Minor League Games - Sunday, July 2, 2017

[Austinfan]

Nice debut for Romero, even nicer game for Ranger Saurez, who needs to be promoted.
Phillies are starting to build a deep stable of young pitchers in the system.

[julio]

Here's an interesting tidbit:

Ian Catherine (IanCatherine27)

For what, I wonder? Cash? An equivalent prospect (e.g., not much)? International allocation?

[julio]

Here's another..interesting... item. Not at all sure I'm on board with this, though - remembering the last time the Phillies tried this particular move, which just wasted a year of an All-Star career.

Tom Housenick (TomHousenick)

[zambonir]

Probably a bit early to worry that the Phillies intend to convert him (it may even still be too early to be sure he's blocked at 2B, either way). But not necessarily a bad thing to consider all possibilities. It certainly can be done, even if it wasn't the right thing for Utley.

[julio]

Another one:

Mike Drago (mldrago)

Injury? Promotion? Trade?

[andyb]

Or 5 innings on a hot day?

[julio]

Or 5 innings on a hot day?

Is it particularly hot in Reading? Note that the time stamp on that tweet is PDT, not EDT - an annoyance I haven't been able to overcome. Drago posted that a couple minutes before 8 pm. Accuweather says it's 84 in Morrisville (Trenton)...it's in the lower 70s where I am (Eagles Mere, Sullivan County).

[allentown]

It's 84 here in Allentown and very high humidity right at this moment. Anderson threw 72 pitches. Perhaps the manager thought little point to push it and took him out after 5. Anderson didn't play at all two years ago because of injury and only 70 IP last season. Better to build up his IP slowly. We're just starting July and he's already at 83 this year. He's going to have to be shut down at some point, so no need to push innings on a hot day.

[California_Dreamin]

In a sign we all hope portends great things in the future, Kingery AND Crawford homered tonight in a 3-0 win behind Leibrandt's first AAA win. By the way, given the Phils dearth of lefty starting pitchers it would not surprise me if Leibrandt got an opportunity in Philadelphia before the year was out.

Reading got a game tying home run from Tocci [#1] late and won in the bottom of the 10th on an error, 4-3. Clearwater got a standout performance from Romero in his debut, but with no support, he lost 3-0.

Speaking of standout performances, Ranger Suarez was brilliant again in a 2-0 win and might soon join Romero in High A ball. Williamsport lost 4-2 but Pickett hit his second home run and looks very much like a hitter worth watching.

Just wondering? If Walding, Suarez and Pickett continue their play for the rest of the season do any/all of them get into the Phils Top 30 list? Suarez sure looks like a guy worth considering and I remember how excited the Phils were when they plucked Picket in the eighth round in 2015. Injuries have pretty much made him a forgotten guy and I even recall talk of perhaps releasing him if he couldn't show he could stay of the field.

[fish]

Williamsport milbtv scouting report-
Armas doesn't look like he has big league stufff- no radar gun, but he looks like Harold Arauz with his high 80's stuff.

Not a great game statistically by Haseley, but he looked like he was doing a good job of recognizing pitches.

Physically, Pickett looks like Cody Bellinger, but with less ability to make contact.

Nick Maton physically looks like Tyler Goedell- tall, narrow, and thin arms. That's a disappointing physique on an outfielder. Imagine a short stop looking like that. As they say, baseball is an old game. If you haven't seen it before, don't expect it to happen now.

[Squire]

fish - great takes. Thanks.

On another note, I am ready for some of these other draft picks to get added to rosters and start playing. Like to see Howard in the Williamsport rotation, Holmes playing 3B in GCL soon.

[bigegypt0417]

the one very good thing about the recent hitting of Crawford is that he's getting XBH's

let's hope he finishes the season strong.

[andyb]

Agree that is a good sign especially with the walks not dropping.

I do wonder if the new regime messed up his approach and made him too passive at the plate. We always knew one of the criticisms of his swing was that it was geared to contact and not power. Reading probably hid some of it but it was exposed more in AAA. Then the new regime wanted everyone to work counts and not prioritize power - this might have had him trying to do the wrong thing at the plate.

