Latest news with #IronPigs
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Mets' Sean Manaea strikes out five with Triple-A Syracuse in final rehab start
Mets southpaw Sean Manaea completed what should be his final rehab start on Tuesday with Triple-A Syracuse. While it wasn't his most efficient outing, the left-hander struck out five batters across 3.2 innings. He allowed three runs on four hits and one walk to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Advertisement Manaea's night started off great, striking out two in a 1-2-3 first inning. But he got into trouble in the second, allowing a one-out walk before Rafael Lantigua singled to put runners on the corners. Rodolfo Castro then lofted a 78 mph sweeper that hung over the middle of the plate, over the left field wall to put the IronPigs up 3-1. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza broke down the plan for Manaea prior to Tuesday's series opener against the Orioles, and said Manaea was slated to throw 70-75 pitches -- he threw 73 pitches -- and if the starter recovers well, he'll be activated for Sunday's series finale. It's unclear whether Manaea will start Sunday's game, but he and Clay Holmes will both pitch in the final game before the All-Star break. If Tuesday was indeed Manaea's final rehab start, the southpaw completed six appearances (five starts). His last start saw Manaea allow two runs in three innings with Double-A Binghamton. His last, and only other start, with Syracuse came on June 19 when he allowed just one run across 5.1 innings while striking out seven. His best start in the minors this season.
CBS News
18-06-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Phillies acquire pitcher Nolan Hoffman in trade with Texas Rangers
For the second time this season, the Philadelphia Phillies have added organizational pitching depth in a trade with the Texas Rangers. The Phillies on Wednesday acquired 27-year-old right-hander Nolan Hoffman from the Rangers for cash considerations. Hoffman's contract was selected, meaning he's now on the Phillies' 40-man roster, and the club optioned him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Philadelphia's 40-man now sits at 40. A 2018 fifth-round pick by the Seattle Mariners out of Texas A&M, Hoffman signed with the Rangers in December. The righty made 22 appearances, starting three, for Triple-A Round Rock Express, with a 5.91 ERA, striking out 46 and walking 21 in 35 innings. Hoffman did attend Rangers spring training as a non-roster invitee but didn't make Texas's roster. Hoffman is a righty who throws from a low arm slot and usually generates groundballs. At Triple-A this season, Hoffman has a 44.6% groundball rate and a 34.9% flyball rate, which is down from the previous four seasons, when he averaged a 58.7% groundball rate. On May 1, the Phillies acquired 30-year-old Daniel Robert from the Rangers. Robert has spent most of his time in the Philadelphia organization with the IronPigs, but he has made two appearances in the majors. He's faced six batters, walking three, allowing a hit and run over 2/3 innings in two appearances.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Worcester Red Sox score in extras, but lose to Lehigh Valley
Worcester opened the game strong and scored in extras, but failed to close out the win on Friday. The Red Sox fell to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, 4-3, after 10 innings. Tyler McDonough connected on an RBI single in the second to give the Red Sox an early advtage. But the IronPigs jumped ahead after a two-RBI double from Rodolfo Castro in the bottom of the second. Both sides were held scoreless until McDonough drove in his second RBI single of the day in the seventh. With the score level, neither side could find the winning edge before extra innings. Worcester (36-30) will face Lehigh Valley on Saturday, June 14 at 6:35 p.m. Read the original article on MassLive.
