High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - The High Hopes Phillies Podcast: Marks Minor League Report with Jason Woodell

Episode Date: June 11, 2018

Jon Marks is joined by Jason Woodell to talk Florida Statle League and the Clearwater Threshers. The guys chat about Sixto Sanchez (pre-injury), Adam Haseley, Mickey Moniak, and more. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With Uber Reserve, you can book your Uber ride in advance. 90 days in advance. Perfect for all you forward thinkers and planning gurus. Reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. Uber Reserve. See Uber app for details. Hello and welcome to the Marks Minor League Report here on the High Hopes Podcast. I am John Marks and today on the show we're going to be speaking with Jason Waddell who covers the Florida State League for a number of different publications. You can check him out on Twitter. It's Jason

at the game. He has great videos. If you've seen my retweets or some of my tweets about what's going on down in Clearwater, then you've probably seen his videos. He's a great follow if you are trying to follow what's going on down in the minors with Clearwater. Now, in many years, and you'll hear me mention this in the interview that I had with Jason, many years, the best Phillies minor league team may be the Lakewood, the Lakewood Blue Claws, or some years it's the Redding Fightins. Other years, it's another team. It just depends where the best prospects are for the Phillies. This year, team. It just depends where the best prospects are for the Phillies. This year, most intriguing to me is Clearwater and the Clearwater Threshers. You have Mickey Moniak, who was the first overall

pick just a couple years ago, who's been struggling. You have Adam Haisley, their first pick from last year, who's really been heating up recently. And then you also have Sixto Sanchez. Now, up recently. And then you also have Sixto Sanchez. Now, Sixto Sanchez went down with an elbow injury, elbow inflammation, just a couple days ago. I taped an interview with Jason late last week. So this was before the injury occurred or he was placed on the DL. So you'll hear me, you'll hear us talking about Sixt0 right off the bat. They had an MRI. They don't feel they need surgery. It's one of the things where they sit them down for two weeks and then they re-examine them and then they take it from there. So it's never good when you hear elbow problems. But when you're a 19-year-old kid that's throwing the ball 100 miles an hour, you have to expect that somewhere along

the way, there's a possibility of there being elbow issues or even worse, I would think would be shoulder issues. So right now it's just the elbow. So we did speak to Jason before the six toe Sanchez injury. So keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that as we get going in the weeks here and we look at a lot of the different prospects, the Phillies, after a slow start in their minor league, in all of their minor league teams, they've started winning games. Some of the guys

that started slow have really come on. It'll be fun to check in with the different teams and the different prospects. The Phillies really do have some nice, nice prospects in each level, especially pitching. The pitchers are the ones that are really exciting, at least to me. Some batters are coming around as well.

So here's the conversation I had with Jason Waddell, who covers the Florida State League. And again, this is before the Sixto Sanchez interview. So here's Jason. All right, so, Jason, depending on the year in the Philly system is which team you're really paying attention to the most. Some years it's been Redding. Other years it's been Lakewood. This year it's the Clearwater Threshers because you have a couple of guys

who are at least in one used to be one of your top prospects. The other is now right now. So let's talk about some of these wrestlers as you've been seeing them all season long. Let's start with Sixto Sanchez, who I don't want to say a bad start to the season because he's still a young pitcher. But velocity maybe wasn't all the way back to start the season. What have you seen out of Sixto in his last few starts? Certainly the numbers are showing that he's back to what he was looking like last year. Well, the main thing with Sixto is he's so young and raw, and he's a pitcher.

And he does have three-plus pitches and a fastball slider and changeup. But I think last year at Lakewood he was able just to, as long as he was around the plate, there's so much swing and miss in the Sally League that his numbers really played up. When Sixto first came to the Florida State League in Clearwater, you know, he really struggled with sequencing and trusting his off-speed stuff. And I think that's what you saw early on.

He would just fall in love with his fastball, and his command is good, but his command in the zone is not too good. It's almost like a here it is, hit it. And even though it's high A, a lot of these 25-, 26-year-old hitters can hit 100 miles an hour. And so that's what happened to him earlier. So his last start was really the most complete that I've seen him. Just really pounded the zone early with off-speed.

