Monday, May 22, 2006

Weekend Minor League Update...and Goodbye Alex Gonzalez

Alex Gonzalez has retired. Long live Chris Coste. The circumstances surrounding Gonzalez' retirement were as strange as any I can remember. Here's hoping Coste did a whole season's worth of slumping the first 7 weeks of the season in Scranton (.177/.236/.272) so that he'll be ready to hit when called upon during his stint in Philly (not as crazy a theory as one would think). I must admit I am excited to have a legitimate third catcher option on the roster...that's a silver lining out of this wash of a roster move.

By the way, it couldn't have been just me who was wondering what was up with Alex Gonzalez' eyes. I would bet anything that he wore eyeliner or some kind of smoky eye makeup in the dugout...maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm not. On to the minors...

AAA Scranton-WB

  • Josh Kroeger: 4-8, 2 2B, RBI, 2 R, K, OF assist
  • Danny Sandoval: 1-11, RBI, K
  • Brennan King: 2-12, 2B, 2 R, K
  • Angel Chavez: 1-4, 2B, RBI, K
  • Chris Coste: 3-7, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB, K - PHILLIES
Congratulations go out to Chris Coste...I had no idea he was a native of North Dakota before seeing that article, he joins a couple of pretty good ballplayers as ND natives in the bigs...
  • Jason Bartlett (Twins): 1-4, 2B, K
  • Jason Kubel (Twins): 1-3, BB, K
  • Dustin Pedroia (Red Sox): 2-8, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI, R, BB
  • Hee-Seop Choi (Red Sox): 1-7, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K
  • Craig Hansen - Red Sox - (L, 0-1): 3.1 IP 5 H 2 ER 3 BB 4 K
  • David Wells - Red Sox - (W, 1-1): 5 IP 4 H 2 ER 1 BB 3 K
Jason Bartlett and Jason Kubel should both be Minnesota Twins right now and not in AAA...Craig Hansen is making the rather unusual conversion from college closer (St. John's) to pro baseball starter...it seems like a no risk move on the part of the Red Sox, yet another reason why I respect the Boston front office...David Wells is an IDIOT (even his home fans in Boston can't stand him either)...
  • Brian Sanches (S, 6): 1 IP 1 H 0 ER 0 BB 2 K
  • Travis Minix (S, 1): 3 IP 2 H 0 ER 0 BB 1 K
  • Eude Brito (L, 4-2): 4 IP 4 H 5 ER 4 BB 2 K
  • Ryan Cameron: 1 IP 1 H 0 ER 1 BB 0 K
I'm not leaping off the Brito bandwagon after his bad start, but some fans may have gotten a bit carried away with his hot start to the 2006 season - he has only struck out 27 batters in 49.1 innings pitched and has been incredibly reliant on the flyball to get his outs (by my count he has a .85 GO/AO ratio on the season). There are things to like about his minor league numbers (mainly his low hit rate), but he is a 27-year old guy still in AAA - who knows what kind of developmental path he'll take from here on out...

AA Reading

  • Michael Bourn: 4-16, 3B, 2 BB, 3 K
  • Tim Moss: 4-14, HR, 3B, 2 RBI, 2 R, 4 K, E
  • Jason Jaramillo: 1-2, 2B, RBI, R, K, E

  • Gio Gonzalez: 5 IP 3 H 0 ER 3 BB 7 K
  • Zack Segovia (L, 1-1): 6 IP 2 H 2 ER 0 BB 3 K
  • Scott Mathieson: 7.2 IP 4 H 1 ER 5 BB 8 K
Excellent weekend for Reading prospects...Bourn was getting on base, Moss flashed a bit of power, and Gio Gonzalez (more on him in a bit) and Scott Mathieson put together excellent starts. Perhaps most impressive of all was Zack Segovia's second straight superb start since joining the R-Phils...to go back to my pet project once again, Segovia's (unofficial) GO/AO number for 2006 is an encouraging 1.57...watch out for Segovia...

