Joe Savery. I had this posted at Philly Sports Central last week, but I thought this audience would like to see it too. Savery is an intriguing player and to me, unfortunately only came in 7th place on our relief pitcher of the year ballot last week. May 23rd, 2011. This was a great day for the Phillies. Chase Utley made his return to the lineup after missing nearly two months with a knee...
Last week’s update ran from June 2 through June 8. Said so right there in the headline. So imagine my surprise when I started looking at players this week and realized I had missed somebody. I marked it down and kept going, figuring I’d make note of it this week. So of course, I found another one, which meant I had to go back and look at all the games from that day to...
Juan Nicasio. Nicasio is a 6’3, 200 pound righty signed by Colorado from the Dominican Republic. The Rockies have made an effort to improve their presence in Latin America in recent years, and it’s paying off for them. When the Rockies made their shocking run to the World Series in 2007, Latin pitchers Ubaldo Jimenez, Manny Corpas and Franklin Morales all played key roles. Including Nicasio, three of the Rockies’ top 10 prospects are...
With the New York Yankees starting pitching a hodge-podge mess of has-beens, never-weres, and the all-star arm of CC Sabathia, it is no wonder they have dipped deep into their minor league system to help fill the gap between Sabathia starts. At the end of last season, the Yankees called up right-hander Ivan Nova. Nova has performed respectably with the Bronx Bombers, starting 14 games so far with a 4.59 ERA. Then, as they...
Julio Teheran. Teheran is a 6’2, 175 pound righty signed by Atlanta from Colombia. There are only 10 Colombian born players to reach the majors, and seven of them are position players. Of the other two pitchers, only one is active, and that’s Ernesto Frieri of San Diego. Frieri is also the all time Colombian leader in innings pitched, as the other Colombian pitcher is Emiliano Fruto who recorded only 36 innings in 2006...
The Maestro, Alex Cobb. Cobb is a 6’1, 180 pound righty selected in the 4th round of the 2006 draft by the then-Devil Rays. He’s the 3rd player to make the major leagues with Tampa Bay from this draft (there are four total) after Evan Longoria and Desmond Jennings, two guys fans are probably familiar with. He was born in Boston but attended Vero Beach High School in Florida, where he’s not only the...
I don’t think I had ever actually seen Michael Pineda before last night, so I was a bit stunned when I saw highlights of his highly anticipated major league debut on the MLB Network and realized that he is a huge dude. It’s one thing to look at some numbers and say, “6’7″, 260 lbs. That’s rather large,” quite another to look at the numbers, look at the man, and realize that some things...
About a season and a half ago, in late July and early August 2009, the Orioles called up two pitchers to make their major league debuts. Chris Tillman and Brian Matusz were both young – 21 and 22, respectively – but after performing well in the minors, they were ready to ply their trade at the highest level baseball has to offer. As young pitchers, both have struggled at times – Tillman spent about...
Well, this is a bit unusual. I’ve welcomed a bunch of minor leaguers to the majors over the past three seasons. They’ve all been guys I read about online and in the Baseball America Prospect Handbook, guys whose stats I looked up on MiLB.com and Baseball-Reference. In other words, I had no personal connection to any of them. Kyle Drabek, though, is different. The son of former major leaguer Doug Drabek (it is illegal...
In the spring of 2009, I made a list of all the first round draft picks who reached the majors the same year they were drafted. There were 38 of them, the last being San Francisco’s Conor Gillaspie in 2008. The White Sox promoted reliever Chris Sale earlier today, less than two months after the draft and a month and a day after his professional debut, making him the 39th first-rounder to make it...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
