A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
List season has begun and we kick it all off with Baseball America’s Top 10 prospects (the full Top 30 will release with their book). Before looking at Josh Norris’ list I just wanted to say that there are some definite tiers in the Phillies’ system with a lot of interchangeability. Additionally, there are some … Read more
The first half version of the 2014 Clearwater Threshers was one of the worst teams assembled in affiliated baseball. They improved in the second half playing host to J.P. Crawford, Roman Quinn, and Aaron Nola. The 2015 squad was a much better team from day 1. The starting pitching had big promise early, but stumbled … Read more
For most fans, Florida remains a blind spot for prospects and development. It makes us reliant on people based out of Florida to really carry a large burden of reporting, and they do incredibly well. Today we have interviews with two of those people. The first is the voice of the Clearwater Threshers Kirsten Karbach, … Read more
Simple transaction line, J.P. Crawford has been replaced on the Glendale Desert Dogs roster by IF Drew Stankiewicz. All the reports have said that Crawford looks like himself, just a really exhausted form of himself. No reason was given for the switch, Drew is from the Arizona area so the switch to him makes some … Read more
When you trade a player of Cole Hamels’ caliber you expect to get back premium prospects that will help you build your future core, and Nick Williams, Jake Thompson, and Jorge Alfaro meet that requirement. But, you also get the opportunity to acquire players outside of the general public’s knowledge that you value highly. In … Read more
There is a point in evaluation where you just need to throw away a previous set of opinions and start fresh. This was the case with Aaron Altherr at the plate this year. It wasn’t that his swing was overhauled dramatically, it was that Altherr had taken his swing and other parts of his game … Read more
The Phillies have finally hired a new GM so now we know what the face of the new front office will look like. There is obviously a lot to be done and much of it will happen very slowly. MacPhail has already left a lot in place around the Phillies’ baseball ops and on field personnel … Read more
Per reports out of his Venezuelan team, Tigres de Aragua, Carlos Tocci suffered a broken metacarpal in his left hand when he was hit by a pitch Wednesday night. This is the first year Tocci has played winter ball after spending the last few years working out in Clearwater. He had been the Tigres primary … Read more
Listening to baseball on the radio is something that will never really get old for me, it is the ultimate story time. You never going to scout a player by listening to the radio, but it will help fill in the details you are missing. For those telling the story they need to be on … Read more
In many ways Lakewood was the forgotten affiliate in 2015. It didn’t get much help to start from a 2014 draft devoid of high school players (though it did get 4th round pick Chris Oliver and 5th round pick Rhys Hoskins), and for the most part it was full of under the radar players. Those … Read more