A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
The Rule 5 draft has largely been rendered obsolete as a talent acquisition tool, but the threat of it and the managing of the 40 man roster spurs other parts of player movement. The Phillies under Dave Dombrowski have largely tried to keep their 40 man roster limited to players who can play in the … Read more
Today, as I start writing this, is Wednesday. There is no baseball game tonight, tomorrow there will also be no baseball game. Last Saturday, 30 major league teams and over 100 minor league teams played baseball. In the middle of that afternoon, MLB played its Futures Game. An event that it hypes only a little, … Read more
Yesterday the Phillies released RHP Starlyn Castillo. Castillo had a 3.34 ERA with the Jersey Shore BlueClaws, but had 20 walk to 20 strikeouts in 29.2 innings and the 22 year old was sitting 89-93 with his fastball. Given that Castillo had a 6.49 ERA over the course of his minor league career and that … Read more
We are currently 6 games into Spring Training, a time when we are still seeing minor league players get into games and the novelty of the return of major league baseball has not worn off. There are very few actual takeaways one can make from 6 games, and especially 6 games where a starting pitcher … Read more
This year MLB is doing a new thing called the Spring Breakout where a team of prospects from one team will play a team of prospects from another. They are 7 inning games (though teams can agree to make them 9 if they would like)- EDIT: Phillies vs Tigers has been changed to a 9 … Read more
The Phillies claimed Bradley Zimmer off waivers from the Blue Jays, he takes the active roster spot of Brandon Marsh and 40 man spot of Bryce Harper (who is really only renting out his spot for the next two weeks). Bradley Zimmer is bad. He has been on the Blue Jays all season, and has … Read more
The Phillies are currently in a playoff spot thanks to a variety of factors, one of which is the contributions from their young players. Last January, the Phillies were staring at a long of questions about how they would have a deep enough lineup to outscore their other problems. Part of the problem was that … Read more
The Phillies spent the offseason building a team that many joked was made entirely of DHs. It was on top of a team that was already filled with large contracts, and one that after the moves still had some massive holes going forward. To be a sustainable contender going forward, the Phillies were going to … 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
Many of the Phillies’ affiliates are off to slow starts, and it isn’t because of their pitching. Outside of a pair of run explosions, the Phillies affiliate bats have been quiet. There is always some amount of variance, especially early in the year, but as I scanned the rosters, something appeared obvious. There wasn’t that … Read more