Skip to main content

Farm Hands Feast on Trio of Big Leaguers

While Monday didn't bring much luck for the big league Phillies, as they continued to have difficulty scoring runs and dropped their home opener to the Miami Marlins, a couple of the organization's minor league clubs didn't have much trouble making their marks against a trio of pitchers with some considerable big league ties.

The Double-A Reading Phillies handled Toronto left-hander Brett Cecil, who has 66 Major League starts under his belt. Cecil went 6 2/3 innings, allowing 11 hits and 5 runs (4 earned) while taking the loss for the defending Eastern League champions New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

The newly slim starter, who dropped 30 pounds over the off-season, is working on pitching with his "new body" and needs to improve the sharpness of his pitches, according to New Hampshire pitching coach Tom Signore. The veteran baseball man stressed the importance of Cecil getting himself right, in an interview with PhoulBallz.com's Jay Floyd this past weekend.

"Right now, to me, I think it's an arm strength thing," Signore stated. "A program's been put together between our Major League pitching coach, our pitching coordinator and they've relayed it to me....I think his command is there right now. His stuff is not. I think the stuff will get better. He's pitching with a new body. I think we need to give him a little slack. He's pitching with a new body- 30 pounds, that's a lot! I'm very confident Brett will make it back (to the Major Leagues) whether it's with us, or somebody else."

Left-handed hitting outfielder Tyson Gillies notched 2 hits against the 25-year-old Cecil, including a 2-run homerun in the 6th inning that padded the R-Phils' lead to an eventual final advantage of 5-2. First baseman Darin Ruf also collected two hits against Cecil.

Meanwhile, in Clearwater, the Class A Advanced Threshers faced Yankees' pitcher Andy Pettitte, who recently came out of retirement and is working his way back toward the big leagues. Pettitte pitched 3 innings, allowed 1 earned run and struck out 3 batters.

Another Yanks' hurler, reliever Brad Meyers, who was selected by the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft last winter, is rehabbing a labrum strain with Tampa and got torched by the Clearwater offense. Meyers went 1 2/3 innings, allowing 8 runs, 7 of which were earned on 8 hits. The big blow came in the 4th inning, when catcher Cameron Rupp smoked a towering 3-run homer. Rupp and Threshers designated hitter Jeremy Barnes drove in 4 runs each in the contest.

Clearwater downed Tampa 9-6 and Meyers suffered the loss.

The 26-year-old Meyers went a combined 9-7 with a 3.18 ERA at three levels of the Nationals' developmental ranks last season.

With the minor league hitters feasting on big league arms, perhaps there's a positive outlook, while the big club's offense struggles, that the future is bright and it's coming soon.

______________________________________________________

You can follow PhoulBallz on Twitter by clicking HERE.

Also connect with PhoulBallz on Facebook by clicking HERE.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good news from the young guys. I like it.

Popular posts from this blog

2021 Phillies Top Prospects Countdown: #22 SS Casey Martin

Please visit Patreon.com/PhoulBallz in order to support my work, get access to material like this before anyone else and get access to interviews as well as other exclusive content you can't get anywhere else.   A third round draft pick last year, Arkansas junior Casey Martin was quickly signed by the Phillies and consideration as one of the organization's top infield prospects quickly began.  The team's confidence in his ceiling is likely evident in the signing bonus he got, which was reportedly $1.3 million, which was considerably more than slot money dictated by his 87th overall draft position ($685K). The right-handed batting Martin tallied a .311/.393/.545 slash line with 30 homers, 24 steals and 112 RBI in 143 games through his college career at Arkansas.  Reports had him falling in the draft as a result of an injury to the hamate bone in his left hand prior to his 2020 season.  Prior to the procedure, Baseball America projected Martin as a top ten draft pick.

Slick fielding Sam is the Champion of the (PhoulBallz) world!

Phillies Ball(z)girl Sam Arnone was kind enough to answer some questions for the PhoulBallz site and all of you. Sam will be entering her 3rd season as a Phillies ballgirl and is a junior at Drexel University. Sam hails from the great town of Mt. Ephram, NJ. 1- Since the Phillies are the World Champions of baseball teams, are the Phillies ballgirls the world champions of ballgirl teams? - Of Course!!! There are not that many teams that have Ballgirls, so the competition is a little scarce. I would definitely put my team up against any other Ballgirl team with full confidence! 2- What is your routine to prepare for a day of on-field duties? - Before a game, I am always a little nervous. Once I am ready to leave my house and head to the ballpark I triple check my bag to make sure I have my glove and then I check again. I always have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat because it keeps me full and gives me energy for the entire game. I guess I might have to find a new favorite sa

Rappers in Phillies Caps

Weekend greetings to you phine pholks out there. Today's post features pictures of rappers wearing Phillies caps. Why rappers in Phillies caps, you ask? Because... Any other questions? We will start things off properly by going with a highly recognizable hip hop star. 50 Cent stays constantly relavant by consistantly creating radio friendly material to help sell (G) units, while he "keeps it real" by still rapping about the thug life he lived before becoming the 2nd highest earning black entertainer in America. 50 is seen here in a recent interview rocking a throw-back Phillies cap. Next up we'll use a throw-back screen cap from what may be the very first major appearance by a rapper wearing Phillies gear. Chuck D, of legendary rap group Public Enemy, wore a Phillies cap in the music video for rap anthem Fight The Power in 1989. The song was the lead single from the soundtrack for Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing . Next up we'll go with some home grown tal