Phamiliar Phaces

At Saturday night's Syracuse/Lehigh Valley game, I paid special attention to several players that could be on the bubble for the Phillies post-season roster.  One was the former American League All Star Nestor Cortes.  Signed in August -- just in time to be playoff-eligible -- he had a couple of rough outings initially, but looked solid on Saturday, tossing three shutout innings against the AAA Mets (whose lineup featured top prospect Jefferson Rojas and former big leaguers MJ Melendez and Vidal Brujan).  Between injuries and ineffective by the current 'pen crew, there could be an opening for Cortes if the Phillies make it through the final week and claim a Wild Card.

Remember Otto Kemp? After opening the 2026 season with the Phillies (and big expectations), the failed to provide that right handed bench strength that Derek Hill and Bryan De La Cruz produced.  And he didn't do make to boost his cause at Lehigh Valley, hitting just .226 (albeit with 17 home runs alongside 100 strikeouts in 108 games).

Gabriel Rincones, Junior spent more than a month in the majors and showed power potential and good outfield defense, but, like Kemp, averaged a strikeout per game.  He hit better (.248) and walked enough to boost his on-base percentage into the .330s -- but not enough for Dave Dombrowski to promote him over Hill and De La Cruz.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cy Fynalists

Image
The last two nights, Jacob de Grom (above) and Max Scherzer (below) showed why they're the leading contenders for the NL Cy Young Award. Wednesday, in what was likely his final start of the season, the Mets ace threw eight innings of two-hit shutout ball. That lowered his ERA to 1.70. His 10 strikeouts helped him reach 1000 for his career. And thanks to just enough hitting support from Domonic Smith and Michael Conforto, De Grom earned the victory to finish 2018 with a winning record at 10-9. Scherzer made his statement Tuesday night, when he won his 18th and became the fifth pitcher this century to reach 300 strikeouts in a season. Though he's giving up a half-run a game more than de Grom, the three-time Cy Young winner has been just as dominant, while pitching with more consistent support. Two division rivals contending for the league's most coveted pitching award -- and doing it on otherwise-disappointing teams. ( My image of de Grom is from the May 18th Mets/Di...
Read more

Moving Up the List

Image
2015 has been a renaissance season for Albert Pujols. Leading the majors with 29 homers, the 10-time All Star has passed some pretty imposing names on the all time power list during 2015. Hall of Fame names such as Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Fox, Willie McCovey, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams. This blast came against the Yankees back on June 14th and brought on this round of high-fives once he returned to the Angels dugout.
Read more

Wayback: 1966 Yankees Scorecard

Image
  Hit the rewind button and browse through a souvenir collection of a lost Yankees season that marked the end of an era. Sure, there were plenty of familiar faces: below Mickey Mantle, Tom Tresh and Roger Maris smile for the cameras in spring training.  Full of optimism and not ready to believe that 15 year dynasty was over.  But it is was. Instead of bouncing back following a shocking sixth place finish in 1965, the Yankees staggered out of the gate in ‘66, losing 10 of their first 11 and 16 of their first 20 games as manager Johnny Keane was fired and a new reality settled in.  There were new faces as well.  Bobby Murcer and Roy White would see brighter days; but not for more than a decade.   Fritz Peterson and Dooley Womack would be bright spots during a dark time; veterans Bob Friend and Lou Clinton were past their peaks.  Ruben Amaro’s Yankee time would be marred by injury.   Check out the back page ad.  The Sinclair brand and symbol wou...
Read more