A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
After the success of Odubel Herrera (and many other 2015 Rule 5 picks) it is hard to not get excited about having the #1 pick in the Rule 5 draft this year. However, first thing is first for the Phillies who have to protect their own before figuring out who is available to be selected. … Read more
#Braves signed C/1B Willians Astudillo to minors deal. Won FSL batting title (.314) in #Phillies system in 2015. (Hat tip: @Galindosky07) — Matt Eddy (@MattEddyBA) November 16, 2015 There are so many players in baseball that there are bound to be statistical anomalies. Willians Astudillo was one of those players. If you were grading raw … Read more
No one will fault a Phillies fan for losing track of prospects during the rebuild. There have a lot more arriving than leaving between signings, trades, and the draft. The most common outcome for any baseball player is failure, so it is not surprising with so many shiny new things coming in, that we lose … Read more
I hate this trade. There I have said it, it is an absolute gut punch. From a baseball perspective it really is not that horrible, prospects like Sam McWilliams rarely turn out. The Phillies took an 8th round pick and turned him into a major league starting pitcher, that is actually pretty good. McWilliams is … Read more
It is November, we are still 4.5 months from the start of the season, and yet the Phillies’ opening day roster is pretty well set. Even with a new GM, the events of the 2015 season have set the course of the offseason. In figuring out what is locked in, we can figure out what … Read more
We will likely never see something like the 2015 Reading Fightins again. It was the perfect combination of top prospects, post promotion breakouts, and a huge influx of talent via trade. The team was the favorites going into the Eastern League playoffs and steamrolled through the first round. But in the end they ended up … Read more
This is the interview I have looked forward to the most since I started this series. Given how many Reading games I watched and listened to this year, I have heard Mike Ventola’s voice more than any other baseball radio/TV person out there. Chris LaBarge wrote here this summer before starting his own site and … Read more
Ever since he went out and hit .287/.367/.411 in Williamsport at age 18, Maikel Franco has been on Phillies prospect radars. He made a big splash in 2012 when he bounced back from a rough start in Lakewood to tear up the league in the second half. His stock went through the roof in 2013 … Read more
We jump out of order to go to Lehigh Valley before we wrap our series up with AA Reading. No Phillies affiliate has been as hard hit by the talent glut and subsequent rebuild as the IronPigs. They have been lucky the past few years to get a single good prospect (much like having Maikel … Read more
It was a weird year in Allentown. The team started with Maikel Franco and a lot of AAAA players. Its pitching staff was mostly patched together with guys whose best hope was getting a spot start for the Phillies to augment some pitchers with fringier stuff trying to find their way to major league debuts. … Read more