This Week’s Schedule
- Lehigh Valley (17-16) v Buffalo (15-18)
- Reading (13-13) v Somerset (12-15)
- Jersey Shore (14-12) @ Frederick (14-12)
- Clearwater (16-11) @ Daytona (10-17)
- FCL Phillies (0-2)
Hitter Spotlight
SS Bryan Rincon
7-21 1 2B 2 HR 5 RBI 8 BB 3 K 3 SB .333/.500/.667
After a very good week, Bryan Rincon’s home/road splits are looking more even, though the Yard Goats are not a particularly good team. On the season, Rincon is hitting .256/.387/.477 and has mostly held his own from both sides of the plate. He has hit more balls in the air, and has a career high, but not unreasonable HR/FB rate, yet somehow his BABIP has normalized at a more normal value (.295). No one is going to confuse Rincon for a free swinger, but he is swinging more often (38.4% to 42.5%). He has the same overall contact rate the last three years (77.1%, 77.6%, and 77.6%), with a modest rate increase in whiffs (8.6% to 9.5%), but a large decrease in called strike and overall strike percentage. We don’t have public exit velocity numbers, but it seems he is swinging in more advantageous situations and translating that into better results at the plate.
Pitcher Spotlight
RHP Cody Bowker
2 GS 5 IP 2 H 3 R 3 ER 1 BB 10 K
It wasn’t a clean or dominant set of two starts for Bowker (though if you skip Sunday and include last week he went 6 IP 0 BB 14 K). On the season he has a 7.02 ERA, but he has 31 strikeouts in 16.2 innings as the Phillies have brought him along slowly, and he had had some bad luck and home run problems. Bowker is the definition of weird. He has an outlier low attack angle (3.6) on his fastball, despite a modest 9.7 IVB thanks to a 4.3 ft release point. He also gets an incredible 19 inches of armside run on it, giving it both 4-seam and sinker like properties. He doesn’t throw it in the zone enough but it has a 64.5% zone contact rate and 29% chase rate making it play out as a plus pitch. He throws a sweeper and a slider, both that generate good chase rates, but the sweeper gets hammered in the zone. He has thrown a couple of changeups, but he needs to refine it. There are some real relief markers to him, but it is worth cultivating him in a rotation for now.
Notes and Thoughts
- It feels like a boring week for Alirio Ferrebus as he went 8-21 with 3 doubles.
- Another decent appearance for Brad Pacheco (4 IP 4 H 1 ER 1 BB 5 K), he is getting hit by lefties a bit too much, and it might be time to dial back the sinkers just a little bit as it is an outlier in terms of outcomes while being the pitch he just pounds the zone with.
- It was only a 4-18 week with a 33% strikeout rate for Juan Villavicencio, but 3 of those 4 hits were home runs. He is hitting the ball relatively hard with solid approach numbers, but on the season has had some concerning whiff rates vs offs
- Only 4 strikeouts in 5 games this week for Matthew Ferrara, while doubling his season walk total from 3 to 6.
- This week Luke Gabrysh came out of the bullpen after a rehabber with a dominant bounce back outing (4 IP 2 H 0 R 0 BB 7 K). His fastball sat 94-97, but he once again was able to dominate off his slider and sweeper.
- John Spikerman is not hitting for power, but he had 8 walks (to 4 strikeouts) and 8 stolen bases this week. On the season his strikeout rate is down 13% and his contact rate has made a large improvement. The downside is his swing rate (35%) is well into the passive zone and he isn’t turning that patience into impact. If pitchers start to come into the zone, it will be important for him to drive the ball, especially since he has a good batted ball distribution so far.
- Dante Nori continues to trend more like Dante Nori with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts in 5 games to go with 3 doubles. He is also back to playing center field near full time after recovering from injury.
- Raylin Heredia has had impressive power output so far this season, adding a 2 home run game to 3 doubles across the week. He has 17 extra base hits in 25 games, while doing most of his damage on the road. However, he has 2 walks and 35 strikeouts which is a glaring red flag.
- It was another good week for Gage Wood, but he gave up his first home run of the season. Something to watch is that he is allowing a .912 OPS to LHB and .361 OPS to RHB.
- Two relatively clean appearances from Wen-Hui Pan this week, and he touched 97 in his second game of the week.
Injuries and Transactions
- Gerardo Lopez (FCL), Pedro Peralta (FCL), Camron Hill (JS), Naiker Velasquez (FCL), Nathanael Cijntje (FCL), Rey Cruz (FCL), Giussepe Velasquez (JS), and Colin Peluse (REA) assigned to a new team
- Gabriel Rincones, Estibenzon Jimenez, Max Lazar, and Kevin Warunek were assigned on rehab assignment
- Naiker Velasquez, Orlando Gonzalez and Rey Cruz added to 60 day IL
- Jose Rodriguez, Henry Ramiez, Elias Marrero, Jorge Guzman, Kevin Alvarado, Lou Trivino, Alvaro Hernandez, and Jose De La Cruz released
- Sean Yonngerman activated from Development List
- Wesley Moore added to Development List
- Nathanael Cijntje and Connor Gillispie added to full season IL
- Christian McGowan, Michael Mercado, and James Tallon activated from IL
- Brady Day added 7-day IL
Links and Things
Minor Thoughts
Videos and Posts