2020-2021 Winter League Discussion

[andyb]

Herrera back in action. 1-3 with a BB playing RF. Rosso 5 more scoreless innings (4 H, 0 BB, 5 K). That is 14 scoreless so far. He is clearly making a play for rotation consideration.

Medina with a rough debut (1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K). Guzman still scuffling (1-16 overall).

[DurhamBull]

Herrera back in action. 1-3 with a BB playing RF.

That's good news for him. I wonder when he last played live baseball.

[zambonir]

Well, he last played live baseball in Phillies minor league spring training before the shutdown, or had they not even started playing real games at that point?

If he somehow manages to step onto a major league field in April it will have been 22 months.

I believe this is also his first time playing winter ball in several years, and his first time in the DR instead of Venezuela (for obvious reasons).

[andyb]

Rosso finally gave up his first run on a solo HR, but otherwise had another good outing: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 K). 19 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 20 K for the season. Assume he's only going to make 1 or 2 more starts before shutting it down. Obviously this performance will help him going into Spring Training, though I doubt he will get much consideration for the rotation. The 2-3 inning relief role might be a good fit for him.

Quezada gave a HR in a short outing. 6.75 ERA so far. Medina 1 R in 2 IP in relief. Austin Listi showed up in the Licey lineup this weekend and is 1-6. In Venezuela Brito is 8-34 so far (583 OPS). Cumana 4-18. Leonel Aponte has 2.1 scoreless innings on the mound

Best offensive story is Darrick Hall (12-37, 3 HR).

PhuturePhillies has a much better summary here:

Open Discussion: Week of December 6th

Edit - One small note. Yhoswar Garcia was added in the last couple of days to the Tiburones de la Guaira roster down in Venezuela. He'll be young for the league, but top prospects of his age do play regularly so this will be a good test for him. Team is struggling at 1-8.

[andyb]

Puerto Rican Winter League starts tonight. Only 4 teams this year. 3 of the typical teams plus a younger prospect team called RA12. A couple of Phillies are on that prospect team. Gabriel Cotto, the 6'5" pitcher we picked in the 7th round a few years ago who has had no success in a couple of GCL seasons. And also Jadiel Sanchez, a 12th round OF pick in 2019 who got some limited time in GCL that year (overslot $300K bonus guy and he is still 19, so there should be some potential there).

Apparently there is a South Australian minor league also:
https://baseball.com.au/news/wingroves-six-rbis-lead-saints-over-indians-in-sabl/

[andyb]

Monday update from PhuturePhillies:

Open Discussion: Week of December 13th

• Yhoswar Garcia is officially a professional baseball player. 0-2 in limited defensive sub (CF) roles
• Ramon Rosso another good start. 24 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 29 K
• Several new appearances. Joel Cesar, Victor Arano, Gabriel Cotto, Carlos Betancourt ($460K Venezuelan pitcher signed a few years ago).
• Jadiel Sanchez 3-15 for the prospect team in Puerto Rico. He is among the younger players in the league and one to watch (overslot draftee from 2019).

Australia starts on the 17th (which is sometime Wednesday here but Thursday in Australia). They play on weekends only but this year will be different as all the games are in pods. Adelaide where most of the Phillies prospects are will not play until January as they are not participating in the first pod.

[Jeff05]

Apparently there is a South Australian minor league also:
https://baseball.com.au/news/wingroves-six-rbis-lead-saints-over-indians-in-sabl/

Andy, I think the SABL is simply one of the State "local suburban comps" - very minor, indeed. Wingrove should dominate at this level, if he's any sort of prospect.

[flyers19rw]

Question here: How good is Rosso? Is he close to being a SP in the rotation this year?

[zambonir]

The guy with the 6.52 ERA and 1.759 WHIP last year in relief? I'd say use pencil if you imagine him in the major league rotation.

(Seriously, he's either a 6th starter/depth who can still use more time in AAA, or they'll give him another look in the pen. I would take about as much from his winter league performance as we did from Drew Anderson's 2019 spring training.)

[Austinfan]

It works both ways, one shouldn't put too much emphasis on winter ball performance nor on a short cameo by a young player their first time around, either.

Russo was signed as a big "junk baller" who has added 4-5 MPH of velo the last few years, question is whether he can sustain this velo as a starter or is better suited to the pen.

[andyb]

The Dominican League is the best quality of the Winter Leagues but still probably in the range of AA and AAA play. Probably a little lower quality this year as some players may not be participating and those who do may be rustier from not playing the previous season.

As to what Rosso's performance means? He should dominate this level of play since he is already a major leaguer. What is good is that he is showing stamina as a starter. He never really had swing and miss stuff even when his velocity spiked, so he needs to operate more like Eflin as a starter. As with Eflin though, his secondary pitches at this stage of his career (i.e. Eflin a couple of years ago) are not good enough. He has the control and command of his fastball, but the secondary stuff is good enough to get minor leaguers out but not major leaguers.

