9/6 Gameday Thread: Will Angel Be Able to Get First AA Win?

I made the trip up to Reading to check out the new promo boys. First thing about the competition – Abel is a very good prospect who has had an up and down year. He was very much up last night. FB consistently 96-98 on the stadium gun and a wide array of offspeed pitches that he was able to throw for strikes. Otoh, the lineup is terrible. I would give a bit of a side eye to any good pitching lines against it. With that out of the way…

Roman Anthony

Pretty much as advertised. He seemed to make good swing decisions. Fouled off some tough 2 strike pitches. Also took a close pitch for a ball with 2 strikes. He worked one of the BBs against Abel whose command started to wobble in the 6th. He ended up 0-3 with that BB, but it was the kind of o-fer that would have you imagine the underlying data was quite good. Swung at strikes, not balls. One of the outs was a hard liner to CF off Abel. It was probably the hardest hit ball off Abel in the first 5 innings when he was really dealing. In his last AB off a hard throwing reliever he smashed a liner just to the left of the 2B bag where unfortunately the SS was standing.

It was hard to get a read on his defense with just a couple easy fly balls. It did seem like he had solid speed and range when he would range into right center to back up on balls hit to RF. He made one throw into the infield on a deep fly ball that allowed a runner to tag from 2B to 3B. It wasn’t really a competitive play, but his arm seemed solid at least. No noodle Damon/Ellsbury arm.

It will be exciting to see what he can do next year with time to acclimate to the high minors.

Kyle Teel

First thing I noticed is that he’s pretty slightly built for a catcher. Site has him at 6’1”, 190. I thought he had a Connor Wong build and for what internet heights and weights are worth, b-ref has Wong at the same 6’1”, 190. Like Wong he’s obviously on the high end of catcher athleticism. He was very quick and agile behind the plate. He gets very low on his one knee catching stance. He was quick backing up plays behind 1B and made a heads up play quickly running out to 3B with a man on second and the SS and 3B chasing a pop up down the line in left. He also hit into what could have been a game ending DP, but busted down the line and beat the throw easily.

Seemed like he probably should be a good receiver, but hard to say. He didn’t get a lot of calls as it seemed like the home plate ump had a tight zone.

I did get to see his arm on 3 steals. None of his throws will be cut and posted as Twitter highlights. First was a high floater that was not very competitive although I didn’t notice the runner’s jump. He flipped that one side arm like that throw in the Twitter clip that went around recently, but unlike that throw I didn’t think he needed to and it made me wonder if sometimes he gets a bit lax on his throwing mechanics because his athleticism often lets him get away with it. Second throw was more over the top, harder and right on the bag, but that time I did notice the runner had a huge jump so it wasn’t close, but not really on Teel at all. Third throw was similar to the 2nd, but he short hopped the infielder.

Offensively he was better against Abel’s off speed stuff which he seemed to track well and fouled off. He was pretty much overpowered by Abel’s fastball at the top of the zone. Swing seemed to get a little long and he wasn’t really competitive on those swings. He was much better against the relievers. Lined a single off a lefty reliever throwing 95 that he had no trouble with and then hit the potential DP that I mentioned earlier.

Oh, one other thing about his defense. I thought he did a nice job settling down Bastardo in a long first. Went out to the mound a few batters in to give him a rest and some encouragement. When Bastardo got out of the bases loaded jam with no runs he ran out to meet Bastardo and pat him on the ass with some well done attaboys. I never know how to judge that “good teammate”, “good leader” stuff and who knows how much it’s worth, but I bet Teel is going to get a lot of it and it seems genuine and can’t hurt.

Nice prospect and I’d say as advertised as a back end top 100 prospect with surprising athleticism for a catcher. But I think anybody who just looks at his hi-A hitting line (465 BABIP!) and the quick promotion to AA and thinks he’s knocking on the door for- a debut at the end of 24 or early 25 is getting ahead of things. There’s plenty of development to do and I think he’s going to get questioned about his ability to impact the ball and handle elite velocity if his swings stays long-ish. It’ll be interesting to see any EV data that comes out.

Much more quickly on a few others…

Yorke does not stand out on the field the way Abel, Anthony and Teel do. Of course, it’s not a big deal to not be as good as those guys, but, well… he was ranked among them a couple years ago and really doesn’t seem like he ought to be anywhere close to them anymore which has to be disappointing. He might turn into a solid regular, but I don’t think it’s crazy to have some serious concerns about a hit tool first 2B that can’t hit better than .275 in AA in a bounce back year. As long as he handles MLB pitching as well as he handles AA pitching, he’ll be fine? Him and how many thousand others over the years?

Jordan makes Yorke look like an Anthony/Teel level athlete. He looked fine at 1B, but he runs like he has cement in his shoes. Not a lot of cement, but you know…

Bastardo sat 94 all night with a couple off speed pitches in the 86/87 and 84 mph bands. He struggled to command them although like I said the ump seemed to have a tight zone. Bastardo frequently reacted to called balls with some frustrated body language. At one point he thought he dropped a breaking ball in for a called strike (I did too!) and he raised his hands in disbelief to the ump. I’m sure he got a bit of a talking too about maintaining some more stoicism on the mound. Again, it wasn’t just him. Teel seemed to shake his head on a couple pitches and the Phillies catcher did as well.

Overall a pretty fun night to see a top 25 hitter, a top 50 pitcher and another top 100 hitter. Would have been great to have had Mayer there too…