Phillies Minor League Recap (Week 9 5/21-5/27)

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Last Week’s Schedule

This Week’s Schedule

  • Lehigh Valley (19-30) @ Columbus (19-31)
  • Reading (20-25) @ Hartford (22-22)
  • Jersey Shore (25-20) vs Brooklyn (24-21)
  • Clearwater (32-13) vs Lakeland (29-16)
  • FCL Phillies (8-9) vsTIG, @TOR, vsTOR, vsNYY, vs NYY
  • DSL Phillies Red (0-0) @COL
  • DSL Phillies White (0-0) vsARI Black

Hitter Spotlight

C/1B Guillermo Rosario

7-18 3 2B 1 3B 1 HR 2 BB 5 K – .389/.409/.833

On Friday, Guillermo Rosario might have had the best game any Phillies prospect will have all season, going 4 for 4 with 3 doubles, a home run, and a sac fly, driving in 6 runs and scoring 3 himself. The Phillies were positive about Rosario coming out of last season, but as an 18 year old catcher who was not a big signing and has managed just 5 doubles as his only extra bases, it was hard to be too over the top. In just half the number of games, Rosario has hit 5 doubles, but also added a triple and 3 home runs this year. He has been part of the FCL Phillies core 4 in their lineup, playing both catcher and first base alongside Eduardo Tait, but he profiles as a catcher in the long term and the Phillies have said positive things about his defense. The biggest negative for Rosario is that he is currently running a 30.3% strikeout rate overall and 34.9% vs right handed pitchers. Those numbers are still small sample size, so they aren’t worrying unless they continue, but it is something to watch. I am still a bit skittish about saying anything too definite about Rosario’s future, but the Phillies are clearly viewing him alongside fellow 19 year old Aroon Escobar who is also becoming a more prominent prospect, so a move up in the rankings is definitely in his future.

Pitcher Spotlight

LHP Mavis Graves

6 IP 1 H 0 R 2 BB 9 K

The first repeat spotlight, Graves has gone 12 innings over his last two appearances (one a start and one a piggy back after Klassen) and has allowed 2 hits and an unearned run, while walking 4 to 19 strikeouts. His fastball peaked at 93 this week and faded hard late, but it wasn’t important in this start. He managed 20 whiffs on the day with 8 each coming off his cutter and slider (really more a gyro slider and a sweeper). Graves is currently 4th in the FSL in strikeout rate among pitchers with at least 30 innings, but more importantly he now only has a 9.3% BB% which is nearly half of where it was in his debut. Graves turning to the breaking balls heavily in this week’s start is probably a preview of what his pitch usage may look like in the long term, but he does need to improve his fastball in order to have major league success. Like many Phillies pitching prospects he does look to be throwing a 4-seam fastball and a sinker, but the natural movement on his 4-seamer is causing some blending, and there is probably some more separation that will come as he throws harder.

