This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (45-48) @ Omaha (40-52)
- Reading (41-46) vs Altoona (38-49)
- Jersey Shore (31-54) @ Wilmington (42-44)
- Clearwater (50-37) @ Dunedin (41-45)
- FCL Phillies (19-33)
- DSL Phillies (20-12)
Full season teams play a 3-game week
Hitter Spotlight
SS Juan Parra
8-20 2 2B 3 RBI 9 BB 3 K 1 SB .400/.586/.500
While largely being overshadowed by Francisco Renteria, Juan Parra is hitting .313/.470/.417 on the season with 31 walks to 23 strikeouts, in July that is .353/.551/.500 with 15 walks to just 5 strikeouts. Despite the walk rate, he isn’t passive at the plate, he just in the last month has just really honed in on not expanding the zone against the poor control of DSL pitchers. He isn’t hitting the ball particularly hard, but he also isn’t a slap hitter like Bergolla or Caba, and you can see some real pull side power coming as he matures. He has been less good from the right side of the pate, but those reps have been infrequent at best, so it is hard to draw any real conclusions so far. His glove is fine, and you would like to see more explosive athleticism to see a huge ceiling for him. However, in the past month he has really announced that he is just too mature of a hitter to be in the DSL. Unfortunately the nature of the FCL season, rosters, and other factors means he is going to be at this level for the rest of the season. What you would like to see is for him to take this mature feel at the plate and translate it into more hard contact by really narrowing in his zones and putting some good swings on pitches in those spots.
Pitcher Spotlight
LHP Camron Hill
2 G 4 IP 2 H 1 ER 0 BB 7 K
Hill had back to back poor appearances on the road in Hudson Valley a month ago. Since then he has appeared in 7 games spanning 9.2 innings with 3 hits, 2 of them home runs, and then only 2 walks to 16 strikeouts. On the season, opposing hitters are hitting just .126/.278/.291 against the big lefty, with near equal dominance against lefties and righties and just shutting down hitters with men on base. He throws from a high slot with great extension. It is not particularly great movement, but his fastball sits mostly 93 to 95 and gets on hitters quickly. He has found good feel for his low 80s sweeping slider and is able to spot it on the corners of the zone as well as to expand for whiffs. While a good step up from his 2025 season, he profiles more as an interesting middle reliever if he can continue to ascend the minors.
Notes and Thoughts
- Gage Wood’s appearance in the Futures Game was brief and professional. He threw mostly fastballs, not overthrowing and sitting 96-97. He overthrew his one curveball and he let the base runner steal two bases (the catcher did contribute to this). Probably the biggest surprise is that he threw two splitters, an important pitch for him to develop, and they had good movement even if he had control of only one.
- Wen-Hui Pan’s appearance was not as good. His fastball was 96 to 98, but he doesn’t get great shape on it because of his delivery. He struggled to locate his slider and splitter, and left a fastball in the middle of the zone for a home run. It was similar to how he has played for Reading and it is important to remember this is his first year back from Tommy John surgery.
- It was two solid walk-less appearances for Alex McFarlane this week. You have to think the Phillies will push him to AAA by end of month.
- Devin Saltiban hit .350 this week and is hitting .294 in July, but has come with just two doubles and no walks. The only encouraging thing would be he is now hitting .286/.307/.422 on the road, but that has also come with 4 walks to 44 strikeouts.
- The ups and downs of relief prospects is a razor thin margin and Titan Kennedy-Hayes had an ERA over 7 and a walk per inning over the first two months of the season. June was a step in the right direction, albeit with a lower strikeout rate. However in his 3 appearances in July (including two this week) he has not allowed a hit, while striking out 10 of the 16 batters he has faced. His fastball is still in the upper 90s and according to the Phillies Development account was up to 101. He has major league stuff, he just hasn’t had major league command.
- Usually when a player has the start week, one start is limited or the first is better than the second, but Cade Obermueller had a poor first start (3.2 IP5 H 4 ER 4 BB 7 K) to open the week before dominating the Tarpons on Sunday (4 IP 2 H 0 R 0 BB 6 K). He still has not allowed an extra base hit to a lefty.
- Jose Tovar just missed on a cycle this week, walked more than he struck out and hit .421/.542/.789 in 5 games (2 3B 2 CF 1 SS) and has a .944 OPS now on the season.
- Elian Adames just keeps putting the ball in play, going 11 for 23 this week with just 2 strikeouts. He is hitting .421 in July and looks very comfortable at the plate as the DSL Phillies have surged.
- It was a bad last game before I wrote this for Naoel Mejia who continues to touch 98-99 in his return from Tommy John surgery.
- Due a suspended game, DSL LHP Samuel Ortiz technically was the starting pitcher for both halves of a double header, his second start went worse. He bounced back on Wednesday, with a lot of 93s and a slider that was generating a good amount of whiffs.
- It was just a 3 for 18 week for Bryan Rincon, but he walked 6 times to 4 strikeouts (with 3 of those coming on Sunday). He has 12 walks to 6 strikeouts in July. Now that the sample size is growing it is also fair to start to worry about his contact abilities and quality from the right side of the plate.
- The prodigious strikeout rate that Cody Bowker was posting for the Threshers has come down to earth with the BlueClaws. However, the overall results are much improved, with his walk rate cut over half, his home run rate is down, and the quality of his outings improved. This week he was solid (5 IP 4 H 1 ER 1 BB 5 K) and completed 5 innings on under 70 pitches for the second start in a row.
- It was a third good start in a row for Matthew Fisher, and also his first time reaching 5 innings as a pro. So far in Clearwater only his sweeper is getting good results, but they are very good results.
- There has mostly been praise for Marty Gair’s year, but it went very wrong this week allowing 4 hits, 4 earned runs, a pile of inherited runners, and some walks. He is going to go as far as his command will take him, and that sometimes feels like a threat and not aspirational.
- It was a good week for Alex Binelas who hit .368/.478/.684 across 5 games. He is having a completely bizarre season once you get past the expected swinginess. He has large home road splits with a respectable .843 OPS on the road and a dominant 1.083 OPS at home. He is crushing righties with a 1.037 OPS and struggling against lefties with a .675 OPS. What is bizarre is his home runs. He had 9 in April, 1 in May (and just 3 XBHs), and then 8 in June, and now his back at 1 in July. Just a very streaky season.
- The only thing that is really stopping Ramon Marquez is weather. It took him 8 more pitches to repeat his exact line from last week (5 IP 2 H 1 ER 1 BB 9 K), but this one was shortened by lightning.
- Brad Pacheco once again breezed through his competition this week (6 IP 2 H 0 R 0 BB 7 K) with his sweeper and new splitter dominating opposing hitters. Both pitches have given him some actual swing and miss to work with.
- In the month of July, Nathan Humphreys has 6 walks to just 1 strikeout. It isn’t like he killed the ball this week, 7-18 1 HR, he just is putting the ball in play. Also he stole 6 bases this week raising his season total from 11 to 17.
- After a game out of the bullpen, Yilmar Samudio was back in the rotation, with lightning cutting his start to 3 innings. He allows a hit and a walk, but struck out 6. He was still mostly fastballs, but the velocity was slightly down and delivery more under control.
Injuries and Transactions
- Cesar Mujica (FCL), Guillermo Rosario (CLW), Gabriel Azocar (FCL), and Gabriel Flores (FCL) assigned to new levels
- Juan Amarante, Carter Kieboom, Jonathan Alcantara, Jackson Rutledge, and Grant Holman activated from IL
- Jean Cabrera was outrighted to Reading
- Dylan Carlson and Raymon Rosario were released
Links and Things
Videos and Posts