A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman 
Pitching Spotlight #1: RHP Chris Oliver – 7 IP 7 H 0 R 0 BB 6 K (98 pitches/66 strikes) Oliver’s pro debut could not have gone much worse. The Phillies messed with his delivery and tried introducing a true slider (Oliver throws a slider that he calls a curveball) and the result was an … Read more
It was announced on Saturday that the Phillies were demoting David Buchanan to AAA and calling up LHP Elvis Araujo. My initial reaction was of outrage that Severino Gonzalez would remain up on the major league roster despite showing in his last start that he was not major league ready. However, the Phillies might actually … Read more
Best Matchup: Friday – Lehigh Valley – Phillippe Aumont vs Adrian Sampson This weekend the Phillies farm system faces a rather pedestrian slate of opposing pitchers so rather than just choose the best pitcher pitching this weekend (Zach Eflin on Friday), let’s go with the most interesting story. There are absolutely no expectations on Aumont, … Read more
I am going to try and do this every month with just a quick roundup of the monthly stats (and yearly) as well as injury updates if available. J.P. Crawford (CLW) – Oblique Injury, playing in Extended Spring Training Aaron Nola (REA) – 4 GS 2.55 ERA 24.2 IP 2 BB 18 K Maikel Franco … Read more
Over at Crashburn Alley, Bill Baer wrote about Ryne Sandberg’s strange and detrimental bullpen usage. This is a topic I have been very passionate about, and rather than rewrite the great things that Bill wrote, I am going to expand this to roster construction. I don’t necessarily think that the bullpen is constructed poorly, but … Read more
Yesterday there was a lot of buzz about trades, pitchings, and a certain left handed starter. I have a lot of thoughts that I will ramble on about with no real coherent end point, so it is probably best to not think about finding a big message here. These range from thoughts on Amaro’s asking … Read more
With Sean O’Sullivan going down to injury and Dustin McGowan not being a major league starting pitcher, the Phillies have made their first reach down for a pitching prospect going with #30 prospect RHP Severino Gonzalez. Gonzalez made a start during spring training, but otherwise he only has three AAA starts under his belt. How … Read more
Pitching Spotlight: LHP Tom Windle – 7 .0 IP 2 H 1 ER 1 BB 9 K Windle had a rough start in his second start of the year, battling through a 9 run effort. Against the Harrisburg Senators on Sunday, Windle was dominant allowing only 14 balls in play with 11 of them ground … Read more
Best Matchup: Saturday – Reading – Zach Eflin vs Joe Ross A matchup of former Padres first rounders traded this offseason (Ross in 2011, Eflin in 2012), Ross went to the Nationals in the deal that sent Wil Myers to San Diego and Steven Souza to Tampa Bay. Eflin so far has taken better to the … Read more
It is hard to make any sweeping judgements on early season stats, so the best question is often “What is this player doing new?”. In the case of shortstop Malquin Canelo he is showing power that he has never shown up this point. Canelo up to this point has been a bit of an after … Read more