A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman 
I noticed that this year Maikel Franco had walked in his first 4 games and only one since, and that he had hit 8 of his 10 doubles in his first 10 games (he has played 25). So I set out to find out why Franco appeared to be low on power and expected to find … Read more
I have resisted writing about the MLB draft for a couple of reasons so far, the first being that I am woefully unqualified to really talk about anything other than pick #10, there are just too many players for me to really track for anything beyond that. The second is that all of the injuries … Read more
It was a rocky start for Shane Watson from the moment he was drafted in the supplemental first round of the 2012 draft. The big righty was diagnosed with diabetes soon after being drafted which limited his time in the GCL as he lost a lot of weight and strength. He bounced back in Instructs … Read more
Pitching Spotlight #1: RHP Chris Oliver – 7 IP 7 H 0 R 0 BB 6 K (98 pitches/66 strikes) Oliver’s pro debut could not have gone much worse. The Phillies messed with his delivery and tried introducing a true slider (Oliver throws a slider that he calls a curveball) and the result was an … Read more
It was announced on Saturday that the Phillies were demoting David Buchanan to AAA and calling up LHP Elvis Araujo. My initial reaction was of outrage that Severino Gonzalez would remain up on the major league roster despite showing in his last start that he was not major league ready. However, the Phillies might actually … Read more
Best Matchup: Friday – Lehigh Valley – Phillippe Aumont vs Adrian Sampson This weekend the Phillies farm system faces a rather pedestrian slate of opposing pitchers so rather than just choose the best pitcher pitching this weekend (Zach Eflin on Friday), let’s go with the most interesting story. There are absolutely no expectations on Aumont, … Read more
I am going to try and do this every month with just a quick roundup of the monthly stats (and yearly) as well as injury updates if available. J.P. Crawford (CLW) – Oblique Injury, playing in Extended Spring Training Aaron Nola (REA) – 4 GS 2.55 ERA 24.2 IP 2 BB 18 K Maikel Franco … Read more
Over at Crashburn Alley, Bill Baer wrote about Ryne Sandberg’s strange and detrimental bullpen usage. This is a topic I have been very passionate about, and rather than rewrite the great things that Bill wrote, I am going to expand this to roster construction. I don’t necessarily think that the bullpen is constructed poorly, but … Read more
Yesterday there was a lot of buzz about trades, pitchings, and a certain left handed starter. I have a lot of thoughts that I will ramble on about with no real coherent end point, so it is probably best to not think about finding a big message here. These range from thoughts on Amaro’s asking … Read more
With Sean O’Sullivan going down to injury and Dustin McGowan not being a major league starting pitcher, the Phillies have made their first reach down for a pitching prospect going with #30 prospect RHP Severino Gonzalez. Gonzalez made a start during spring training, but otherwise he only has three AAA starts under his belt. How … Read more