Thoughts from a Friday Night in Reading (5/4/18)

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Pitching Report

  • This was the first time I got to see JoJo Romero throw in a game since he was drafted back in 2016. It was a fairly interesting start as really JoJo’s start was mired by a poor 4th inning, where nine men would come to the plate and five runs would cross. Romero allowed a hanging curve to Ronnie Jebavy that just stayed inside the LF foul pole for a three-run home run but there some unfortunate bounces on defense. After a leadoff single, Dylan Davis hit a blooper out to center, where it was very close to being caught by a sliding Cord Sandberg. That was followed on the very next pitch with a grounder to 3B Damek Tomscha, where he thought about throwing to second, which in turn cost him getting the easy out at first. Then right after the home run, 2B Brandon Bednar let a ball go in between his legs. That blunder would eventually come around to score as the fifth run. After that fifth run he would retire eight straight before ending his outing with back-to-back doubles off hanging curveballs that tied the game at six. His final line: 6.1 innings, 9 H, 6 R (5 ER), BB, 4 K on 100 pitches (63 strikes). His curve seemed to betray him in this game as opponents got three extra base hits off of it. But when it’s going good,While his fastball looked flat at times, he got some good run and sink at 88-91 mph, touching 93 late in his start. I find it interesting that Romero hasn’t found that extra velocity in his fastball yet that he showed last year when he was more consistently in the 91-94 range. One pitch I was a little surprised to see often was his cut fastball, which had good tail on it at 85-86 mph. It was a pitch I wasn’t expecting as much, but he threw it a lot more the third time through the lineup, which helped as he ended up retiring eight straight towards the end of his start. His change-up, which touched 84 but stayed in the low 80s most of the night, has really good fade on it and I kind of which he used it a bit more than his breaking balls. Nonetheless, I do like Romero’s mindset to mix up his arsenal the way he does with many of his pitches being average. His curveball (75-79) has nice slow snapping break, but it didn’t seem like he had a good feel for it.  His slider (79-81) ended up in the dirt constantly and just didn’t have great spin at other points. Romero has a good feel for pitching, but unless that velocity ticks up a bit and he relies on his change-up more, he might be no more than a fringe back-end starter.
    • 49 fastballs, 12 change-ups, 15 curveballs, 12 sliders, 12 cutters on 100 pitches
      • 2/12, double, walk, two strikeouts (swinging/foul-tip), two fly outs, four groundouts, a lineout, sac bunt, error on fastballs
      • 4/5, two doubles, home run, fly out on curveballs
      • 1/4, two groundouts, a flyout on cutter
      • 1/3, two groundouts on slider
      • 1/3, double, two swinging strikeouts on change-up
    • 18/29 first pitch strikes; nine fastballs, five curveballs, three sliders, one cutter; balls were four fastball, three change-ups, two sliders, one curveball, one cutter)
    • First pitch: 3/7, 2 2B, SAC, E4; Behind 1-0: 3/10, 2B, HR, BB, K; Ahead 0-1: 3/10, 2B, 3 K
    • Eight groundouts, four flyouts
    • LH hitters: 0/1, K (fastball swinging); RH hitters: 9/26, 4 2B, HR, BB, 3 K (two swinging change-ups, fastball foul-tip swinging
    • Seven swinging strikes (7%); three on fastballs, two on change-ups, two on sliders
    • 12 at-bats went five pitches or more: 4/11, 2 2B, BB, 2 K; 11 at-bats went two pitches or less: 3/10, 2 2B, SAC
  • Edgar Garcia ended up being the odd man out in the rotation battle to Elniery Garcia and Harold Arauz (and Jacob Waguespack while Elniery was coming back). But he’s taken on his new role in the bullpen in stride. On Friday night, he picked up the win and finished out the game, retiring all six batters he faced on 24 pitches (14 strikes). Edgar showed nice run on his fastball keeping it down most of the time at 92-93. He ended the game painting the outside corner at 94. He flashed his tight slider (82-84) which still needs some consistency to become a plus pitch out of the bullpen. His one change-up generated a pop-up to end the eighth, though it looked just a bit flat. That’s a pitch he doesn’t use often. Edgar comes a bit on the high side on his 3/4 arm action and at times he ends up losing control of his body as he falls over a bit too quickly. Edgar has come out throwing hot, having allowed just one earned run and eight hits with a 17/7 K/BB in 17.1 innings. The Phillies tried to make him a starter (which helped his fastball command), but perhaps Edgar Garcia’s best role maybe as a multi-inning reliever as a two-pitch pitcher.

