Minor League Games - May 6th, 2023

[Squire]

AAA: Lehigh Valley (TBD) at Syracuse - 1:05PM
AAA: Lehigh Valley (TBD) at Syracuse - Game 2
AA: Reading (LHP Josh Hendrickson) at Hartford - 6:10PM
High A: Jersey Shore (LHP Rafael Marcano) at Hickory - 5:00PM
Low A: Lakeland at Clearwater (LHP Samuel Aldegheri) - 6:30PM

Rolling Scores Here - https://www.milb.com/scores/2023-05-06/all/all/phillies

Rolling Boxes Here - https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=143&date=05/06/2023

[phillychuck]

A few highlights from yesterday...Rojas 4/6, CLW rallies for 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win again, hits by Rincones, Rickets, Boyd; Rincon with the GW double. They walked Kemp to get to Rincon. Abel, as mentioned yesterday, with a nice start.

[Austinfan]

For once, most of the top prospects are living up to their billing so far.
'#1 Painter - rehab
'#2 Abel - getting better as the season progresses
'#3 McCarry - rehab
'#4 Crawford - over .300
'#5 Lee - up and down but showing flashes
'#6 Rojas - hitting well in Reading
'#7 Ricones - tearing the cover off the ball, should be promoted soon
'#8 McFarlane - 20K in 13 IP, should be promoted with a few more good starts
'#9 De La Cruz - will be promoted neck and neck with Rojas
'#10 Muzzioti - tearing up AAA, if he was RH he'd already be in Philly
'#11 Bergolla -
'#12 Boyd - strugglng
'#13 Viars - strugglnig
'#14 Wilson - 1.199 OPS in Reading, won't be there much longer
'#15 Perez
'#16 McGowan - working back into shape in Jersey
'#17 Baker - erratic in Reading
'#18 Ortiz - off to a good start in Lehigh
'#19 Ottenbriet - strugglng
'#20 Moore - struggling in Philly, rebound in Lehigh
'#21 Kerkering - lights out in Clearwater, soon to be promoted
'#26 Ricketts - hitting his way out of Clearwater
'#28 McCollum - lights out in Jersey

[zambonir]

Most of the top prospects are living up to their billing including TNSTAAPP.

[andyb]

McFarlane - 20K in 13 IP, should be promoted with a few more good starts

Why the hurry with promoting someone like him? He is very, very raw. He does not carry his velocity well past the first 2 innings. His command is shaky.

He is a good prospect but one the Phillies probably want to keep in Clearwater for most of the season. Prospects don't have one single promotion path. McFarlane is just going to be on a slower path (unlike Kerkering who could be in Reading next week).

[Austinfan]

When you're overmatching hitters, at some point you don't develop any further.
A lot of young pitchers need to get hit around a bit so they let coaching sink in - the "Bull Durham " effect.
"Gee, maybe I do need to master some secondary pitches"

[andyb]

Are you looking at McFarlane pitching? He is hardly overmatching hitters. A decent K rate does not equal that. He has given up 12 hits and 12 BBs and hit a batter in 13.1 IP. He is barely getting into the 4th inning on average. He only has a 3.29 ERA. He has a 400+ OBP against him.

Gee, maybe he needs to master all his pitches and the whole command thing before they even think of promoting him. One can be a pretty good prospect with decent performances and still not be ready for promotion. He is fine where he is.

[Austinfan]

A K rate of 13.17 (per 27) isn't decent, it's outstanding.
SSS but they're babying him right now in terms of pitch count. RP in college so you can't push too fast.
He'll be 22 in June, so he's not a 18 year old arm you want to protect for a couple years.

I'm sure they're working on mechanics right now, and see if they can teach him a changeup (FB/slider combo).
He'll start to get IP, but if he doesn't add the 3rd pitch will soon be a full time RP.

[andyb]

I guess they should promote Eduar Segovia and Danny Wilkinson and Samuel Aldegheri and Wesley Moore then if we promote solely on K/9 (where McFarlane is only slightly better than the team average). He IS actually an arm they want to protect. He has never thrown many innings ever (91 total in college over 3 seasons). He has plenty of time too in his first pro season.

It would be ludicrous to promote McFarlane any time soon. Frankly I would not be surprised if he spent the whole year in Clearwater and only got 70-80 innings total. Figure a 2-week Painter-like break and some point and then a month rebuilding his pitch count. Young arms that touch 100 need to be babied with extra special caution.

[Austinfan]

Segovia is one to watch, a solid prospect before a shoulder injury, averaging 94, t96-97 before he was injured with a slider and developing a splitter. If he holds up, at 22 he's a good candidate for promotion.

Aldegheri (Italy), Castillo (TJ) and Cabrera (still filling out his frame) are more likely to spend the entire year in Clearwater.

[Austinfan]

Oh yeah, McFarlane, 5 IP, 3H, 1 R, 0 BB, 7 K.

[andyb]

Great start. Of course one good start still does not mean he is close to ready for promotion.