Phillies Have 3 on BA’s EL Top 20 and 1 on FSL Top 20

The ranking season continues with the Eastern League and Florida State League Top 20s.

Florida State League:

#14 – Scott Kingery

Eastern League:

#6 J.P. Crawford
#12 Jorge Alfaro
#13 Dylan Cozens

Thoughts:

Before jumping into my normal bullet points of thoughts, I wanted to talk about Cozens at #13 on this list. It is incredibly high praise for Cozens given the strength of the league and I find it puzzling. Without addressing where I rank Cozens among prospects who played for Reading (it is not #3), the gap between Jorge Alfaro and Cozens as prospects is gigantic compared to their difference on this list. Players that ranked behind Cozens on this list include Bradley Zimmer, Dominic Smith, Chance Sisco, Tyler Beede, Chance Adams, Kevin Newman, and Dustin Fowler, all of which might appear on someone’s Top 100 this offseason. It is hard to know if BA will carry this ranking forward into the offseason, but this indicates that they think Cozens is a Top 100 prospect and not just one sneaking onto the very back of the list.

• On the subject of league strength, the players ahead of Crawford were Yoan Moncada, Andrew Benintendi, Austin Meadows, David Dahl, and Lucas Giolito. I might argue him over 1 or 2 of those players, 2 of those players did very well in the majors, and a third (Moncada) is probably the best prospect in baseball. So #6 on this list is nothing to feel negative about Crawford about.
• I don’t think any other Reading players should have made the list (maybe Roman Quinn), but if you take it out to 30-40 some probably pop onto it.
• Elniery Garcia got mentioned in FSL chat, his size was still put as a negative, I think he has gotten a bit bigger and has proven over two years he can hold up as a starter.
• Carlos Tocci was mentioned as next up among Clearwater prospects, Canelo (with concerns about his bat) was also mentioned, Chace Numata got called out as a late blooming catcher (Numata has already re-signed as a free agent), and Eshelman, Viza, and Arano were also noted. Arano was mentioned as one of the best relievers in the league.

More will be added after the Eastern League chat.

J.P. (Springfield, IL): How far off this list was Rhys Hoskins? Is he trade bait while Ryan Howard remains a physical entity in Philly?
Josh Norris: He was a split case. The guys who liked him really liked him, and the guys who didn’t like him hated him. The positives are obvious: He can hit the ball and hit it for power. The questions, too, are obvious: Is the power amplified by Reading’s park (of course it is). His numbers away from the park are respectable, but not the eye-popping stuff you want to see from a player who projects as first-base only. He’s also average to a little worse at first base, which doesn’t help his case. Also, as you can see from this list, there were a *TON* of excellent prospects in this league this year.

Scott (Philadelphia): This isn't strictly an Eastern League question, but now that they've been in the same organization for a year now, how do Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp stack up against each other?
Josh Norris: I think Alfaro has clearly pushed himself past Knapp, and was rewarded with his first major league callup this year.
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