This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (35-40) vs Syracuse (38-37)
- Reading (30-39) @ Altoona (31-38)
- Jersey Shore (27-41) @ Brooklyn (25-43)
- Clearwater (41-28) vs Jupiter (38-31)
- FCL Phillies (12-25)
- DSL Phillies (9-7)
Hitter Spotlight
6 G 7-24 2 HR 4 RBI 1 SB 2 BB 3 K .292/.346/.542
With two walks this week, Heredia set a new monthly high water mark for walks in a month with 5. His strikeout rate is down as well, which is important because Heredia’s contact rate had started to decline to concerning rates in addition to the lack of on base. Outside of the approach problems, Heredia has hit the ball for extra bases all season, with June seeing doubles turning into home runs. With the way Heredia has hit LHPs (.302/.343/.603), he is mirroring some of Felix Reyes’s 2025 season with Reading. The problem is that Reyes had outlier contact ability, and while Heredia is a line drive machine, the strikeout rate is a concern with Heredia. Given that Heredia can play a competent RF, he is someone to watch the longer the Phillies continue to use platoons in multiple outfield spots.
Pitcher Spotlight
RHP Brad Pacheco
1 GS 5 IP 4 H 3 ER 1 BB 7 K 2 HR
When a player just sort of chugs away through the season, the small nuances of their season are often lost. Pacheco has had some good starts this season, but he hasn’t had a signature one. His overall numbers are fine, but not amazing but yet there is work going on behind the scenes. His arsenal has largely been hard stuff and fairly armside oriented. This week he threw 10 sweepers, which is a pitch that is new for him, and gives him a pitch with some real horizontal separation from the rest of his vRHB arsenal. It also now starts to really solidify a modern 5 pitch arsenal, going 4-seam, changeup, and slider against lefties and sinker, sweeper, and slider against righties. It also gives him a chase pitch, and while batters aren’t racing to swing wildly at sweepers, Pacheco throws his current arsenal, in particular his fastballs (sinker in this case), in the zone. His slider is more of a utility knife that he can bring into the zone than a way to get a batter to expand. Pacheco doesn’t profile as a front line starter, but after missing so much time you can see the shape of a back end start profile forming, and there is still enough growth in the arsenal and velocity that mid rotation is not an impossible outcome.
Notes and Thoughts
- Francisco Renteria is on a 6 game hit streak and went 9 for 21 this week with a triple and his second home run. After striking out 3 times in the 3rd game of the season, Renteria does not have a multi strikeout game. He has a 1.097 OPS for the season, which is somehow 28th in the DSL which says something about the league, but that doesn’t take away that Renteria has been tearing through the league.
- Bryan Rincon has cooled off in June, but still has a .810 OPS on the month. He is hitting for less power overall, but walks are up as his 7 walks to 3 strikeouts this week give him 14 and 15 respectively for the month. He did make the most of his 2 hits this week with a double and a home run.
- He still isn’t hitting for power, but Aroon Escobar is starting to look more like Aroon Escobar when it comes to approach. After walking 6 times in May, he had 6 walks (to 1 strikeout) this week and has 13 walks to 6 strikeouts on the month after 26 last month. If he can get his approach in a better spot then the contact quality should come around.
- It isn’t that Gage Wood has been bad in AA, and the Phillies are clearly limiting his innings which hurts his ability to settle in and adjust, but home runs have been a problem in the early going. It is probably always going to be a problem for him given his size and pitch profile, so it will be important he continues to keep the walk rate low.
- After his promotion to Jersey Shore, Cody Bowker continued his current trends. He struck out 6 with only 2 base runners in 4 innings. All year, Bowker has been dominant with the bases empty (.436 OPS) and when a batter gets on things go poorly (1.000), and while he needs to solve that long term, keeping the bases empty solves the problem temporarily.
- It was less surprising that Ramon Marquez didn’t stumble after his promotion, as he has rarely stumbled all year. That said, 5 hitless innings on 52 pitches with 6 strikeouts was still impressive.
- Juan Villavicencio continued his great season, adding two more home runs to his career high of 8. He had 3 walks and 3 strikeouts on the week. He is walking more and striking out less in June as he has repeated his great May.
- It was a bad surface stats week for Griffin Burkholder hit a home run, but went just 2 for 15. However, he had 4 walks to 3 strikeouts this week and is at 8 walks to 10 strikeouts in June, which ties his season high in walks for a month. He is impacting the ball less, so it is a balance between passivity and aggression he will need to find.
- After a quiet start the year, Sebastian Saenz has finally started to heat up with a 3 hit game and his first pro home run. He is striking out out a bit less as well.
- It was finally a good week for Devin Saltiban who went 6 for 19 with three extra base hits, but probably just as important, only 3 strikeouts in 5 games. It has been a dreadful season for Saltiban no matter how you slice it.
- One of the consequences of being as aggressive as he is, is that Alirio Ferrebus is going to get himself out. He went 3 for 21 this week with no walks and one strikeouts. He is hitting just .218 in June as his aggression at the plate is undoing him.
- We got our first public Statcast look at Matthew Fisher and the data matched some of the worries from the complex. His fastball shape wasn’t great, and he struggled to throw it for strikes. The breaking balls are a foundation to work from, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
Injuries and Transactions
- Jaeden Calderon (FCL), Rainy Mota (FCL), Manolfi Jimenez (FCL), Nikau Pouaka-Grego (REA), Evan Gates (LHV), Cesar Mujica (FCL), Tanner Gresham (JS), Gabe Craig (JS), Matthew Fisher (CLW), Cody Bowker (JS), Ramon Marquez (JS), Luis Avila (CLW), and Gabriel Flores (FCL) assigned to new levels
- Caleb Ricketts added to Development List
- Cade Fergus, Brock Vradenburg released
- Filippo Sabatini, Micah Ottenbreit, TJayy Walton, and Cesar Mujica activated from the IL
- Jorge Miranda, Maylerson Caranova, Andrew Bechtold
- Jesus Montiel transferred to 60-day IL
- Wesley Moore transferred to Full Season IL
- Signed Tyler Miller (JS), Daunte Stuart (JS), Brandon Lewis (JS), Kolby Allard (LHV), Lyle Miller-Green (CLW), and Riley Tirotta (REA) signed to minor league deals and assigned to levels.
Links and Things
Videos and Posts