Position Player Report

  • It has been awhile since we considered Malquin Canelo a top 20 prospect in the Phillies system. After breaking out in Lakewood during the first half of the 2015 season, Canelo has spent the last two and a half years in Clearwater and Reading. Since his 2015 midseason promotion to Clearwater, he has hit .240 with a .629 OPS in 1088 PA. Well so far this season, things are looking up and they showed in a big way on Friday night as he launched a solo shot in the 8th inning that would be the deciding run. He would follow that up on Saturday with another solo homer and his third multi-hit game in four games. Entering Sunday, he’s has hit for a .303/.386/.539 line with 11 extra base hits (4 HR) in 102 PA. While he is striking out at the same 25% rate he did last year, he is walking at a 10.8% rate, following his 9.6% from last year. His defense shows flashes like Friday when he made a nice tough throw at second on a double play early and a strong spinning throw late in the game. But he’s committed 75 errors at shortstop the last three years and has seven this year. If he has a shot at the big leagues, it might be more as an outfielder where his plus speed would make up for a lot of defensive blemishes while he still learns the position.

  • Jiandido Tromp was one of my more intriguing players to watch from last year because in some ways he reminded me of a smaller Aaron Altherr. I was a bit surprised that Tromp started the season in Reading again considering the success he had, but with Dylan Cozens, Roman Quinn and Andrew Pullin all needing playing time in the outfield, Tromp was the logical choice to stay back. Tromp has scuffled when it comes to putting the ball in play early on hitting just .226 entering Friday night’s game. He ended up reaching base all four times he got to the plate (pair of singles pull side, dropped an RBI double to right-center and drew a walk). The walk Tromp drew would be his 12th of the season and he is already on pace to break his career  high (36 in 2016). Entering Sunday, Tromp has a 14.4% BB rate and a 21.6% K rate and while he’ll still chase some bad pitches (chases a lot of stuff low), he’s didn’t show much of being that free swinger like he has been in the past. I still think Tromp is an interesting depth piece to have simply because of his power to all fields and some of the discipline he has shown.

  • We haven’t heard much from Jan Hernandez in quite some time, but he’s finally having a really good stretch of baseball. On Friday night, the 2013 3rd round pick had a multi-hit game, including a leadoff home run in the 4th inning for his first of the year after hitting a career high 16 last season. Now that home run got a little help from the wind but it was just another example of his encouraging start. Entering Sunday, Hernandez has posted a .344/.362/.453 line and while he has a 4.3% BB rate, his strikeout rate is at 22.9%. This is encouraging because he came into the season with a career 32.6% strikeout rate. He stayed off some tough pitches last night, but still golfed at a couple of bad ones. It seems like he has geared his swing to hit more line drives than simply trying to knock one out of the yard. I don’t expect Hernandez to keep this up all season, but if keeps that strikeout rate under 25% and shows off his power as the season moves along, it will be nice story for a once high draft pick.

Opposition Player Spotlight

  • The name Ryan Howard made a return to Reading. Except he’s a 6’2″, 195 lb caucasian shortstop who is in the San Francisco Giants system. A top 30 prospect in the Giants organization, Howard put on a real nice showing at Reading. On the first pitch of the game, he nearly one over the rightfield wall but it ended up hitting the very top of the wall and settled for a double instead. After grounding sharply to Kyle Martin for a double play, he would squeak an RBI single through the left side of the infield in the fourth. In his final bout with Romero, he crushed a double into the left-center gap and came around to score on a double the very next pitch. Howard kind of leans in to try and take the inside away and his swing is compact and quick. He doesn’t generate a ton in the power game but he showed some nice doubles power into the gaps. He never swung at a bad pitch in any of his five trips to the plate, but he was late a couple of times. Howard could end up being one of the Giants prospects that overachieves when he hits the big leagues, but I see a backup utility infielder.

Photo of Jojo Romero courtesy of BaseballBetsy