Phillies Minor League Recap (Week 7 5/7-5/12)

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Last Week’s Schedule

This Week’s Schedule

  • Lehigh Valley (13-23) @ Norfolk (20-19)
  • Reading (16-17) @ Richmond (12-21)
  • Jersey Shore (20-13) @ Hudson Valley (15-15)
  • Clearwater (22-11) vs Daytona (18-15)
  • FCL Phillies (3-4) vsTOR, @NYY, vsNYY, vsTIG, @TIG

Hitter Spotlight

OF Leandro Pineda

11-20 2 2B 1 HR 4 BB 1 K .550/.600/.800

Pineda has long looked like a better baseball player than he actually has been. That changed last year, when from July to end of season he hit .291/.379/.463 with a 10.3% BB% and 21.7% K% for Jersey Shore. He was cold in April this season, but he has picked it up early in May, especially in the series against the Blue Rocks. He will turn 22 at the beginning of June, so he is mostly age appropriate for the level despite this being his 3rd season with at bats for Jersey Shore. They have done a good job of hiding him vs lefties (just 7 plate appearances vs 110 against RHPs), and it is probably safe to assume he is a platoon bat going forward. I don’t think he is pushing for an immediate promotion, especially with many of the other outfielders hurt for the BlueClaws, but if he keeps this up for the rest of the month, he might get the bump to Reading for the summer.

Pitcher Spotlight

RHP Enrique Segura – 6 IP 0 H 0 R 4 BB 5 K

RHP Adilson Peralta – 2 IP 0 H 0 R 1 BB 4 K

RHP Josbel Garcia – 1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 BB 2 K

When you collectively throw a no-hitter you get to be in the spotlight. Enrique Segura led off the game and did particularly cruise or look dominant, kept the quality of contact low. His fastballs were 89-91, touching 92. He worked a 4-seamer up and heavy sinker down. He doesn’t get much ride on the 4-seamer, but the sinker had great drop and run (though he struggled to bring it back to front door lefties. His changeup was in the mid 80s and falls off the table. What did stand out was the set of breaking balls. The collection of pitches blended some and all were in the 78-82 mph range, but there seemed to be a distinct sweeper style pitch that was almost entirely horizontal and then more of a vertical curveball, but then occasionally he would throw a pitch with both the sweep and verticality. Segura has been up in the low to mid 90s in the past, and while the sinker heavy arsenal does play in the lower velocity range, that likely needs to be more the 90-93 range.

Peralta was more 91-93, but touched up to 95 while mixing in a breaking ball at 81-85. His command wasn’t perfect, but he went after the hitters and got some help from a nice play by Aroon Escobar at third and Juan Villavicencio at second in the 7th and 8th innings. Garcia closed it out without any issue, sitting 91-93 with his fastball and mixing in a low 80s slider and mid 80s changeup. He got both his strikeouts looking, but he had the batters off balance. Overall there were some good defensive plays on the infield, but for the most part the three pitchers kept the Tigers off balance all game.

