Minor League Games - Wednesday, May 30, 2018

[julio]

To be on the safe side, maybe 40 would be a good limit?

I bumped it to 50 earlier, so you should be OK.

[julio]

Irvin went 8.2 scoreless innings. A two out single followed by a walk in the ninth lead to Rios coming in to get the final out.

Cole Irvin is doing everything he needs to do to get a call-up. I have to figure he's ahead of Lively right now (except for 40-man roster issues). The "problem" is that the Phils have five starters who are gettin' it done.

[I sincerely hope that comment hasn't black-catted Zach Eflin!]

[allentown]

We were at tonight's Allentown game. Irvin isn't high velocity(basically 87-89 FB with one 91 mph and a few 90 mph), but was very difficult to hit. He got into a couple 3-0 counts but pitched out of them. I wasn't happy to see him pitch beyond the 8th inning. I'm guessing not facing a lot of tough game situations and not being a hard thrower and not having any very high pitch innings makes the load easier, but I hate to see 117 pitches. He had previously gone 7 IP twice, which was as long as any Iron Pig starter had pitched in a game until tonight. The Pigs have a really bad lineup, especially with Walding and now Cozens promoted.

[LoneStarPhan]

Eflin not having a good start tonight, but he should get several more chances before they consider removing him from the rotation.

[Austinfan]

What we're seeing in the minors is the reason never to panic early in the year.
We just don't know what adjustments they made in the FIL and the spring, and whether that's caused some players to get off to slow starts.
Romero for example, after a horrible start, has 3 good starts in a row.
Moniak is starting to hit, Haseley, Ortiz, etc.

Grullon doesn't surprise me, he's only 22 in Reading, he's been known for BP HRs, so it was just a matter of translating BP power to game power.
One nice thing, Alfaro is so athletic that he could play other positions if Grullon pushes for PT in a couple years - I think with a little work he could be a late inning RP with that arm, as well as 3B and RF.