Phillies Prospect Weekly Recap – 5/3-5/9

I am not sure how this is going to go, but I am going to try writing things again and doing that with a recap of the last week of 6 game series. The goal is to highlight the most interesting hitter and pitcher, give an overall feel, and then some quick notes. We will see how this all goes from here.

Depth Chart | Pitch Data | Org Roster

System Summary:

The Phillies are without a few key prospects due to injuries and that compounded with an already thin farm system has left a lot of minor league rosters looking a little light. The Phillies are also running piggy back starting situations with low pitch counts for their pitchers meaning there were a lot of outings 3 innings or less. The IronPigs jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but the 2-4, 3-3, and 3-3 records down the system really match the boom bust of the talent at each level.

Hitting Spotlight – Luis Garcia, SS, Clearwater

Garcia wasn’t the best hitter in the org this week (that was Matt Vierling), but if you are going to repeat a level two years later it isn’t bad to hit .375/.448/.542 with 4 walks to 6 strikeouts. Garcia swapped on and off at short with Casey Martin this week and projects to do that going forward, but don’t let that hide that he has plenty of defensive ability at shortstop. No one is projecting star level outcomes for Garcia anymore, but he looked like a guy who could be a regular at short for a playoff team and he very much could get back on that track. He didn’t look overmatched in big league spring training and it is good to see him get off to a good start in the minor league season.

Pitching Spotlight – Cristian Hernandez, RHP, Clearwater

On a team stacked with young arms with upside, Hernandez was the most unknown. A 2017 international signee with no recorded bonus amount in my spreadsheets who pitched in the DSL in 2018, but not in 2019 and 2020, he was a total enigma. He is listed at 6’3″ 180lbs and is still only 20 years old and in his two appearances this week was 91-95 with a changeup and slider, striking out 10 in his 5 innings of work along with only 1 walk. This isn’t enough to put Hernandez on a prospect list, but he is certainly another arm to watch on a very interesting Thresher’s rotation.

News and Notes:

• Speaking of the best hitter this week, Matt Vierling went 8-21 with 4 XBHs (2 HRs), walked (4) more than he struck out (3) and threw out a runner at the plate to save Mark Appel a run.
• Bryson Stott only went 3-16 in 6 games, with 7 of them strikeouts, but he homered to both fields and walked an org leading 8 times.
• A similar story for Arquimedes Gamboa with a walk driven time in Reading, that also included his first foray into center field.
• Outside of Stott’s home runs it was a brutal week for Jersey Shore who hit .127/.259/.214 against Hudson Valley.
• Mark Appel took the mound for Reading in his return to pro-baseball. He was reportedly around 94 in the first two innings before fading in the third. He had some control issues on some pitches and unleashed some really good pitches. Overall he didn’t look like a world beater, but he certainly looked like he belonged.
• Mick Abel’s debut didn’t go great statistically, but in his first two innings, the 19 year old sat 95-98 with his fastball. He hasn’t pitched in a game in a while, but the radar readings were very exciting.
• As for the rest of the Clearwater young arms, the radar readings were not low either
  • Eduar Segovia: 92-95
  • Dylan Castaneda: 89-92 T93
  • Gunner Mayer: 91-93 T94 (Mayer left his second start after only throwing a couple of pitches)
  • Jordi Martinez: 93-96 T96
  • Rafael Marcano: 91-94
  • Starlyn Castillo: 92-95
  • Rodolfo Sanchez: 92-94
  • Victor Vargas: 90-92 T93
• It looks like on the upper minors side only Bailey Falter and Adonis Medina are stretched out enough to be emergency starters. Falter struggled at times, but didn’t look awful. Medina had a bad opening day start, but bounced back to be dominant on a cold rainy Sunday.
• LHP Cristopher Sanchez pitched as a reliever earlier in the week, but took the ball as a starter on Saturday. I haven’t gone back to track all of his pitches, but in his first appearance he was 93-95 with a very good looking slider. He probably is a reliever long term, but the innings to develop benefit him more than any other pitcher on the AAA roster.
• Despite Enyel in the majors on Saturday, the prospect resurgence tour continues to look good for Enyel, J.D. Hammer (96-98 with a hard slider and curveball), and Mauricio Llovera (94-95 with a plus changeup) as the Phillies try to have some amount of internal reliever depth.