July 2, 2018 International Signing Period

[andyb]

I don't buy any of those premises. I mean, if we were talking about Bill Giles, or if the Phils' President and GM were alumni of the marketing department, then maybe. But dumping Eshelman for nothing would be stupid, from a baseball perspective... and I've seen nothing that leads me to believe that this management team would do this.

Yes. We are going to use the slots. Maybe not all of them, but some of them. And Eshelman was the low price they figured they could give up to do so (and Baltimore probably wants him for the ML roster at some point this year). There was no reason to not hold onto Eshelman this year. His K/BB ratio doubled this year to 4.45. It was 2.31 last year after being over 4 in both 2016 and 2017.

Whatever happened last year he's beyond it. Is he great? No. But is he useful AAAA rotation depth? Yes.

[Austinfan]

Probably a combination of things;
1) Eshelman had no future here, a number of pitchers would have been promoted and passed him by August
2) Baltimore had a $1M they couldn't use so anything was a positive gain
3) Phillies probably have a few targets they're willing try to sign them in the next few weeks, could be late birthdays, could be hidden gems, could be players who overestimated their value and don't want to compete against the next group of younger prospects in July. They might have deals lined up, or just prepared to make a last minute push.

It's a no risk move, the slots don't cost anything, only if you actually use them, and in that case they've added prospects for "free" (MIddleton's money is free from my perspective!).

[Squire]

Winkelman Tweet

Matt Winkelman (Matt_Winkelman)

Here is what he looks like at least

Samuel Aldegheri raggiunge il fratello al Parma Clima

[el-pietro]

How much do these European signings usually get? They aren't exactly high profile?

[andyb]

Max Kepler got $800K and a couple have exceeded a million since then. Most are like $50K though.

[Philsmania]

Does anybody here know Italian?

[el-pietro]

I don't but I work with some people who do!

E: Translated the page with Chrome, there's nothing interesting in there. Just talks about his experience with the underage national teams mostly. Sounds like he has the ability to strike guys out but who knows if this was a one off or what sort of competition he was facing.

During this season, the 17-year-old launched 8 innings in the A2 series with the Tecnovap Verona , suffering two points and registering as many as 14 strikeouts. It will be his first experience in the A1 series.

[Philsmania]

I don't but I work with some people who do!

Of course, you're in the EU! I was just in Cork about three weeks ago!

[Philsmania]

Speaking of Euro Phillies, do they still have that Russian pitcher Anton Kuznetzov? He put up some somewhat interesting numbers at GCL in 2017 but only pitched three games for WPT last season before apparently going down with an injury.

[el-pietro]

Cork is small,You should have said hi! Hope you enjoyed there, the weather has been very bad the last 10 days or so. We had hail and flash floods last week, I know Ireland is supposed to be wet but it was extreme and June is usually good.

I actually ran into a couple from Philly in Cork on Sunday night, they stopped me because they spotted my Phillies cap.

[Philsmania]

I made it a point to bring and wear Phillies and St. Joe's caps while I was there to mark where I was from! Oh well.

I was there primarily to be my parents driver. They are over 75 and cannot legally drive over there. We were in Cork for a couple of days before heading west toward Kerry. I tried watching the Phillies-Cubs game that was played in the afternoon on my tablet but I couldn't get it to work right. From Ireland, that game started at a "normal" 7:05 (2:05 in Chicago)! I remember when I was in Ireland in 2016, checking MLB scores when I got up one morning and there was a West Coast game in extra innings that was still going on.

[el-pietro]

I'd have definitely said hi if I saw the Phillies hat, I might not have recognised St Joes though.
Day games are great for me! I rarely watch the evening games.

I was actually flying to London for the Eagles game last year, 10 am flight on a Saturday morning and the Red Sox/Dodgers extra innings game was till going on when I woke up, I think I saw the ending before getting on my plane.

[andyb]

Speaking of Euro Phillies, do they still have that Russian pitcher Anton Kuznetzov? He put up some somewhat interesting numbers at GCL in 2017 but only pitched three games for WPT last season before apparently going down with an injury.

I think it was more a mid-80s fastball rather than injury. Deception worked in GCL but not at higher levels.

[schillingfan]

Does anybody here know Italian?

There us enough similarities that the Spanish speaking should be able to communicate, but I suspect he speaks some English.

[Squire]

Jesse Sanchez (JesseSanchezMLB)

So there it is.....Gessner got 850K.

[bigegypt0417]

Jesse Sanchez (JesseSanchezMLB)

So there it is.....Gessner got 850K.

that seems like a steep price.

[andyb]

Is that a record for Australia? Could be. I hope he is worth it and they are not just using up their slot money. Interested to see a more in-depth scouting report.

Another similar article on him. He got lit up a few nights ago. But he says "I throw hard and have a slider".

Victoria HarbourCats pitcher Josh Gessner turns pro

[andyb]

Found this video. Not much.

https://www.theprospectpipeline.com/joshuagessner

[Austinfan]

He's HS age, and what they're paying him is 2nd rd comp/early 3rd rd money.

So if you had a raw HS pitcher with a good body throwing say 92-94 and a promising slider, where would he be drafted?

[nycphils]

Or:

Would you trade Eshelman for that guy?