Draft

Draft Retrospective: Scouting is Really Hard

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Scouting and developing is one of the hardest things to do in sports, regardless of the game being played.  Much like everything else in baseball the normal outcome is failure.  So here are some failures and successes in their original scouting reports by Baseball America*.  Their names and other relevant information has been removed to surround them with more mystery.  The list of players used is at the very bottom, some of them may be very obvious, others not so much (answers will be up in a couple of days).  Either way, enjoy the limitless potential while it is still in front of you.

*Baseball America has been covering the draft longer than any other publication out there, much like scouts they have their own hits and misses, but for the most part they are reporting what they are hearing from talent evaluators who are watching the players

Player A:

Player A is the spitting image of Angels second baseman Adam Kennedy, a lefthanded-hitting middle infielder who was a first-round pick out of Cal State Northridge in 1997. Kennedy was a hitting machine in college, twice leading the nation in hits. Player A, a .394-18-61 hitter, has similar hitting skills, though his tendency to be pull-conscious has resulted in teams effectively using a Ted Williams shift on him a number of times this spring. He has excellent hands to hit, enabling him to wait on balls until the last moment to make adjustments. Like Kennedy, Player A lacks a true position. He was drafted in the second round out of high school as a shortstop, but he lacks the range, hands and ability to read hops to be a true middle infielder–even as he switched to second base.

Player B:

Player B has been a known commodity nationally for most of his high school career, and scouts have compare him to a young Kerry Wood. He has No. 1 starter stuff and command of three pitches. His fastball sits at 91-94 mph and has touched 97 this spring. His power curve is the equal of almost any pitcher in the amateur ranks. His arm action is clean and effective. At 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, his body is long and lanky–ideal for a pitcher. If anything, he has gotten stronger this year in the lower half of his body. The intangibles are all there as well. Player B has excellent makeup and is focused in his approach to pitching. High school arms are normally the riskiest commodity in the draft, but scouts say Player B is as safe as a high school pitcher can be.

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Baseball America Phillies Draft Report Card

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Contrary to the name the BA draft Report Cards contain no grades, no comparisons, and to someone familiar with the Phillies system it is not going to add a lot to your knowledge.  But the report cards are always fun little snapshots looking back at this past June.  So here are some of the superlatives … Read more

Thoughts on Phillies Hiring Johnny Almaraz

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So as you have been told by most sources, the Phillies have hired Braves Director of Latin American Operations Johnny Almaraz to fill Marti Wolever’s vacancy as the Director of Amatuer Scouting.  Without being in a front office, and knowing what kind of influence he is and what kind of players he prefers, it is hard … Read more

Phillies Scouting Staff Graduates 13 Players to Majors in 2014

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Over the years the Phillies amatuer talent acquisition staff has gotten a lot of crap from fans.  I personally think a lot of it is unfounded and comes from a set of unreasonable expectations for the developmental process.  The scouting staff has no control over the developmental process, especially after a player is traded to another organization.  The staff deserves huge amounts of credit for finding the player in the first place, and with a huge 2014 it is only fair to give them their due.

This is not an indictment of trades that have been made, merely the originally signed players

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Phillies Diversify Minor League Talent Acquisition

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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.

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The Ones that Got Away

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We always like to dream about the ones that got away, the draft picks unsigned, the draft picks untaken.  Here lets look at the guys the Phillies took, but couldn’t make a deal for some reason.

Those That Got Away:

Brandon Workman (2007 – 3rd round – 107 overall):  Workman was an up and down guy out of high school, he would show a fastball up to 95, but his mechanics scared scouts.  The Phillies offered him $275,000, Workman wanted $350,000.  Three years later, Workman was a second round pick of the Boston Red Sox and has racked up 104.1 IP in the past two years in the majors as a starter and reliever, his likely home is the back of the bullpen.

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Fastball Velocity and Brandon Leibrandt

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Phillies 6th Round pick Brandon Leibrandt has been on a roll recently which has started the round of questions about how good he can be, which ultimately end up on fastball velocity.  Velocity is the most tangible and quantifiable aspect of a pitcher’s arsenal.  Movement, command, and deception are all in the eye of the beholder and once we start talking secondary pitches the amateur eye is really out of its league.  So we debate velocity and whether it is enough for a pitcher to survive in the major leagues (should the prospect in question survive the other levels in between them and their major league aspirations).

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