This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (20-25) v Scranton Wilkes-Barre (23-20)
- Reading (20-19) @ Portland (17-21)
- Jersey Shore (17-21) @ Wilmington (19-19)
- Clearwater (23-16) @ Tampa (19-20)
- FCL Phillies (4-8)
Hitter Spotlight
5 G 6-20 2 HR 3 RBI 1 BB 3 K 1 SB
Villavicencio has made the fringes of prospect lists in the past, notably Fangraphs, but he has never been a real prospect of note. Injuries and ineffectiveness have largely limited Villavicencio the last two seasons as well. This season, he started out as a rehab player from Jersey Shore, but has quickly moved to playing 4-5 games a week for the Threshers splitting time between shortstop and third base. He also already has a career high in home runs with 5, and they all have come since April 29, which has fueled a career high OPS of .838. Villavicencio hits the ball relatively hard (105.7 mph 90th EV) and has put together a better approach this year overall. He has some concerning whiff tendencies against offspeed, but he has gotten better against velocity, leading to a large spike in zone contact rate. He has also gotten more patient and less prone to chasing in a small sample size. He isn’t as geared for pull power as infield partner Matthew Ferrara (he is also 2 years old), but they have some of the same strengths and weaknesses. Given he is 21 in low-A, it is hard to view Villavicencio as a notable prospect again, but he has become a name to keep an eye on.
Pitcher Spotlight
RHP Marty Gair
1 G 1 IP 1 H 0 R 0 BB 2 K
It was only one game this week for the big righty reliever, but when you throw 102.2 you get noticed. After walking 34 batters in 27 innings last year, Gair has walked 7 in 12.2 innings this year. After walking 5 in his first 3 games, he has walked 2 in his last 7, going 8.2 innings with 1 hit allowed those two walks and 14 strikeouts. On the season, opposing batters are hitting .098/.245/.244 off of him with two home runs also coming in those first three games. He is doing it all while throwing his fastball 82% of the time and averaging just 97 mph on it. This week that was 99.8 mph, and that comes with at least 18 inches of ride and an over the top delivery that would give it cut if it wasn’t just coming straight down at the batter. He is throwing it in the zone 46% of the time and opposing hitters have just a 60% contact rate on swings in the zone against it. This week he also located it on the edges of the zone, leaving hitters just helpless. He is working on a mid 80s slider, but hitters are mostly ignoring it. It was pointed out by someone else that the fastball is seemingly modeled on Peter Fairbanks with Gair getting more extension, but less release height on the pitch. If Gair can manage some of the command and secondary pitches of Fairbanks, he also could be a late inning reliever.
Notes and Thoughts
- It is becoming more of a normal week for Bryan Rincon where he went 7 for 17 with 4 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 3 XBHs. Offense is up in the Eastern League, but Rincon has continued to heat up as the year has gone on. Something to watch is he has been much better from the left side, especially when it comes to power.
- Gabriel Rincones Jr. did not crush the ball out of the park in his first week back, and he needs to elevate the ball more, but he looks back to what he was.
- Keaton Anthony also kicked off his rehab with a typical Keaton Anthony line. He went 4 for 10 with just one the extra base hit, but 4 walks to 1 strikeout.
- This week Wen-Hui Pan’s rehab moved to Jersey Shore (he is now off the IL and with Jersey Shore). He had two scoreless appearances, and pitched a full two innings with his first walk since his first game. His stuff has settled in with his fastball sitting mostly 97-98 with some fade down to 95 and some peak up to 99. He has used both a low 80s slider and splitter with the splitter as the out pitch.
- Nathan Humphreys came back from the birth of his child to hit .476/.500/.762 this week. He has hit .283/.400/.500 off of RHPs, and has been worse (and already platooned) against lefties. He has played all over the outfield and should be watched as platoon outfielder.
- Having a 4 strikeout game hurt the overall line for Griffin Burkholder, but he has a hit in 8 straight games. He continues to play 4 games a week with 3 of them at center and one at DH.
- Ramon Marquez had his second straight start with 2 walks and 9 strikeouts, but with this one spanning 5 innings. His fastball sat 95-96 and he led with his new look cutter, which joined his dominant changeup to allow him to carve up Lakeland.
- If April looked like the breakout for John Spikerman then May has been the crash to earth. He is striking out more, and the lack of power is more striking when you are batting .229 instead of .289, even if you get on base. He was 5 for 18 on the week, so it isn’t like he buried in a hitless slump, it is just the scalding base is a thing of the past.
- Similar to Marquez, Mavis Graves had a near duplicate start by going 5 innings with 1 earned run, moving from 2 walks and 9 strikeouts to 3 walks and 10 strikeouts. He had 18 whiffs this week, but it did take 86 pitches.
- After walking 4 batters last week, Gage Wood prepared for his promotion to Reading by striking out 6 with no walks in 4 innings. Wood still needs to find some consistency in his command and offspeed pitches, and AA batters should provide more of a challenge to his fastball.
- Cody Bowker walked three batters in 4 innings this week, which is a departure from his last month of starts. He didn’t allow a hit (so 1 hit or fewer in each of his last 5 games) and struck out 5, as his fastball continues to flummox low minors hitters.
- It was a 0-20 week for Matthew Ferrara with 7 strikeouts. His walk and strikeout numbers are much better in May, but he is hitting .114/.245/.250 for the month as the rest of things haven’t quite worked out as well.
- More on the rehab side of things, Estibenzon Jimenez came out of the bullpen and had one good appearance and one ok one. His slider was dominant and his fastball averaged 94. He has some interesting bullpen upside.
- Drafted in the 19th round last year, Robert Phelps had an interesting debut, but didn’t hit for much power. He wasn’t this year, before hitting two home runs this month and he is hitting .278/.422/.528 overall in May. The raw power numbers aren’t there (100.4 mph 90th EV), but he swings at strikes, and doesn’t chase a ton, but overall his swing % of 33.6% is beyond passive. He is worth keeping an eye on.
- You can see why the Phillies selected James Tallon in the 6th round last year. His fastball has good plane thanks to his delivery and he has feel for spin. All of his pitches are missing bats in the zone, which might be attributable to hitters being flabbergasted that he has actually thrown them for a strike. Consequently, only his sweeper is getting chased.
Injuries and Transactions
- Wen-Hui Pan (JS), Gage Wood (REA), Gabriel Barbosa (JS), Tegan Cain (CLW), and Wilmer Blanco (FCL) were assigned to new teams
- Kevin Warunek (CLW), Micah Ottenbreit (FCL), Erick Brito (JS), Gabriel Rincones Jr. (JS), Estibenzon Jimenez (JS), Mitch Neunborn (JS), Andrew Bechtold (CLW), Keaton Anthony (CLW) all assigned on rehab assignments or had them transferred to new levels
- Wen-Hui Pan and Braydon Tucker were activated from the IL
- Ryan Degges and Matthew Potok were added to the 7-day IL
- Jaydenn Estanista, Jonathan Hernandez, Lenny Torres, and Genesis Cabrera were released
- Zuher Yousuf was removed from the Development List
- Brad Pacheco was added to the Development List
Links and Things
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