High A Clearwater

  • Mike Costanzo: 1-11, 2B, 3 R, 2 BB, 5 K
  • Brad Harman: 3-10, HR, 3 RBI, R, 3 BB, 2 K
  • Bryan Hansen: 2-10, 2 BB, 4 K
  • Tuffy Gosewisch: 3-11, R, BB, K

  • Blake Dewitt (Dodgers): 2-12, 3 K, E
  • Travis Denker (Dodgers): 1-12, HR, RBI, 2 R, 2 K
  • Scott Elbert - Dodgers - (W, 2-4): 7 IP 3 H 2 ER 2 BB 7 K
Dewitt and Denker are two of the better Dodgers infield prospects (a spot they are loaded at in the low minors)...I'm a big fan of Dewitt personally...Scott Elbert is a top pitching prospect for L.A - he was recently featured in a Prospect Smackdown feature at John Sickels' Minorleagueball.com. His opponent in the Smackdown? Some young lefty named Gio Gonzalez...check it out
  • Andrew Baldwin: 6 IP 8 H 4 R 3 ER 0 BB 6 K
  • Nick Evangelista (W, 1-0): 2 IP 2 H 0 ER 0 BB 3 K
  • Kyle Kendrick: 5.1 IP 5 H 3 ER 1 BB 5 K
  • J.A. Happ (L, 2-5): 6.1 IP 5 H 3 ER 2 BB 3 K

Happ’s ERA is 2.45, but his record is 2-5...perfect example of why we shouldn't rely on W-L records, huh?…Evangelista's first two appearances of the year have been good ones, his comeback story is a great one...

Low A Lakewood

  • Greg Golson: 4-13, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, 4 R, 2 BB, 3 K, SB
  • Welinson Baez: 4-10, 3B, 2 2B, RBI, 3 R, 3 BB, 3 K, E
  • Lou Marson: 2-9, 2B, 2 R, 2 K, E
  • Jeremy Slayden: 3-6, HR, 2B, 4 RBI, 2 R, BB, HBP, K
  • Clay Harris: 6-11, HR, 2B, 5 RBI, 3 R, BB, 2 K
Great weekend for the BlueClaw bats...Golson's 4-hit weekend has got to be a relief to the Phillies organization...it was just one weekend though...
  • Josh Outman (L, 1-4): 4.1 IP 6 H 4 R 3 ER 3 BB 4 K
  • Maximino De La Cruz (W, 3-1): 7 IP 7 H 2 ER 1 BB 7 K
  • Pat Overholt: 2 IP 1 H 2 ER 1 BB 1 K
  • Scott Mitchinson (W, 2-2): 6 IP 4 H 2 ER 1 BB 8 K
  • Brett Harker: 1 IP 4 H 1 ER 0 BB 0 K
  • Andy Barb: 1 IP 0 H 0 ER 0 BB 1 K

The Phillies low A minor league relief arms are very encouraging...Barb lowers his ERA to a miniscule 0.69 on the year...Brett Harker has a ridiculous 2.82 GO/AO ratio this season (again, that number is my own and therefore very unofficial)...keep on eye on him

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Coste is up now but what happens when Rowand comes back from the DL? Do they just send Roberson back down and keep Coste or is there any chance of a solution to a second infielder in either free agency or via trade. I guess there's always the possibility of keeping 3 outfielders and sending Coste back down. Personally I would feel much better if they had another legitamate infielding option on the team. Who know's, maybe Coste is that guy but I just wanted to get your thoughts.

2:29 PM  
Blogger XXX said...

Excellent question and one that I can only guess at. I think Coste may very well be here to stay with Roberson the odd man out when Rowand comes back on Saturday. My problem with that scenario (and the one you astutely brought up as well) is the lack of a second player capable of playing the middle infield spots - if Nunez is the only option at second and short, the Phils will be even more hamstrung than usual in the late innings. So ultimately, I'm not sure what the Phils will wind up doing - I'd probably send down Roberson, activate Rowand, demote Clay Condrey, and call up Danny Sandoval to serve as the utility guy.

If I was really running the show (WARNING: completely unrealistic version of events coming ahead) I would cut Ryan Franklin, Sal Fasano, and Abraham Nunez and demote Chris Roberson (when Rowand comes back). Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste would serve as the catching duo until Lieberthal comes back, but would both stay on the 25-man roster even after Lieby is healthy. Here's the overall set of moves I'd make (after Rowand and Lieberthal come back):

OUT: Franklin, Fasano, Nunez, Roberson

IN: Lieberthal, Rowand, Danny Sandoval, Ryan Cameron

I'd still have the problem of only having one middle IF (Sandoval), so this setup is definitely far from ideal...but it's all I've got for now...there is surely a better way, anybody with any suggestions?

12:13 AM  

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