A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
It is Rule 5 protection! Rosters are due at the end of the week and as has been previewed for over a year the Phillies have some difficult decisions to make in terms of who to protect. The combination of trades, the emergence of members of the 2012 draft class, and a resurgent international program … Read more
In many years there are set to be surprises when the first prospect lists of the year come out. This year expect the lists to much more predictable in terms of names with some minor differences in terms of order. Today the first big list came out with Baseball Prospectus publishing their Phillies Top 10 … Read more
When the Phillies sent Cole Hamels to Texas they got back 5 players and an offsetting salaries. Alec Asher was the 5th prospect in that deal and he would make his debut that September. While it was disappointing, the thought was that Asher would be part of the starting pitching depth the Phillies had built … Read more
You cannot predict baseball, it causes wonder and excitement, it can also cause crush heartbreak and sadness. No player exemplifies this like Tommy Joseph. A former 2nd round pick and fringe Top 100 prospect, Joseph was the prize of the the trade that sent Hunter Pence to San Francisco in 2012. He was a big … Read more
The Phillies entered the season with two good reliever prospects. One of those (Jimmy Cordero) went down early in the year, the other blazed through the minors to make his debut at age 23. Edubray Ramos’ journey to the majors has not been a straight one. He was out of baseball less than a year after signing … Read more
With the influx of new starting pitching prospects into the system from trades it was inevitable that some of the old wave of starting pitching would get their chance in the bullpen to resurrect their careers. If you look at Severino Gonzalez’s season in the right light it looks like he might have a bright … Read more
The Phillies entered the year with a lot of excitement around their young pitching. Zach Eflin was one of three starting pitchers in the Phillies Top 10 prospects that would open the year in AAA. Eflin would power his way through Lehigh Valley and reach the majors first among that group of young starters, making … Read more
Middle relievers get a reputation for being fungible and replaceable. In this era of hard throwing arms and shutdown bullpens that mindset may be changing. However, if you want an example of the fungible reliever the Phillies have many examples. This year they graduated RHP Colton Murray, who has already seen his time on the … Read more
At the beginning of the year I made a bunch of stats predictions as an exercise in thinking about players, level of competition, park factors, and other things. I was wrong on a lot of things, so might as well revisit it. The original predictions are here. Batting Average: Prediction: Rhys Hoskins Actual: Mark Laird … Read more
For the second year in a row the Phillies attempted to catch lightning in a bottle with an outfielder in the Rule 5 draft. Unlike Odubel Herrera, Goeddel came with some hype as a former first round pick who has an established hit tool. It turns out that jumping from AA to the majors is … Read more