Extended Spring Training Roster

Jim Peyton has posted up the first Extended Spring Training roster for the Phillies.  Before getting into the specific players, it looks like the Phillies have brought over a lot of latin players (16 Dominican Republic, 22 Venezuela, 2 Panamá, 2  Columbia, 1 Mexico).  The number of players from Venezuela is bit surprising and I … Read more

Ricardo Pinto’s strong start has shades of Yoel Mecias

This winter Ricardo Pinto turned a few heads with some high rankings on Phillies top prospect lists.   He had just made his stateside debut in Williamsport on a team that does not get a ton of eyes.  On first glance Pinto is not physically what you would expect from a good starting pitcher prospect … Read more

Looking for your Mailbag Questions

I have been trying to find things to say about 5 games of minor leagues, but we are still too early to take anything but small sample size observations of things that look slightly different (like Ben Badler’s report that Windle’s velocity was up this season).  So with that I will be taking all of … Read more

2015 Lakewood Preview/Guide

Team Page Overview: The BlueClaws are far from the most stacked team in the system, the only top 10 prospects are defensive minded Deivi Grullon and Carlos Tocci.  The pitching staff is fairly unheralded, but features a pair of very interesting Latin arms in Ricardo Pinto and Elniery Garcia that join a pair of returning … Read more

In Person Prospect Watch – Lehigh Valley 4/11/15

As I will do 20+ times this season, I had the opportunity to see my hometown IronPigs first hand last night. While the roster is filled with mostly veteran talent, there were a few prospects to keep an eye on. So, in between Walking Tacos and a box of Rivets, here’s are my impressions: Severino … Read more

2015 Threshers Preview/Guide

Team Page Overview: Last year the Threshers were possibly the worst team in minor league baseball at the start of the season.  They had no players in my Top 30 Phillies prospects and even beyond that it was mostly filler to make out of a roster.  Eventually Roman Quinn and J.P. Crawford arrived, and they … Read more

2015 Fightin Phils Preview/Guide

Team Page Overview: Ever since the Phillies completed the trade of Marlon Byrd to Cincinnati for Ben Lively there has been whispers of a stacked Reading rotation.  It turns out those whispers have become truth and the Fightin Phils will roll out a rotation of Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin, Jesse Biddle, Ben Lively, and Tom … Read more

Why are Phillies giving Darin Ruf a chance?

Yesterday Corrine Landry forwarded this tweet to me. .@brookob can't seem to figure out why the Phillies won't give Darin Ruf a chance? http://t.co/29q6sdtGEt — Philadelphia Inquirer Sports (@phillysport) April 7, 2015 The premise of the article coupled with all the comments bashing Amaro seemed to confusing to me, because I can’t figure out why the … Read more