A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Lost now in the jubilation of J.P. Crawford’s callup to the majors was that the Lehigh Valley IronPigs had overcome a late season slump to win 6 straight games, including 4 against rival Scranton-Wilkes Barre to win the International League Wild Card. The IronPigs opened the year as a bit of a juggernaut, but that … Read more
It’s been a wild and crazy last five days covering the end of minor league regular season for the Phillies affiliates. I went from Reading to Lehigh Valley to Williamsport and finally Lakewood for the last two days. I was originally going to end on Sunday, but weather had other plans and pushed scheduled starter … Read more
Sunday was going to be my last minor league game of the season with Adonis Medina scheduled to pitch. Unfortunately the weather got in the way on Saturday while I was driving back from Williamsport and instead of scheduling a doubleheader for Sunday, they ended up canceling the game altogether. That meant that Lakewood would … Read more
I hadn’t made the trip to Williamsport since my weekend escapades in July when Adam Haseley hit his 1st professional home runs, Kyle Young struck out 11, Spencer Howard made his professional debut and Jhailyn Ortiz made my eyes pop out of my head with his power. And being this a Phillies minor league weekend, … Read more
The “Phillies minor league Labor Day Weekend Blitz” made it’s second stop last night in Allentown. This would be the third time this season I have made the trek to the place that Billy Joel wrote a song about. Last night’s trip was about accomplishing three things: check on the rehabbing Odubel Herrera and Aaron … Read more
Last night was Reading’s home finale, which meant that the stadium would be packed to see some fireworks after the game. Well they got a lot of fireworks for watching the game. Hours prior to the start of game time, it was announced the Phillies would be sending Odubel Herrera and Aaron Altherr to Baseballtown … Read more
Some years we look forward to the release of Arizona Fall League rosters. Given the distribution of talent in the Phillies’ system (not in Clearwater and Reading, and pitching heavy everywhere) it promised to be a light year for major Phillies prospects. With the announcement of rosters today, things turned out a bit better than … Read more
Franklyn Kilome has been on my radar for a few years now and has been the one prospect that has eluded my scouting eye I’ve wanted to see in the system. Kilome was promoted last week from Clearwater to Reading and had a bit of a shaky AA debut last Thursday. Wednesday night, he would … Read more
The 2016 GCL Phillies had one of the most statistically dominant rotations I have seen at the minor league level. The rotation started with Sixto Sanchez who posted a 0.50 ERA in 11 starts, but then followed with Mauricio Llovera (1.87), Nick Fanti (1.57), Luis Carrasco (2.18), Kyle Young (2.67), and Will Stewart (4.06). It … Read more
Back on July 12th, I went to my third Sixto Sanchez start. There was nothing going on in the sports industry that night other than the ESPYs. There were dozens of scouts and writers on hand to watch Sixto roll through six innings allowing just one run. That night I also provided video, and the … Read more