A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
It has been an unpleasant start to the baseball season, both for those playing the games on the field and those who live in states in northern part of the country. Now professional players are supposed to be able to handle many temperatures, but it is important to remember that especially at the lower levels … Read more
Jim Peyton of Phuture Phillies has posted a picture of minor league rosters. Overall the assignments are very conservative so we will see how everything shakes out early in the season. These rosters are unofficial, and if they end up being the official rosters they are subject to constant change because this is the nature … Read more
As all of you know, the Phillies are playing a series against their minor leaguers. Today they have announced the roster for the series. No information on who will start and how much they play. Hitters: C: Jorge Alfaro/Andrew Knapp 1B: Brock Stassi/Rhys Hoskins 2B: Scott Kingery/Jesmuel Valentin SS: J.P. Crawford/Malquin Canelo 3B: Mitch Walding/Angelo Mora OF: Nick Williams/Dylan … Read more
Both the Ruben Amaro and Matt Klentak lead front offices acquired a lot of pitching in the past few seasons through trades, signings, drafting, and waiver claims. Much of that pitching was in the high minors at the time of acquisition, and was poised to be part of the wave of players that the organization … 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
We will likely never see something like the 2015 Reading Fightins again. It was the perfect combination of top prospects, post promotion breakouts, and a huge influx of talent via trade. The team was the favorites going into the Eastern League playoffs and steamrolled through the first round. But in the end they ended up … Read more
This is the interview I have looked forward to the most since I started this series. Given how many Reading games I watched and listened to this year, I have heard Mike Ventola’s voice more than any other baseball radio/TV person out there. Chris LaBarge wrote here this summer before starting his own site and … Read more
We jump out of order to go to Lehigh Valley before we wrap our series up with AA Reading. No Phillies affiliate has been as hard hit by the talent glut and subsequent rebuild as the IronPigs. They have been lucky the past few years to get a single good prospect (much like having Maikel … Read more
It was a weird year in Allentown. The team started with Maikel Franco and a lot of AAAA players. Its pitching staff was mostly patched together with guys whose best hope was getting a spot start for the Phillies to augment some pitchers with fringier stuff trying to find their way to major league debuts. … Read more
The first half version of the 2014 Clearwater Threshers was one of the worst teams assembled in affiliated baseball. They improved in the second half playing host to J.P. Crawford, Roman Quinn, and Aaron Nola. The 2015 squad was a much better team from day 1. The starting pitching had big promise early, but stumbled … Read more