A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Matt Winkelman 
Earlier this week news came out that there is mutual interest between the Phillies and Jeff Francoeur on a return for the 2016 season. There is nothing definite here, it is more that the Phillies like Frenchy and Frenchy likes the Phillies. But this got me thinking about the makeup of the team next year. … Read more
The League Top 20s march on with the New York Penn League. In general the list tends to be a bit weak outside the top few names. This is because the top HS picks tend to skip over the league, which leaves it with some college draftees who qualify for the innings and PA thresholds, … Read more
The Paul Owens Award goes to the top hitter and pitcher in the Phillies’ minor leagues. The award does not go to the best prospects, nor does it go to the best statistical season. The award serves to both honor players and to showcase them to the fanbase. In the past this has lead to … Read more
Baseball America is starting their league Top 20 prospects. Up today was the GCL, where the Phillies fielded a very competitive team full of high upside prospects lead by #10 overall pick Cornelius Randolph. The Phillies placed 3 players on BA’s list and probably would have had quite a few more had the list gone … Read more
At the beginning of the season (actually a week or so in) I put out some minor league predictions. Mostly they were aimed at being funny and talking about some potential trends in the organization. Either way it is just as fun to loop back around and see how I did. 1. Carlos Tocci hits more … Read more
It is always cautioned that the first Arizona Fall League rosters are preliminary. The first casualty was right handed starter Nick Pivetta who experienced an oblique injury in his final start for Reading. Given normal injury recovery, Pivetta likely would have been healthy to pitch in the AFL but by the time he ramped up … Read more
The minor league season is officially over and now we begin the transition to fall ball and the offseason proper. The articles and content are likely to be more sporadic as I spend more time on larger pieces and site improvements, but there will be plenty of new things coming out fairly often. I have … Read more
The Fightin Phils dispatched the Binghamton Mets with ease in the first round of the Eastern League playoffs, setting them up for a 5 game series with the Bowie Baysox (Orioles) for the championship. Starting Pitching: Game 1 (@Reading): Zach Eflin Game 2 (@Reading): Ethan Martin Game 3 (@Bowie): Jake Thompson Game 4 (@Bowie): Ben Lively … Read more
You guys came up big with questions and in an effort to get this out to you quicker I have split this mailbag into two parts. Part 2 should come in the next day or two. But enough of that, on to your questions. @Matt_Winkelman mailbag Q: Do you have any concerns with the lack … Read more
Outside those that follow the minor leagues closely, Ken Giles was a relative unknown before he showed up to camp in 2014. It was with good reason, because while Giles was a known quantity out of JuCo in the 2011 draft (he touched 100 with an average to above average slider), he missed most of … Read more