Minor League Games - April 8, 2022

[Squire]

AAA: Columbus at Lehigh Valley (TBD) - 7:05PM
AA: Somerset at Reading (RHP James MacArthur) - 6:45PM
High A: Aberdeen at Jersey Shore (RHP Ben Brown) - 7:05PM
Low A: Fort Myers at Clearwater (LHP Rafael Marcano) - 6:30PM

Rolling Scores Here: https://www.milb.com/scores/philadelphia-phillies/2022-04-08

Rolling Boxes Here: https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=143&date=04/08/2022

[phillychuck]

You da man, squire!

So much fun to have the minor leagues back. I'm really excited for Jersey Shore and especially CLW. If the prospects at CLW have strong years and are healthy that team should be really successful.

Rain coming in the Northeast this evening, around 9-10 PM for Reading/LV, so they need to play fast!

[gmwannabe]

Another year for the best (or maybe the draft thread) thread. can't believe the year went so fast. looking forward to a successful year for the Minors. Thanks. Squire. I wonder if we should start a thread for our thoughts on breakout players in the minors this year.
gm

[Jeff05]

Thank you, Squire!

[phillychuck]

Good games on the farm so far, but everyone except the stinky old guys trailing...

[xogfog]

O for the farm.

[phillychuck]

Bad team-wise, but some good individual games by the lower-level hitters.

[andyb]

Highlights

The top of the Jersey Shore lineup (Rojas, Garcia, Wilson, Martin) was great and they are all prospects. 6-16 combined with 3 BBs and 7 SBs.

Erik Miller - 2 IP with 5 Ks
Colton Eastman - 3.2 shutout innings
Dalton Guthrie - 2 more hits - 7-14 so far
Jadiel Sanchez with a HR for Clearwater and intriguing young pitcher Oswald Medina with 1 good inning.

Note that Hao Yu Lee played SS. Something to watch as he was supposed to not have great range. Played there ahead of Jamari Baylor who was sitting in the first game.

[Austinfan]

Boy those Lehigh and Reading lineups are putrid in terms of prospects, Maton, Ortiz, O'Hoppe and not much else.
But some arms to watch.

The action is in A ball this year.
Good to see some BBs, I think that will be the key for a lot of the young hitters, learning to channel their aggression.
One thing to watch is some players making big jumps with a normal offseason, ST and minor league season without COVID interruptions (cross fingers).

[fish]

Pretty entertaining Lakewood game from a talent perspective too- A lot of good looking and high picks on the Orioles squad with Cowser and Mayo looking like they could be solid big league bats, but for the first time in a while Lakewood stacked up some good looking prospects in return.

[phillychuck]

Andy, do you know if Azuaje is hurt? I would have expected him to play somewhere for CLW.

[andyb]

No idea. I think he has been mentioned as playing in some of Steve Potter's pieces. I do wonder if they held some prospects back, though he is on the active roster. They just have 5 guys to handle the 3 infield positions (3B, 2B, SS). Simmons might be more of a pure 3B these days, but the other 2 spots were manned by Lee and Minyety (the least prospect but maybe the best current player of the bunch) yesterday.

That left Azuaje and Jamari Baylor on the bench. Hope they play today. Injuries and promotions will sort things out. I know at Jersey Shore it would be really nice for Luis Garcia to be in Reading in a couple of months. The initial 30-man rosters too probably get pared back at some point (unless milb does not care any more because the point is to develop prospects, not push a 24 or 25 man roster like they used to).

[Austinfan]

If Vierling and Moniak are for real, it buys time for the young prospects and less pressure to rush them.
Same with Bohm and Stott, though IF will need additions next year when Didi and Segura move on.

Quinn at AAA is probably to assess his ML readiness so they can ship Muzzioti back to Reading.

On the one hand you want to be aggressive with top prospects, on the other hand, you don't want promotion decisions dictated by injury or lack of organizational depth.

[zambonir]

Quinn at AAA is probably to assess his ML readiness so they can ship Muzzioti back to Reading.

They really can't find a spot for Quinn on the 40 though. It probably only happens if Herrera needs a lot more time or they are forced to put Moniak on the 60 (which, if he's out 4 to 6 weeks, he could still rehab through). It's more like extra insurance in case any other OF gets injured.

[Austinfan]

Put Moniak on the 60, by the time he returns Quinn will be on IR in any case.

[andyb]

It is legit and reasonable to do the 60 with Moniak. 6 weeks recovery plus 20 days of rehab in the minors is about his normal rate back. Just not seeing him as good enough to rush back at that time unless there are other injuries the Phillies have to deal with.

No reason to make that Moniak move of course until you need to.

[zambonir]

It just depends whether he needs four weeks or six weeks, and also if rehab time was built into that timeline rather than on top of it. Sounds like he plans to be pretty active almost immediately.

Things would have to go pretty wrong for it to be necessary.

Also, I'm not sure we'll end up seeing the 5th OF getting into games for defense that often. Bullpens and offenses being what they are we've certainly seen teams get burned shutting down a bat with a four-run lead and then blowing it.

[andyb]

I thought they might pull Schwarber after he hit in the 8th. Guess we did not have that much confidence in holding a 4-run lead in the 9th.... It did seem a pretty obvious move to make to slide Vierling over to LF and put Muzziotti in CF. Hoping the kid gets a chance to start Sunday.

[zambonir]

I suspect Girardi's loyalty to vets factors in there as well, along, perhaps, with a little bit of organizational defiance at the notion that it's a bad defensive team, and not wanting to send the message that their biggest new star can't play nine innings. At least not for the first few games. Would also naturally happen more under old NL rules of course. I mean, I assume some of those times Bruntlett came in for Burrell there was also a separate PH AB for someone.

[Squire]

Azuaje and Baylor are in the lineup today 4/9