Was able to get his changeup and his slider over pretty effectively the entire game. And that allowed the fastball to play up and then for him to use his off speed to either generate weak contact or to get the strikeout. So we're starting to see the evolution of a kid who's learning to trust his stuff, learning to stay on the black and not in the middle of the plate, and really kind of learning what role this fastball plays because everyone gets excited about 101, but I've seen that 101 hit a long ways when guys know it's coming.

Yep, no doubt about that. And that's the biggest thing the last couple starts is guys aren't squaring them up anymore because the slider and the changeup are just too good and now they can't sit fastball on him like they used to. Yep, really kind of becoming a pitcher instead of a thrower, and you're right. If you're able to get by with just your fastball, but even at this level, you're not able to do that all the time, so he's trying to figure out when to use pitches, the sequences,

and everything else. So far, so good what you've seen as we sit here in, I guess, the first week of June? Absolutely. I think he's about to make the leap. You know, everybody fell in love with the stuff early on, but that's in a vacuum. And to it's bad, I could post videos that really made him, you know,

his stuff stand out and pop. But the numbers for that game weren't always, you know, where they needed to be. Now he's starting to really put it all together. And I think the good thing for me is I didn't see him hit 101 last time I saw him. He just seemed much more relaxed with his off speed and just really threw it with confidence. And that's going to be the game-changer. If he can't command the change-up and use it effectively,

fastball slider is not going to cut it in a major league rotation against major league hitters, especially when you rely on the fastball too much. So I really think he's starting to turn the corner and trusting his stuff and being able to sequence and mix it together to keep guys off balance the third time through the order. Yeah, very good points. If you've seen the videos that I retweet on Twitter,

I'm getting them from our guest today on the Marks Minor League Report, Jason Waddell. So just at Jason at the game. So the at sign Jason at the game is how you find him. Covering the Florida State League, pretty much every start that I see Sixto is because I'm watching on my app, but then I'm also getting the highlights from Jason. So a great Twitter follower, and you can see all the stuff he writes for all the different sites that he does it for. All right, so Sixto's looking good.

Now, I had a lot of conversation with the minor league guys that I talk about the Phillies prospects up here in Philly, and there's always those whispers that are like, yeah, Sixto's a great prospect, but Adonis Medina really has a chance to be the better pitcher in the majors, maybe better command, four pitches, and everything else. Hasn't had a great start to his Florida State League career, if you look at the numbers. But how has he pitched, and what do you think of Medina? Medina, he does have the third and the fourth pitch,

so that gives him a leg up on really a lot of young prospects. You'd be surprised at the lower level, the minors, how many people are just fastball. And they're the fastball change, fastball slider. And they really lack that third pitch. And it's only a matter of time before, in order for them to continue in pro ball, they become bullpen pieces. So Medina's young.

He's really raw. We're going to have to be patient with him. He struggles to command all four pitches. He's really inconsistent. And I think that's going to be the struggle with him. Sixto has always had good command. He doesn't walk anybody. He just tends to

throw it down the middle. Medina's on the opposite. He's just kind of all over the place. And so when guys are sitting fastball and they know you've got to throw it to not walk them, they're not going to miss at this level. Right. Medina, you like Medina's stuff, though. It's just a matter of, he's 21 years old, so you're still talking about young guys, but you like Medina's stuff he he projects into a big league starter you think i think he can it's really he's got a long ways to go um six goes a lot closer just because of the command uh you know but

you know there's no rush on medina right Right. And he's pitched better of late. He really, really struggled early on. So what you see down here is once it starts to click, then these guys really start to turn the corner. It clicks. So generally it might seem like a gradual progression a lot of times, but, you know, when it clicks, these guys are almost night and day different players.

I'll just give you an open-ended question before we move to the everyday players. Who else has impressed you as far as the pitchers? I know the Phillies have a couple of young guys that are in the bullpen at a couple different stops or spots in the minor leagues. You're seeing what Sir Anthony Dominguez is doing, 11 appearances above single A, and they bring him up and he's dominating the majors right now. Who do you like down there?

