Weekly Phillies Prospect Roundup - May 14 - 20

The Venezuelan Summer League just kicked off and, honestly, I just don't know enough about most of the kids there to include much info here. So, unless someone goes nuts and puts up a crazy line I'll deal with that league more in monthly recaps.

The hotness:

Maikel Franco - Holy cow, what a week! A somewhat pedestrian .280 BA and uncharacteristic 5 K in 28 PA is more than offset by a .357 OBP, 1 double, 2 HR, 2 BB and 1 HBP. The FSL is the most Pitcher Friendly league in the Minors, and while the Threshers play in the most Offense friendly park, it's not exactly a launching pad either (both HR were home park jacks). Franco's numbers are, honestly, everything one could hope for so far this Spring. If he stays this hot, plan on seeing him in Reading in a month.

Kelly Dugan - Numbers pretty similar to Franco's this week. Dugan sported a .280/.357/.520 line with 1 double, 1 triple, 1 HR, 3 BB and the huge downside of 8 K's.

Larry "Fudgie" Greene - Fudgie still has a really weird line, but at least the balls are going where the fielders aren't for a change. His line this week was .308/.438/.462 with 2 doubles, 3 BB and 3 K. Suprisingly it also included 1 SB, though speed is not a particularly big part of Greene's game. I'm about 2 weeks from doing a monthly recap, but as of now, Fudgie's line is a crazy .228/.390/.291 with a 34% K rate and 21% BB rate. He'll need to heat up his power, and cut down that K rate by, at least, 10% over the next month or so. It's also worth noting that Greene is piling up an Anthony Hewitt-esque pile of Errors, nearly equalling the total of the rest of the Lakewood OF, with less games than most of them.

Cameron Perkins - I swear I am not making this up. Cameron Perkins who seems immune to taking Walks, took 5 this week. His hitting sucked, for a change, but I'm putting him in the hot list because he had only taken 5 walks all season to this point. Now, if he can just do that and maintain a .200 ISO...

Roman "Candle" Quinn - I hope Wet Luzinski has Depends on for this line. The candle was on fire this week with a .346/.433/.577 with 1 double, 1 triple, 1 HR, 4 BB, 2 K, 4 SB, 1 CS (along with his standard handfull of Errors). A few more weeks of that and his numbers, cumulatively for the season, will be as good or better than Last Summer's in a similar number of games.

Humberto Quintero - Conveniently he heats up right as Chooch pulls a Hammy. This past week he was .375/.400/.875 with a double, 1 HR, 1 BB, 2 K. Tommy Joseph is currently sidelined, so I gues if you're going to any Iron Pigs games, get ready for lots of Lerud.

Sebastian Valle - Valle hasn't been getting a ton of playing time, but with TJ sidelined in LHV and Chooch out at the MLB level, some PT may trickle down to Valle. If it does, he does appear to be warming up considerably in May. Too few at bats to worry about his line this week, but for the month he has gotten his average up into the .280 range and has improved his walk rate significantly (though it's still awful at 5.9%, that's twice his BB rate the last 2 years).

Mitch Walding - Mitch has ben mostly awful this spring. Still scouts seem to like his potential and if he strings together more weeks like the last one, maybe he becomes a somewhat hot prospect to follow. .364/.440/.500 with 3 doubles, 3 BB and 3 K.

Mike Stutes - Cutesy Stutesy made 4 appearances going 4.2 innings with 4 H, 4 K, 0 BB, 1 ER. If needed in the bullpen merry go round both Stutes and Lefty killer Jake Diekman seem to have warmed up from Ice age cold starts to the year.

Zach Collier - Last week I wrote about how awful Collier has been this season, well, no tthis week as he sported a .350/.435/.500 triple slash. Still 7 K in 23 PA is waaaay too high, but I really am glad to see him not scuffle this week.

The Not list:

Darin Ruf - Just when he was heating up, he drops a .120/.214/.160 line with 0 HR, 2 BB, 1 HBP and 11 K in 28 PA.

Tyler Cloyd - Unfortunate timing when the team needs a 5th Starter this week to drop a 3.1 IP, 11 H, 3 K, 0 BB, 2 double, 4 HR, 7 ER performance in Triple-A. That line looks like a good bit of bad luck, but also like a good bit of getting hit really damned hard.

Adam Morgan - Eeesh. 3.1 IP, 10 H, 10 R, 3 ER, 1 HR, 1 K, 0 BB. I don't know if I've ever seen a game with 7 Unearned Runs before.

Austin Wright - I haven't written much about Wright as there wasn't much to write about Wright, but he just wasn't right this week, so I decided something about Wright should be written. 2.1 IP, 5 H, 4 HR, 5 ER, 1 K, 4 BB. That ain't right, Wright.

The rest who are in-between:

Aaron Altherr - Cooled, but not cold. Odd line though with a .286/.267/.500 line with an astounding 9 K in 14 AB with 4 hits (for an astounding .800 BABiP for the week).

Cody Asche - .267/.281/.467 with 1 double, 1 triple, 1 HR, 1 BB and 5 K

Art Charles - Well, this is interesting, as Art took an astounding 8 walks in 29 PA, getting himself a .286/.483/.429 line.

Cesar Hernandez - A decent walk rate, at least with his .217/.296/.435 line 1 double and 2 triples.

Cameron Rupp - .188/.316/.375 with 1 HR, 2 BB, 1 HBP and 4 K. Rupp and Valle nearly are splitting Cathing duties. Both could have MLB futures and it's a shame to see both of them struggling a bit with reduced playing time.

Jesse Biddle - Not a bad week at all for Biddle, just not at the high he was about a month ago. 6 IP, 5 H, 6 K, 2 BB, 3 ER. A nice rebound from a few rough starts.

Percy Garner - Another one of those odd lines you see in the Minors 5.2 IP, 7 H, 3 doubles, 6 R, 1 ER, 7 K, 4 BB.

Ethan Martin - Mostly this was the Dr. Jeckyl version of Martin. 7 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 6 K, 2 BB, 1 HBP

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Hoby Milner - 6 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 5 K, 1 BB, 1 HBP.

Shane Watson - 5 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 3 K, 1 BB. A pretty pedestrian start, but like Biddle, it's nice to see after a few rough outings.