Minor League Games - May 15th, 2024

I will gladly pay $1 Tuesday for a George Klassen health update today.

Some video updates. Ferrebus I think is a catcher signed in 2023 repeating the DSL.

Avery Owusu-Asiedu was 2-for-4 with a home run and a double in the @Threshers 4-2 win and Alirio Ferrebus hit his second home run in consecutive days during DSL Extended Spring Training yesterday! pic.twitter.com/BvJanSPPg310

— Phillies Player Development ( @PhilsPlayerDev ) May 15, 2024

NPG interview from Steve Potter:

Looks like Dahl hit for the cycle tonight in game 1.

Nice outing from Michael Mercado as they continue to stretch him out as a starter.

Mercado is having a weird season as a starter. His K/IP number is way down from his career average, especially recently, his control isn't good, but he's keeping the ball in the park (zero HRs) and his BABIP is really low. The BABIP is not sustainable, but if his K numbers improve he might offset the expected increase in BABIP. I haven't seen FB velocity numbers from LV, but they might be down a little, which would explain the drop in K/IP.

Are there any reports on how Carson Taylor is as a catcher? Receiving wise?

He is not catching at all this year which should tell us something. Guessing the Phillies think he has offensive potential that catching holds back and I think he was not seen as a great defensive catcher anyway.

Doesn’t look to me like his stuff at 93-95 mph as a starter will play all that well at the next level- he also tends to be kind of predictable with his pitch mix through the first few innings- first pitch fastball, second pitch offspeed, and if he’s ahead in the count he’s out of the zone the next two pitches before trying to come back to the zone.

Reliever Mercado at 96-97 is much more interesting, but I’m sure getting him the innings and experience will be beneficial.

Mercado was a starter through AA, converted to a reliever for two years, and is now back to starting. The Phillies are not doing anything all that new with him. When he was a starter in high-A and AA he was striking out 10 batters per IP, and that number tends to stay flat even as pitchers advance levels. It's only 7 now (up to 8 after last night). I wonder if he's trying to pitch to contact more (maybe that's the Phils' plan)??

As a starter he is more 94-97, he averaged 95.7 last night and 96.1 the start before that and he is starting to hold his velocity and pace through his starts better.

There is also a statistical problem you are running into which is you are using K/9 instead of K%. K/9 will be inflated if a pitcher struggles to get batters out they face more batters per inning which inflates K per 9, whereas K% is inning agnostic and just based on batters faced. Mercado's K% as a starter 2021: 26.8%, 2022: 25.8%, 2024: 25.5%.

Good point about K% Matt. One of the reason that the K/9IP stay flat as pitchers advance is exactly what you said, it's harder getting outs at the upper levels, so you face more batters/IP.

Where do you get your velocity numbers?

I grabbed the averages off of BrooksBaseball (Pitch Info), but you can get them from the Game Log (https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?gamePk=752699&game_date=2024-05-15&date=2024-05-152) or using the minor league statcast search since he has only played in AAA, for example fastball by game (https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast-search-minors?hfPT=FF%7C&hfAB=&hfGT=R%7C&hfPR=&hfZ=&hfStadium=&hfBBL=&hfNewZones=&hfPull=&hfC=&hfSea=2024%7C&hfSit=&player_type=pitcher&hfOuts=&hfOpponent=&pitcher_throws=&batter_stands=&hfSA=&game_date_gt=&game_date_lt=&hfMo=&hfTeam=&home_road=&hfRO=&position=&hfInn=&hfBBT=&hfFlag=is%5C.%5C.tracked%7C&hfLevel=&pitchers_lookup%5B%5D=675650&metric_1=&hfTeamAffiliate=&hfOpponentAffiliate=&group_by=name-date&min_pitches=0&min_results=0&min_pas=0&sort_col=pitches&player_event_sort=api_p_release_speed&sort_order=desc&chk_is..tracked=on&chk_stats_api_break_x_arm=on&chk_stats_api_break_z_induced=on&chk_stats_velocity=on&chk_stats_release_pos_z=on&chk_stats_release_pos_x=on&chk_stats_release_extension=on#results)

The filtering capabilities of Brooks Baseball are pretty powerful. Much easier to use than a few years ago and of course there is much more data out there now including the minors.