A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
By 8 pm Eastern today baseball teams must make the additions to their rosters to protect players from the Rule 5 draft. Since the Phillies started their rebuild, their 40 man roster has become a precious resource as each year a new wave of prospects forces uncomfortable protection decisions. Last year, with an uncertain CBA, … Read more
First I want to apologize for going a bit nuts last week about the Phillies not protecting Carlos Tocci from minor league free agency. It turns out that Tocci (and Jiandido Tromp and Harold Arauz) are not free agents because baseball’s contract rules are incredibly confusing. Both will be Rule 5 eligible if not added … Read more
This piece is a companion to my J.P. Crawford major league preview on Crashburn Alley. In a game that probably should not have been close, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs clinched a wild card berth for the International League playoffs. After the game it was announced that the Pigs would have to go on without their … Read more
It is August 31 and the Phillies are limping towards the end of the season. That means tomorrow the Phillies can call up reinforcements to help get them to the end of the season. Don’t expect much on September 1 though. However, the AA and AAA seasons end on September 4th and that provides another … Read more
Some years we look forward to the release of Arizona Fall League rosters. Given the distribution of talent in the Phillies’ system (not in Clearwater and Reading, and pitching heavy everywhere) it promised to be a light year for major Phillies prospects. With the announcement of rosters today, things turned out a bit better than … Read more
During the trade deadline the Washington Nationals designated Jimmy Cordero for assignment, which made me look back on the Phillies’ moves this offseason to check in on where some of their castoffs are now. This is not hard hitting analysis, honestly I am just looking through the transaction log. Phillies Trade Darin Ruf and Darnell … Read more
I was browsing through the minor league pitching leaderboards on Fangraphs this morning and I noticed that a name kept appearing at the top of almost all of the leaderboards among qualified pitchers (pitchers who would qualify for the ERA title in leagues where they have pitched). This pitcher was in the Phillies’ system and … Read more
The Phillies have a grand tradition of trying to make the slowest plodding players on the field play in the outfield. It started with an attempt to put Ryan Howard in left field to not have him be blocked by Jim Thome, and has continued to this day. Now some of this has been in … Read more
Trade Deadline Day can be such a stressful time for a number of executives as they try to make the right move for the team’s future or it’s present. On a day we have seen the Dodgers and Yankees beef up their rotations with Yu Darvish and Sonny Gray respectively, and a whole other bevy … Read more
Last night I made my third trip to Lehigh Valley this year to watch the Phillies top bats take on the Rays’ top prospect Brent Honeywell of Durham, who is considered one of the best pitching prospects in the baseball right now. Honeywell had his way last night after scuffling through the 1st five batters … Read more