A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman The luxury tax has been a source of fan frustration for years. It was this magical barrier the Phillies would approach, but never cross. This lead to the Phillies sending out worst trade packages to get money included in trades, or having to ignore certain players altogether. The Phillies went over the tax line to … Read more
One of the top trends in post draft thoughts in any sport is to say the teams with lots of picks or high picks had good drafts, and those teams with lower picks and fewer picks had poor drafts. The Phillies fall firmly into that second group. Thanks to a missing second round pick (Nick … Read more
With the draft over, teams have moved on to augmenting their picks from the undrafted market. The Phillies have long been active in this space, and have had some success in recent seasons. I will be grabbing what information I can and adding it here. Matt Alifano, 3B, Adelphi University Alifano is a 21 year … Read more
On to the end of the draft. 16th round – Josh Bortka, RHP, University of Central Missouri It is the point in the draft where teams start taking flier on college relievers with interesting stuff, or at the least the Phillies do with the same sort of guy. Bortka only pitched one year at University … Read more
Lumping some Day 3 picks together. 12th round – Jordan Dissin, C, Saddleback College (CA) A close to home kid who went to Malvern Prep, but then to University of Richmond and now Saddleback College (a California JuCo) before heading to UCSD next year. He hitting .393/.505/.577 last year with 33 walks to 35 strikeouts … Read more
Coming into Day 3 of the draft it looked like the Phillies had some money to spend on some overslot players. They jumped right into that with Mississippi HS outfielder Emaarion Boyd in the 11th round. Boyd is committed to Northwest Mississippi JC, but looks like he might have been angling for going to the … Read more
The Phillies end their day by going catcher Gustavo Sosa in the 10th round of the draft. Sosa is a former Rutgers Scarlet Knight via Staten Island, and is a 21 year old (as of yesterday) third year JuCo player. He hit .337/.415/.561 this season with 9 home runs in 54 games with 24 walks … Read more
The Phillies take another senior in the 9th round in OF Chad Castillo from California Baptist University (currently transferring to Oklahoma St). Like a bunch of the Phillies picks so far he has a big breakout stat line this year, hitting .386/.442/.635 with 35 extra base hits in 56 games. Looks to have mostly player … Read more
The Phillies continue the college seniors with RHP Alex Rao out of Notre Dame in the 8th round. Rao is a big (6’4″) reliever, with good life on a mid 90s fastball up to 98. He has a split change in the 80s, a pitch that has started to show up more in some of … Read more
The Phillies take their first college senior in the 7th round, drafting Caleb Ricketts a catcher (and part time outfielder) from University of San Diego. Ricketts had 3 underwhelming years, before a massive power explosion this year hitting .373/.423/.658 with 16 home runs. He is a big dude (6’4″ 225lbs) and there are questions about … Read more