A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
We will be spending all offseason talking about prospects, so this is the moment to honor those that put up the best statistical years for the organization. This list was put together with input from the staff here.
Catcher:
Andrew Knapp (.290/.354/.438 5 HR LKW)
It was a rough start for Knapp in his comeback from Tommy John surgery, but the former second round pick bounced back with a very good season in the South Atlantic League.
Maikel Franco has been on Phillies fans radar’s for almost 2 years now, ever since he mashed pitching in the Florida State League. There was some clamoring for him to win the third base job out of spring training in 2014, but the Phillies sent him to Lehigh Valley for the season. But now it appears they will be calling up the right-handed third baseman, so who is Maikel Franco, and what should Phillies fans expect from Franco going forward.
We will be tracking the assignments of prospects to winter and fall assignments: All Winter/Fall League stats can be found here Winter League: Maikel Franco – Gigantes del Cibao (DWL) Carlos Tocci – Phillies Complex (Clearwater) Yoel Mecias – Phillies Complex (Clearwater) Jose Pujols – Phillies Complex (Clearwater) Aaron Altherr – Aguilas del Zulia (VWL) William Cuicas – Tigres … Read more
Here is your Phillies Arizona Fall League participants, outside of Quinn there are a lot of relievers trying to get protected from Rule 5 draft.
Roman Quinn – CF – Clearwater – .252/.330/.361 6 HR 30 SBs
Roman Quinn has returned from an Achilles injury better than anyone could have predicted, with his speed still intact. In deference to J.P. Crawford, Quinn has moved to center field and the fall should give him plenty of reps in the outfield. Quinn should be an outstanding defender in centerfield with his elite speed and plus arm. The bat is now the main focus as Quinn will need to become comfortable from both sides of the plate and begin to show more ability to drive the ball.
After half a decade of trading away prospects the Phillies system bottomed out in the winter of 2012-2013. The system lacked impact and it lacked depth. This lead to a large fallow period for the Phillies farm system, one that sat over Clearwater and bled up into the high minors. The Phillies responded to this crisis of depth with high school heavy drafts in 2012 and 2013, and those prospects have been slow to move through the system. The Phillies have started to do something they haven’t done in a long time to help their draft classes, they have started to diversify their talent acquisition.
Many times early in the season I was told by various people that the Clearwater Threshers were the worst team in affiliated baseball and that they had never seen a team with so little talent. During the first half of the season the Thresher’s 17-51 record bore out that statement. The team itself had one player (Dan Child) off of Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects and no players off of my list. The team in the first half saw rehab and roster cameos by Top 30 prospects Andrew Knapp, Malquin Canelo, and Deivi Grullon, but the first real impactful talent to arrive was Roman Quinn (.252/.330/.361). After that in the second half, top prospect J.P. Crawford (.278/.354/.430) arrived, and then there was a quick stop by 2014 top pick Aaron Nola. The Threshers are currently 28-36 over the second half and it is not just the top prospects that have made the difference. A group of players of of prospect watcher’s radars have had good second halfs taking the Threshers from historically bad to just mediocre.
The Clearwater Threshers (45-86) are the worst minor league team record wise in the Phillies system and one of the worst in baseball. Their biggest prospect on the roster is slick fielding shortstop J.P. Crawford who the Phillies selected in the first round of the 2013 MLB draft. Another name that should be on Phillies’ … Read more
The GCL Phillies spent much of the early season being the rehab point for many rehabbing and drafted pitchers as Yoel Mecias, Nic Hanson, Brandon Leibrandt, Matt Imhof, Jesse Biddle, and Drew Anderson all made starts this year. But since the GCL Phillies have begun to settle into a 6-7 man rotation (double headers and … Read more
The first of the two PTBNL for Roberto Hernandez have been revealed, and it is Dodgers’ supplemental first round pick in 2012 Jesmuel Valentin (#51 overall). Valentin is the son of Jose Valentin who played 16 years in the major leagues. As an amateur he played second base next to Carlos Correa, and while there was some chance he would play SS, he has found his natural spot at 2B in the Dodgers system. Baseball America had this to say about him when he was drafted:
According to Ian Catherine, GCL right fielder Jose Pujols will be promoted to Williamsport.
Jose Pujols will join the Cutters in Mahoning Valley according to manager Shawn Williams.
— 𝙸𝚊𝚗 𝙲𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚎 (@IanCatherine27) August 15, 2014
Pujols will be rejoining the other big signing of the Phillies 2012 International FA class, Deivi Grullon. Pujols signed for $540,000 out of the Dominican Republic after showing impressive raw power that had one scout invoke the name of a certain Marlin slugger. At the time Pujols’ swing showed incredible bat speed but a lot of uppercut and natural miss to it. Last year the Phillies worked to retool his swing to be more level, the end result was a more contact oriented swing that did not sacrifice any of what may be 80 grade raw power. Pujols has made large strides in pitch recognition, but he still has approach and aggression issues at the plate that have lead to high strikeout totals, but he has also shown a willingness at times to work deep counts. Last year Pujols tied for the GCL lead in home runs, but most of his power was to the pull side, this year he has shown the ability to hit the ball hard to the opposite field as seen in his spray chart.