Ken Giles

The Ken Giles Trade Improved the Phillies for the 2016 Season

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Ken Giles is really really good, he might even be underrated nationally.  He is also the crux of some arguments about the strategy of the Phillies and their aims and goals for the 2016 season.  For some, the trade was part of a larger set of moves that were tanking, or intentionally making the team less competitive … Read more

The Ken Giles Trade Changed for the Strange

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Yesterday we thought that Ken Giles was going to Houston for Vincent Velasquez, Derek Fisher, Brett Oberholtzer, and Thomas Eshelman.  Now take out Derek Fisher, send Jonathan Arauz to Houston, and now send former #1 overall pick Mark Appel and short season arm Harold Arauz to Philadelphia.  Overall you have a very complicated trade now. … Read more

Philies Trade Ken Giles for Future Pieces

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(Updated 12/10 8:30am) I don’t think the Phillies wanted to trade Ken Giles, I honestly believe that he was part of their future.  However, the market decided it had an insatiable appetite for high impact relievers and the Phillies found themselves with one of the best options.  Giles at age 25 would have been around … Read more

2014 Reading Fightin Phils Recap: Interview with Mike Ventola

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Before we jump into talking about players why don’t you introduce yourself and what you do?

My name is Michael Ventola and I am the play-by-play radio voice of the Reading Fightin Phils.  I broadcast all 142 games home and away for the Fightin Phils.

You covered the Fightins from start to finish, can you sum up their season as a whole?

I can easily use one word to describe the season:  Challenge.  The Fightin Phils roster suffered over a 100 moves throughout the entire season and only finished with a handful of players that began with the team on opening day.  The team though continued to play hard each and every game.

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Phillies All-Org Team

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We will be spending all offseason talking about prospects, so this is the moment to honor those that put up the best statistical years for the organization.  This list was put together with input from the staff here.

Catcher:
Andrew Knapp (.290/.354/.438 5 HR LKW)

It was a rough start for Knapp in his comeback from Tommy John surgery, but the former second round pick bounced back with a very good season in the South Atlantic League.

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Phillies Scouting Staff Graduates 13 Players to Majors in 2014

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Over the years the Phillies amatuer talent acquisition staff has gotten a lot of crap from fans.  I personally think a lot of it is unfounded and comes from a set of unreasonable expectations for the developmental process.  The scouting staff has no control over the developmental process, especially after a player is traded to another organization.  The staff deserves huge amounts of credit for finding the player in the first place, and with a huge 2014 it is only fair to give them their due.

This is not an indictment of trades that have been made, merely the originally signed players

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The Hunt for the Paul Owens Award (Pitcher)

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Every year the Paul Owens Award goes to the top hitter and pitcher in the Phillies organization.  The award does not go to the best prospect in the organization, but rather to the one that has performed the best during the past season.  The hitting award should easily go to Phillies top prospect J.P. Crawford who is not only putting up a great stat line (.286/.376/.401), but he has done it across two levels as a 19-year-old playing good defense at a premium position.  On the pitching side the Phillies top prospects have been hindered by being hurt, ineffective, both hurt and ineffective, or having just been drafted this past June.  This leads to a very wide open race for the Paul Owens for pitching.

The Paul Owens Award for pitching has not been the site of illustrious and major league successful names, but it does have its share of top prospects.  The last 10 pitchers in reverse order to win it are Severino Gonzalez, Tyler Cloyd, Trevor May, Scott Mathieson, Kyle Drabek, J.A. Happ, Mike Zagurski, Carlos Carrasco, Robinson Tejeda, and Scott Mitchinson.

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Nefi Ogando and Power Arm Potential

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The Phillies 2014 trade deadline must be entirely different than their 2013 deadline for the sake of the rebuild. General Manager Ruben Amaro and company made minor moves last season and refused to shakeup the core. One player they did move was veteran infielder John McDonald, who was dealt for minor league pitcher Nefi Ogando … Read more

The Evolution of Ken Giles

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There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth this year about the Phillies development process, and inability to develop a homegrown reliever.  This past week, the Phillies promoted their best relief prospect in a while to the major leagues in Ken Giles (where he joined fellow homegrown relievers Bastardo, De Fratus, Diekman, and Hollands). … Read more