New York Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Scouting Andrew Painter, George Lombard Jr., The Password, and more MLB prospect notes
Mick Abel's remarkable MLB debut may have just further whetted Phillies fans' appetites for the arrival of their top pitching prospect, right-hander Andrew Painter, who is now pitching for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. I caught Painter on Wednesday in his latest start for the IronPigs. Painter, who ranked No. 12 on my preseason top 100 prospect list, went 71 pitches, four-plus innings, on a very cold and damp night in Allentown, Penn., with the temperature at 50 degrees at first pitch. He was 94-98 throughout the outing and threw a ton of sliders — Statcast calls it a cutter, but Painter told our Matt Gelb this spring that he was ditching that pitch — in what I assume was a plan to have him work on the slider so it'll be ready for major-league hitters. I don't think it's there yet; it's hard, mostly 90-91 and topping out at 93, but the break isn't that tight and he missed consistently with it to his glove side. It runs more than it breaks, which I suppose also might indicate that it's a cutter, and hitters whiffed on the fastball slightly more often than they did on the slider in this game. The curveball was hilarious, to use the technical term, although he only threw a handful, and he didn't throw a single changeup. Advertisement His delivery is still fantastic — how often do you hear me say that about any pitcher? — and he can throw the fastball for strikes, and maybe every other pitch but the slider right now. Bearing in mind that this had to be a miserable night to grip and spin the ball, since it never stopped drizzling while Painter was in the game, I don't think he's ready to step into a big-league rotation right now. The slider is a work in progress, clearly, and I was disappointed not to see the changeup at all. He went to the slider in changeup counts against lefties the entire night, with mixed results; Buffalo (Toronto affiliate) hitters were so geared up for the fastball they might have spun themselves into the ground if he'd flipped a 45 changeup away to them. The fastball plays, and the curveball is a widowmaker. I'm not convinced he needs a slider, but if the plan is to get him to develop one, I would give him some more turns in the Lehigh Valley rotation and wait for consistently warmer weather, too. In the same game, Phillies outfield prospect Justin Crawford (No. 41 on the top 100) did triple on a fly ball to deep center, but he's still generating way too many ground balls for a guy with his strength and potential for power, which I think is because he starts his hands so high. The speed and defense are still there, and he led off the bottom of the first with a great at-bat that, unfortunately, ended in a ground ball. Last Saturday night, I headed to Somerset to see the Double-A affiliates for the Red Sox (Portland Sea Dogs) and Yankees (Somerset Patriots) square off, which turned out to be one of Jhostynxon Garcia's last games at that level before a promotion to Triple A. Known as 'The Password,' Garcia (Red Sox No. 8 prospect) swings very hard and he is very strong, destroying a hanging cutter from Patriots right-hander Trent Sellers for a home run the other way. It was an awful pitch, but Garcia at least did what you're supposed to do with those, and the power he showed was impressive. Advertisement He's shown more zone awareness this year in his return to Double A, going from a 4.8 percent walk rate in a month there last year to 13 percent in a month there this year before his promotion. I saw him chase some fastballs above the zone, which does seem to be a moderate concern based on his data from this season. He can mash, though; even if the walk-rate boost turns out to be a mirage, this is real power, and he seems like at worst he'll be a low-OBP slugger, probably in right field. George Lombard, Jr., the Yankees' first-round pick in 2023, was the primary reason I made the trip, since the team so rudely promoted him the day before he was scheduled to come play a series in my backyard. (Not literally. This isn't Iowa.) Lombard ranked 98 on the preseason top-100 list. He has a great swing, balanced through contact, with some loft in his finish for line-drive power. He hasn't gotten off to a great start in Double A, hitting .195/.352/.195 through Wednesday night, and from what I saw, it may be a matter of adjusting to pitchers messing with timing. The high walk rate is a function of good strike-zone judgment, yet he'll swing the bat — I got 12 swings from him on the night, so he's up there to hit, not take. He was just slightly off on some pitches he'll probably square up later this year. Pitchers attacked him with sliders and cutters, likely better quality versions of those pitches than what he was seeing in High A, and it'll probably take him some time to adjust, maybe the rest of the summer. He played an easy shortstop, although he drops down to throw, putting some two-seam action on throws to first that is going to make them harder to receive. Catcher Rafael Flores (Yankees No. 13 prospect) was an undrafted free agent when Yankees scout Dave Keith signed him in the summer of 2022. He's going to get to the majors as a backup catcher and maybe a platoon bat off the bench, as he has at least above-average power and can whack a fastball. He's been chasing pitches out of the zone more this year, although that wasn't an issue on Saturday, as he went 3-for-5 with a no-doubt homer and only