This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (62-68) @ Scranton Wilkes-Barre (68-60) – 7 GB
- Reading (63-62) @ Hartford (61-64) – +3.5 GB
- Jersey Shore (45-79) @ Hob City (57-69) – 17.5 GB
- Clearwater (69-54) vs Fort Myers (67-55) – clinched first half title
Hitter Spotlight
6 G 8-17 3 2B 1 HR 3 RBI 5 BB 2 K 2 SB .471/.591/.824
DeMartini entered the year in need of health and redemption from a poor end to the year with Reading. He had a fine first month plus of the season, with his strikeouts a little high and power lower than where you would want it. Then he missed 2.5 months to a wrist injury. Since returning to Reading at the beginning of the month, he has been on fire hitting .304/.473/.589 with 18 walks to 17 strikeouts. For the season, his swing rate is slightly down, but his contact rate is well up. There is certainly some worry about passivity inflating the contact rate and that not holding up to better stuff in the zone, but that is better than hacking he has done in the past. He is pulling the ball more this year, which is likely helping his power production, and when couple with the swing rate changes goes a long way to explaining his last month. After swapping around defensive positions, he has settled in at third with Escobar at second since he returned to the Fightin Phils.
Pitcher Spotlight
RHP Richie Cortese
2 G 3.1 IP 1 H 0 R 0 BB 6 K
The Phillies have largely spent the last 10 round of the draft throwing darts at college pitchers. Cortese was their 17th round pick in 2025 coming off two seasons at Lander where he barely pitched, and was bad when he did. He is a big guy, who doesn’t get a ton of extension for his size, and consequently not great plane on his fastball. That is mostly fine because it is more of a cutter than a real 4-seamer. He then throws a sweeping slider with great spin rate in the mid to upper 80s. After showing flashes early in the season, his velocity dropped and then he missed two and a half months to an arm injury. His first game back was a bit rough, but he really got his feet back under him this week. He is throwing the ball harder since returning, averaging over 96 over his last three appearances and peaking at 98.7 on Sunday. He still has control problems overall, but he could be an interesting relief arm if he can hold the velocity and stay healthy.
Notes and Thoughts
- I highlighted Chuck King last week, and he handled the two start week solidly this week (11 IP 9 H 4 R 3 ER 2 BB 10 K). He isn’t Rule 5 eligible this winter, making him a valuable piece of depth.
- A .407 BABIP in August led to a .330 average for Bryan Rincon in August. On some level the BABIP variance has been the only real variable to Rincon’s triple slash line while he has at minimum stayed steady and at best made little gains month over month.
- It hasn’t gone great for Tyler Spangler to open his pro career. He went 2 for 13 this week with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. He did play shortstop for the first time this week. The small sample size numbers are all over the place, but he really has not hit a ball that hard in 5 games.
- It was just a 1 for 14 week for Caden Bogenpohl before he left a game early with an apparent injury. It is a small 20 games sample size, but it has been a small sample size with contact issues.
- The contact issues have not been quite as bad for Will Gasparino, but his 4 for 18 week isn’t going to cause anyone to celebrate. It is also just one extra base hit over the last two weeks and 7 games.
- Still no sign of extra base power for Matthew Ferrara, but he went 6 for 22 this week to end the month at a .305 batting average and a .299 average (and .387 OBP) since the start of July.
- It was one good, and one very bad, appearance for Kyler Carmack. He is averaging about 96 on his fastball with solid shape while throwing a low 90s cutter, low 80s sweeper, and a changeup. It is a starting pitcher’s arsenal and it will be interesting to see if they have him pitch in that role next season.
- It was a second good start for Cody Bowker with Reading, but it is going to be hard to view him too optimistically if he is just going to set 89 to 92, even if everything is funky.
- The fastball velocity is up a little bit for Mavis Graves, but that mostly means he has been around 92-93 and then throwing a bunch of breaking balls instead. He didn’t walk anyone this week and struck out 4 of the 7 batters he faced this week.
- As part of their second half run, Estibenzon Jimenez has taken over the closer role for Reading, and his success there has really help the team go on a run. He had two saves this week, and has shown a little higher velocity in these high leverage scenarios. Since the start of July he has appeared in 18 games, spanning 19.1 innings with a 1.86 ERA and 7 walks to 24 strikeouts. He has more of a possible middle reliever look in terms of major league upside, but he has been a big part of Reading’s surge.
- Since joining the BlueClaws, Cade Obermueller has a 8.71 ERA and 21 walks in 20.2 innings. He struck out 7 this week, but gave up 7 runs and 5 walks and took 80 pitches to record 9 outs. Even lefties are hitting him well.
- Gage Wood gave up a season high 5 runs, including yet another home run at home. He also walked 1 and struck out 7 with 21 whiffs. He is giving up nearly 2 home runs per 9 in AA, but a 26.6% K-BB% which leads the Eastern League (min 50 IP).
- The IronPigs coming one out away from getting no-hit over 7 by Jonah Tong and then immediately the next day getting no it over 9 innings by a combination of Syracuse pitchers was pretty embarrassing. They hit .230/.320/.366 as a team last month, and that was with Rincones being good when he played and Tommy Pham hitting like a 38 year old in AAA. Marchan did not hit on his rehab, Colby Thomas has been dreadful since the trade, Christian Cairo has been awful for a while, and Otto Kemp is slugging under .400 for the year. That is some portents of where some 40 man roster moves might come this offseason.
Injuries and Transactions
- Gerardo Lopez (JS), Cal Higgins (CLW), Brendan Sweeney (CLW), Kobe Minchey (CLW), and Elias Holbert (CLW) assigned to new levels
- Braydon Tucker activated from IL
- Nestor Cortes, Brian Walter, Cole Gilley, and Gabe Craig added to 7-day IL
- Tyler Pettorini transferred to 60-day IL
- Zuher Yousuf and Yordanis Guerra added to development list
- Ilan Fernandez signed to a minor league contract
- Jean Cabrera was released
Links and Things
Minor Thoughts
Videos and Posts