This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (11-10) vs Durham (8-13)
- Reading (7-8) vs New Hampshire (8-5)
- Jersey Shore (9-5) @ Bowling Green (9-6)
- Clearwater (8-7) vs Bradenton (6-9)
Hitter Spotlight
5 G 9-20 2 2B 2 3B 2 HR 8 RBI 2 BB 6 K
If you have two games with 4 hits your line is going to look pretty good. Ferrara missed on a cycle by hitting two doubles instead of picking up a single. One of those games is missing from Statcast, which does affect his overall damage numbers. However, his max exit velocity (110.7 mph) and pulled fly ball rate show a player with surprising pop and a knowledge of how to get to it. He has really geared himself up to pull fastballs, and he has handled velocity. On the other side he has a 75% zone contact rate and has whiffed on 62% of the secondary pitches he has swung at. It was a problem he has last year, which makes it a very concerning trend once pitchers just feed him a diet of breaking balls. The ability to hit for power is a good thing to see early in the season.
Pitcher Spotlight
LHP Mavis Graves
1 GS 4 IP 1 H 0 R 1 BB 9 K
We don’t know how hard Graves threw this week or his pitch mix because Rome doesn’t have any sort of pitch tracking on their broadcast, but it was a second dominant outing for the big lefty. Over his first two starts he has allowed 3 hits in 7 innings with just 2 walks to 14 strikeouts. This week befuddled opposing batters with called strikes and not whiffs out of the zone, but either way his arsenal of good secondary pitches has been too much for A-ball hitters in the early going. Graves’ uptick in velocity across the board makes his secondary pitches more likely to hold up at higher levels, but that still remains to be seen, and you have to wonder how far he is from Reading given he is currently repeating the level. Despite the strikeouts, he is still trending more towards back end starter because of the velocity on both the secondary pitches and fastball.
Notes and Thoughts
- It is 6 games, but it has been a good 6 games for John Spikerman who has 4 walks and 5 strikeouts in 30 plate appearances. His line for the week is boosted by a 4 hit game, but overall he has come back from his injury not looking lost and the Phillies have run him out at the top of the BlueClaws lineup after touting offseason swing changes.
- The BlueClaws centerfield, Devin Saltiban, had more of a mixed week adding 3 doubles and hits in 4 of 6 games, but 0 walks and 8 strikeouts meant he only hit .267 in 30 ABs. Saltiban is now at 2 walks and 17 strikeouts on the season. He improved contact rates, but also has a higher swing rate and lower contact quality indicating this might not all be working for him.
- He still is only going 3 innings a start, but Tanner Gresham got the two start week for the Threshers striking out 10 in 6 innings. He has been dominant in the strike zone with fastball and slider, despite neither grading out as more than average pitches.
- Felix Reyes went 7 for 20 with three home runs before his callup on Saturday, and home run off of Chris Sale. He has now played in 19 games and has walks in just one of them, with two on March 31. He needs to get the chase under control in the majors, and for one game he did.
- It was Gage Wood’s worst start of the season, and he still allowed only one hit and no runs. He struggled with command, in particular he threw some uncompetitive curveballs as he used it instead of his slider this week. He threw more changeups this week then his two other starts and it is a very intriguing pitch.
- It was the first stumble of the year for Alex McFarlane as he allowed a double, wild pitch, and sac fly to give up a walk off to Somerset in his second appearance of the week. His first outing was better with two strikeouts to with a walk.
- Another sort of non-Dante Nori week from Dante Nori. He had three extra base hits with a double, triple, and home run, but 2 walks and 7 strikeouts. He has 2 walks and 14 strikeouts on the season. He is swinging more, and hasn’t actually improved his batted profile too much outside of his HR/FB, and his hitting the ball on the ground more while also popping up more fly balls. He is even going opposite field even more (and hitting for power that way), which just leads to a strange year.
- Despite striking out quite a big, Carson DeMartini now has three home runs for Reading, which means he has surpassed his 2025 total of 2 in 66 games with the Fightin Phils through just 12 games. He is even hitting the ball on the ground more, he just no longer has a mysterious 2.4% HR/FB rate in the early going.
- Like other members of the Fightins, Raylin Heredia sorts a rather ugly walk and strikeout rate with 2 walks (3.4%) and 22 strikeouts (37.3%) in 59 PAs. He has a ,296 batting average and .452 BABIP because he has an incredible 41.9% line drive rate. He had 5 doubles, a triple, and a home run as part of a 10-24 week.
- It was only one game this week for Saul Teran, but it was a bad one. He gave up 3 home runs in one innings and has now given up 5 home runs in 4 games to go with 4 walks and only 3 strikeouts. So far it looks like he is fastball is not playing in AA.
- It is hard to read too much into backfield games, but Logan Dawson looks intriguing. He has been playing third base with Espinosa at short, and he is built more like a third baseman. He shows good patience at the plate, but complex pitchers aren’t going to exploit his swing holes. He has good power too, and overall looks like a guy who should be at Clearwater.
- It took 5 games for Andrew Baker to walk his first batter. His first game of the week he went two innings and struck out 4 of the 7 batters he faced. We have seen some hot streaks from Baker before, but it seems this new cutter forward approach has worked for him because he also had just 10 balls on the 41 pitches he threw.
- Brad Pacheco is still sitting 95-97 through three games, and this week he got the strikeouts (7) it looked like he should have been picking up in his first two appearance. However, two home runs and 8 hits led to 4 runs and his worse start of the season. His command still needs to catch up to the stuff jump.
- I wouldn’t call Nolan Beltran a notable prospect, but he walked 7 times over the weekend and 9 times this week which is a fun statistical thing that gave him 18 PAs and 9 ABs.
- It was not the best week for the back of the Clearwater bullpen, but on Sunday they pitched 6 scoreless with Tyler Bowen, Gabe Craig, and Keegan Batka recording the last 9 outs of the game on strikeouts.
Injuries and Transactions
- Cole Gilley (CLW), Eligio Arias (CLW, FCL), Cristian Rego (DSL White), Otto Kemp (AAA), Felix Reyes (MLB), Seth Johnson (MLB), Guillermo Rosario (REA), Angel Mata (CLW), Gabriel Barbosa (REA), Jaydenn Estanista (JS), Kyle Backhus (MLB), Colin Peluse (AAA), Nikau Pouaka-Grego (CLW), Victor Cardoza (FCL), Cade Fergus (REA), John McMillon (LHV), Chase Shugart (MLB), and Daniel Harper (LHV) assigned to new level
- Jaydenn Estanista and Lou Albrecht activated from Development List
- Orlando Gonzalez added to 7-day IL
- Michael Mercado (CLW) began a rehab assignment
Links and Things
Minor Thoughts
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