Phillies - A Fan’s View

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Syracuse 5 (43-29, 81-67) Lehigh Valley 4 (32-41, 67-81)- Syracuse, NY - NBT Bank Stadium At Bat : 4 R, 10 H, 3 BB, 11 K’s Gabriel Rincones Jr and Luis Caicuto each had two hits (singles). Wuilfredo Antunez had three hits (two singles & HR) and scored three runs. Keaton Anthony walked twice and had two RBIs (sac flies). Raider Tello singled and walked. On The Hill : 4 R, 8 H, 3 BB, 8 K’s RH Casey Lawrence - 4 IP, 3 R - 2 e

Eleven organizations had three or more affiliates qualify for their respective league playoffs this season - the Phillies are one of those with three (AA, Low A, DSL) of their six clubs making the playoffs and a heavily “home grown” lineup at Reading now entering the Eastern League championship series. From my perspective it’s an inadequate gage to evaluate a system as a whole without acknowledging point in time progression. Here’s a position by position abbreviated look from

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Syracuse 6 (42-29, 80-67) Lehigh Valley 2 (32-40, 67-80)- Syracuse, NY - NBT Bank Stadium At Bat : 2 R, 4 H, 0 BB, 5 K’s Raider Tello had two hits in his Lehigh Valley debut (single & HR) with two RBIs. On The Hill : 6 R, 9 H, 6 BB, 7 K’s RH Drake Fellows - 5 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 1 HB, 2 BB, 5 K’s - 79 pitches - 53 strikes RH Andrew Hoffman - faced three batters - 3 R, 1 H, 2 BB - 12 pitches - 4 strikes RH Max Lazar - 1 IP, 0 R,

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Syracuse 9 (41-29, 79-67) Lehigh Valley 8 (32-39, 67-79)- Syracuse, NY - NBT Bank Stadium At Bat : 8 R, 12 H, 9 BB, 9 K’s Kameron Misner had two hits (single & HR - 22nd) with four RBIs. Keaton Anthony had two hits (singles) as did Jordan Dissin (singles). Otto Kemp had two hits (single & double) and walked. Gabriel Rincones Jr homered (6th). Dissin & Kemp each scored twice. Nick Biddison singled, walked twice, scored

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Syracuse 5 (40-29, 78-67) Lehigh Valley 4 (32-38, 67-78)- Syracuse, NY - NBT Bank Stadium At Bat : 4 R, 5 H, 3 BB, 10 K’s Robert Moore hit a two run home run (15th). Keaton Anthony had two hits (single & double) with two RBIs. On The Hill : 5 R, 8 H, 3 BB, 14 K’s RH Alan Rangel - 5 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 2 BB, 10 K’s - 91 pitches - 57 strikes RH Michael Mercado - 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 2 K’s - 23 pitches - 17 strikes RH Grant Holma

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Syracuse 9 (39-29, 77-67) Lehigh Valley 1 (32-37, 67-77)- Syracuse, NY - NBT Bank Stadium At Bat : 1 R, 4 H, 6 BB, 8 K’s Keaton Anthony walked twice. Otto Kemp homered (17th). On The Hill : 9 R, 11 H, 6 BB, 7 K’s RH Brian Keller - 5 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 1 HB, 5 BB, 2 K’s - 92 pitches - 53 strikes LH Nestor Cortes - 1.2 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 0 BB, 3 K’s - 32 pitches - 23 strikes RH Mitch Neunborn - 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K - 3 pitches

The Arizona Fall League will commence play on October 3rd. The Phillies are sending nine players, eight will be part of the Surprise Saguaros (joined by the Mets, Guardians, Rangers and Royals) while one will participate as a member of the Scottsdale Scorpions. Phillies Position Players : Dante Nori - 21 years old - drafted in 1st round of the 2024 draft from Northville HS, Northville, MI - spent a large part of the year on the IL and working with the rehab team in Clearwater

Tonight the Reading Fightin Phils make their first Eastern League playoff appearance since 2019 when they host the Hartford Yard Goats (Rockies) in game one of the best of three Northeast Division series with games two and three (if needed) in Hartford. The Erie SeaWolves (Tigers affiliate) meet the Richmond Flying Squirrels (Giants affiliate) in the Southwest Division series with the two winners meeting in the best of three league championship series. Reading has not won the

Plate Appearances : Raylin Heredia - REA - 579 Aroon Escobar - REA - 569 Bryan Rincon - REA - 534 Christian Cairo - LHV - 516 - designated for assignment 9/13/26 Alex Binelas - LHV/REA - 488 Matthew Ferrara - CW - 486 Robert Phelps - JS/CW - 479 Devin Saltiban - JS - 456 Juan Villavicencio - JS/CW - 449 Pedro Leon - REA/LHV - 430 Hits : Raylin Heredia - REA - 151 Bryan Rincon - REA - 113 Aroon Escobar - REA - 112 Alex Binelas - LHV/REA - 109 Pedro Leon - REA/LHV - 108 Juan Vi

The Top 100 : This past week shortstop Bryan Rincon was added to MLB’s top 100 prospect list giving the Phillies four players on the “daunted” list. I guess that makes Bryan a better player than he was before now that he’s “ranked”. I’ve long had a cynical view of these lists and of those who treat them as validation. Also this week Baseball America published an article highlighting pitchers Cody Bowker and Brad Pacheco as “really good sleeper prospects” who could excel in 2