Who's maybe a reliever or another starter we're not talking about? I mean, I'm a big Bailey Falter guy. He's left-handed, has some really good stuff,ter guy. He's left-handed, you know, has some really good stuff, pitch ability. He's a big dude too, right? I'm sorry? He's a big dude too, big tall dude. Yeah, big tall lefty, you know, has, you know, good stuff. And he might be just a bit too advanced for the Florida State League. He struggled his last start, but up until then, he's been able to locate his pitches and make the hitters react to him.

Mauricio Yovera is another guy that I like. He's a bit smaller, more of a two-pitch guy, I believe fastball slider, but the fastball gets on guys quick, and it's at about 94. So, you know, I don't know if he's got long-term, you know, starter stuff, but definitely his arm plays up as a bullpen piece, I think. And, you know, 94 from that size, he's got a really fast arm, so I like him too. Nice. All right, let's get to the everyday players here.

And I know Mickey Moniak has turned it on of late, had his first home run of the season, last year's number one draft pick. Adam Haseley also has started to heat up a little bit as we enter June. Let's start with Mickey Moniak. Really disappointing year last year, and as he's in the Florida State this year, still young for the league. But I guess the Phillies were looking for maybe some maturity in his game, a better plate approach, less strikeouts, better defense. Just really some type of a plus skill, whether it was base running or power or really beat up on righties.

What have you seen so far from Moniak? And we know he's been playing better as of late, but what do you see that tells us that maybe he could be the prospect that the Phillies thought they were getting when they drafted him first overall? Well, I feel like Moniak is – I don't know if he's ever going to live up to that 1-1 hype. Well, I feel like Moniak is – I don't know if he's ever going to live up to that 1-1 hype. He doesn't project to be a big-time power guy.

He's got some good speed, and I like his instincts in center field. So I definitely think at this point, maybe fourth outfielder type potential at this point. But with that being said, he is still very young for this league, and I was really surprised after he struggled in the sally at Lakewood that the Phillies were aggressive and brought him up here because there is a huge jump between Clearwater and Lakewood. Just ask Jose Pujols, who really, really struggled last year. From what I've seen from Moniak, the bat's kind of slow. The back shoulder tends to drop.

He's a little indecisive at the plate. He's more reactionary as opposed to – he doesn't really look like he has a plan, so he's more reacting to the pitches, and he's not always guessing right. So there's a little bit of swing and miss. I think that this is a guy that would have really benefited from going to college, but it's hard to turn down the money when you're 1-1. So Philly fans are going to have to be patient. If he's going to become the everyday center fielder

be patient. If he's going to become the everyday center fielder and be that 280 to 300 hitter with a 350 OBP and 10 homers, 25 steals, it's going to take some time. He has improved. It has looked a little bit better as of late, but he just needs reps. He needs experience. And, I mean, if Moniak had been taken in the 12th round, we'd be talking about how excited we are at some of the tools and the potential. But with the pressure of 1-1, you know, I hope that it doesn't get to him to the point where it starts to hinder his development. I think the bat can be faster. I know that I talked to scouts at Salmon, the Gulf Coast League, a couple years ago, and just between that and his BP,

they see a different hitter and not in a good way. So I think it has just to do with, you know, they talked about the bat speed in the Gulf Coast League and coming out of high school being a lot faster than it is now. But I think it just has to do with just being a bit overmatched. And he's almost, he's kind of like, he's indecisive. So he's too late on the fastball, too early on the off-speed. And he just always seems to find himself in that 0-2 hole.

You know, when things aren't going good, you get to the plate and as soon as you put your bat on your shoulder, it's 0-2. And you're just trying to fight and react. He's only 20 years old, and some players, when they're 20, they look like they're 22, 23. They're just naturally built bigger. He looks like a kid when he's out there. Has he put on some muscle?

