Aaron Altherr is on fire again. He went .318/.435/.619 with 2 doubles, a triple, 2 SB (0 CS), 7 K and 2 BB. The K's are high, the BABiP is unsustainable, but I'm fine with Altherr getting to build some confidence for a few more weeks before a likely challenge promotion to Reading. That will be a tough adjustment and it will be interesting to see how he handles it. It would be nice to see the K's come back down and the BB's go back up before he moves up, as that's a bad combo to go to Double-A with.
Leandro Castro - Castro with a weird (for him) line this week of .400/.500/.800, 2 K, 4 BB, 2 HR. Castro has walked more times in 2013 than he did in all of 2011 (more than twice as many times actually) and has almost matched his total of walks from 2012. He's probably a 4th OF at the MLB level, at best, but the walks are a very nice development, provided they aren't small sample size noise.
Kelly Dugan - Dugan was damned near Dom Brown hot this past week with a line of .500/.609/1.111, 2 doubles, 3 HR, 2 K, 5 BB. I've always felt I was irrationally high on Dugan and I may still be, but the power so far this year is what I've been waiting to see develop for 3 years now. He needs to keep it up and get a promotion to Reading this summer. Injuroies have put him behind the curve developmentally and he'll need to be protected from Rule 5, so the team needs to challenge him at Double-A and determine if he's worth protecting. With the compressed timeline, he's a likely bet for the AFL this year as well.
Tyson Gillies - Look who's hot. This is a few weeks now for Gillies. The Phillies reportedly worked with Gillies to add more lift to his swing to tap into his power some and it looks to be taking hold with a .333/.391/.714 line with 2 HR, 3 K and 2 BB. Another writer here at The Good Phight noted to me (I think it may have been Taco Pal, actually) how impressive it was that even when Gillies was scuffling (and he was awful the first month) his plate discipline held up. Gillies will need to work his way back to Triple-A this summer.
Cameron Rupp - Rupp has really shown so far at Double-A with the additional playing time he's gotten in lieu of Valle's struggles at the plate. This week, splitting time with Valle, he went .364/.462/.727 with 1 HR, 4 K, 1 BB, 1 HBP.
Mitch Walding - .421/.542/.632, 6 K, 5 BB, 4 Doubles. Walding needs more weeks like this.
Freddy Zorrilla - I've been dying to write about him because the name is golden. Finally, Zorilla's in the midst of a nice hitting week in the VSL. As he went .357/.438/.857 with 6 K, 0 BB, 2 HBP, 2 HR and a double. Freddy's a 6'4" 195 lb corner outfielder in his second season in the VSL.
Hoby Milner - Wow. Milner is having a helluva season and could even see a promotion to Reading this summer. This week he had 1 start and went 7.0 IP, 3 H, 7 K, 0 BB, 0 HBP, 1 HR, 1 ER. He's a flyball pitcher, so the Homers just kind of come with the territory.
The Icemen:
Zach Collier - Collier was just heating up. Quite cold this week though at .167/.167/.222 with 6 K's. That's bad, but at least it isn't...
Larry "Fudgie" Greene - .000/.063/.000 with 6 K, 1 BB, 1 SB (0 CS). 2013 is going awfully for Greene so far.
Chace Numata - .143/.200/.143 with 2 K, 1 BB.
Darin Ruf - Ruf is still trying to get on track. He stands a good chance of getting some time in Philly, but he'll probably need to get on track first. .167/.222/.250 with 2 doubles, 7 K and 2 BB in 27 PA.
Phillippe Aumont - Aumont has kind of fallen apart since his demotion. This week he went 2 appearances, 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 K, 8 BB, 3 ER.
Brody Colvin - It has now officially benn a month since Colvin recorded a K. It's possible he's working on something, but the numbers are just terrible.
Perci Garner - 4.2 IP, 6 H, 2 K, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 1 HR, 4 ER.
Ethan Martin - Martin went 5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 K, 3 BB, 2 HR, 4 ER. Among the 7 hits were the 2 dingers, 1 double and 2 triples, so Martin got hit pretty hard, but may have also had some bad fly ball luck.
Seth Rosin - Speaking of bad luck, Rosin went 6.0 IP with 4 K and 1 BB. Sadly he also gave up 10 hits, including 4 doubles, resulting in 6 ER.
Other notable players:
Cody Asche - Alright, I probably should have put Asche on the hot list. He went .333/.407/.500 with 1 double, 1 HR, 2 K and 3 BB.
Maikel Franco - Ignore the average as Franco had some bad batted ball luck this week: .238/.304/.524 with 3 doubles, 1 HR (4 of 5 hits were for extra bases), 2 K, 2 BB. Look if you can post a .830-ish OPS in an off week, you're doing pretty well.
Brian Pointer - Pointer needs to start piling up weeks like this one. .267/.450/.533, 1 double, 1 HR, 4 K, 4 BB, 1 SB (0 CS).
Roman "Candle" Quinn - Ditto for Quinn. .263/.391/.474, 1 double, 1 HR, 2 K, 4 BB, 1 SB (though the 2 CS are undesirable).
Carlos Tocci - Oh man, Tocci may be staying in Low-A after all. .286/.375/.381, 2 doubles, 2 K, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 SB (1 CS). I don't know if Tocci will ever have any power, but he seems to be adjusting to the level just in time to possibly stick around for the whole season. This is potentially a very, very exciting development if he can keep hitting and drawing walks that well at this level, as by far, the youngest kid in the league.
Sebastian Valle - Well, the power was there this week. .182/.182/.455, 2 doubles, 1 HR, 1 K in 11 PA.
Jesse Biddle - 7.0 IP, 4 H, 6 K, 3 BB, 3 ER. Sometimes it's goofy talking about Pitchers on a weekely basis because the sample is so small (it's very small for hitters too, but at least there it's usually around 30 appearances on various days). The good trend with Biddle is the Strong K rate. The bad trend is the high BB Rate. Both were present this week.
Yoel Mecias - Bit of a mixed bag this week. He made 2 starts going 10.0 Innings total with 9 H, 12 K (excellent), 4 BB (manageable and in ratio with the K's quite nice), but had the bad luck of giving up 2 Homers. The other 7 hits were all singles, but it cost 4 ER.
Shane Watson had his first strong start in several weeks. He went 5 Innings with 2 H, 5 K, 1 BB, 1 HR and 2 ER.
Carlos Zambrano - Big Z made 2 appearances this week going 10.1 IP, 7 H, 5 K, 4 BB and 0 ER. I assume Zambrano will spend a few weeks getting stretched out, but I'm not sure if I'd rather have Zambrano than just live with the combo of Pettibone, Cloyd, Lannan and Rosenberg. It all depends upon how Zambrano progresses. He certainly has shown flashes in the past of being good enough to hope he can be a reliable starter for the Phillies. He's also been a disaster at various points and there's a reason he was available and signing with an Independent League team when the Phillies took a shot.