A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Being a major leaguer has value, even if the player is not a particularly good major leaguer. For three players here they could be very valuable to a team, or just a value compared to the peers on this list of won’t make the majors. The margin between those two things is very small for … Read more
Last part of the series on midseason updates after looking at players off the list on Tuesday and hitters on Wednesday. This time it is pitchers, a position that has become and org focus in the past few years. With quantity comes some quality, but also some players that have dropped off. Up: Ben Lively … Read more
Today Ben Lively was promoted to AAA to replace the injured Mark Appel. There is a lot of buzz around Ben Lively this year, a 1.87 ERA in AA will do that. Lively also has some name recognition. He was the sole return for Marlon Byrd and was a borderline Top 10 prospect coming into … Read more
Today Ben Badler of Baseball America posted a list of 10 players that could be in need of a quick promotion. There were 3 Phillies on the list, which got me thinking about other players I thought could use a challenge. The Phillies then immediately promoted one of those players in RHP Miguel Nunez. There … Read more
I like writing a Top 50 because the players in this group don’t get left out. Almost everyone here is flawed, and many of them will fail. However, there are real prospects here, and there are players who will see limited major league roles as well. Most of this list would make the Top 30 … Read more
Is it possible that I haven’t attended a game in over 3 weeks? Nothing at all since my last post? Of course not. I’ve been fortunate to see a few recent Iron Pigs games and even a Fightins game since the time I wrote but either had nothing to write about paid so little attention … Read more
Phillies’ top ten prospects Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin and Jesse Biddle are the top starting pitchers with the Reading Fightin Phils. While Reading boasts five potential major league starters, the Fightin Phils final two starters, Ben Lively and Tom Windle, are bigger question marks and lack the upside like Reading’s front three. Lively, 22, was … Read more
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
It was a big weekend for the Phillies prospects both at the major league level and the minor league level. This weekend saw the start of minor league games, including games against Canada and Puerto Rico. Lets jump into the reports by many sources. Friday: The first two pitchers for the major league club were LHPs … Read more
As we get closer to the top 10, the players in the system start to separate themselves into specific tiers of talent and profile. In the last three groups of 10 the players could arguably have been slotted in many different orders. Here those groups become smaller and the order starts to become more important. I am making … Read more