A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman 
The Phillies have been slowly adding non-roster invites to big league camp from outside the organization, and today we get the internal candidates. Last year the Phillies invited almost no prospects who were not on the 40 man roster to big league camp, though Severino Gonzalez, Aaron Nola, and Zach Eflin all did start big … Read more
This year marks the 4th ranking I have done, and each year some parts of the exercise become easier, while others become more difficult. Every year there is something else to learn and explore as the Phillies’ system continues to evolve. Some parts of this become natural and intuitive, but as the system gets deeper, … Read more
Baseball Prospectus is the latest to publish their ranking of the Phillies farm system. Their list represents the first post-Ken Giles trade list, our first chance to see where some think Mark Appel rates. Unlike past years, the BP lists are free, so you can read their writeups of the Top 10, plus five extra … Read more
We always want to win all trades, whether it is our favorite professional team or it is the deal we just made with a child about their bedtime. But what is winning a trade? Is it having it work out better for you, or is it just being in a better place than before? Do … Read more
The goal of any free agent on the open market is to maximize their earning potential. This is a balance between guaranteed money and future contracts if that player improves (which is why player opt outs have become so popular). This means that free agents on the fringes of the market are incentivized to push … Read more
With the holidays and the Top 50, writing time is getting scarce, so rather than find topics, I am letting you all do the job. So I asked for your questions, and here are my answers. Corrine (@Ut26) – Who is Harold Arauz? I see we are starting off hard here. The truth is that … Read more
The answer to the big question, is of course that the 2016 Phillies are still bad. They went 63-99 last year, they traded a good player and brought in a lot of meh players and a ton of youth. But this team also went 34-37 over the second half of the year after a disastrous … Read more
So it is still December, and the Phillies didn’t really change their core, but over the last week things got a bit crazy. So let’s just take a step back and figure out where we stand and who is still actually on the team, and could break camp on opening day. Locks: Hitters: Carlos Ruiz, Cameron … Read more
Yesterday we thought that Ken Giles was going to Houston for Vincent Velasquez, Derek Fisher, Brett Oberholtzer, and Thomas Eshelman. Now take out Derek Fisher, send Jonathan Arauz to Houston, and now send former #1 overall pick Mark Appel and short season arm Harold Arauz to Philadelphia. Overall you have a very complicated trade now. … Read more
The Phillies just keep adding pitching depth, this time using money to get another back end starting pitcher. Charlie Morton is paid for what he is, a #4/#5 starter who gets ground balls and has a bit of upside. The Phillies have tons of money, and one year deals are attractive to them as they … Read more