Tagged: Michael Spidale
Offensive Leaders After 8 Spring Games
The Phils Double-A team is now 4-3-1 on the spring season after a 5-5 tie on Tuesday. On Monday, I looked at the pitching leaders and now, its the hitters turn.
Phillies Double-A Offensive Highlights:
Freddy Galvis
Galvis, 21, is a slick-fielding shortstop, who led all EL shortstops last season with a .982 fielding percentage. So far this spring, the Venezuelan is hitting .333 with two runs, two triples, three RBIs, and three stolen bases. A member of the Phillies 40-man roster, Galvis is 5-15 this spring for the Double-A Phils. His three stolen bases and two triples are a team-high.
Cody Overbeck
Overbeck hit 13 home runs and 41 RBIs for the R-Phils last season after posting All-Star numbers with Clearwater (A+) earlier in the season. The Tennessee native enjoyed a solid August — posting an impressive .316 average with eight home runs and 22 RBIs. This spring, Overbeck leads the Double-A team with two home runs.
Joe Savery
Savery began the spring as a member of the Double-A Phils, but has recently been playing for the Single-A squad. In 16 at-bats for the Double-A squad, the Texas native hit .375 with two doubles, a run, and three RBIs.
On Tuesday, Savery went 0-4 with an RBI for the Single-A Phils, a day after hitting a home run for the club. He played first base on Monday and DH on Tuesday.
Stephen Susdorf
Susdorf has excelled at the dish this spring for the Double-A Phils. The soon-to-be 25-year-old (turns 25 on Monday, March 28) has posted team-highs in at-bats (28), average (.357), hits (10), doubles (5), and RBIs (4). On Tuesday, he went 3-3 with three doubles, a run, and an RBI.
Selected by the Phillies in the 19th round of the 2008 draft, Susdorf spent all of 2010 with Clearwater — posting a .278 mark with 11 home runs and 77 RBIs. The California native appeared in 24 games with the R-Phils in 2009.
Other Notables
Michael Spidale, the R-Phils team MVP last season, appeared in his first Double-A game of the season on Tuesday, and went 1-4 with two strikeouts.
Jeremy Slayden, who is also familiar to R-Phils fans, has appeared in one game this spring for the Double-A club. On Sunday, Slayden went 3-4 with two doubles and two RBIs.
Spring Update — Game 8
The Phillies Double-A squad faced the Double-A Pirates on Tuesday afternoon and the game ended in tie 5-5. The Phils Double-A squad out-hit the Pirates team 12-9.
Let’s take a look at the highlights:
Freddy Galvis went 1-4 with a triple and an RBI. Galvis hit leadoff and is now batting .333 with two triples and three RBIs this spring. He has hit in all four games he’s played in for the Double-A squad.
Michael Spidale went 1-4 and struck-out twice in his first Double-A game this spring. Spidale was the R-Phils 2010 MVP.
Derrick Loop tossed a scoreless inning. He has not allowed a run in two Double-A appearances this spring.
Jacob Diekman also tossed a scoreless inning on Tuesday. Diekman has now not allowed a run in four innings this spring.
Other Notes:
Stephen Susdorf had the best line of the game, as he went 3-3 with three doubles, a run scored, and an RBI. Torre Langley went 1-1 with a stolen base. Darin Ruf went 0-2 with two walks and two runs scored. Cameron Rupp went 1-3 with an RBI.
First Day of Spring Games…
Happy first day of spring games for Minor Leaguers!
Last week I found out that this blog has been ranked as one of the Top 50 MLB Pro blogs — can you tell I am still extremely happy about that? That’s my mug on the home page too. Check it out!
Today was an extremely busy day, and while we are exactly one month from Opening Night (April 14),
it’s really starting to feel more like the season is here.
Alex, my Media/PR assistant has really been a big help. We are just about done creating our media guide — then we can move on to the Baseballtown Gazette.
Tuesday will serve as a good day to proof-read the media guide, since the press box will not have power all day! Combine that with the internet being down for the majority of today (Monday), and the pressure of being ready for Opening Day has hit.
Also today, WFMZ ran a story on the $10 Million Renovations during their 5:30 newscast. I think that went extremely well. Great coverage all offseason from WFMZ!
Okay, as for today’s games, check out my full recap here. Now let’s go beyond the recap, with some additional notes from today:
Triple-A squad:
Michael Spidale — Spidale, an Illinois native, who has spent parts of the past four seasons in Baseballtown, went 1-2 with a stolen base and RBI for the Triple-A squad today. Last season he was named the R-Phils MVP after hitting a solid .303 in 131 games.
Matt Rizzotti — Rizzotti, a member
of the Phillies 40-man roster, went 1-3 with a stolen base. The New York native was reassigned to Minor League camp on Friday after hitting .265 with one home run and two RBIs in Major League camp this spring. A sixth round selection of the Phillies in the 2007 draft, Rizzotti, 25, hit a remarkable .361 with 16 home runs and 62 RBIs for the R-Phils in 2010.
Tagg Bozied — Bozied, who was also assigned to Minor League camp on Friday, shined for the Triple-A squad today. The South Dakota native launched a home run and finished Monday afternoon 2-4. Bozied hit 27 home runs and an Eastern League-best .315 last season as a member of the R-Phils.
Double-A squad:
Francisco Diaz — Diaz, who will celebrate his 21st birthday one week from today (March 21), went 2-3 with a double, a run scored, and an RBI for the Double-A Phils. Last season, the Venezualan native hit .307 in 29 games for the GCL Phillies.
Eric Pettis — Pettis tossed a scoreless inning in Monday’s opener. Last season, as a member of the Williamsport Crosscutters (A-), Pettis posted an impressive line. He went 8-0 with seven saves and a 1.37 ERA over 20 games.
