Minor League Games - May 30th, 2024

[Squire]

AAA: Lehigh Valley (RHP Michael Mercado) at Columbus - 5:05PM
AAA: Lehigh Valley (TBD) at Columbus - Game 2
AA: Reading (LHP Lachlan Wells) at Hartford - 7:10PM
High A: Brooklyn at Jersey Shore (RHP Estibenzon Jimenez) - 7:05PM
Low A: Lakeland at Clearwater (RHP Luke Russo) - 6:30PM
Rookie: FCL Phillies (TBD) at FCL Blue Jays - 12 Noon

Rolling Scores Here - https://www.milb.com/scores/2024-05-30/all/all/phillies

Rolling Boxes Here - https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=143&date=05/30/2024

[Squire]

FCL at its finest. FCL Phillies have scored 10 runs on 4 total hits.

[phillychuck]

4 hits, 11 walks, 4 HBPs, 4 WPs, a passed ball, and a balk. And all the Phils' hits were singles. Phils also have 5 SBs and a CS.

[andyb]

First of the year for NPG.

. @__nikau__ ’s first homer as a Thresher pic.twitter.com/kpsPZKlnBL

— Clearwater Threshers ( @Threshers ) May 30, 2024

[Squire]

Jordan Viars with 3 homers tonight

[andyb]

And 9 RBI for Viars. Crawford with a nice night too. 3-4, 3B, HR, SB.

[phillychuck]

Nice night for Dahl, too, 4/7 in the two games with a HR. Raises his OPS to 1.058, third in the IL among qualified hitters, just behind uber-prospect James Wood. In a just world he'd be getting some of Castellanos's ABs.

[zambonir]

AAAA players are more popular around here than Eagles back-up QBs.

[Austinfan]

Dahl was a ML hitter, then had injury woes, he may just be rolling back into form.
If he sustains this for another month, they have to think about getting him into the ML lineup.
First 3 ML seasons, RC+ 113, 111, 111, then he fell off a cliff.

[andyb]

It is pretty easy to hit in AAA unfortunately these days. Right now Dahl is Jake Cave with less defense to me. Whether that is a better hitter than Clemens is debatable of course, but not sure the lack of defense makes him more useful than Pache at this point.

[zambonir]

I still want the LHB OF, just don't know if Dahl is it, or even if he's better than Clemens at the plate (or even that much better than Nick in the field). His early career seems irrelevant to me at this point because (like Cave) he's already 30+, and he played in Colorado during his good young years.

[Austinfan]

RC+ takes into account ballpark effects, and he was above average earlier in his career, much different than Cave who never had ML success.

[andyb]

RC+ takes into account ballpark effects, and he was above average earlier in his career, much different than Cave who never had ML success.

Are you referring to the Jake Cave who had 109 and 114 wRC+ stats his first 2 years when you compare him to Dahl's 113, 111, 111? Which goes to my point that Dahl may be Cave with less defense even when we are comparing them both to their pre-injury park adjusted offensive stats.

[allentown]

AAAA players are more popular around here than Eagles back-up QBs.

Some truth to that, but if we accept the proposition that players age and decline, and at unpredictable starting age and rate of decline, then Castellanos might very well be a AAAA player at this point in his career.

[zambonir]

Possibly, but still premature based on his performance last year. And if you are 30 and were never more than an AAAA player to begin with the floor is still worse.

A slipped-through-the cracks prospect or dumpster-dive who's still 27 or 28, I'm all for (that would more or less describe Clemens and Darrick Hall and even younger/more promising Cristian Pache. And those are the guys who Dahl would be taking a roster spot from even if he did get some of Castellanos's playing time).

Also let's face it we are burying the lead here. Whit Merrifield is still the real dead weight and physically aged guy on the 26-man. If he was the guy the front office acted like he could be - which none of us believed - he could be playing RF (or LF with Marsh in RF) once or twice a week.

[phillychuck]

It is pretty easy to hit in AAA unfortunately these days. Right now Dahl is Jake Cave with less defense to me. Whether that is a better hitter than Clemens is debatable of course, but not sure the lack of defense makes him more useful than Pache at this point.

I'm not a huge Dahl booster, but it's possible he's an above average ML hitter. He's not just putting up good numbers in LV, he's third in OPS in a league of almost 150 position players. Regardless of whether or not it's a good hitting environment, he's at the top of the table.