Minor League Games - May 11th, 2023

[Squire]

AAA: Memphis at Lehigh Valley (LHP Cristopher Sanchez) - 6:45PM
AA: New Hampshire at Reading (TBD) - 6:45PM
High A: Jersey Shore (RHP Victor Vargas) at Greensboro - 6:30PM
Low A: Clearwater (TBD) at Dunedin - 6;30PM

Rolling Scores Here - https://www.milb.com/scores/2023-05-11/all/all/phillies

Rolling Boxes Here - https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=143&date=05/11/2023

[Squire]

RHP Griff McGarry spotted in Reading

https://twitter.com/Kram207/status/1656701159208370181

[phillychuck]

Yesterday's recap. Appears Rojas twisted an ankle in the field.

5/10/23 : Minor League Roundup

[Squire]

What’s got into Cade Fergus?

[Austinfan]

Muzzioti is the one to watch, hitting .400 in AAA and just had his second 3 BB game of the season.
Given his fielding and speed, if he's a .350+ OPB player, he may be the leadoff hitter the Phils are looking for.

[zambonir]

If that's his second 3BB game of the season he must not walk very much at all (since he has 8 total: a 6% walk rate). Plus, a .431 BABIP. Is he legging out a lot of singles? I think we'd be lucky if he was just a .750 OPS, strong defensive OF.

[andyb]

I think the AAA robo umps just got started everywhere a week or two ago. There could be some pitchers/hitters who struggle to adapt a bit. It was first in Low A (Clearwater). Now AAA.

[phillychuck]

That is really strange, 8 total walks with 6 in 2 games! He seems to be a different hitter this year from following the boxscores, though. Might be better than 750 OPS in MLB if the improvement is real.

[BaseballCat]

Nothing much to report from JS@Greensboro game. Ricketts looked good. While not much of a bat, Casey Martin can field. It was Thirsty Thursday and they do it well here. Plus I always love to see Willie Mae the baseball dog

[andyb]

There was real improvement for Muzziotti last year too. 794 Reading OPS. And even his scattered 20 games in 2021 were not bad. It was all small sample size so we did not trust it, but he was hitting better at higher levels than he had before the pandemic.

This year it is the exit velocity that is increasing which is probably half improved approach and half additional strength. I really don't care too much about his walk rate if he is hitting .400. The power is still modest, but he was more in Ben Revere territory before and that is just not enough to scare pitchers away from throwing him strikes. A big part of Phillies' hitting instruction these days is to do damage when you are more aggressive and Muzziotti is now able to do some of that.

It will be a big concern for Crawford as he matures. Right now he has speed and an advanced idea of the strike zone. But he also has little power and does not elevate the ball. Unless he improves those aspects of his game he'll have a tough time being a good major league hitter.

[zambonir]

Well I'm being deliberately skeptical, obviously (and with good reason historically!). I'm just figuring even if what he's doing now is for real he's an .850 OPS guy not a .984 OPS guy and then subtract another 100 for the AAA to MLB move. But he has the makings of good OBP guy even without it being super BA-driven.

There's just not much of a body of work yet given the nature of his 2020-2022 (as Andy posted while I was typing - yeah, there is clear trajectory of improvement at Reading and to LV, but that was literally just 38 and 5 games, respectively). With a mere 66 games total played over that three-year period, continuing to have Guthrie and Cave and Pache ahead of him for call-ups seems like the correct move. If Marsh was to go on the IL that might change things. If he's still doing this in eight weeks and it seems like AAA actually isn't challenging him, revisit.

He's also trade bait of course.

[andyb]

Marsh is definitely ahead of him and we simply do not need another LH outfield bat unless we can move Bryce to 1B.

I'd be fine though playing him for Marsh in event of an injury. I think his defense over Cave would be more important than Cave's power. Pache will hopefully come back and play for Guthrie but he is right-handed so fits what we need better.

[Austinfan]

Given his lack of minor league PA (2000 is norm for college 2500 for HS/LA players before promotion to the Show), Muzzioti should spend a couple more months in Lehigh. But if he's for real, you have to find him a spot, because they need a leadoff hitter and he'd up the defense substantially over Schwarber. The defensive improvement is probably worth .100+ OPS.

Harper is probably going to be the 1B next year, given how well the young OFs are playing, not just Muzzioti, but Ortiz is off to a good start (SSS but Ks are down), Rojas, Wilson, Ricones, Crawford, it makes no sense keeping Harper in the OF. He was below average before the TJ, two years later . . .

[zambonir]

Yeah for Marsh he comes up. Question is would he come up for Schwarber? Pache or Guthrie/Muzziotti in CF, Marsh in LF instead of trying Cave again.

If Muzziotti, Pache and Rojas are all in the mix for the major league OF next year more power to 'em (including as trade depth).

[Austinfan]

Though they might try Cave again, he's tearing the cover off the ball, if he keeps it up, he may earn another promotion.

[zambonir]

I'm not writing the guy off but he tore the cover off the ball in spring training too. Might just be what AAAA players do.

Clemens could probably play LF as well. Ditto Harrison. But neither of them hitting well enough to be worth the everyday exposure/lesser defense.

[andyb]

Harper is probably going to be the 1B next year

I'd seriously consider making Schwarber the 1B. His range is getting smaller and smaller so I think you need to get him in the 1B mix and hope Harper's throwing arm comes back to some degree. Athletically Harper is just a better OF potentially than Schwarber and probably a tiny bit better than Castellanos.

The Harper to 1B more permanent experiment is hopefully like 5 years away. This does not mean we have any sure things in our young OF prospects. It is more about putting Harper in the best position for Harper in the short term. All the other pieces can fall in place after that. Maybe we line up Muzziotti, Marsh, and Harper in the OF with Castellanos and Schwarber at 1B/DH.

[Austinfan]

Schwarber is going to DH, he's pretty much said he's uncomfortable at first and his range in LF is shrinking by the day.

[zambonir]

They won't try to Schwarber at 1B this season but that doesn't mean he won't be asked - or told - to consider it in the off-season.

I'm more prepared than Andy to just take Bryce out of the OF but only if the mix is right. I'm also still not sure that they can just get by next season without replacing Hoskins (or bringing him back for one year)... and especially not if Bohm doesn't have a breakout season.

[andyb]

Schwarber said he was uncomfortable at first in Boston when they moved him there with 24 hours notice in the middle of the pennant race. He has not said he is uncomfortable there in the future with practice.