Notes and Thoughts

  • The BlueClaws swept the week and now have an 11 game winning streak and 1st place in their division. The hitting has been mixed, but clutch. The pitching has been excellent and the team is starting to come around to look like the 2023 Threshers.
  • Jean Cabrera gave up a home run late, but that was the only run he gave up as he completed 7 innings for the second straight start. He is sitting mostly 93-95 with a high 80s changeup that has looked better than his low 80s sweeping slider. He has a 2.06 ERA through 6 starts (35 innings) with 9 walks to 37 strikeouts.
  • Samuel Aldegheri gave up his solo home run to start rather than late. His command wasn’t sharp as he walked 5 over his 6 innings. His fastball was mostly 91 to 93 with some 94s sprinkled in early. His changeup does look better, but none of his secondary pitches look especially dominant and his curveball really is more of a show or change of pace pitch. With the one run allowed his season ERA does slightly increase, now up to 0.64.
  • The only thing Starlyn Caba has been bad at this year is stealing bases (he has been caught 3 times on 5 attempts). After Monday’s game he is hitting .364/.517/.636 with 7 walks to 1 strikeout in 7 games. His defense has been excellent as expected as well.
  • Carlos De La Cruz has had a rough year and it looked like things might be turning around with a two home run game on Thursday, but he went 1-11 with 7 strikeouts in the rest of the series and now has 1 walk and 18 strikeouts in 32 May at bats.
  • Estibenzon Jimenez looks to have had his fastball tick up a mph or two this year. He is getting hit hard by lefties (1.100 OPS) while mowing through righties (.554).
  • Aidan Miller hit .438/.526/.938 on the week with two doubles and two home runs, the second of which was pulled down the line and just out. The underlying numbers continue to be good too.
  • Drew Garrett only pitched in one game this week, striking out 4 in two innings. He has now struck out 20 of the 44 batters he has faced and has a 0.77 ERA for the Threshers. He is averaging about 94 on his fastball, but his slider has done work and he throws it often. It does not jump out on the model I looked at, but he has a 22.9% swinging strike rate on it to go with a 72.2% zone contact rate against.
  • The Phillies have not said that Michael Mercado is a starter, but he finished 5 innings last time out on 65 pitches. The AAA depth has been poor and they have really neither starting or relieving depth right now. Mercado is still losing his velocity over starts, but he reached back for 97.0 (tied for his high velocity of the night) on his last pitch. He has not worked the changeup in much, and his cutter was his best pitch on the night. The Phillies have some unconventional starters, so if it works it could be interesting. For now we watch and see.
  • It continues to be both a struggle and bad circumstances (40s and rainy this week) for Mick Abel who was up to 96.6, but struggled with command again and either had no feel for secondary pitches or was force feeding fastballs as he threw 76% fastballs (once you adjust for pitch mistyping). They got him to 100 pitches before pulling him out. Circumstances continue to push the panic button out, but he could use a good start.
  • Justin Crawford’s ground ball rate is up to 68.8% and over his last 13 games he is hitting .268/.263/.286 with just 1 XBH and 0 walks (to 9 strikeouts). Over the first 13 games of the year he was hitting .354/.466/.542 with 4 XBHs and 9 walks to 15 strikeouts.
  • After struggling in AA, Andrew Baker was demoted to Jersey Shore, but had two nice bounce back outings, striking out 4 of the 7 batters he faced and allowing just one hit. His fastball was 95-97 in the second outing and there was a pitch that looked like a splitter to go with the hard slider/curveball he has thrown.
  • Gunner Mayer moved to the bullpen full time this year, and his control has been spotty at times, but he was dominant in his appearance this week, 5 strikeouts and a walk in two innings. His fastball has ticked up and was 93-96 touching 97 with batters swinging under it. He looks to be throwing a cutter in the high 80s and a good looking mid 80s changeup.
  • Got a first real look at Benony Robles who game over Connor Brogdon. His velocity is below where I expected (was 89-91), but despite being long and lanky he reminds me of Jose Alvarado’s release point and he has a high release point and pounded down with a hard slider/cutter pitch. He struck out 4 in his two innings this week.
  • Jordan Viars had a solid series vs the Tigers the week before and was even better vs Tampa this week going 6-14 with 3 doubles and a home run, but also only 3 strikeouts to go with 2 walks. He is hitting .370/.410/.667 over those last two series and is continuing to hit the ball hard, even if the swing and miss continues to be a problem.

Injuries and Transactions

  • Wesley Moore was promoted to Reading
  • Christian McGowan added to the IL for Reading
  • Max Lazar was promoted to Lehigh Valley
  • Andrew Baker was demoted to Jersey Shore, Tyler McKay was demoted to Reading
  • Ricardo Pinto was re-signed and is pitching out of the IronPigs bullpen
  • Kolby Allard and Max Castillo were sent to the FCL
  • TJayy Walton is back on the 7 day IL after leaving the game on 5/8 early
  • Jake Eddington was added to the IL for the Threshers over the weekend
  • Caleb Ricketts and Kendall Simmons were activated off the IL for Reading this week
  • George Klassen was not added to the IL, but also did not pitch

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Minor Thoughts

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1 thought on “Phillies Minor League Recap (Week 7 5/7-5/12)”

  1. Trying to get to a Jersey Shore game in the next few weeks. Hopefully Pineda will still be there.
    Love your renewed interest into writing more this year!

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