9/1/25 : News and Notes 🤔
- Steve Potter
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Minor League Pitching Notes :
This is the last week of the regular season for the minor league “A” level of play (Jersey Shore & Clearwater). Clearwater has a path to the Florida State League playoffs and could earn a spot this week. RHP Gage Wood (2025 1st round draft choice) is slated to make his pro debut with Clearwater on Friday.
Newly signed RHP Walker Buehler is scheduled to start on Saturday for Lehigh Valley and then would start for the Phillies six days later against the KC Royals. RHP Matt Manning will make his second start for Reading on Saturday. RHP Andrew Painter starts this week on Wednesday for Lehigh Valley.
Chasing Batting Titles :
At the major league level Trea Turner is in the hunt for the National League batting title with a .301 average. Justin Crawford (LHV) currently leads the AAA level International League in hitting with a .336 batting average and Felix Reyes (REA) leads the AA level Eastern League with a .332 batting average.
Richie Ashburn was the last Phillies player to win the National League batting title way back in 1958. According to my research on Baseball Reference no Lehigh Valley IronPig has ever won the International League batting title - Joey Meneses was 2nd in 2019. The last Reading Phillie to win an Eastern League batting title was Tagg Bozied in 2010. A R-Phil has won a batting title just four times, dating back to 1967.
Would be really cool to have three Phillies batting champions in the organization all in the same year, I don’t think that’s ever occurred!
Record Book Steals :
This season was the first (I researched back to 1960 when the four levels of play were initiated) in Phillies minor league history where they have had five players with 40 or more stolen bases in the same season. It breaks the record of four set in 1980, 1982 and 1983. The single season system record for players with 30 or more stolen bases was set in 1981 with 8 players doing so - this year’s group has seven with a couple on the cusp. The high mark for players with 50 or more in a season was set in 1980 at three and matched in 1981, 1982 and 1983.
2025 Stolen Base Leaders
Aidan Miller - REA - 50
Dante Nori - JS/CW - 48
Justin Crawford - LHV - 45
Carson DeMartini - REA/JS - 44
Bryan Rincon - JS - 40
Oscar Mercado - LHV - 38
Avery Owusu-Asiedu - JS/CW - 32
Dylan Campbell - REA/JS - 28
John Spikerman - JS/CW - 27
Aroon Escobar - JS/CW - 22
Kudos to the players for accomplishing this feat but also to the Player Development coaches that oversee base-running - Coordinator Gary Cathcart, Chris Adamson (LHV), Mycal Jones (REA), Greg Brodzinski (JS) and Desmond Jennings (CW).
September Call Ups :
Back in the day September was the month teams expanded rosters with virtually every player eligible on the 40 man roster. That was pre pitch clock and complaints persisted about length of games and mass substitutions. So the league limited the number of call ups to just two and capped pitcher spots at fourteen.
This year when the call ups were enacted the Phillies had the opportunity to pick up a savvy veteran pitcher on a waiver claim with multiple years of success in lefty Tim Mayza and chose to reward good soldier Garrett Stubbs as the position player added. Some have voiced their displeasure with the choices but from my perspective these are good moves - both are veteran presences - Stubbs is versatile and a respected leader. It says here that the Phillies will win the 2025 World Series - I truly believe that - these moves were made aligned to every other one with that goal in mind. The organization has a standard in mind and protecting it with an ongoing pursuit to win a championship is the biggest part of it. It’s great to have other call-up options like Otto Kemp, Johan Rojas, Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter,etc. and is a testament to the player development process. It is very likely those players and others will go in stay-ready mode like prior years when the playoffs begin. It’s a great “problem” to have with multiple players worthy of the call ups - just sayin 😎.
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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