Notes and Thoughts

  • Michael Mercado got thrown into the full starting pitcher experience on 4 days rest in a day game of a doubleheader, and came out with his velocity down and command poor, and only went 3 innings while throwing 69 pitches. It was similar to his start 4 weeks ago where he walked 5 and didn’t make it out of the 3rd. These are things to watch as they stretch him out, but they aren’t complete obstacles. This was evident in his second start of the week when he gave up 11 hits and 6 runs in 4.2 innings during his second pass at Rochester.
  • Tyler Phillips had another 7 inning complete game where he gave up 3 earned runs to open the week. The International League has been high octane, so it is far to sort of look at his high ERA with some skepticism, but he also has been very inconsistent as to when he has missed bats.
  • Hendry Mendez went 5 for 13 this week to go with 6 walks and no strikeouts. He is now batting .303 with a .454 on base percentage thanks to 20 walks to 16 strikeouts outs in 97 plate appearances. The problems is that he has a .368 slugging thanks to just 4 extra base hits (he did have a double and triple this week). His ground ball rate is higher than last year and he has just a miniscule fly ball rate (15.5%). He would be concerning on his own, but next to Justin Crawford’s struggles, it isn’t a good trend.
  • Micah Ottenbreit made it 7 innings this week after not making it past 5 in any other start. He has a 4.81 ERA thanks to two bad starts, but it felt like going 7 (on only 78 pitches) and the only real trouble coming late was a great sign.
  • Last week was possibly Carlos De La Cruz’s better week going 6-20 with 3 doubles and 6-12 over the last 3 games. This week was just 5 for 19 with a double and a triple. The strikeouts are way too high, but he has gone from hitting .167/.241/.269 to .205/.277/.325 over the last two weeks. He has 8 extra base hits in May compared to one in April.
  • Kendall Simmons is always going to strikeout, but only 5 in 5 games this week is a good growth. He hit three home runs vs Binghamton and has 4 since returning to Reading. Before the injury he hit .182/.206/.333 with 1 walk to 12 strikeouts. Since coming back on May 9 he is hitting .297/.409/.703 with 3 walks and 12 strikeouts.
  • Marcus Lee Sang did not have another home run outburst this week (he had just the one extra base hit). He only struck out out 5 times this week and his strikeout rate for May is well down from April, he is however walking less, but a .304 average will cure some worry. He had 3 multi hit games this week going 8 for 22 overall.
  • It was a bright start for Jose Rodriguez back in April, but he had been slumping for a while. He was heating up before this week and it looks like minor injuries kept him out of some games, but he went 8 for 12 in his three games with 2 doubles and a home run.
  • Aidan Miller’s surface stats just keep chugging along, with a slight dip this week, but his OPS is still a great .950. He scalded the ball a couple of times and picked up 3 doubles in his 4 games, but there were some negatives as we nitpick him with 7 strikeouts in the 4 games this week.
  • Lachlan Wells had another good start (6 IP 3 H 1 ER 0 BB 5 K) and has his season ERA at 3.19. He has been really solid for Reading, and his 5 walks to 34 strikeouts in 36.2 innings is really nice, but for a 27 year old it isn’t screaming major league prospect.
  • George Klassen is working his way back and looks no worse for the wear after his injury. He was up to 3 inning this week after two last week, and it isn’t surprising they are working him back slowly as they were always going to need to monitor his innings.
  • Andrew Baker had one poor appearance in his first game vs Hudson Valley the week before this, but including his second appearance that week and two this week that 3.1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 BB 7 K. He has struck out at least two in every appearance with the BlueClaws and has one walk in 6.1 innings to go with 13 strikeouts.
  • Devin Saltiban hit a home run in a game without hitting a second one and only went 2 for 14 this week, but he walked 5 times to go with his 6 strikeouts. He is still finding his way.
  • I mentioned that base running had been a problem for Starlyn Caba, so he stole 4 bases on Saturday and another on Monday making it now 6 in a row without being caught. He also broke out of a mini slump with multi hit games on Saturday and Monday to go with his 5 walks and 1 strikeout on the week.
  • Aroon Escobar did not hit the ball particularly well this week, but 7 walks and 3 strikeouts in 5 games is good process and his is at 14 walks to 7 strikeouts on the season. He also chipped in 4 stolen bases after having only 1 before this week.
  • It looked like Trent Farquhar had finally cooled off (he even struck out 4 times in a game) and then he went 5-5 with a walk on Sunday to hit .368 on the week. Sure he has a .416 BABIP and 25 strikeouts in 141 PAs on the season, he also has a .504 OBP.
  • Another good start for Brayden Tucker who touched 94 and went 5 innings with no walks and 6 strikeouts and just the 1 run.
  • This week will mark the end of May, so any questions you have for the end of month recap mailbag you can include here or @ me on Twitter.

Injuries and Transactions

  • The Phillies acquired RHP Jonah Dipoto for cash, he will give the IronPigs more pitching depth
  • LHP Jordi Martinez and RHP Jonh Henriquez began rehab assignments
  • RHP Nathan Karaffa is out for the season
  • RHP Griff McGarry to the IL with a L SI Joint Injury

Links and Things

Minor Thoughts

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