2021 General Minor League Discussion

[BaseballCat]

It was good to go to a game last night. COVID atmosphere made it different but it was still baseball in perfect weather. Now the players in the “Low A East League” were almost like watching a game in rookie ball (very slow pace and lots of errors - thankfully by the visitors). I will miss the Carolina League and the prospects that typically go though it. I still have not decided on renewing my season tickets for a variety of reasons, but probably will and see how this year goes. MLB and our new owners have messed up a good thing here, but we will see how it plays out this year. Probably much less traveling to different leagues for us this year. I used to be able to see almost every level of the Phillies, but with shifts and COVID I might not see any. It was my way to keep in touch with the Phils since I can’t make it up north that often. Stay safe - get vaccinated - Go Phils!!!

[zambonir]

Makes sense, though I guess I didn't think AAA was going to keep up the same level of protocols once they started travelling.

More difficult for Double A players to go straight to majors this year. Triple A players at alternate sites, operating under similar rules as MLBers, have clear lane to majors. Double A players will need to take extra steps, including a quarantine period and intake testing.

— Ken Rosenthal ( @Ken_Rosenthal ) May 5, 2021

[fish]

(I was tempted to spend extra time finding a link to a story where they spelled my one time home of Worcester correctly...)

I’m from south Jersey, I now live north of Worcester, and struggle to understand why my geographical upbringing seems to have made me genetically predisposed to pronounce places like Worcester and Gloucester as ‘Worchester” and ‘Glouchester’.

[phillychuck]

Phonics, man, phonics! Woo-ster is so wrong.

Or even Wuh-stah with a Boston accent...

[julio]

Phonics, man, phonics! Woo-ster is so wrong.

Or even Wuh-stah with a Boston accent...

So, how do you feel about Cholmondeley (e.g., "Chumley")? The Brits have a certain... I don't know what!

[phillychuck]

I thought Chumley was on Pawn Stars...

Where I live Behtlehem is mostly Beth-lum.

[BostonRoss]

At least in the Philadelphia area, everything is pronounced the way it is spelled (Schuylkill, Bala Cynwyd, ...).

Pennsylvania has some British-like pronunciations, too, such as Lancaster, where the second a is not really pronounced (oddly, it is pronounced in Lancaster, Mass.).

[BostonRoss]

My father used to live in Gloucester County, N.J., and we said it without the second syllable (“Glouster”). Although in Massachusetts, they say “Gloster.”

[el-pietro]

Other than Schuylkill everywhere you named has a British name! Though Bala Cynwyd will take its pronounciation from Welsh which is a Celtic language in Britain rather than a British one.

I enjoyed all the placenames on my train out to Exton each day. Lots of Welsh, English and veen some Irish influence
Bryn Mawr would appear ot be Welsh. Ardmore is based on the Irish town of Ardmore, County Waterford where I spent a lot of my summers as a child. translates to Great Height (or more literally Ard = High and Mór = Big)

I found out recently that my place on Powelton Avenue was a few blocks south of an old neighbourhood called Corktown, named after my my home and an area William Penn spent some time
http://celebratingcorkpast.com/penn/

[zambonir]

Lot of Welsh in the area. In NE Philly near where my family is there's literally Welsh Rd., as well as Pennypack Park. I didn't really know the history until I saw a documentary by Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals.

Main Line stuff:

http://www.lowermerionhistory.org/texts/schmidtd/new_wales.html

[andyb]

Well maybe Cole Irvin passed on the magic that will enable major league success for Lindow after we lose him a couple of years from now on a 40-man roster move.

Phillies Prospect Ethan Lindow Is a Craftsman Who Learned From a Master

[Austinfan]

The changeup is the difference maker for a lot of pitchers, it's as valuable as velo because relative velo is as important as absolute velo - Colon was the master of that, he used to throw FBs that varied between 85 and 95 and drove hitters crazy by screwing up their timing.

[andyb]

Matt Winkelman starting a weekly notes post. I guess Mondays off allows time to do this....

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

[nycphils]

What happened to Carlos de la Cruz? Not playing for any reason other than not good?

[andyb]

Have not heard anything. He went unassigned after minor league spring training. He is also not on any announced IL list, so it is possible he is caught up in that logjam of players this year. He might be ready for Jersey Shore but they are looking at a couple of other players first.

[phillychuck]

I thought I saw him on an IL list right at the start of the season posted by Jim Peyton. Maybe not officially injured, but still working the kinks out in extended spring...

[andyb]

More on the robo umps in Low A here:

Something Really, Really Weird Is Happening In The Low-A Southeast League

Batting average .243 this year versus .242 last year.
Home runs 1 per game up from 0.56
Walks 5.8 per 9 up from only 3.2

Players a level less experienced so not an apples to apples comparison but close. I did see a pitch comparison and it looks like extra strikes are called inside and outside with real umps but less so high and low strikes. This makes sense as the pitcher often gets a wide outside corner in real games. This is something to watch. A wide plate if called consistently is not necessarily a bad thing. Interestingly this uptick in walks did not really occur in the past Atlantic league experiment.

[BaseballCat]

No robo umps, but the same run onslaught is happening with my Lynchburg Hillcats of the ”Low-A East” league. We have not scored less than 7 runs and had three at least with double digits. Thankfully the other side has not faired as well. We have not seen this many home runs in a while or that many errors (thankfully other side as well). I hope our team is this good, but time will tell. If they keep this up, they will not be here for long. Can’t comment on the rest of the league as I have not been looking at the score board. “Down East Wood Ducks” are also 7-0. Welcome to the new normal in the new MiLB...

[bkox]

How much are these experiments going to mess with development? And will it also mess with evaluation of prospects?

[andyb]

It is possible some of the weird numbers are due to stacked prospect rosters in the Low A leagues because of the year off. You get many of the college draftees from 2020 along with the Short Season A players and best rookie league prospects from 2019. There is no short season A to send those GCL prospects from 2019.

So you could have stacked offensive lineups against pitchers that are still being stretched out. Walks are up everywhere, so baseball could also be preaching patience more with position prospects (analytics really point to the 3-outcome game).

I don't know if this will mess up development, but I do think we eventually need to go to the robo umps. Once the real time box started on our telecasts you really need to go the next step. Like tennis did. If not you are just inviting controversy. Now when they do that they need to measure it correctly so it is fair. Not sure they are great at that yet. Maybe you even need to make the plate an inch wider to approximate how the game has been called for years.