Art Charles

The Eye Test – Reading 4/21/15

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My son and I made the one hour trek out to Baseballtown for our first Reading Fightins game of the season. We’ve both been looking forward to this since the season started. For my purposes, this roster is loaded with a variety of young talent at all levels of development. For my son (who is … Read more

2014 Clearwater Threshers Recap: Interview with Jim Peyton

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Before we jump into talking about players why don’t you introduce yourself to those that haven’t already read your work and where people can find your writing?

I am Jim Peyton.  I started reporting for Phuture Phillies in Spring Training 2014.  I began by covering the players invited to the major league camp.  I attended a few of the games at Bright House but spent most of my time at the Carpenter Complex following the young prospects.  I continued to follow them through XST while covering the Threshers.  When XST broke, I followed the GCL and the draft picks who were assigned to the Clearwater teams.  I am just now beginning to attend the Instructional League games.  In fact, after sending this to Matt, I’ll be heading over to watch an intra-squad game.

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A Clearwater Revival

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Many times early in the season I was told by various people that the Clearwater Threshers were the worst team in affiliated baseball and that they had never seen a team with so little talent.  During the first half of the season the Thresher’s 17-51 record bore out that statement.  The team itself had one player (Dan Child) off of Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects and no players off of my list.  The team in the first half saw rehab and roster cameos by Top 30 prospects Andrew Knapp, Malquin Canelo, and Deivi Grullon, but the first real impactful talent to arrive was Roman Quinn (.252/.330/.361).  After that in the second half, top prospect J.P. Crawford (.278/.354/.430) arrived, and then there was a quick stop by 2014 top pick Aaron Nola.  The Threshers are currently 28-36 over the second half and it is not just the top prospects that have made the difference.  A group of players of of prospect watcher’s radars have had good second halfs taking the Threshers from historically bad to just mediocre.

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