A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
As the Phillies head towards the trade deadline with some holes to fill on the roster and pieces they could use to fill them, it felt appropriate to combine the idea of a midseason ranking and thoughts on the trade deadline. There are no numbers in front of the players, but you can pretend there … Read more
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
Today the Phillies sent Adam Haseley to the White Sox for a minor league reliever, McKinley Moore. It was a move that many saw coming and is largely more interesting for what it does to the opening day roster. Barring crazy happenings in the next few days the Phillies will add Bryson Stott to the … Read more
The Phillies optioned James McArthur to the minors today, earlier in the week they optioned Hans Crouse and Francisco Morales. This leaves 8 nominal starting pitches in big league camp, the 5 pitchers in the expected opening day rotation and then Bailey Falter, Cristopher Sanchez, and Nick Nelson. While critiqued by some, the Phillies expected … Read more
The Phillies entered the offseason with some very obvious holes (CF, LF, SS, RP), but also a real lack of depth. Not every move they made this offseason needed to fix the big issues, some of the little issues needed to be addressed and some of the basic housekeeping had to be handled. Yesterday the … Read more
On June 19, the Phillies called up outfield prospect Matt Vierling, adding him to the 40 man roster to replace Matt Joyce. Joe Girardi was quoted by the Inquirer on the call up. “They come up with confidence, and they come up with not sitting a lot,” Girardi said. “I think there’s an advantage to … Read more
Tomorrow is the deadline for teams to add players to their 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. Thanks to a deep college class in the 2017 draft, the Phillies had a lot of decisions to make coming into the year. They traded Addison Russ and then added Connor Brogdon, Mickey … Read more
The 2018 Phillies were a flawed team, and understandably so. They were young at nearly every position. They ran their rotation pretty ragged when all of their young arms stayed healthy all year. Their bullpen had some injuries, but ultimately could not get everyone healthy and effective at the same time. It was frustrating, but … Read more
The modern major league roster construction has bullpens made up of players with minor league options remaining. This means some of the young pitchers in camp such as Austin Davis and Yacksel Rios are functionally prospects, but not by service time and innings. There are no open competitions for the majors involving pitching prospects, but … Read more
Much of Spring Training excitement has been converted to Bryce Harper watch, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t games that are about to occur. Much of the Phillies roster is locked in place, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get a look at some prospects in games this spring. With the lack of camp … Read more