A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
Last year at the trade deadline the Phillies traded Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman for a package of players widely considered to be the building blocks of the next great Phillies team. At the center of the deal were 3 Top 100 prospects in Nick Williams, Jake Thompson, and Jorge Alfaro. At this point it … Read more
If you made me bet before the year on which of the Phillies major prospects would get to the majors first, I would not have bet on it being Zach Eflin. But with the injuries to Charlie Morton and Vincent Velasquez the Phillies needed a pitcher first. This year Eflin surpassed Jake Thompson in terms … Read more
We are two months from the 4 year anniversary of the Phillies sending Hunter Pence to San Francisco for Seth Rosin, Nate Schierholtz, and Tommy Joseph. Joseph was the real prize of the deal, a former 2009 2nd round pick who was in AA blocked behind Buster Posey. In the Phillies system he would take … Read more
The Phillies traded Cliff Lee to Seattle on December 16, 2009 for Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and JC Ramirez. Combined the Phillies received 67.2 innings of -0.7 WAR from that deal. Jerad Eickhoff has eclipsed that production just by existing, but he was just the 4th piece in the Hamels deal, Sunday he is joined … Read more
The parade of rookies continues for the Phillies as Nefi Ogando gets the call up to replace injured rookie Elvis Araujo. Ogando came into the Phillies organization in a trade with Boston that sent out SS John MacDonald. Last year Ogando saw a big jump in fastball velocity and was sitting 96-98 touching 100 with … Read more
I promise I won’t do this for everyone involved in the trade as it isn’t fair to anyone involved, including Jerad Eickhoff, because they have earned their shot at the major leagues. The Past: Eickhoff was the 4th pitcher in the 8 player trade that sent Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman to Texas. He was … Read more
So yesterday the Phillies acquired Darnell Sweeney, we don’t need to go into how. Today Sweeney will join the Phillies in Miami, bypassing Lehigh Valley and going right to the majors. The Past: Sweeney was a raw, athletic shortstop when the Dodgers took him in the 13th round of the 2012 draft and gave him … Read more
This is not how any of us wanted Aaron Altherr to make his return to the major leagues, as the team loses Maikel Franco. This is also not Altherr’s actual major league debut, as he got to quickly do that last year. However, this is his first real chance Altherr is going to get to … Read more
With Sean O’Sullivan going down to injury and Dustin McGowan not being a major league starting pitcher, the Phillies have made their first reach down for a pitching prospect going with #30 prospect RHP Severino Gonzalez. Gonzalez made a start during spring training, but otherwise he only has three AAA starts under his belt. How … Read more
Yes, it is not Hector Neris’ first trip to the majors, he has one inning and a strikeout to his name to this point. But given that this should be a slightly longer arrival, lets look at Neris again. The Profile: Fastball at 90-93 touching 94, fairly straight with decent control. He pairs that with … Read more