A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
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
Even though J.P. Crawford is likely to go down as the best draft pick of the Phillies’ rebuild, the #7 pick in the 2014 draft was the most important pick of the Phillies’ rebuild (or at least until the #1 pick in the 2016 draft). It was the Phillies’ highest pick in over a decade … Read more
There are times where everyone is right and wrong at the same time. No one saw Odubel Herrera having the year he had, but there also wasn’t a lot to say he could the things he did in 2015. The reports out of the Rangers organization was that he was a plus hitter with some speed, … Read more
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