A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
The Phillies have not been particularly good at development over most of my lifetime. During the Amaro and Gillick years it was rare that early draft picks, let alone late picks turned into interesting prospects. The Phillies haven’t become a draft or development powerhouse overnight, they probably are still below average to average in development. … Read more
The modern major league roster construction has bullpens made up of players with minor league options remaining. This means some of the young pitchers in camp such as Austin Davis and Yacksel Rios are functionally prospects, but not by service time and innings. There are no open competitions for the majors involving pitching prospects, but … Read more
Not every prospect that will set foot on a major league field will be an impact player. The drafts under Johnny Almaraz have done a very good job of finding players who look like major league contributors regardless of the round they were drafted in. Pitchers like Kyle Dohy and Zach Warren may have been … Read more
The Phillies are holding a tenuous lead the NL East heading down the stretch in large part to graduations from their farm system. This year J.P. Crawford (1), Scott Kingery (3), Jorge Alfaro (4), Ramon Quinn (13), Seranthony Dominguez (14), Victor Arano (30), and Jesmuel Valentin (32) all have or will have graduated off of … Read more
A list of 30 prospects in a system has become standard, and while this list goes to 50, 30 is where it really hits its stride. These 10 players aren’t perfect prospects, but they are players with a chance to make real major league impact. That ranges from back end starting pitchers who could be … Read more
If you guys follow me on Twitter (@JPhils90), you would know last night I went to Reading for the second time in four days. And unlike Saturday where Drew Anderson got knocked around and got ejected seven batters into the 1st inning and the game was called after five innings due to rain. This one … Read more
This past weekend, Bryce Harper once again destroyed Phillies’ pitching. Pitch selection continued to be a problem on Saturday night, as it has been throughout the nine games Harper’s faced the Phillies this season. They should not be throwing him fastballs. But Harper’s dominance stems from a much deeper issue that I mentioned in my first ever … Read more
Last night the Mets lineup in the 6th began Bruce/Walker/Duda, so LH/switch/LH. So Joely Rodriguez, as the only LHP on the active roster, was obviously the choice. But in his brief career he hasn’t been reliable at getting LH hitting. Entering last night, LH hitters: 11/30 (2 XBH), 3/6 K/BB; RH hitters: 8/33 (5 XBH), … Read more
Part of ranking players is knowing you are going to be wrong and potentially very wrong. I know someone in this group is going to make me look stupid. The problem with highly volatile young players is that it is really hard to protect physical growth and coaching from an outside point of view. What … Read more