Minor League Games - Saturday, September 2, 2017

[kikutaro]

Scranton/WB RailRiders (86-52) @ Lehigh Valley IronPigs (77-62) 6:35 pm | Gameday
N/A vs. Brandon Leibrandt (5-3, 4.01)
(postponed: rain)

Notable

Brandon Leibrandt 0.0 IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K, game score: 40

Reading Fightin Phils (70-67) @ Trenton Thunder (91-46) 7:00 pm | Gameday
Jacob Waguespack (2-2, 4.06) vs. Dillon Tate (1-2, 3.24)
(postponed: rain)

Notable

Jacob Waguespack 0.0 IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K, game score: 40

Clearwater Threshers (66-71) @ Dunedin Blue Jays (72-65) 6:30 pm | Gameday
Sixto Sanchez (0-3, 4.37) vs. T.J. Zeuch (3-4, 3.62)

Notable

Mark Laird 2-4, 2B, BB
Austin Bossart 1-4, 2 K
Jose Pujols 1-3, BB, K
Emmanuel Marrero 2-4
Carlos Duran 1-3, BB

Sixto Sanchez (L, 0-4), 5.0 IP, 3H, 3R, 3ER, 3BB, 4K, game score: 47

Kannapolis Intimidators (68-67) @ Lakewood BlueClaws (71-66) 7:05 pm | Gameday
Yelmison Peralta (3-3, 4.44) vs. Felix Paulino (4-9, 4.88)

Notable

Felix Paulino 0.0 IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K, game score: 40

Batavia Muckdogs (30-40) @ Williamsport Crosscutters (34-35) 4:05 pm | Gameday
Alejandro Mateo (3-2, 2.91) vs. Ramon Rosso (0-0, 4.50)

Notable

Nick Maton 2-4, R, RBI, 2B, K
Jake Scheiner 1-4, RBI, 2B
Yahir Gurrola 2-4, K, SB, CS
Malvin Matos 2-3, BB
Brian Mims 0-4, 3 K
Rodolfo Duran 2-3, R

Ramon Rosso (W, 1-0), 6.0 IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 8K, game score: 80
Connor Brogdon (S, 2), 3.0 IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 4K

GCL Phillies (36-22) @ GCL Blue Jays (35-25) 10:00 am | Gameday
N/A vs. N/A

Notable

Keudy Bocio 2-4, 2 RBI, BB
Quincy Nieporte 0-4, 2 K
Kevin Markham 2-3, 2 R, 3B, SB
Jake Holmes 3-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, K, SB

Francisco Morales (W, 3-2), 5.0 IP, 5H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 7K, game score: 65
Ben Brown 2.0 IP, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2K

DSL Phillies White - Off

DSL Phillies Red - Off

(click on the start time for box scores)

[phillychuck]

Last weekend for most of the minor leaguers.
WMPT plays a few extra games and GCL is in the playoffs.

[gmwannabe]

no kidding PC. where did the summer go? i guess the next thing to look forward to is instructs.
gm

[California_Dreamin]

While I love the minor leagues and usually go first to this thread, I will be glad to see it end this year. Outside of LHV [which suffered because of promotions] and GCL [ deep and talented] I think the other 4 teams have been largely disappointing, especially Williamsport.

Most of the teams regressed this summer, especially offensively, and while Jordan does a wonderful job of waxing poetic about how every player is performing just as expected [and I love that he does this] I suspect that privately there are many in the organization who feel several key players really regressed this year.

It will be interesting to me to see if they make many changes in the system, Klentak and McPhail should both be completely familiar with the working personnel and coaches and might want to start bringing in their own people.

Jim, the site leader at phuturephans, made an interesting observation today and I suspect he is right. He said that it seems to him that the Phils minor league clubs have been giving up an awful lot of unearned runs lately, much more than earlier in the year. This goes back to the fundamentals issue that I have brought up several times. It seems to me that the coaching at the minor league level leaves much to be desired organization wide and needs to be reviewed.

Look, the Phils right now are at an important crossroads. They are not far from being a decent team, have what appears to be a fairly deep system [though not as deep as many believe in my view] and have money to spend.

What they do this off season may well determine whether or not they soon challenge the Nats and Dodgers or the Reds and Padres for high draft picks.

[Squire]

Morales with a fantastic final start for the GCL Phillies. Appel just threw a rehab inning too.

[California_Dreamin]

Squire...interesting that Morales would start the final game of the season. Does this mean he won't start a playoff game or is there a day off somewhere in there? Otherwise, even if the team goes the limit [4 games] he won't start again.

Still, I am not complaining, they needed this win [if the score continues] as they seem to be coasting since clinching and probably lost home field for the championship round because of it.

[julio]

...or is there a day off somewhere in there?

There doesn't appear to be any day off - the GCL schedule lists games with teams TBD for tomorrow through Wednesday.

...probably lost home field for the championship round...