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) : Lehigh Valley (32-36, 67-76) The Iron Pigs went 3-3 for the week against Worcester (Red Sox affiliate). The week’s standouts : At Bat : Payton Henry - 4 for 10 (.400), 2 HR’s - 1.455 OPS Keaton Anthony - 5 for 16 (.313), 5 runs, 2 HR’s, 5 RBIs, 5 walks, 1.289 OPS Kameron Misner - 7 for 23 (.304), 7 runs, 2 doubles, HR , .882 OPS Gabriel Rincones Jr - 7 for 24 (.292), double, 3 HR’s, 7 RBIs, 1.078 OPS On The Hill : LH Tanne

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Worcester 8 (37-30, 73-65) Lehigh Valley 7 (32-36, 67-76)- Allentown, PA - Coca-Cola Park At Bat : 7 R, 9 H, 0 BB, 11 K’s Colby Thomas had two hits (two doubles) with two RBIs. Keaton Anthony hit his 11th home run and doubled (14th). Kameron Misner had two hits (single & double). Nick Biddison singled and drove in two runs. On The Hill : 8 R, 13 H, 2 BB, 8 K’s RH Casey Lawrence - 5 IP, 5 R, 9 H, 0 BB, 5 K’s - 83 pitches -

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Lehigh Valley 7 (32-35, 67-75) Worcester 5 (36-30, 72-65)- Allentown, PA - Coca-Cola Park At Bat : 7 R, 7 H, 8 BB, 9 K’s Gabriel Rincones Jr doubled (11th) and a two run home run (5th), he also walked. Payton Henry homered (8th) and singled. Carter Kieboom doubled (21st). Paul McIntosh homered (9th) and walked twice. On The Hill : 5 R, 8 H, 3 BB, 11 K’s RH Drake Fellows - 6 IP, 4 R, 6 H, 2 BB, 6 K’s - 93 pitches - 65 strik

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Lehigh Valley 4 (31-35, 66-75) Worcester 1 (36-29, 72-64)- Allentown, PA - Coca-Cola Park At Bat : 4 R, 7 H, 2 BB, 10 K’s The IronPigs hit four solo home runs - Gabriel Rincones Jr (4th), Otto Kemp (16th), Keaton Anthony (10th) and Payton Henry (7th). Rincones Jr and Kemp also singled. On The Hill : 1 R, 5 H, 1 BB, 6 K’s RH Chuck King - 6 IP, 1 R, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 K’s - 85 pitches - 56 strikes RH Andrew Hoffman - 1.1 IP, 0 R,

Forty-three players are participating in the 2026 Dominican Fall Instructional camp which began on 9/7. Yesterday the first road scrimmage game was played against the Braves - today the Phillies host the Braves at their academy. Home games can be viewed on the Phillies Dominican Academy YouTube channel - it’s a video feed only. Below is the Camp Schedule. Note that there is no longer an Instructional League or camp at Clearwater, instead they hold a High Performance Camp foc

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Worcester 7 (36-28, 72-63) Lehigh Valley 4 (30-35, 65-75)- Allentown, PA - Coca-Cola Park At Bat : 5 R, 4 H, 4 BB, 8 K’s Wuilfredo Antunez tripled. Kameron Misner homered (21st) and singled. On The Hill : 7 R, 8 H, 6 BB, 7 K’s RH Alan Rangel - 5 IP, 6 R, 5 H, 3 BB, 2 K’s - 93 pitches - 57 strikes LH Tucker Davidson - 2 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 3 K’s - 41 pitches - 21 strikes LH Kyle Backhus - 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 K’s - 18 p

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Worcester 8 (35-28, 71-63) Lehigh Valley 3 (30-34, 65-74)- Allentown, PA - Coca-Cola Park At Bat : 3 R, 8 H, 3 BB, 10 K’s Christian Cairo singled and walked twice. Gabriel Rincones Jr homered (3rd) and singled posting two RBIs. Kameron Misner doubled. On The Hill : 8 R, 14 H, 3 BB, 10 K’s RH Brian Keller - 4 IP, 7 R - 6 earned, 10 H, 1 HB, 1 BB, 2 K’s - 83 pitches - 50 strikes RH Ryan Cusick - 2 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 K’s -

Compiled by Steve Potter International League (AAA) - Lehigh Valley 5 (30-33, 65-73) Worcester 4 (34-28, 70-63) - Allentown, PA - Coca-Cola Park - ten innings At Bat : 5 R, 7 H, 7 BB, 13 K’s Carter Kieboom singled and doubled - 20th - he had the game winning walk-off hit scoring two runs in the bottom of the 10th. Otto Kemp homered (15th) and walked. Dylan Moore singled and hit a sacrifice fly RBI. Keaton Anthony walked twice. On The Hill : 4 R, 10 H, 5 BB, 11 K’s RH Casey La

In minor league baseball the primary focus is on individual player development with league games being opportunities to enhance individual skills. While teams play to win each contest there’s generally not an in game strategic approach to doing so with playing time scheduled ahead of time and closely adhered to. That being said it’s still a competitive endeavor and building a winning attitude is strengthened by positive outcomes. Players still get excited with productive outp

Roster Builds : The evaluation of a developing baseball player is always subjective whether it be based upon data or observation - the wisest being a blend of both. It’s also an evolutionary review - game and practice experience sharpen the portrait of what a player is seemingly capable or incapable of doing. Those who base their evaluations on limited reviews are making short sighted opinions while those who do so on just a current point in time are discounting potential gro