Phillies Minor League “Weekly” Recap (Check-in #2 and Spring Breakouts)

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Game Logs

Breakout Notes and Thoughts

Pitching

  • Gage Wood got the start in Game 2 and 3 innings of work. He definitely struggled with his command at times with two walks and two strikeouts in the first inning. The defense let him down multiple times over the next two innings, but he dialed in his command over those frames. He threw a bunch of fastballs, and it was dominant with a 43% whiff rate. His slider looked like a weapon too when he located it. Batters did not chase the curveball, and he is going to need to land it in the zone enough to force some swings on it from lefties, especially if they start to sit on the fastball too much.
  • The big breakout this spring is Alex McFarlane. He looked good in camp, and was impressive in his one inning in game 2. He is averaging about 98 with both a 4-seam fastball and sinker. He is getting much better at throwing it in the zone as well. This sets up his real devastating new combination where he has added a true sweeper to his old slider. He will start in AA, but if he keeps this up he will force his way towards the majors quickly.
  • Jean Cabrera had a professional appearance against the top of the Twins lineup. Fastball was 93-94, mostly sinkers. He didn’t miss bats, but he managed the contact quality.
  • There was a backfield report that Brad Pacheco was up to 98 this spring. Long lauded for his arm speed, Pacheco has mostly been 92-95 as a pro. He essentially sat 97-99 in his one inning with both a 4-seamer and sinker. He didn’t throw his changeup or curveball, instead he threw a mid 80s cutter, a bit his arsenal was missing. It is 10 total pitches, but something to watch.
  • In his pro debut, Matthew Fisher didn’t really show a ton. His fastball averaged 93.6 mph with some interesting characteristics to check back in on later. He threw both a sweeper with positive IVB and a curveball out of the same velocity band with 10″ of vertical separation. He is still a work in progress, but the breaking balls should a real feel for spinning the ball.
  • Cade Obermueller got two innings in game 2, and showed the funk. His 4-seamer doesn’t have big verticality, and he shed some velocity on it and his sinker over his work. But he comes from a funky angle and his break ball was his best pitch with 5 whiffs and 6 called strikes on 25 pitches. His velocity was down from where it was last year, but was higher than his last outing, which is a good reminder it is still spring.
  • It wasn’t too impressive an outing for 3rd round pick Cody Bowker, who showed a varied arsenal in his inning, with some wobbly command. His fastball has sinker movement, but he has a really funky delivery that has it come in flat. There are things to work on, but it wasn’t a break out first outing.
  • There has been some buzz around Brian Walters since the Phillies drafted him in the 8th round. His slider looked decent, and his sinker got some easy outs. He sat just under 97, and will be interesting to see if he has anymore in the tank and out it plays as a starting pitcher this year.
  • It was another good showing by Mavis Graves who sat 93-95 with his fastball, with his cutter more mid 80s than low 80s. He didn’t show the full arsenal, but the multiple breaking balls, and bit more fastball, allowed him to impressively breeze through his inning.
  • The rumor this spring was that Luke Gabrysh’s velocity was up this spring, and he sat 95-97. However, he struggled to throw strikes and miss bats. His fastball shape is not great, and his breaking balls were inconsistent. It isn’t bad that his velocity has increased, but he is going to need to improve a bunch of other things this year.
  • For a polished college arm, it was a disaster for Gabe Craig who could not throw his slider, and could not land his fastball for strikes. He ended up walking 3 of the 7 batters he faced, and hitting another one. His fastball was also more 92-94 and he will need more juice to make it work.
  • Coming in to clean up Craig’s mess, Titan Kennedy-Hayes wasn’t particularly sharp to begin with, but he ended up touching 99.9 mph and averaged 98. His arm strength continues to be tantalizing.
  • After a clean start to the game, the 9th inning of game two got interesting as Sean Youngerman struggled with control, loading the bases and allowing a double to make it 5-4 Phillies. Youngerman got whiffs with his elevated fastball, but he could not locate his changeup or offspeed pitches, and the fastball wasn’t in the zone when batters weren’t swinging.
  • It took Tyler Bowen 17 pitches to clean up the mess with a walk, a barely foul home run ball, and a ground out. His fastball averaged 97 with good ride, but batters weren’t whiffing on it or the slider.

Hitting

  • Dylan Campbell hit the only home run of the day, a line drive off of a righty. He went 2-3 overall vs the Twins.
  • Dante Nori got top billing for both games, but was very quiet overall, going 0-4 with a walk and strikeout to go with two groundouts and a pop fly in the first and has a big single as part of a 1-4 game in Game 2.
  • Aroon Escobar made some solid plays at third base, but continued to not impress, including a rough at bat with the bases loaded and Dasan Hill on the ropes in the first game. In the second game, he hit a first inning home run and late double, capping off his spring on a positive note.
  • Felix Reyes made some good plays at first base in game 2, and saw 7 total pitches in 4 trips to the plate. He did take a low slider directly out to center field on one of the hardest hit balls of the day.
  • Bryan Rincon went 3-4 with 2 walks over the two games, but had some adventures on the bases with a stolen base, but also got picked off twice.
  • Romeli Espinosa made it into both games. Hitting a hard line drive single up the middle vs the Twins and grounding out to second vs the Blue Jays.
  • The Phillies have said a lot of positive things about John Spikerman this spring. He didn’t look particularly impressive in his at bats, but made a couple nice defensive plays in RF, including robbing Eduardo Tait.

Spring Training Notes and Thoughts

  • Andrew Painter looks like a major league pitcher. His stuff is less dominant than maybe you might like, but his confidence in his changeup has really opened things up for him as a pitcher. He will start in the #5 role in the rotation, but he looks more like a mid rotation guy, who will probably have some ups and downs.
  • It hasn’t been a great spring training for Justin Crawford, but it hasn’t been a disaster either. Really all that is being asked is that he keeps his head above water. It would be nice to see him make some adjustments, especially to his approach (he is getting killed on high fastballs), after he gets his feet under him.
  • Much of Dante Nori’s damage in the WBC came against not even minor league level pitching for Brazil. That said, he didn’t look out of place among the solid prospects, AAAA, and fringe MLB players that make up most of the non-top rosters. That is a really positive look for a guy who spent most of last year in Clearwater and will need to rely more on polish than raw tools.
  • Seth Johnson had ups and downs all spring. His stuff has improved and his arsenal is more diverse, but he needs a lot of polish in order to actually miss bats. If he can do that, he could pitch in high leverage.
  • Wesley Moore has been reportedly been more 92-95 than 89-92, which makes him much more interesting as a relief prospect going forward.

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