I thought I remember reading some stories in the offseason where he needs to get bigger. I mean, that's the biggest thing for me. You talk about bat speed. He doesn't look strong enough. Well, there's that. I mean, I read about his workout stuff. I don't know if he has the body type to really carry good weight, but at the same point,

or I'm sorry, like, you know, some muscle, but you don't want him to bulk up too big. And I don't think, you know, he really necessarily needs to get bigger. I just think that it's more confidence and trusting his hands. I'm not a huge fan of his stance. He's just real minimal stride. The hands, not really a lot of, you know, movement back into load, to the load position. And so it just seems like the ball's on him, you know,

before he can even get set up. Right. But he's going to take time. So I would anticipate, I'd be really shocked if, unless he really just starts to turn it around in the second half, I'd be really surprised if he doesn't repeat the year to back down here in Clearwater. And I think it would do him some good, you know, some experience in this league again,

much the way that it's done with Jose Pujols, who to me is a completely different hitter than he was last year. All right, so before we get to Haseley, Pujols, who has major power potential and has shown it in the minors, as you mentioned. Is he 19 or is he 20 now, Pujols? He's still on the younger side of it, but he looks better this year. Even though the average still isn't high,

the power is there this year, right? Well, the average is up over 300, last I checked. Oh, it is. And so, you know, last year he was overmatched, much like Moniac. It was going to the plate, and it was 0-2 before he knew it. The bat speed wasn't there. The hands were slow to the ball.

Just really lacked the confidence. And his swing was already long with swinging this. So a lot of these more experienced college pitchers really exposed him last year. But this year, he's much more balanced at the plate. He's not really over-swinging. He's trusting his hands because the power is there. And I'm seeing a lot of opposite field hard contact and a lot of opposite field home runs that were just absolutely demolished. I'm seeing big towering line, big towering light

tower power home run. At the same point in time, I'm seeing this guy just hit missiles to right field that just keep carrying and going over the fence. So definitely really just impressive is balance and confidence. So that kind of gives me a little bit of hope that, you know, that Moniak with some more experience in this league would be better. I think the difference is Pujols didn't struggle in Lakewood where Moniak did. Right. Here's the thing with Moniak, just getting back to Moniak,

because player development and front offices don't always listen to scouts. So if a scout says a guy isn't ready, sometimes it's a bad PR move for these first-round picks to repeat levels and stuff like that. So I'm not sure if that's the case in Philadelphia, but I know that that is something that goes on with all levels of, is this guy ready to be promoted? Well, he's a high pick and there's a lot of buzz,

so we're going to go ahead and promote him, even if the player development is telling the front office he's not ready for this. I mean, I think that's what's going on with Moniak. if he's not ready for this. I mean, I think that's what's going on with Moniak. I think he would benefit just going either back down to the Sally or to the GCL just to help get his confidence back and get him going. But, you know, that would just look like a terrible PR move if that were to happen.

So they're kind of stuck with him in clear water at this point and hoping that he figures it out. But I think the pedigree is there, and much like Pujols, I think he will. Adam Haseley. Average up near 300 now. Their first-run draft pick last year. And here's the thing with Haseley, though. He's 22 years old, so it's not like you have a kid like Moniak

coming out of college, or excuse gonna be coming out of high school and young for the league still learning the game Haseley was supposed to be able to contribute not right away but he was supposed to be a close to major league ready player and he definitely has picked it up recently but so far what you seen with Haseley what kind of a player is he? And have you been impressed? Were you expecting more? What do you think of him? I think I was expecting a little bit more.

I did see the opening day where he took T.J. Zoich deep on like a hanging breaking ball. I do think that he's definitely got power in his back, even though he's only got three home runs. I saw Clearwater quite a bit in April. And, you know, Haseley's patient, not a lot of swing and miss in his game. You know, but he was a little pull happy. And that led to a lot of, you know, weak ground ball contact to second base.

So, and I mean, not looking at, I don't have like his percentages in front of me, but I would imagine that his ground ball percentage is quite high. And if it's gone down, it's gone down recently with some of the changes that he's made. This past weekend when I saw him again, he was much more patient as far as letting the ball get deep on him and using left field. He had a couple balls that were just really scorched to left field for doubles off the wall. One of them was down the line, down the left field line. So just with any hitter, you know, you've got to use the whole field.

And I don't think he was really trying to do that early on. But he's doing it now, and I think that's why you've seen the average come up. And I don't know if they're going to necessarily promote him to Redding anytime soon. I don't know if his swing as it's currently set up will lend itself to 20-homer potential. It's really a flat swing. Not a lot of loft in his swing.

