Minor League Games - August 1, 2024

Eduardo Tait (No. 8 @Phillies prospect) smashed a 3-run homer for his 2nd bomb in his last 2 games​ pic.twitter.com/OFKuygTItS15

— Phillies Player Development ( @PhilsPlayerDev ) July 31, 2024

Good idea, but that might perpetuate the mispronunciation of his name (“tay -eet “).

Another TAH - EET - ER!!!...not as funny as tater, but it could work...

His name is not Tate. It's not pronounced as if it were Tate.

But at the same time, it's almost certainly not two discrete syllables, with a deliberate pause (or a hip check?) in the middle. It's...elided. Romance languages do this. Those of you who have studied a romance language will probably recognize this.

Tait is not pronounced "tate." But I'll wager that, back home, it's not "tah eet" either. It's in between; it has some of "tight" in it as well. Which is not to say that some baseball announcer hasn't been pronouncing it as if it were two words.

Pronunciation in the guide is Tah-EAT

Anybody notice that Scott Kingery has been red hot for a few weeks? 2 HR in the completed game today and he is up to 21. OPS well over .800. 17 SB with 0 CS. Probably better defense than Weston Wilson (nothing against Wilson). He really could be some bad team's 725 OPS 2B in the majors these days. It is a shame that he was mismanaged in his development and got hurt. Yes he made $24 million, but he also could have had a decent career in the right circumstances.

It's too bad he's 30 and not 23 or 24...I've always liked him in many ways as a player, smart and flexible, except the one fatal flaw of not being able to control the strike zone.

For an org intent on drafting hitters, outside of Crawford and Tait organizational performances have turned ugly this year. Last year seemed so promising that maybe hitting development had taken a step forward but I don’t see it anymore.

Honestly, Crawford has a better hitting approach than anyone on the Phils roster, though it comes at the expense of power. It’s going to be refreshing to see him added to the mix someday- it’s the kind of change they need to blend in.

Not many orgs with thriving hitting prospects this year so it’s hard to know what to make of it.

Mimght be a little harsh:
Lehigh - retreads breaking out, Kennedy, Stevenson, now Kingery, Roberts (defense first catcher)
Reading - Crawford, Ricones, Pineda, Kemp
JS: Nava, Anthony, Rincon, Miller, Caba
Clear: Tait, Saltiban

It really does seem that the team just doesn’t want him in the majors for some reason. He is obviously a reasonable option as a utility player, but continues to get passed over by guys he is out performing.

At some point he should have tried another organization (I assume he did this last offseason). Now it is probably too late.

Kingery hasn't outperformed other AAA players, this year for example Wilson and Kennedy have clearly outplayed him.

His problem has been evidenced by his K rate, which steadily increased, 29% in his one good ML season in 2019
Started on a regular basis in AAA last three seasons
K rate: 29.5%, 29.0%, 31.0%, RC+ 97, 88, 108.

Kingery is a good defensive middle infielder and both Wilson (more below average in the middle infield) and Kennedy (a 3B mainly) are not. Kingery is a better base runner too. They are different players. Wilson is a tiny bit better for the Phillies current roster since they don't need middle infield defense much from him with Turner, Stott, and Sosa around. But that does not mean Kingery is not his equal as an overall player.

I think Kingery's main problem has been that they removed him from the 40-man roster a couple of years ago and they don't want to move him back on. I hope he goes to Oakland or some other team like that and plays in the big leagues for a few seasons if he doesn't get another chance with us. He has been Babe Ruth for a couple of weeks now...

I like the Scott Kingery story and he seems like a good guy, but he has a 30.1% K% in AAA, and in July he hit .325 and struck out less, but he walked 3 times in 84 trips to the plate. There are other warning signs. Just comparing him to Wilson. He takes more hittable pitches than Wilson (38.2% to 35.5%), but he chases at a 38.4% rate vs Wilson at 29%, and when they swing in the zone Wilson has a 84.5% contact rate and Kingery is 76.1%. Wilson swings and misses vs secondaries a touch more (34.9% to 32.8%).

To put the zone contact rate into perspective, on the Phillies among players with at least 100 PA, Kyle is last in zone contact rate a 76.1%, next lowest is JT at 81.7%. For hittable pitches, Wilson is about at Realmuto (35.5%), but then the gap above that goes to Rojas (42.7%), Marsh (43.1%), and Stott (45.5%). If we talk chase rate, Wilson would slot in next to Stott (29.5%) just behind Schwarber (23.1%) and Marsh (25.7%), but a chase rate of 38.4% would be between Harper (35.6%) and then the trio of Rojas (39.5%), Castellanos (42.2%), and Sosa (43.5%).

He didn't and he couldn't. It was a quirk that after his major league contract expired he still wasn't a minor league free agent. The Phillies could have done him a favor and released him but AAAA bodies are just as valuable as major league depth these days. Had he been a pure OF or a LHB he might have gotten a look more easily but the Phillies bench and AAA depth is practically the Spiderman meme.

For sure if they needed a true middle IF Kingery is probably better than all those guys, and Clemens too. Better CF as well. But they also had Pache this whole time. Regardless of all those AAA HRs Kingery was no more going to become their bench bat than Wilson or Dahl (though Dahl had his chance to seize the platoon spot and couldn't).