Minor League Games - August 26, 2025

[julio]

AAA: Lehigh Valley (RHP Mitch Nuenborn) @ Omaha
AA: Chesapeake @ Reading (RHP Estibenzon Jimenez)
High A: Jersey Shore (RHP Reese Dutton) @ Aberdeen
Low A: Clearwater (RHP Luis Gonzalez) @ Daytona
FCL: Season Concluded
DSL: Season Concluded

Scores Here - https://www.mlb.com/milb/scores/2025-08-26/all/all/phillies

Boxes Here - https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=143&date=08/26/2025

[kmc1019]

Crawford with another homer tonight (Tuesday 26th)! Also, Dante Nori seemingly promoted to Jersey Shore and battling leadoff.

[dcsman]

Was in Reading tonight. Miller stole his 50th(!) base of the season. I had no idea he was that fast. I’ll also add that he looked like he was very much struggling with breaking pitches. Struck out looking on a ball that hit the dirt a foot in front of home plate on one occasion.

Also, what’s up with Felix Reyes and why is nobody talking about him? He’s only 24 years old and is having a really great season at AA after a good season in A ball last year. He had a clutch hit late in the game for an RBI and would have had a HR in any other ballpark but hit high off the wall in CF early in the game. I think he’s batting .334 or something with 12 home runs and I honestly had never heard of him before tonight.

[phillychuck]

dcsman, how can you strike out looking at a ball that hits the dirt a foot in front of the plate? And we have been talking about Reyes in these threads...he doesn’t have any plate discipline, it might be hard on him as the pitching gets better and they don’t always throw it over the plate. His swing-and-miss numbers and chase rate don’t project for him to hold up as he advances. We will see, I guess.

[Lucky_Beagle]

dcsman, how can you strike out looking at a ball that hits the dirt a foot in front of the plate?

an umpire getting prepared for a call up to the majors!

[andyb]

Guessing this is an out in most MLB parks, but Crawford is at least getting the ball in the air more regularly. I really think there is 15-20 HR power in him.

Justin Crawford oppo taco? Justin Crawford oppo taco.

His sixth home run of the season goes just 345 feet, but it’s enough for a 2-run homer to give Lehigh Valley a first inning lead

[image or embed]

— Mitch_Rupert (@mitchrupert.bsky.social) August 26, 2025 at 8:02 PM

[andyb]

how can you strike out looking at a ball that hits the dirt a foot in front of the plate? And we have been talking about Reyes in these threads.

I am actually wondering about that too. Did you mean swinging at a ball in the dirt a foot in front of the plate? That is a pretty bad umpire then. I remember I played in a game when I was like 12 and it was getting dark close to 8 PM on a summer night and an ump called a strike on a ball that hit the plate. Bryce would have gotten thrown out of that 12-year-old game. That AB did not end well for me.

[Austinfan]

I'm less interested in Crawford's HRs (power will develop as he fills out that frame) but turning GBs into line drives. An incremental improvement in his swing could allow him to translate his AAA production to the show.

[bigegypt0417]

Which can be indicated by hitting for more power...I guess I'm interested in all of it.

[andyb]

Nori with a nice Jersey Shore debut. 1-3, 2 BB, SB

It does seem that the new tradition is to move players up for the last couple of weeks of a season to give them a taste of the level. This is fed by the draft forcing a bunch of player releases to adhere to the organizational roster limit and the extra length of AA and AAA seasons.

Would be nice of course if Burkholder were healthy enough to play every day in Clearwater now. He is clearly on the Roman Quinn development plan so far.

[dcsman]

As others have pointed out, yes, I misspoke. Miller swung and missed on a pitch that hit the dirt a foot in front of home plate. I forget if he struck out or not but there was another breaking ball in a different at-bat that was a strike that he just completely whiffed on.

[bigegypt0417]

and then another 1 for 3 with 2 walks but he stole 3 bases as well.

not a bad couple of games.

[andyb]

The strike zone judgement for Nori seems real. 70 BBs on the year in a little over 500 plate appearances without any power to make pitchers pitch around him. He is older of course, turning 21 in October. Guessing he starts at Jersey Shore next year as this is just a cup of coffee,, but it is also possible he needs to be pushed to higher levels more aggressively because of his age.

He may not get too much stronger because of his age and physicality, but it is definitely an interesting profile of Ben Revere with more walks (which was always Ben's achilles heel because he had no power for pitchers to fear).

[bigegypt0417]

Ben Revere seems like an easy comparison in my opinion. Revere had almost 2000 minor league at bats and was a strictly singles hitter for most of his career...

It seems most would compare him more to someone like Alek Thomas from a tools standpoint at that stage of development..

Nori was an old HS player but would still be relatively young at A+ next season.

[phillychuck]

I don’t know if the “players draw more walks because pitchers aren’t afraid of their power” belief is true or not. There are lots of counterexamples of older players like Brett Butler and Richie Ashburn who were power-deprived but still drew walks because of good eyes and the ability to “spoil” pitches they couldn’t hit well. I don’t think those kind of players get signed anymore with all the emphasis on bat speed and launch angle.

[Matt_Winkelman]

Making contact with modern pitching is harder than it has ever been, what actually happens is Luis Arraez where they just put the ball in play with little impact. You can still do it somewhat (Cesar Hernández is a player who looked like it would happen, but it didn’t), by hitting line drives to the gaps and doing damage in the zone, you still have a strong decrease in walks unless you are willing to take more strikeouts by being passive.

[Austinfan]

Nori's issue is less strength than his swing, he had a swing built for contact with little stride.
I think they're working on loading his swing more, especially ahead of the count, but that takes time.
They seemed to have done that with Stott, look for your pitch to drive early in the count, then revert to a contact first mode with 2 strikes.

[andyb]

It is a real question of whether Nori's approach will work at upper levels without more power. Looking at the MLB leaders in walks for a comp and it is hard to find. Most have much more power and many of the others like Tatis likely have untapped MLB power. Geraldo Perdomo is an interesting comp and if Nori could get up to 15 HRs then he might be able to do something like that. 293/394/457 slash. He is a SS of course and the offensive bar is a bit higher for a RH OF.

[Austinfan]

Only if he's a corner OF.
A plus fielding CF is similar to a SS in that defense is a substantial part of their value.

[phillychuck]

Nori’s ISO over his last 90 days is above .140 which is fine. His stolen bases add to the total bases indirectly, too. He’s fine, and the idea to give him a slightly different approach early in the count and ahead in the count is sound, and supported by MLB history (“Take 2 and hit to right”). Lots of hitters in the 50s and 60s had obviously different approaches depending on the count. Hitters with power don’t do that so much because the extra bases probably offset the extra BA.