A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
I am sorry I have not written as much as I used to. A big thanks to Jeff for taking over the draft previews. Some things happened in the last week and I want to write about current events the way I used to write about current events. Jesmuel Valentin to Have Surgery for Shoulder … Read more
The key to a healthy farm system is adding talent through every method possible. These 5 are not that example. These are 5 players that point to the value of patience. All were signed between July 2 and December 31 of 2011 out of Latin America. The Phillies signed 4 of them and traded for … Read more
Last year the Phillies sent J.P. Crawford and Aaron Nola to the Futures Game (Nola would not go because of his pitching schedule) and the year before the Phillies sent Crawford and Maikel Franco. This year the attendees are much less illustrious as the Phillies will be represented by Reading teammates Dylan Cozens and Ricardo … Read more
This section of the ranking was the hardest part of this exercise. There was not a huge difference among these 10 players (and the last 2-3 of the Top 10), and in reality you could reorder this list with little argument from me. It is easy to point to the top of the system as the reason for … Read more
The Paul Owens Award goes to the top hitter and pitcher in the Phillies’ minor leagues. The award does not go to the best prospects, nor does it go to the best statistical season. The award serves to both honor players and to showcase them to the fanbase. In the past this has lead to … Read more
I have had it mentioned to me a couple of times in the past few weeks that Ricardo Pinto is the Phillies top prospect that people seem to know the least about. On the surface he has been really easy to overlook. At 6’0″ he is not physical or projectable. He came out of nowhere last … Read more
Pitcher Spotlight #1: Jesse Biddle 7 IP 3 H 0 R 1 BB 7 K There could not have been a more different second start for Biddle after the disaster of his first AAA start. At his peak prospect value Biddle was 89-93 with a plus curveball and feel for a decent looking changeup. Now … Read more
Clearwater technically has not wrapped up the first half of its season (it has two more games with Daytona before that), but the All-Star break gives as good a time as any to check in on the Threshers to see how things are going in Florida. Crawford Rampages: For a month J.P. Crawford used the … Read more
Pitcher Spotlight #1: Ricardo Pinto 7 IP 7 H 1 R 0 ER 1 BB 7 K Pinto has taken the challenge of full season ball and has not only has stayed steady, but has actually stepped forward in many ways. On the season the Pinto now has 13 walks to 54 strikeouts over 57 innings. … Read more
Pitching Spotlight: RHP Zach Eflin – 8.0 IP 3 H 0 ER 1 BB 5 K Outside of the incredible stat line I want to talk about the reason for Eflin’s success so far which is his ability to generate ground balls. Over the course of his Sunday start Eflin threw a ton of strikes especially … Read more