The Hunt for the Paul Owens Award (Pitcher)

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Every year the Paul Owens Award goes to the top hitter and pitcher in the Phillies organization.  The award does not go to the best prospect in the organization, but rather to the one that has performed the best during the past season.  The hitting award should easily go to Phillies top prospect J.P. Crawford who is not only putting up a great stat line (.286/.376/.401), but he has done it across two levels as a 19-year-old playing good defense at a premium position.  On the pitching side the Phillies top prospects have been hindered by being hurt, ineffective, both hurt and ineffective, or having just been drafted this past June.  This leads to a very wide open race for the Paul Owens for pitching.

The Paul Owens Award for pitching has not been the site of illustrious and major league successful names, but it does have its share of top prospects.  The last 10 pitchers in reverse order to win it are Severino Gonzalez, Tyler Cloyd, Trevor May, Scott Mathieson, Kyle Drabek, J.A. Happ, Mike Zagurski, Carlos Carrasco, Robinson Tejeda, and Scott Mitchinson.

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Fastball Velocity and Brandon Leibrandt

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Phillies 6th Round pick Brandon Leibrandt has been on a roll recently which has started the round of questions about how good he can be, which ultimately end up on fastball velocity.  Velocity is the most tangible and quantifiable aspect of a pitcher’s arsenal.  Movement, command, and deception are all in the eye of the beholder and once we start talking secondary pitches the amateur eye is really out of its league.  So we debate velocity and whether it is enough for a pitcher to survive in the major leagues (should the prospect in question survive the other levels in between them and their major league aspirations).

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VSL Phillies fall to VSL Tigers in VSL Championship

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The VSL is only a 5 team league with the top two teams going to the championship.  The Phillies took the first game from the Tigers but the Tigers took Game 2.  A rain delay yesterday allow the VSL Phillies ace Ranger Suarez to take the hill today.  Suarez is a diminutive LHP with a … Read more

Post Trade Deadline Mailbag

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With the trade deadline passed and the minor league season coming down the home stretch I asked for you to give me some questions to answer.  You guys delivered. Scott Bailey: Do you really think that Ruben wasn’t getting value in his attempts to make trades yesterday? I do, with some caveats.  Amaro is looking … Read more

Franklyn Kilome

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This post has been a long time coming, but I’m finally here to get you familiar with a very intriguing arm on the GCL roster and his name is Franklyn Kilome. The 19 year old Dominican stands 6’6″ and tips the scales at 175lbs. He sports an old school style delivery with his hands going … Read more