A Critical Look at the Phillies Organization and Minor League Baseball
There has been a common denominator between all of the successful Phillies teams over the last few decades: they had a great signal caller. Bob Boone, Darren Daulton, Carlos Ruiz. (and to a much lesser extent Mike Lieberthal). The “Chooch” era is over and now the Phillies are getting by with Cameron Rupp a majority of … Read more
The top of the Phillies system has some real impact, but what makes it special for me is the group spanning 8 to 15. The whole group is interchangeable, and while I went with 3 younger upside players in the 8-10 spot, I see them as equal in value to me to the 5 players … Read more
Prospect lists are an easy way to take a glimpse into an unknown future. If any player has made the majors, their stay has been short enough to not give us much. The problem with prospect lists is that they do not give a complete look into the young talent in an organization, and consequently … Read more
I could talk for days about how a player on the fringes of this list could contribute to a major league team some day, but the reality is that the future of the Phillies is really built on these ten players. This year, many of them will join former top prospects like Aaron Nola and … Read more
The Phillies have been slowly adding non-roster invites to big league camp from outside the organization, and today we get the internal candidates. Last year the Phillies invited almost no prospects who were not on the 40 man roster to big league camp, though Severino Gonzalez, Aaron Nola, and Zach Eflin all did start big … Read more
The list everyone was waiting for. The Reading team was stacked this year, as was the whole Eastern League. Before jumping into the names from the Phillies, Zach Eflin and Roman Quinn did qualify for this list, but Nick Williams and Jake Thompson did not. Once again I want to emphasize that this list was … Read more
The Paul Owens Award goes to the top hitter and pitcher in the Phillies’ minor leagues. The award does not go to the best prospects, nor does it go to the best statistical season. The award serves to both honor players and to showcase them to the fanbase. In the past this has lead to … Read more
You guys came up big with questions and in an effort to get this out to you quicker I have split this mailbag into two parts. Part 2 should come in the next day or two. But enough of that, on to your questions. @Matt_Winkelman mailbag Q: Do you have any concerns with the lack … Read more
Going into the draft this spring, there was a cry for the Phillies to draft a catcher because the team didn’t have an heir for Carlos Ruiz. Throwing aside that catchers develop too slow to help that quickly, there was public concern over the state of the Phillies’ catching depth. Right now after some crazy … Read more
At their best awards are just fun and meaningless. When there are a plethora of good candidates for something like the best minor league hitter in your organization, there really is no losers. In the past few years this has not been the case for the Paul Owens Award, where the winning candidates have been rough … Read more