Phillies Trade RHP Chris Oliver and LHP Josh Taylor for slot money

As we talked about earlier this week, in order for the Phillies to sign Jhailyn Ortiz and Rafael Marchan they would need to acquire more slot money.  The first part of this trade is moving slot money.  The Phillies trade the #9 slot ($1,352,100) for the #1 slot ($3,590,400).  This is more than the Phillies … Read more

BP’s Tucker Blair Filed Some Reports on Lakewood

I was going to wait for BP to publish these all in one place, but they haven’t so I thought I would consolidate these reports in a single spot because I think they are very good and important to read.  Baseball Prospectus’ Tucker Blair made the journey to Hagerstown where he caught most of a series … Read more

Weekend Preview – 5/15/15

Best Matchup: Saturday – Lakewood – Chris Oliver vs Spencer Adams A matchup of 2014 draft picks, Adams was the White Sox’s 2nd round pick (#44 overall) last year.  The projectable HS RHP dominated last year with a fastball that topped out at 96, and made it onto some Top 100 prospect lists this past … 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

Lakewood BlueClaws set Pitching Rotation

The BlueClaws have announced that they will going with a 6 man rotation to start the season.  Right now their rotation will be RHP Ricardo Pinto, LHP Josh Taylor, RHP Tyler Viza, RHP Ranfi Casimiro, RHP Chris Oliver, and LHP Elniery Garcia.  Viza and Casimiro return to Lakewood after up and down years (both probably … Read more

2015 Top 50 Phillies Prospects: 31-40

This group from 31-40 is full of the players I was excited to put in my Top 30, but the Phillies went ahead and, since August, acquired 7 players that are in the Top 30 of this list.  This leaves a group of 10 players with some real talent and major league upside.  Traditionally, because of the … Read more

2014 Williamsport Crosscutters Recap

Team: Williamsport Crosscutters
Record: 33-44
Standing: 6th in Pinckney Division

Top Hitter Stat Lines:

Drew Stankiewicz – 23 G – 1 HR – 3 SB – .329/.485/.418
Jiandido Tromp – 69 G – 14 HR – 16 SB – .273/.325/.498
Rhys Hoskins – 70 G – 9 HR – 3 SB – .237/.311/.408

Top Pitching Lines:

David Whitehead – 74.0 IP – 2.19 ERA – 8 BB – 43 K
Ricardo Pinto – 47.0 IP – 2.11 ERA – 15 BB – 48 K
Brandon Leibrandt – 41.0 IP – 2.20 ERA – 8 BB – 45 K
Edubray Ramos – 22.2 IP – 0.79 ERA – 2 BB – 24 K

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Low Minors Starting Rotation Crunch

The Phillies entered the season with one of the thinnest systems in terms of starting pitching in major leagues.  Through the draft, international development, and trades the Phillies have turned this weakness into a strength.  The result has been starting rotations in the low minors that ended the year in 6 and 7 man rotations … Read more

Jesse Biddle’s Season In Question

Ruben Amaro Jr. recently met with CSN reporter Jim Salisbury for a one on one interview in which the status of  Jesse Biddle was discussed.  Biddle, 22, had been recently placed on the temporarily inactive list to clear his head of some growing frustrations.  Having grown up in Philadelphia, the young pitcher was placing a … Read more