A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
It’s been a few weeks since the final 2017 edition of my in-game reporting, and I have been sitting on a ton of information and video. And now with the Phillies season drawing to a close, it’s time to get into offseason more. There’s going to be plenty of evaluation over the next few months … Read more
I started writing a piece about J.P. Crawford at third base when I stopped to dig into his defensive metrics, in particular the math behind the positional adjustment. Right now defensive metrics think Crawford is a god at third, but they also are at a sample size that is near useless. This brought me to … Read more
Aaron Altherr, of all people. Aaron Altherr. A career .234 hitting with only 25 home runs in four seasons with the Phillies, 26-year-old Aaron Altherr became the first person ever to hit a grand slam off Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw. … The Dodgers had three home runs themselves but it wasn’t enough to counteract Altherr’s one sweet shot. History is … Read more
The fact that minor leaguers make almost no money for their service rendered is not a secret. It also is not a new topic, but today ESPN reignited that argument with this horrible tweet (and an accompanying Darren Rovell article that I will not link to). Is Tim Tebow the greatest value in minor league … Read more
The Phillies are in no position to pass up free talent. Nor are they in a position to be comfortable with the talent already on the roster. In the spirit of those two statements, this month the Phillies have added the following players to their 40 man roster in September: LHP Kevin Siegrist, SS J.P. … Read more
It is that time of year, the minor league season is over and winter/fall leagues are about to start. Each year the Phillies send their players everywhere and I will keep this post updated as assignments are announced. Winter Stats Arizona Fall League (Glendale Desert Dogs) Elniery Garcia Trevor Bettencourt J.D. Hammer Garret Cleavinger Edgar … Read more
The danger of writing up the AAA playoff preview yesterday was that the Phillies might do something drastic with the roster before the series, and the Phillies did something dramatic with the roster today. In: RHP Mark Appel, SS Malquin Canelo, RHP Victor Arano, LHP Elniery Garcia, RHP Franklyn Kilome, RHP Jacob Waguespack, 3B Mitch Walding … Read more
Lost now in the jubilation of J.P. Crawford’s callup to the majors was that the Lehigh Valley IronPigs had overcome a late season slump to win 6 straight games, including 4 against rival Scranton-Wilkes Barre to win the International League Wild Card. The IronPigs opened the year as a bit of a juggernaut, but that … Read more
It’s been a wild and crazy last five days covering the end of minor league regular season for the Phillies affiliates. I went from Reading to Lehigh Valley to Williamsport and finally Lakewood for the last two days. I was originally going to end on Sunday, but weather had other plans and pushed scheduled starter … 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