Clearwater Threshers

The second place FSL North Clearwater Threshers finished the week going 4-1. Highly touted prospect Kyle Drabek had a decent performance. He struggled through five innings putting runners on in each frame. He worked his way out of jams, only giving up one run. Although he did walk three batters, he did set down five. He was inline for the win until Jered Simon blew it in the ninth. Top prospect, depending on who you ask, Dominic Brown continued an impressive season by hitting .368. In the past week, Brown scored 6 runs and knocked in 7. Chance Chapman also threw in two nice relief appearances, going 3.2 IP. He struck out 4, gave up a hit, and walked one.

Continue reading "Studs and Duds: Philadelphia Phillies ..."

With Monday being an off day for the Phightins, I thought I would take a look at our up and comers. So here we go down on the farm.

Lehigh Valley (AAA): Kyle Kendrick got rocked by Toledo yesterday in a rare mid day game. He gave up 6 earned runs over five innings. He did manage to strikeout 4 and only walked one. The part that impresses me the most about Kyle Kendrick so far is his ERA. The six earned runs brought his ERA up to 3.75. I would say that is pretty respectable compared to what we saw from him the bigs last season. Hopefully this means he is turning it around. You can never have enough sinkerballers at the Bank. Right now Kendrick needs to focus making batters miss the ball. His WHIP and his groundball rate are both hovering right around 1.50. So to get back to the bigs with the Phils or anyone else, he will need to improve both of those.

Continue reading "Down on the farm. A look at the minors."