A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Phillies’ top ten prospects Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin and Jesse Biddle are the top starting pitchers with the Reading Fightin Phils. While Reading boasts five potential major league starters, the Fightin Phils final two starters, Ben Lively and Tom Windle, are bigger question marks and lack the upside like Reading’s front three. Lively, 22, was … Read more
Maikel Franco really emerged as a prospect in 2012 when he hit .341/.395/.530 in the second half of the year for Lakewood. He then had his breakout in 2013 where he compiled a .320/.356/.569 line with 31 home runs while splitting time between Clearwater and Reading. He was rated extremely highly by some publications before … Read more
The Phillies are in a state of flux regarding their outfielders and there will be likely be numerous roster moves made in late May or early June. Dominic Brown could return to the outfield with the Phillies, along with Cody Asche sliding into left field and Ben Revere starting in center. The moves will also … Read more
On the surface it has not been the greatest third season in Reading for Jesse Biddle, his 4.60 ERA is ugly and he is posting his lowest strikeout numbers of his career. However, that doesn’t tell the entire story here. Fangraphs has Biddle at a 2.77 FIP thanks to his zero home runs on the … Read more
On the year catcher and 2013 second round pick, Andrew Knapp is hitting .292/.339/.396. On the bad news, is that the line comes with 30 strikeouts in 106 ABs (26.1% K%) and a .403 BABIP that doesn’t look sustainable. Last year in Lakewood it was a similar story with Knapp hitting .290/.354/.438 with a 22.6% … Read more
I noticed that this year Maikel Franco had walked in his first 4 games and only one since, and that he had hit 8 of his 10 doubles in his first 10 games (he has played 25). So I set out to find out why Franco appeared to be low on power and expected to find … Read more
It is hard to make any sweeping judgements on early season stats, so the best question is often “What is this player doing new?”. In the case of shortstop Malquin Canelo he is showing power that he has never shown up this point. Canelo up to this point has been a bit of an after … Read more
This winter Ricardo Pinto turned a few heads with some high rankings on Phillies top prospect lists. He had just made his stateside debut in Williamsport on a team that does not get a ton of eyes. On first glance Pinto is not physically what you would expect from a good starting pitcher prospect … Read more
Ever since he arrived from Seattle for Cliff Lee in winter of 2009, Aumont has been a disappointment. In 2010, the Phillies tried to make him a starter, to the tune of a disastrous 5.68 ERA fueled by a 5.9 BB/9. He returned to relieving in 2011 and was dominant across AA and AAA (2.68 … Read more
Today RHP Severino Gonzalez will make his debut for the Phillies this Spring Training against the Atlanta Braves. The start is little more than a cameo to give the righty a look at the majors while not sending a major league starter on a long bus ride. Severino will likely start the year in AAA, … Read more