A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman 
(This post will be updated with thoughts as the draft unfolds) The Rule 5 draft is upon us, and with it comes the chance for great elation and sadness. Coming into the morning the consensus was that the Phillies would take Rays outfielder Tyler Goeddel with the #1 pick and would lose RHP Alberto Tirado … Read more
(Updated 12/10 8:30am) I don’t think the Phillies wanted to trade Ken Giles, I honestly believe that he was part of their future. However, the market decided it had an insatiable appetite for high impact relievers and the Phillies found themselves with one of the best options. Giles at age 25 would have been around … Read more
Today the Phillies outrighted LHP Joely Rodriguez to AAA. Last week they lost Nefi Ogando on waivers to the Marlins. I have been guilty of getting upset about these moves while Severino Gonzalez, Colton Murray, and a host of others take up roster spots. It is understandable to see players come off the roster in … Read more
The Phillies are young, the Phillies are starting to get exciting, and the Phillies have a lot of money to spend. That makes a lot of people gravitate to the youngest big name free agent on the market in Jason Heyward. There is a lot to like about Heyward, he is 26, he has put … Read more
Time and time again it seems to be true that the best place to stash a Rule 5 pick is the bullpen. The Phillies have been looking for pitching everywhere this offseason so it makes sense that this is a place they could look to in the Rule 5 draft. The 40 man roster is … Read more
The bullpen was far from the Phillies’ biggest problems during the 2015 season. It was no large on talent and often was forced into using inferior pitchers due to a pitiful starting rotation. But with the departures of Jake Diekman and Jonathan Papelbon (and to a much lesser extent Justin De Fratus) the bullpen was … Read more
The Rule 5 draft has become on one of the most trendy things to talk about with regards to talent acquisition. It is easy to see why as it is essentially a free source of talent and to top that off, 2015 showed unprecedented success for Rule 5 picks. In the past however, getting a … Read more
In the middle of the minor league season, the Phillies devastated the Lakewood BlueClaws rotation. The Phillies’ lowest full season club had been sporting a 6 man rotation that was fairly standard and had led them to decent success. But within a span of weeks the Phillies promoted their top pitcher, Ricardo Pinto, to Clearwater … Read more
There is a school of thought that says the road to contention for a team is linear with the team advancing little by little each year until success is assured. This theory been debunked by many teams over the year who seemingly leap to contention from nowhere. Now this doesn’t mean the Phillies can jump … Read more
The deadline to add players to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. The Phillies faced 3 easy decisions, 2 tough decisions, and a host of mostly irrelevant decisions. In the end they made all of those decisions. They added Jimmy Cordero, Edubray Ramos, and Roman Quinn to their 40 … Read more