austinfan]

From his scouting report at least, the problem is less strength than his swing.
He had almost no stride, so no way of generating power other than his arms and wrists, and while Dick Allen could do so, most hitters need to use their body to generate power.
The fact he started collecting XBH suggests they have been working on his swing, though we may need Matt to confirm.

[phillychuck]

I believe Matt said they were working on the swing at the start of the year. I’ll look for recent videos to see if his stride has changed...

A few videos here:

https://www.milb.com/video/dante-nori-s-two-run-home-run?t=playerid-807276

He has a short stride, maybe 3 or 4 inches with the front foot and he gets it down early. Should keep his head and eyes steady and give him a good look at pitches, but he doesn’t get a lot of weight transfer. It’s fine if he barrels the ball a lot. Honestly, this kind of swing and stride will really respond to strength increase since wrist, forearm and upper-arm strength is really important for generating bat speed without a big stride.

I don’t see a change from June to August...

[bigegypt0417]

His isn't hitting cheap hone runs...

Seems like his power will come with some strength.

[schillingfan]

I always thought that once a bunt rolls into foul territory it is foul. Didn’t know it could roll back to fair. Of course I’ve never seen that happen, because as you say, the defender always grabs it once it goes foul.

[andyb]

We were always taught to knock it foul if it crossed the line and we could not throw the runner out. And you see major leaguers just do that automatically. But maybe that was years ago and major leaguers just assume the fields are perfect these days and it never happens.

I am more annoyed by Crawford not running of course. If you hit it in the air and it lands foul beyond the base then it is definitely foul. No roll rules beyond first and third base. But every grounder should be run out. He should not have even been looking where the bunt was.