A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
I just wrote 20,000 words about 50 prospects, I put a number in front of each of them. It was a prospect list, and it was my prospect list, and that is an important point here. As an evaluator of baseball players, I am highly biased. I am working with a limited information set, and … Read more
Last season, the Phillies transitioned from rebuild to attempting to contend. They emptied much of the top of their farm system to the majors with J.P. Crawford, Scott Kingery, Jorge Alfaro, Seranthony Dominguez, Roman Quinn, and Victor Arano all graduating to join the Phillies’ young group of players already in the majors. This left a … Read more
Much of writing about prospects is about hope and optimism for the future. However, it can also be about failure and what that means and what the paths out of it are. It is no secret that the Phillies system is down compared to where it was a few years ago. Some of that has … Read more
We want baseball development to be clean and linear, but it is messy and all over the place. A pitcher may only be a good secondary pitch away from becoming a major league starter, but that may be a totally different grip that a coach might introduce. A teenager could still be waiting on achieving … 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 farm system has certainly taken its beatings over the past few years. Some of it has been good, like the graduations of Rhys Hoskins, Jorge Alfaro, Nick Pivetta, Nick Williams, Scott Kingery, J.P. Crawford, Seranthony Dominguez, and others. Some has been bad, like the injuries to Sixto Sanchez, the stagnation of high picks, … Read more