A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman 
The Top 10 prospect list is the most universal ranking, and it is supposed to represent the top of the top. By splitting the Top 10 into two parts, a separation occurs as the elite are removed. As I mentioned in the 11-15 introduction, the prospects ranked 8-10 on this list are part of the … Read more
The top of the Phillies system has some real impact, but what makes it special for me is the group spanning 8 to 15. The whole group is interchangeable, and while I went with 3 younger upside players in the 8-10 spot, I see them as equal in value to me to the 5 players … Read more
This part of the rankings ends the long journey through a tier of prospects. There is not a huge difference between Gamboa at 16 and players 20 spots below him. What these players represent are upside and risk. Players like Ortiz, Gamboa, Stobbe, and Brito could be special, but that time is far away. Mark … 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
The Top 30 has become the standard of prospect lists. It is often a natural cut off when systems start to transition into filler. For the Phillies system, the gap from 31 to 30 is not a gaping chasm. However, we start to really get hints at what lies at the top. There are prospects … Read more
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
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
What makes the Phillies depth so amazing is that the future major leaguers in the organization go deep into this list. This group of 5 includes a current major leaguer, 3 projectable short season prospects, and a breakout prospect who reached AA this year. None of them are superstars (at least not yet), but if … Read more
Each year making this list becomes harder and harder. The depth of the Phillies system has increased every year I have written a prospect list. There were many players left off this list that would have made the first Top 30 I wrote in the Spring of 2013. It is not all bad news when … Read more
There are many flaws with ranking prospects. One of the biggest is where to end your list, and in the end we gravitate to nice round numbers because they are more aesthetically pleasing. This leaves us with an abrupt end to the creation of the list and an abrupt beginning to the journey. These lucky … Read more