Phillies Minor League Recap (Week 20 8/6-8/12)

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Last Week’s Schedule

*Game played as part of a doubleheader

This Week’s Schedule

  • Lehigh Valley (55-55) @ Worcester (53-60)
  • Reading (46-61) vs New Hampshire (43-61)
  • Jersey Shore (58-50) vs Winston-Salem (52-56)
  • Clearwater (54-52) vs Tampa (43-62)
  • DSL Phillies Red (16-33)
  • DSL Phillies White (23-27)

Hitter Spotlight

OF Gabriel Rincones Jr.

9-24 3 2B 3 HR 8 RBI 2 BB 8 K 1 SB

Rincones had opened the season by hitting .300/.417/.600 with Reading, but since starting his rehab he had hit only .221/.315/.325 in 21 games coming into this week. His walk rate was ok, but not not good enough to offset an abysmal strikeout rate. He started this week off 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts, signaling a continuation of the rough stretch. Instead he had 6 extra base hits in the following 4 games, including home runs in 3 straight. He even went the last 3 games without recording a strikeout. The injury that kept him out for two months was a torn ligament in his thumb, and any sort of hand or wrist has a tendency to linger for hitters. It was disappointing, but not unexpected that his offense had diminished. He has plus plus raw power, and while there is some definite swing and miss, he has shown the discernment at the plate to do the three true outcome thing. He has been miserable vs LHPs and now has 28 plate appearances with 5 hits, a single XBH, 0 walks, and 10 strikeouts. At this point it is fair to consider him a platoon player, but he now has a .971 OPS vs RHPs on the season, and if he is the strong side of a platoon, he should be able to do plenty of damage.

Pitcher Spotlight

RHP Andrew Baker

2 G 3 IP 1 H 0 R 1 BB 7 K

Andrew Baker had a disastrous start to the season with Reading. In 7 games he allowed 15 hits, 11 earned runs, and 8 walks in just 8.1 innings. He was demoted to Jersey Shore where he put things back together. It hasn’t been perfect for him in his return to Reading (4.76 ERA and 9 walks in 11.1 innings), but most of his damage has come in one week in New Hampshire where he walked 5 and allowed 4 earned runs in 1.1 innings across 2 games. He had a scoreless outing last week, and put 3 scoreless innings this week. His high 90s fastball is back, and he is throwing it in the zone more. He still has control issues, and this week facing those same New Hampshire Fisher Cats will be a test. He is Rule 5 eligible this offseason, and is probably a candidate to make a return trip to the Arizona Fall League. Over this last month of the season he probably has as much as anyone to prove about his future in the organization.

Notes and Thoughts

  • Victor Cardoza continues to mash with DSL Phillies Red. This week he went 13 for 23 with 3 doubles, a triple, and a home run. He is now hitting .469/.500/.719 in 8 games this month.
  • Another poor week in the hit column for Starlyn Caba (2-11), but 5 walks to 2 strikeouts. He now once again has more walks than strikeouts at a level, so despite the .154/.306/.154 batting line there is some good process. As expected he is running fairly low chase rates to go with very good zone contact rates. His exit velocity numbers lag, but they already clear William Bergolla last year.
  • Whereas Baker has a lot to prove about his future in the org when it comes to a 40 man roster spot, Eiberson Castellano is doing a good job of making that decision easy. He went 5 scoreless innings of 1 hit ball against Akron this week, and it looks like the Phillies are limiting his innings some, he pitched 70.1 innings last year between Clearwater and winter ball, and is at 84.1 innings so far this year. He is improving against lefties and has really established himself in the rotation.
  • When you put yourself in the statistical hole that Aidan Miller did in Jersey Shore, it is going to take a lot to dig yourself out. He hit .348 this week with 1 walk, 2 triples, 2 stolen bases, and only 5 strikeouts. Prior to this series he had only one multi hit game since June 25, he ahs 3 of them in this series.
  • Speaking of multi hit games, Keaton Anthony had his own trio of them, plus hits in his other 3 appearances for a 8 for 22 week. He also walked 5 times to 2 strikeouts and hit a home run. It was his first home run with the BlueClaws, and a ISO under .100 is not ideal for a first baseman. But he has a 12.8% K% and 10.6% BB% with the BlueClaws, so the rest is there. The home run power is going to need to come at some point, but he also isn’t a ground ball merchant with his line drive rate standing at a whopping 35.2% in high-A.
  • Though speaking of ground ball merchants, Hendry Mendez now has his number under 60% and went 4 for 16 this week with a double and a home run to go with 7 walks to just 3 strikeouts. He has more walks than strikeouts on the season. More importantly his 2 extra base hits brings him up 3 in August and 12 since the start of June, as compared to the 6 total he had in the first 3 months of the season.
  • Another good looking home run swing for Justin Crawford (his 7th on the season), this time a grand slam. He walked only once, but also only struck out 3 times in a very solid week. There are some promising swing signs even if there is still a lot of side eye at some of the underlying numbers.
  • If Rincones hadn’t hit home runs in three straight games, the Phillies 4th round pick, Carson DeMartini, would have been leading this space. He made his debut last week, but this week went 8 for 20 with 3 doubles and a home run. He started two games at shortstop and struck out twice on the week. It is only 6 games but he has a 96.3% zone contact rate and a reasonable chase rate.
  • A solid week out of the bullpen for Wen Hui Pan, who did allow a run and opposing batters to hit .294 off of him, but struck out 8 with 0 walks in 4 innings across two games.
  • DSL Phillies White RHP Eduardo Robles put up his second scoreless start in a row, going an impressive 7 innings with no walks and 6 strikeouts.
  • It wasn’t Micah Ottenbreit’s best game of the year (he went 5 hitless in April), but 6.2 scoreless on 91 pitches is a very nice outing. He went sinker and slider heavy, and while he didn’t miss many bats he greatly limited the quality of contact against him. It hasn’t been a great year, but after missing almost the entire last two seasons he is getting close to 100 innings this year.
  • Control and consistency are still a struggle for Danyony Pulido, but he struck out 8 and gave up just one hit and run in 5 innings (he did walk 4). Most of his whiffs came on his fastball (which topped out at 96.6mph) and it seems to be the only thing that really works for him. He is very much a project.
  • Dante Nori hit a wind aided home run in the Bridge League down the opposite field line, and then added a chopping ground ball single and a line drive single the other way. His swing is simple and they are going to need to get some power behind it, but there is feel for contact.
  • I did bury Mick Abel’s start down here, and that is just because I want to pull some numbers on him overall and perhaps get another start of data. He easily had his best start of the season (6 IP 3 H 0 R 2 BB 8 K), having gotten a week and a half of rest thanks to a trip to the Development List plus some rain outs. He got 16 swings and misses, 10 on his 4-seam fastball which averages 95.8 mph and was mostly used as a chase pitch with his breaking balls doing the work stealing strikes.

Injuries and Transactions

  • Max Castillo, Ricardo Pinto, Taylor Lehman, Nick Podkul, and Gregory Lebron were released
  • Darick Hall was designated for assignment and then was outrighted to AAA
  • Brahian Silva (CLW), Orlando Gonzalez (CLW), Max Lazar (PHI), Cal Stevenson (PHI), Jared Thomas (JS), and Alan Rangel (LHV) were promoted to new levels
  • Kyle Tyler was claimed off waivers and assigned to AAA
  • Luke Russo, Mick Abel, and Noah Skirrow were activated from the Development List
  • Geremi Delpino, Blaine Knight, and David Dahl were activated from the IL
  • Christian McGowan was added to the Development List
  • Carter Mathison was added to the IL

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Minor Thoughts

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