chased one pitch of the 16 he saw on the night. Advertisement It's an easy swing and he's strong enough to pull the ball out to left consistently enough that if he were a better defender, I'd say he was going to be an everyday catcher. He's just OK behind the plate, though, and may not have the arm to be a primary backstop. There's a major-league role for him somewhere. Shortstop Mikey Romero (Red Sox No. 19 prospect) was Boston's first pick in the 2022 draft, going at pick No. 24, 55 spots ahead of current No. 1 prospect Roman Anthony. Unlike Anthony, Romero has had a lot of adversity in pro ball, as a serious back injury ruined his 2023 season and his performance last year still wasn't up to expectations. There's some good news here, as he's way more filled out now and I think the power he flashed last year (16 homers in 78 games) might be real, or at least more than I thought it was. He's still too aggressive at the plate, and he had some bad hacks at changeups, whiffing at least twice on them, although with two strikes he stayed back better and lined one to left, which says there might be some more pitch recognition in there than the raw data indicate. He played third base in this game and looked much better suited to that position than shortstop. He's only 21 and would be in this draft had he gone to college. There's still time for him to tighten up the approach and find a path to the big leagues, even if it's just as a utility infielder who has some left-handed pop. Boston acquired right-hander Dave Sandlin (Red Sox No. 9 prospect) in the trade that sent reliever John Schreiber to Kansas City in February 2024, a deal I loved at the time for Boston, as Sandlin was among the Royals' top 10 prospects and looked like a potential back-end starter. The Red Sox have turned him into a slider- and cutter-heavy guy who seems destined for the bullpen at this point, even though he has a decent fastball. It's a four-seamer, mostly 94-95, with a little ride, and he did get misses on it up in the zone, with a little deception from a huge torso turn in his delivery so that the ball appears late. For some reason, though, he's deprecated the fastball in favor of a slider and a cutter: He went from throwing 58 percent fastballs (according to data from Synergy) in 2023, his last year in the Royals' system, but is at just 42 percent fastballs so far this year. The slider has some tilt to it and is almost slurvy, at 82-84, while the cutter was 85-88 and was maybe average if I'm feeling generous. He got just one whiff on the cutter by my count out of the nine he had in the game. Maybe the fastball isn't as effective as I think it is, but he has a 5.30 ERA since the trade, so it's fair to say the current pitching plan for Sandlin isn't working out. (Top photo of Painter: Miles Kennedy / Philadelphia Phillies)
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Garrett Stubbs Excited to Catch Phillies No. 1 Prospect Andrew Painter
All eyes will be on one man in the Phillies minor league system tonight. For another person in the same ballpark, it's quite literally his job. "I appreciate everyone coming to watch me play tonight," Garrett Stubbs joked to the media. Advertisement Stubbs, the former backup Phillies catcher, isn't the reason for Philadelphia media making the hour trip north to Lehigh Valley. That honor goes to Andrew Painter, Philly's No. 1 prospect who is set to make his first Triple-A start with the IronPigs. Stubbs will be behind the plate as Painter's battery mate, with the job of guiding him through his first taste of major league quality talent. Painter pitched well in his rehab starts but did so against the lowest level of professional competition. Before that, he never tossed an inning above Double-A. Garrett Stubbs spent three seasons as Philly's backup catcher. Now, he pairs up with several of their pitching prospects at Triple-A, using his MLB experience to help them Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images "I'm excited," Stubbs said about catching Painter. "I think everyone's excited... Everyone knows how good he is, how good he can be. So I'm excited for him, mostly. He's had a lot to overcome his first couple years in pro baseball." Advertisement Painter missed two entire seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Despite that, he's still considered to be the No. 7 prospect across all of MLB. With a fastball that can reach 100 mph and an above-average slider and changeup, the 22-year-old has the potential to become a front-end starter in what's already a stacked Philadelphia rotation. Stubbs has stayed healthy throughout his career, but the vet knowns how fortunate Painter has been to recover from the injury with his velocity - and pedigree - intact. "To get to this point is tough. I haven't had to go through it, but I know a lot of guys that have. So to get to the point where he's pitching in a real game, especially at this level, is awesome." Painter had thrown three innings in each of his previous three starts with Single-A Clearwater. This time, he's set to go four innings or about 60-65 pitches, according to Lehigh Valley manager Anthony Contreras. Advertisement As for Stubbs, who has quickly become a fan favorite and key contributor for the 'Pigs, he is staying focused on finding his own path back to the majors. Working a little magic with Painter's progression can't hurt his odds. Tonight's game is free to stream on with first pitch at 6:45 EST. Related: Phillies' Trea Turner Reveals New Offensive Approach Amid Recent Hot-Stretch
