This week was late due to personal commitments and this will be the last weekly recap for a little bit. I am taking a break and a vacation. When I return I will return to recap the weeks that passed in that time and then will move into season wrap ups.
Hitter Spotlight
6 G 10-25 2 HR 7 RBI 3 BB 2 K .400/.464/.640
Ricketts hit .170/.228/.309 in June and July after returning to Reading from injury. This month he is hitting .351/.383/.526 with a greatly reduced strikeout rate. The allure of Ricketts makes sense, he is an offensive first catcher that hits left handed and hits right handed pitching. The problem has been he doesn’t hit lefties and Reading seems to convert his doubles into home runs. He is also 25 years old and in his 3rd full season and repeating a level. There is also the fact that opposing base runners run wild on him as his arm strength is well below average. The offensive bar for catcher is so low, though, and the Phillies have no catcher depth, so Ricketts is going to get time to see if he can be something resembling depth, and finishing the year strong would do a lot for his case.
Pitcher Spotlight
LHP Angel Liranzo, LHP A.J. Wilson, LHP Erik Ritchie
8/15: 9 IP 0 H 0 R 4 BB 7 K
If you throw a no-hitter you all get to be recognized. It was an all lefty affair as Liranzo went 4, handed it to Wilson for 3, and then Ritchie brought home the last two. Wilson and Ritchie (who were both promoted to Jersey Shore this week) have been poor all year as relatively soft tossing relievers. The group overall only had 12 whiffs in the 9 innings, but did not allow much hard contact in the air. Liranzo is the most interesting of the trio. A well liked prospect in 2023 in the DSL, he had a back injury that limited him to 1 appearance in 2024. He started the year with the FCL Phillies, but has made his last two appearances with the Threshers. He just turned 19 this month and features a low 90s fastball, a gyro slider, and a changeup. He uses his changeup quite a lot, and while there is some feel he isn’t always consistent. His size and arsenal draw comparisons to Ranger Suarez, but his command and changeup trail where Ranger was at this point, even if Liranzo has more velocity.
Notes and Thoughts
- The DSL season ended on Tuesday with DSL Phillies Red (25-31) and DSL Phillies White (13-42) wrapping up disappointing seasons marred with poor pitching and lack of breakouts. The best hitter on the two teams was Anderson Araujo who finished at .289/.377/.528. Romeli Espinosa was probably the top prospect on the teams finishing at .282/.363/.430 after a strong end to his season. Though that was not as strong as Dayber Cruceta who went 13-31 in August to end with a .295/.443/.379 batting line with 30 walks to 33 strikeouts. Top signee Nieves Izaguirre only hit .235/.391/.294 in only 22 games due to injury as he did not play a game after July 4.
- If I had written this on time, I could have praised 6 innings of scoreless, 1 walk, 12 strikeout baseball from Griff McGarry, but I didn’t and he followed up his two great games with a 3.1 IP 3 H 2 R 1 ER 5 BB 6 K on 91 pitch game on Tuesday. The second game is why most are unwilling to trust again.
- In contrast to McGarry, Ramon Marquez followed up a brilliant game (5 IP 3 H 1 ER 0 BB 8 K) with a brilliant game (5 IP 1 H 0 R 0 BB 7 K). He has seen some velocity fading over his starts, but his changeup has been a dynamite pitch.
- He still is not hitting for power, but Aroon Escobar is hitting over .300 in August and had a 7 game hitting streak snapped on Monday. He has multiple hits in 5 of the 7 games in that streak.
- Aidan Miller only went 5 for 22 vs Akron, but he had 3 extra base hits and probably most importantly had only 3 strikeouts. His strikeout rate is well down in August, and while his walk rate is down, he is being more aggressive which is good to see. He has been off to a hot start this week with a 3 hit, 2 double game and a 3 hit, 2 home run game against Altoona.
- Just a quick not that Carson DeMartini’s contact rate is up with Reading and his strikeout rate is down as well. He is getting the ball in the air, and his 2.8% HR/FB feels unsustainably low for where he has played.
- It feels like it is just a normal week for Felix Reyes when he goes .385/.448/.692 like this week. His 1.011 OPS in August is his best of any month and his OPS on the year is .928.
- Strikeouts are up for Justin Crawford in August, but he does just keep hitting with a hit in each of the games in the Buffalo series before a 0-5 night on Wednesday gave him his first hitless day since August 2.
- Danyony Pulido moved to the bullpen this year after facing a lot of inconsistencies in the rotation. He has a 1.35 ERA on the season, but still walks too many batters. He is averaging nearly 95 mph in August while getting better carry, which has led to a nearly 42% whiff rate on his fastball.
- Speaking of rotation to bullpen, Alex McFarlane is getting some time in short stints in preparation for a possible trip to the Arizona Fall League and Rule 5 Draft decisions. He has been clean (4 IP 1 H 0 R 1 BB) but not dominant (1 K). This week his fastball was 95-97 with a very good looking slider, and then mixing in a mid 80s splitter.
Injuries and Transactions
- Erik Ritchie (JS), Maxwell Hernandez (CLW), Zach Arnold (JS), A.J. Wilson (JS), Robert Moore (REA), Braydon Tucker (REA), Luke Gabrysh (JS), and Josbel Garcia (CLW) assigned to new teams
- Marty Gair, Erubiel Armenta, TJayy Walton, Christian Arroyo, Wil Crowe, and Casey Steward added to 7-day IL
- Zack Tukis, Zuher Yousuf, and Camron Hill activated from Development List
- Bryson Ware added to Temporarily Inactive list
- Juan Amarante, Erick Brito, Giussepe Velasquez, and Lou Albrecht added to Development List
- Gabriel Rincones Jr., Jacob Waguespack, Jose Rodriguez, and Alex Binelas activated from IL
- Brett de Geus released
- Alirio Ferrebus added to 60-day IL
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I tried emailing you last week on this.
Your main page seems to have been hacked. When one googles Phillies Minor Thoughts and attempts to head to your link, the page seems to be hijacked into some advertising setup.
Just an FYI – hope that you can get it repaired.
It looks like the ad set up got a bit aggressive, I updated the settings this morning