And it's more ground ball line drive. So, you know, I don't know how much tinkering they would do, especially now that he's going to left field with success and especially midseason. But he's definitely someone who I think, you know, with a little bit of change in hand placement, getting that bat off his I think, you know, with a little bit of change in hand placement, getting that bat off his shoulder and, you know, really flat with a little bit of a wrap to it, you know,

I think that, you know, they could add some loft to his swing, and I think he's got some thunder in the bat. You know, it's just the swing doesn't really lend itself to showing it in game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At some point, you hope it clicks with him because he certainly got the potential of doing it. It's just more or less now putting it all together.

Hey, Jason, before we let you go here, one name that a lot of people don't talk about when you talk about the Phillies minor league players is the guy that you covered in Clearwater a little bit last year and then some this year he just recently has been promoted to redding but is derrick hall who i don't know i don't know what's in the water at dallas baptist but every time you see a draft you end up seeing a bunch of guys drafted from dallas baptist so he's uh he's a little bit older well i guess he's 23 in redding so that's not they'll be 23 in July that's not outrageously old but all this guy done is has hit for power Lakewood set a franchise record there last year got called up to Clearwater hit some home runs in in in a just a couple games in

Clearwater had 11 home runs in 48 games and then went up to Redding and said a couple home runs just a couple games there is this um he seems like to me watching from the games I'm able to watch on the MILB app and then from the highlights I'm able to see as well, he looks like one of those he can only play first base because that's the only position he can play. Big, power-hitting, left-handed batters who, you know, he looks like not a high on-base percentage guy, but certainly his tool is his power.

What has he seen from him? Do you think he's a likely major league player? I love Derek Hall. I don't know if his defense, though, is good enough to play first base. He's kind of real choppy. He doesn't really have soft hands. So I don't know how much he could actually. I mean, hell, if Philadelphia can run Tommy Joseph out there, you know,

then Derek Hall could certainly do it. But I think he might, you know, end up being a trade piece. I think he profiles more as a DH. But that's okay because if they have to move him and he continues to hit home runs, then that means you're getting – you're probably getting an asset back that can help the major league club. But I love his power. He's got power to all fields. It's easy power. He doesn't over swing to get that power. Just is really quick bat, a lot of loft

to the swing. He reminds me of Travis Hafner, the Indians DH. And that was another just big donkey who slow, couldn't play first, but you leave anything over the plate, especially middle end. And he ain't missing it. And to me, that's Derek Hall. He really reminds me of Travis Hafner. Wow. Which is exciting because Travis Hafner, all the guy did for, you know,

four or five years was hit 30 home runs. So I like Hall. I think I tweeted out that, you know, Redding is like the Coors Field of minor league baseball. You know, with four months left, Hall might hit 50 bombs. Now, I get it. You know, that's quite a bit of hyperbole. But, you know, he's better than Dylan Cousins.

I don't think he has the hit tool that Reece Hoskins has. Reece Hoskins is just a natural born hitter. Right. But he definitely has the power to hit in a major league lineup. And I think the fact that he's left-handed kind of lends himself to, you know, to really increasing his value um you know whether it's whether it's with the big league club and and in a platoon type situation or off the bench or if they move him you know so that he can be agent in al park yeah he hits 50

home runs this year in reading which he might or come close to it the phillies will have a good a good problem to have on their hands for sure, whether they can play first base in the majors or, like you said, you can use them as a trade ship to try to get somebody in there. Jason, man, listen, it's been fun. I've been following you on Twitter. You do a great job down there in Florida covering the Florida State League and a great Twitter follow if you're a Phillies or a minor league baseball fan, the videos are tremendous at Jason at the game is how you follow him,

him on, on Twitter and Jason, we'll talk to you again coming up soon, man. And keep doing your thing down in Florida. Always appreciate it. Hey, John,

I appreciate all the retweets and, and, and stuff like that. I'm glad to be able to, you know, to be able to bring this content to a larger audience, and you're part of the reason that I'm able to do that, so I appreciate it. All right, Jay, appreciate it, man.

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