Scouting Reports
Today I made the trip to Reading to see the Reading Phillies, the Double-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. There were not too many top prospects on the field as Michael Taylor got part of the game off, Kyle Drabek pitches tomorrow, Joe Savery pitched yesterday, and Mike Zagurski pitched in relief the past couple of games, so he was unavailable. But, I did come back with some reports on the prospects who did play.
The starting pitcher for the Phillies, Yohan Flande pitched 6 strong innings, and then the wheels came off of the bus in the 7th. With the score tied 3-3 going into the top of the 7th, Flande gave up a walk to Shikellamy graduate Bobby Felmy to lead off the parade. Over the next two batters, Flande gave up 2 more runs. That was all for Flande as the manager, Steve Roadcap went in favor of his bullpen. Over the span of 6 innings, Flande registered only 5 earned runs against him, and a total of 6 runs total.
The bullpen was unimpressive. Out of the four relief pitchers, the opposing team scored a combined total of 9 runs in 3 innings. Alex Concepcion started it off with two straight walks, which proved to do him in. In the inning, Concepcion gave up one run to push the opposing team, the Connecticut Defenders lead to 4 runs.
The very next inning, in the 8th, Angel Castro started it off by walking the first two batters he faced, and then proceeding to give up two runs without even recording an out.
Jason Mackintosh then relieved Castro, but gave up 3 hits, 1 walk, and a total of 3 earned runs. That was when just about everybody started to file towards the parking lot. With the Phils down 11-5 after the Phillies countered with 2 runs in the 7th. There seemed to be no hope. There were no outs, and the bases were loaded. Mackintosh then suddenly got out of the inning. Chance Chapman finished the game with a scoreless 9th inning.
Overall, the Phillies did not impress me. Michael Taylor got two at bats, and drove in an RBI, and walked in the 9th, but with the bases loaded in his first at bat, he could have done more.
Flande put in a valiant effort, but to no avail. The Phillies 3rd baseman, Neil Sellers hit his 9th homerun in the 4th inning, after outfielder Jeremy Slayden hit a two-run bomb also. Sellers looks like he could have the power and the fielding prowess to be the eventual replacement to Pedro Feliz. I was disappointed that more of the Phils prospects failed to come through in the clutch. I know it is only the minors, but it is Double-A after all, and people get called up to the majors from Reading.