Phillies Minor League Recap (Week 21 8/13-8/20)

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Last Week’s Schedule

This Week’s Schedule

  • Lehigh Valley (56-60) vs Rochester (65-53)
  • Reading (51-61) @ Binghamton (57-54)
  • Jersey Shore (62-52) @ Brooklyn (56-58)
  • Clearwater (57-54) vs Dunedin (56-55)
  • DSL Phillies Red (21-34): Season Complete
  • DSL Phillies White (26-29: Season Complete

Hitter Spotlight

C Kehden Hettiger

5-14 1 2B 1 3B 2 H 4 BB 3 K .357/.500/1.000

Hettiger has had a rough season. This last little stretch has him over .200 for the first time this season, now at a .208/.364/.339 line on the season. He has been kept afloat by a 18.6% walk rate, because he chases at a low rate. Overall his contact rates and swing decisions are pretty good. He even has a 29.6% line drive rate with a .265 BABIP, indicating there is some definite bad luck. He has not really hit for power despite his reputation for good raw power, and the underlying data questions the raw power as he is 41st percentile for 90th percentile EV and 17 percentile for max in the FSL. He is swinging and missing less since coming back from injury and his 4 extra base hits in the last two games of the week give him a nice thing to build on down the stretch offensively.

Pitcher Spotlight

RHP Luis Avila

3 G 3.2 IP 0 H 0 R 1 BB 2 K

Luis Avila pitched as a 20 year old in the DSL last season, to good results. He struggled with the FCL team, but has been dominant since joining the Threshers in mid June. He has a 0.44 ERA in 20.2 innings with just 6 hits allowed and 9 walks to 22 strikeouts. He has yet to all a hit in August, with just a walk as a blemish. By Rob Orr’s pitch modeling, known of his offerings grade out particularly well, but he still has found success vs low minors hitters. He doesn’t get a particularly great angle or run on his fastball, and while it averages 94.7 and can touch 98, opposing hitters make plenty of contact with it. He also throws it a ton, which leads to some puzzlement about the over all results. His slider is more of a two plane breaker that he can get some chases on and limit damage. He has had good results with his change up as a pure chase pitch. He is a bit older, and the underlying pitch data isn’t stellar, but the surface stats have been and he will likely be closing games in the postseason if the Threshers have save situations.

Notes and Thoughts

  • Devin Saltiban homered 3 times this week and went 7 for 23 overall. He did walk only once and struck out 7 times. That brings him to 1 walk and 12 strikeouts in August, a change from the 18 walks and 18 strikeouts in July. He is now up to 16 home runs, though only 13 other extra base hits on the season. This all first the sort of inconsistent hitter with upside he has looked like all season. He is going to be on the borderline of the top 10 prospects in the Phillies system this offseason with the inconsistency and struggles holding back what looks like good upside.
  • It wasn’t a perfect start for Mick Abel (5 IP 3 H 1 R 0 ER 4 BB 7 K), but it was a good start, and he logged 15 swing and misses and an fastball velocity of 96.5 mph. I did write a bit about his year so far over the weekend.
  • Aidan Miller is now hitting .304 for the month of August after going 7 for 21 on the week, even hitting two home runs. He walked a couple of times and cut down some (6 in 6 games) on the strikeouts that has plagued him. Since coming back from the Futures Game he is hitting .263/.365/.434 with the BlueClaws.
  • I am still worried about the power output for Keaton Anthony, but he did chip in a home run and a double this week, while putting up a casual .316 batting line. His 34.5% line drive rate with the BlueClaws is astounding.
  • Brad Pacheco has missed a ton of time the last two seasons, but he is now on the mound as the DSL season comes to an end. He went 5 scoreless innings this week and showed a low 90s fastball with good life on it, and a really good looking curveball. His changeup needs improvement and more movement to it, but overall he looked really polished for the level.
  • The power surge continues for Gabriel Rincones Jr. with two more home runs to bring his total to 5 in the last two weeks. He only hit .238 this week, but he did the little things, stealing 4 bases and walking 4 times to only 4 strikeouts.
  • Six games and six hits for Otto Kemp this week, who has hit for less power this month, but after having 3 walks to 20 strikeouts last month is at 7 walks to 6 strikeouts so far in August.
  • Eiberson Castellano had his 3rd double digit strikeout game of the year, and first with Reading, with 10 this week to only one walk. He is worthy of his own highlight piece, but he has been very impressive with Reading.
  • A rough start for Mavis Graves as he continues to look worn down. He went to the Development List after the game, which means at minimum he gets a full week of rest until a Sunday start or he might be getting more rest. He is at a career high 84 innings.
  • Seth Johnson mad his AAA debut, and Statcast was generally confused about what pitches he threw, but there is at least a 4-seam fastball, cutter, curveball, changeup, and possibly a slider. He held his velocity for the first 4 innings before it began to slip.
  • Moises Chace did not skip a beat after his promotion to AA, going 5 innings of 1 run ball with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts. Much like Johnson the Phillies are putting him on a more traditional starter workload, as he went 5 innings again this week and threw 89 pitches, a season high.
  • A solid start for Robinson Pina (5 IP 6 H 2 ER 2 BB 3 K) in his AAA debut. His stuff had the velocity match previous measurements, but we now know his fastball has sinker movement and his changeup has splitter spin.

Injuries and Transactions

  • Eli Trop (CLW), Kyler Carmack (CLW), Jake Eddington (JS), Ryan Leitch (JS), Brandon Beckel (JS), Tegan Cain (CLW), A.J. Wilson (CLW), Titan Hayes (CLW), Kodey Shojinaga (CLW), Joel Dragoo (CLW), Raider Tello (CLW), Dante Nori (CLW), Griffin Burkholder (CLW), Ethan Chenault (JS), Diego Gonzalez (JS), Moises Chace (REA), Seth Johnson (LHV), Robinson Pina (LHV), Braeden Fausnaught (REA), and Zach Arnold (REA) were all assigned to a new level.
  • Tyler Gilbert was called up and Tyler Phillips was send down.
  • Jordan Fowler, Luis Dominguez, John Sosa, Cristian Diaz, Jeffrey German, and Andres Hernandez were released
  • Freddy Tarnok and Andrick Nava were activated from the IL
  • Mavis Graves, David Buchanan, Micah Ottenbreit, and Tyler McKay were added tot he Development List
  • Jesus Montial was activated from the Restricted List
  • Nick Snyder was moved to the full season IL.
  • Griffin Burkholder, Josh Breaux, and Jack Dallas were added to the IL.

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Minor Thoughts

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