A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
The Phillies don’t have the best farm system in baseball, and it is easy to look at a list like this and see a system bolstered mainly by the trade that sent Cole Hamels to Texas. This list does give me a chance to peel back the top of the system a bit to show … Read more
Last part of the series on midseason updates after looking at players off the list on Tuesday and hitters on Wednesday. This time it is pitchers, a position that has become and org focus in the past few years. With quantity comes some quality, but also some players that have dropped off. Up: Ben Lively … Read more
Since I am not doing a full prospect list update until August 1 so I wanted to do an update of sorts at the midway part of the minor league season. Yesterday I wrote about players off of the list who will jump on to the list this year. Today is the chance to talk … Read more
Last year I held off until August 1 to a midseason ranking, with the Phillies big trade chips it made sense to wait to integrate them. This year I am going to hold off until August 1 for a different reason, I want time. Right now the Phillies have not signed all of their draft … Read more
Minor League rosters came out this weekend and there will be plenty of movement and time to talk about who is where and why it matters as we get into the season. For now here is where my preseason Top 50 prospects were assigned, both as the actual list and then by affiliate. J.P. Crawford – … Read more
The definition of a reliever has changed rapidly recently. Starting pitchers are throwing less, while pitchers overall get more dominant. There has been a velocity spike across all of baseball, throwing in the mid 90s does not make you a major league prospect anymore. To make a major league bullpen, a pitcher has to show … Read more
Starting pitchers are many things in the minor leagues. They can be legitimate starting pitching prospects. They can be future relievers who are still working on getting everything to work before their flaws force them to the bullpen. They can be pitchers with fringe stuff hoping to be at the right place, at the right … Read more
Lumping players together as outfielders loses some of the nuance of what makes up a diverse group of players. In the outfield there is room for elite defenders, slow mashers, no power speedsters, and guys who just hit. If you can do multiple things well, you can make yourself into a decent prospect. If you … Read more
Not all minor leaguers are what we commonly call prospects, not all major leaguers were considered prospects, there are plenty of players on the fringes who make a major league debut without ever appearing on a prospect list. There are other prospects that are so far away or risky that ranking them on a prospect … Read more
One of the interesting part of doing a top 50 is that it provides a large sample of the system’s health as well as some large scale demographic information. Without doing a lot of digging these are more fun than huge analysis. I may add a few more here as I get time, but for … Read more