This winter performance is a positive in reaffirming his status as a starting prospect, but he still likely has a ways to go to be more than AAAA material. Cole Irvin, for example, would also likely be dominating this league in a similar fashion and nobody is ready to put him in the rotation.

[andyb]

Melbourne and Sydney kick off the ABL today.
https://baseball.com.au/news/blue-sox-aces-lock-in-rosters-for-opening-weekend/

A few Phillies (Josh Tols, Luke Leftwich, Chris Burke) and ex-Phillies (Scott Mitchinson!, Damek Tomscha) on Melbourne. And the 2 team DHs are: Manny Ramirez and Delmon Young.

Tols gave up a couple of runs in 2/3 of an inning but Chris Burke went 1-3 (playing LF instead of C). He was a 2019 free agent signing so has not played yet. Perfect Game had him with a 1.85 pop time at catcher which is very good. Delmon Young with 3 RBI. No Manny in game 1.

https://theabl.com.au/game/639461

Game 2 - Tomscha with the game-winning HR. Old friend Drew Anderson with the dominant 2-inning save (5 Ks).
https://theabl.com.au/game/639450

[Jeff05]

A COVID-19 cluster in northern Sydney has thrown a spanner into the works, as far as the ABL is concerned.

https://theabl.com.au/news/all-options-on-the-table-as-abl-looks-for-path-forward/?network=14

[andyb]

Hopefully the Adelaide pod of games is in a better part of the country. They were not supposed to start until January anyway.

[andyb]

Some minor league updates:

Daniel Brito is improving in Venezuela. Hitting .291 with a .798 OPS in a fair amount of playing time (23-79 overall). 3 HR. Jadiel Sanchez is 7-30 in Puerto Rico. His team (RA12) has yet to win a game. Darick Hall has cooled off a bit. 16-70 with 4 HRs and a 789 OPS.

Odubel only ended up playing those 2 games (2-7). Assume the team just found someone better or less controversial. Ramon Rosso has hit his innings limit. Looks like the last start went badly as his ERA is up to 3.12. Still a good offseason for him. Gabriel Cotto has a 1.59 ERA in 5.1 IP for that bad Puerto Rican prospect team though his peripherals are not good (7 BB, 2 HBP, 3 K). He is still only 20 though and has not pitched above GCL so this league is a good test for him.

Yhoswar Garcia still looking for his first hit in Venezuela. 0-4 in 6 games mainly being used as a defensive sub.

[zambonir]

Odubel only ended up playing those 2 games (2-7). Assume the team just found someone better or less controversial.

I don't imagine we'd ever know if he tested positive for COVID (or even got hurt) either. Can't imagine there was any controversy though.

[andyb]

Australia seems to have started up again. Luke Leftwich and Josh Tols have been getting hit hard. Chris Burke is 2-7 with a couple of BBs in limited action. Looks like Adelaide is still on the calendar to start January 4th. Phillies prospects make up half that team and there will be a lot of action in a compressed schedule with some days playing 2 games against different opponents. Stats and schedule here:

https://theabl.com.au/stats/

Intrasquad yesterday for Adelaide. Luke Williams and Cornelius Randolph should really dominate this league.

https://adelaidegiants.com.au/news/pitching-impresses-as-giants-prepare-for-season-opener-with-intra-squad-game/

[andyb]

Adelaide is supposed to start today. Videos of the game might show up here on the ABL youtube channel:

Baseball com au

6-1 win for Adelaide. Good game for Simmons (1-2, BB). Randolph is 1-4 with a solo HR. Williams 0-3 with a BB. Wingrove 1-3 with a 2B. Edwards 0-3. Curtis Mead, the player we traded to Tampa for Cristopher Sanchez, also had a HR.

https://theabl.com.au/game/639309

Randoph's HR. Nice opposite field stroke.
https://twitter.com/ABL/status/1346267692106301440

A few more notes here. Looks like Jamari Baylor was unable to make it to Adelaide so Kendall Simmons might play SS every day there. Baylor is probably more of a SS long term. Also, Kyle Glogoski is staying in New Zealand and skipping the season. FInally, Danny Brito had a strong couple of weeks in Venezuela and Gabriel Cotto also has pitched better of late in PR. Picture of Cotto inside. He sure is the definition of projectible young pitcher.

1/3/2021 : Winter League Update

[andyb]

2 Rixon Wingrove HRs so far today:
https://twitter.com/AlexCarrMLB/status/1346685308595806208

Simmons also with one to the opposite field:
https://twitter.com/ABL/status/1346670524357693441

[phillychuck]

Thanks for the updates and videos, Andy!

I seriously miss the minor league competition. It is one of my favorite things about baseball.