He is still the youngest player on the team. He is still from all reports playing good defense. He is still one of our top 3-5 prospects even if he has hit a rough patch. If he keeps this up for the rest of the year he makes a Galvis trade more plausible as Galvis has been playing relatively well for him and there is a market for SS. Note a Galvis playing well is about a 2 WAR SS since his OBP is still under .300.

[Austinfan]

Working a count doesn't make you passive, just look at the Nat's lineup!
It makes you smart, you attack pitches you're able to handle instead of chasing bad pitches.

The problem with Crawford is probably swing mechanics, he generated zero power.
They probably didn't want to change it immediately, let him get comfortable, but at some point I'm sure they've made adjustments.
And players often take time to absorb new mechanics to the point where it's second nature.

Of course, the fact that he struggles to make adjustments suggests he's not as talented as the hype suggested, one mark of a top athlete is the ability to adjust his swing and approach quickly to eliminate any recognized weaknesses. Performance is more important than potential.

This is also why you should pretty much ignore the post-college 1st year performance because of the adjustment from aluminum to wood bats, for pitchers, they have to learn to throw inside (hard to jam an aluminum bat), for hitters, to handle inside pitches.

[Austinfan]

Pickett faces the issue of every 1B prospect, you need to be > .800 OPS in the show to have value, so in the minors you pretty much have to pound the ball at every level. Phillies don't give up that fast on players, but his injuries moved him to 1B pretty quickly, which puts more stress on his hit tool.

Supposedly Saurez had a velocity jump last year to 89-93, he was always an extreme control pitcher like Eshelman. Wonder if that jump was for real. Certainly needs to be promoted and challenged.

[bigegypt0417]

Working a count doesn't make you passive, just look at the Nat's lineup!
It makes you smart, you attack pitches you're able to handle instead of chasing bad pitches.

The problem with Crawford is probably swing mechanics, he generated zero power.

Working a count CAN make you passive if you lose your ability to attack good pitches...regardless of your probable reason of swing mechanics.

[allentown]

It depends how you work the count. Often the best pitch in the AB is the first pitch and that will especially be the case if you have a strong tendency to almost always take the first pitch. If the Phillies are complaining about first pitch swings turning into outs, when the first pitch was a hitter's pitch, then that style of working the count can make you too passive. A lot of the Phillies minor leaguers do not have good stats when they are behind in the count. I mention this, because I have seen our upper majors prospects take a ton of fat first pitches and wind up striking out on crap pitches well low and well outside.

I don't know whether it was his injury or not, but the end of last season Crawford was just slapping at pitches, with very little success. This year he is taking actual swings. As I said, I don't know whether the slapping at pitches is something the team asked him to do or his compensation because a full swing aggravated his injury.

I think the biggest thing Crawford needs to work on is increasing his strength. He hit a HR yesterday and has more XBH lately, but he hits a ton of weak grounders and short FB. If that is the type of hitter he is going to be, then he strikes out entirely too much. Put him on the Galvis/Tocci strength program, not that it has done huge wonders for Tocci's physique (but his hitting is up and is still on-going later in the season than my memory says is normal for him.)

[zambonir]

Put him on the Galvis/Tocci strength program

Hopefully not the exact same one as Galvis

[Austinfan]

Drink the juice, boy.

Taking the first pitch doesn't necessarily mean you're passive.
Phillies have had two color guys (Stairs and the Krukster) who know how to hit, and they both preach focusing on the pitch you want when you're ahead of the count, and don't swing at the pitcher's pitch.
Now what I see a lot of is young hitters in the majors sitting on FBs, because minor league pitchers want to get ahead in the count.
But once you show you can hit a pitcher's FB, they'll often start you off with a breaking ball in the Show.
Altherr sees a lot of first strike curves for that reason - so if he's sitting FB, his best bet is not to swing and hope it's called a ball.

There's nothing in the scouting reports about Crawford being a slap hitter (unlike Lucas Williams who had a really short stroke that had to be adjusted to generate power, and may explain his struggles).
So that may be in response to his injury.
Strength shouldn't be a problem at this point, he's 22 and isn't a skinny runt like Tocci.
So it's got to be swing mechanics, and that may take time to correct.

[bigegypt0417]

Drink the juice, boy.

Taking the first pitch doesn't necessarily mean you're passive.

No...becoming passive means you're passive.

Anecdote aside, you don't have much to support your position past "maybe"