A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman 
John Sickels has put his Phillies Top 20 list up in Minor League Ball. John is consistently higher on established players than low minors players. I will highly recommend his writeup on Jesse Biddle and the effects of a concussion. The piece is free to read so I won’t summarize the paragraphs, if you want … Read more
Following up his Top 100 yesterday, Keith Law released his Top 10 Phillies prospects. The list actually goes out to 15 as he mentions the rankings of 5 more players in his writeup. Here is the list: J.P. Crawford Aaron Nola Maikel Franco Roman Quinn Zach Eflin Tom Windle Matt Imhof Franklyn Kilome Ricardo Pinto … Read more
A day after dubbing the Phillies the #25 farm system in baseball, Law ranked their top prospect #7. Keith has always raved about Crawford, and his writeup does not deviate from that. Law mentions his plus defense, his ability to make adjustments, and good swing. Crawford was often mentioned as a toolsy player out of … Read more
The rankings continue, this time it is shortstop prospects. Phillies #1 prospect, J.P. Crawford comes in at #5 on the list. Before you panic, here is the full list: Carlos Correa (Astros) Francisco Lindor (Indians) Addison Russell (Cubs) Corey Seager (Dodgers) J.P. Crawford (Phillies) Nick Gordon (Twins) Raul Adalberto Mondesi (Royals) Trea Turner (Padres Nationals) … Read more
Today Keith Law kicked off his ranking season with his Org Rankings. The Phillies came in at #25 (down from #14), and before giving my thoughts here is Keith Law’s write up (All 30 are here). They might have been 28th or 29th had they not traded Jimmy Rollins to the Dodgers for a pair of … Read more
Ranking season is nearing an end, and this week MLB.com has been rolling out their Top Prospects by Position rankings. Aaron Nola missed out on the RHP rankings, but Maikel Franco comes in at #5 on the 3B rankings. The full rankings and writeup are here, with the Top 10 being: Kris Bryant – Cubs … Read more
The Dominican Winter League ended with a tour de force by Maikel Franco who capped off a spectacular playoffs by going 3-4 with two home runs and 7 RBI, including a grand slam. Outside of the short appearance of an injured Darin Ruf, the Dominican was kind to members of the Phillies 40 man roster. … Read more
Even before the Phillies started acquiring minor leaguers, Joe Jordan and the Phillies front office have been hinting that they are going to be taking it slow with their prospects. This morning, Jake Kaplan (New Matt Gelb) had an article up with some more quotes and speculations on the subject. Since each of these moves … Read more
Creating any prospect list is a ton of work behind the scenes, but along the way there are many neat little facts and discoveries. One of my favorite is the list itself. The names involved in it can tell you a lot about the organization and how it acquires talent. There is not a lot of … Read more
The past year has seen a lot of changes in the Phillies system; as the major league club transitions into a rebuilding phase, more and more emphasis is being put on the farm system. A criticism often levied against the Phillies system is that it lacks impact and near term help. As for the impact, I … Read more