Per the standings, the GCL Nationals are 34-21 (.618), and the GCL Phils are 35-22 (.614). However, as I write, the Nationals are down 9-2 in the top of the 8th (the Cardinals just put up a 4-spot), and the Phils are up 5-0 through eight full. If these both hold, the Phils finish 36-22, and the Nats finish 34-22 - one game back.

[andyb]

Appel just threw a rehab inning too.

Second appearance in 3 days. Looks like he is destined for the big league bullpen in September. Maybe he'll be healthier in short outings and maybe he'll figure out how to pitch out of the stretch. It is certainly a question worth asking.

[California_Dreamin]

Thanks julio..appears Phils will have home field advantage for both rounds [if they win tomorrow.]

[California_Dreamin]

andyb...I was thinking the same thing. Appel will probably be called up to pitch out of the bullpen. Can't hurt, Phils need to know what they have in him soon.

[California_Dreamin]

julio...maybe not, Nats just put up an incredible 7 runs in bottom of 8th, now tied 9-9.

[andyb]

But Cards get 4 in the 9th to win 13-9.

[julio]

But Cards get 4 in the 9th to win 13-9.

I know CD and others have been concerned about run-scoring in the Phils' system - but I'm sure glad that didn't happen to one of our pitching staffs! Give up seven in the 8th inning, get 4 back in the 9th? Heckuva a way to finish a season - Dear relievers...sleep on that for five months!

[julio]

GCL semi-final game at noon tomorrow - Phils vs. Yankees East. (Twins vs. Nats in the other game, also at noon). Winners advance, losers go home (well, mostly to the Florida Instructional League, I suspect!).

[California_Dreamin]

julio...I agree with you on that. And I have been an outspoken advocate of the minor league pitching overall. Just the lack of hitting concerns me. That said, AF made a good point to me...better to have lots of pitching and a few good hitters than the other way around.

Still, very disappointing to see guys like Encarnacion, Pujols, Randolph, Moniak and Cozens struggle so badly. They were all touted to be solid hitting prospects and all had mediocre to poor years.

[Austinfan]

CD, I'd relax a little, I pointed out before the season there was a "donut" hole in the organization at A ball, and Reading went downhill when half the team got promoted to Lehigh.
The strength is DSL and rookie ball this year, with some talent in Lakewood.
They'll have another top draft and should trade for allocations again in LA and get another good haul next summer.
Which means A ball will fill out the next two years, Reading in 2019 while Lehigh will go downhill a bit as players graduate (though they'll have a deep pitching staff).

The initial system rebuild was primarily driven by trades, while they should make some more trades next summer (unless they're a surprise team), the strength of the organization will depend on the last few drafts and LA signing campaigns going forward.

I wrote off Pujols and Encarnacion after last season, they are the old school signees where hitting skills weren't as important (look, 450' HRs in BP, let's give him a million!).
Randolph had a strong finish, Cozens was worse than expected though his Reading numbers suggested he'd struggle at Lehigh (road, LHP).
I'll give Moniak another season, then I'll start to worry.

[allentown]

The strength is DSL and rookie ball this year

I don't feel confident assessing the strength of our talent in the DSL. I tend to distrust GCL stats for first-pro-year players and distrust-squared DSL results. Certainly doing well beats doing poorly, but I'm not sure how predictive those stats are of future success. Besides, one of our DSL teams has a losing record and the other did very well, but not first place. Stat-wise, the 18-year old catcher Mendes on the DSL white team looks very good. All of the other guys with good stats on both red and white teams are age 19, which seems a little old, although we have had prospects come stateside at age 20 and look like true prospects it isn't common.

[andyb]

The GCL team is deep but the talent is a step down from last year when Moniak, Ortiz, Sixto, and others were there. There is no clear offensive prospect that is top 20 for us. Guzman is probably the best and he is there mainly for defense and projection. Morales is the best on the pitching side though he has lots of projection left and his secondary pitches may push him to the bullpen at some point (though back of the bullpen).

Depth is nice. Just stars are better. DSL is hard to tell at this point. The team was not super young and our best 2 signees of course went to GCL directly. An Aponte was in his 2nd year there and while he has lots of projection still in front of him, he may lack dominant stuff. Victor Santos may end up being the best pitching prospect though he is likely in the solid command and control side as well. Nicolas Torres had a good offensive year but is not great defensively. Juan Mendez was a great story but was too old for the league to be a great prospect. There is promise in the DSL but it is really hard to tell about the quality.

[fish]

A tough start to the game for Sixto. Hopefully he'll learn from his brief experience in Clearwater to burst out of the gate next year. H has become pretty predictable firing almost exclusively fastballs for the first three innings of a game and then start to try to mix in his curve and change, neither of which are consistent yet.

[phillychuck]

Speaking of DSL prospects, Ramon Rosso is now in WMPT, and pitched 6 innings tonight giving up 2 hits, no walks, and striking out 8. He's pretty much age-appropriate for WMPT, too.

Lots of rainouts meaning DHs Sunday or Monday.