Single-A squad:
Jeremy Barnes — Barnes homered and drove-in two runs today for the Single-A club, who beat the Toronto Blue Jays Single-A squad 6-2. An 11th round selection in the 2009 draft by Philadelphia, Barnes, 23, finished Monday’s contest a perfect 2-2 at the dish. Last season he posted a .292 batting average for Lakewood (A-) over 109 games.
Jim Murphy — Murphy, who spent the entire 2010 campaign in Clearwater (A+) with the Threshers, went 2-3 with a walk and two runs scored today. Murphy has appeared in two games for the Major League club this spring, but has yet to register a hit (0-5 with a run scored). In 397 at-bats for Clearwater last season, the Washington native hit .239 with 6 homers.
End of the Season Wrap —
The 2010 season has come and gone 
and the R-Phils finished the year in fourth place in the Eastern League East division with a 69-72 record.
While the team struggled at times, and in the end, was unable to make it to the playoffs, there were many great individual performances from this year’s squad.
For the next five days, I will take the time to look back at some of the impressive seasons we witnessed in Baseballtown this season. Players like Michael Spidale, Tagg Bozied, Drew Naylor, and more, enjoyed breakout performances, and set career-highs in several different categories.
Check back each day for another three players from the 2010 R-Phils team. Enjoy for now…
Part 1 of 5
The 31-year-old enjoyed a solid season in
Baseballtown,leading theR-Phils in batting average (.315), home runs (27), RBIs (92), doubles
(29), OBP (.402), SLG (.631), and OPS (1.033). He led the Eastern
League in batting average, OBP, SLG, and OPS, and finished near the top
in both home runs (tied for 2nd) and RBIs (fourth).
While he missed over 30 games with a strained left quad this season,
Bozied never stopped hitting. Over his last ten games of the season, he
continued to shine, hitting .316 (12-38) with five home runs and eight
RBIs.
Michael Spidale — OF
During his fourth year in Reading, Michael Spidale patrolled the Reading outfield and did a great job defensively, and offensively, and in turn, was named as the FirstEnergy Reading Phillies 2010 MVP.
At the plate, the Illinois native compiled a .303 batting average — third best in the Eastern League, and hit 3 home runs, while driving home a career-high 50 RBIs. His 145 hits were good for sixth-best in the league, and his 31 stolen bases (a career-high) were good for fifth best. Originally selected by the White Sox in the 12th round of the 2000 draft, Spidale, 28, also set a career-high in runs (74), doubles (21), and games played (131).
Tuffy Gosewisch — C
The 2010 season will go down as
a very positive one for R-Phils starting catcher Tuffy Gosewisch. In August, Gosewisch was named by Baseball America as the Eastern League’s best defensive catcher. The Freeport, IL native finished the season with the best fielding percentage among Eastern League catchers (.997) and had just two errors in 674 total chances.
While his defense was spot-on from day one, the 27-year-old backstop also was solid at the dish — posting nine home runs (tied a career-high), 32 RBIs, and 46 runs scored. Originally selected by the Phillies in the 11th round of the 2005 draft, Gosewisch had his best game of the season on August 27 against the B-Mets. He ripped three hits — two home runs and drove-in four runs en route to a 9-1 R-Phils win over Binghamton at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Put it in the Books!
So, the first homestand of 2010 season is already in the books, and the R-Phils showed early on that they could be a tough team here this season.
And, for me, well, it was my first taste of action in Reading — the first game working at FirstEnergy Stadium, and the first of what I hope will be many great nights at this beautiful historic ballpark.
Early on here in Reading, I have already seen a team, which I believe, can compete for a spot in the playoffs — I know, it’s way to early too talk playoffs, but let me explain.
With a mixture of some very good young talent (Domonic Brown, Tyson Gillies, Freddy Galvis, and others), and a mix of some valuable veterans (Michael Spidale, Tagg Bozied, and Kevin Mahar), this Reading team is built to play late into the season.
Early on here, I have been impressed with the speed of Tyson Gillies — he can run it down in the outfield as good as I have seen, he can leg out an infield single, and he can make a triple look easy.
I have been impressed thus far with Yohan Flande, who tossed has two solid games already this season. In his first outing of 2010, Flande, 24, allowed just one hit over six shutout innings — earning a no-decision. In his second outon, on April 16 at Richmond, Flande once again was solid — allowing just two unearned runs through six frames and was the hard-luck loser. The native of the Dominican Republic has shown good command over his first two outings, and has kept his opponents off-balance.
Also impressive are the valuable veterans who help make this team go on a daily basis. Spidale, who entered his fourth season in Reading on Opening Day, lead the entire Eastern League in RBIs through the first seven games of the season with a remarkable 10 RBIs.
Pickney, who was selected in the 12th round of the 2003 draft by Cleveland, launched his first home run of the season in front of the Reading faithful on April 14.
Mahar, who was a solid contributor a year ago in Baseballtown, returned to R-Phils this season, picking up right where he left off. The former Texas Ranger, Mahar has already had three multi-hit games, including his first home run of the season.
Bozied, who spent part of last season with Indianapolis (AAA), has enjoyed a good amount of success early on this season with the R-Phils. One game in particular stands out, as Bozied, 30, was solid on April 11, launching his first homer of the season, and adding a team-high 5 RBIs on the afternoon.
And, early on, I have seen some impressive things from Drew Naylor, a 40-man roster guy, Michael Stutes, who has looked good in save chances — he’s 2 for 2 in save chances this season, and the slick fielding of Freddy Galvis, who looks great at shortstop.
Philling You In 