Post Season Report Card–Corner Infield

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This will be a long trek but the intention is to go through each player in the organization and grade his 2012.  The grade will be based on expectations for that player entering the season as opposed to grades against other players. For instance, Trevor May, as the #1 prospect in the organization will be graded on a different playing field then say, Tyson Brummett (no disrespect Tyson).  We will start with corner infielders and work our way through, with a projection on where the player will start 2013.  So, with that said, here come the corner infielders.

Lehigh Valley

Cody Overbeck, 26, Phils 9th round pick in 2008; .249/.307/.408 in 458 AB’s; 14 HR 71 RBI; 8%bb/23% k rates; .233 vs. LH, .255 vs. RH, .289 with RISP, .229 since August 1. 126 games at 1B with 5 errors (.995); 8.10 R/F. Also played 4 games at 3B without an error.Overbeck had disappointing 2012, after opening eyes in 2011. While he was among the league leaders in RBI’s, his average against lefties was woeful.  After hitting .279 in 200 plus 2011 Ab’s with the ‘Pigs more was expected. He will be entering his 6th year in the organization next season and I would expect to see him back in Lehigh Valley, albeit with the possiblity of sharing playing time.  Grade: C-

Pete Orr, 33, SIgned as a free agent in 2011; .258/.314/.354 in 302 AB’s; 4HR 33 RBI; 16/18 SB; 7%bb/16% k rates; .241 vs. LH, .339 vs. RH, .320 with RISP. .277 since August 1.  49 games at 3B with 5 errors (.964); 8 games at SS with 2 errors (.946); 12 games at 2B without an error; 13 games in the OF without an error.Orr spent the first several months of the season in Philadelphia before being sent down to Lehigh Valley when Utley returned to the Phillies lineup, and was back up at the end of the season.   Orr played well in Lehigh Valley and provided much needed versatility to the ‘Pigs lineup.  He is the prototype Quad A player, who is always hustling as his skill level is just under where is should be for the majors. Grade: B. 2013: Crapshoot. Could be back as a depth player and just as easily, could be with another organization.

Reading

Darin Ruf, 26, Phils 20th round pick in 2009. .317/.408/.620 in 489 AB’s; 38 HR 104 RBI; 2/2SB; 12%bb/18% k ratio; .392 vs. LH, .284 vs. RH, .286 with RISP; .349 with 20 HR since August 1. 107 games at 1B with 4 errors (.995) 7.75 R/F; 28 games in the OF without an error; 3 OF assists;  If Ruf picked a statline to shoot for in 2012, it was what you just read. He did it all and did it well.  He is blocked at 1B, and I would expect him to see a considerable amount of time in LF in Lehigh Valley next year, with starts at 1B as well.  It will be very tough to keep a bat like this out of the lineup.  Is his defense as bad as the Phillies lead us to believe?  I have seen him about a half a dozen times and he is slow. That being said, he is far more capable then others I have seen, in the OF even at the AAA level.  When he gets to the ball, he does the right thing. Ruf will have to be protected on the 40 man roster over the Winter. Grade: A.

Cody Asche, 22, Phils 4th round pick in 2011; .324/.369/.381 in 518 AB’s between Clearwater and Reading; 12 HR and 72 RBI; 11SB; For Reading: .300/.360/.513 in 263 AB’s; 10HR 47 RBI; .301 vs. LH, .300 vs. RH, .309 with RISP; 8%bb/20% k rates; .353 since August 1. 127 games at 3B with 18 errors (.941); 2.28 R/F. Asche put himself on the radar screen in 2012 with outstanding play in Clearwater and after a bumpy beginning in Reading, a nice adjustment and “continued success”,  A good defender who is gaining pop, no reason to rush Asche (other than the fact the Phils dont have a 3B), who the Phils don’t need to protect on the 40 this off season.  2012 Grade: A; 2013: I struggle with this.  All things being equal, I would like him to get another 100-150 PA’s in AA before the move up. I have seen Asche several times and have been very impressed but think we need to reel it in just a bit to give the kid a fighting shot.

Tug Hulett, 29, Signed as a free agent in 2012; .290/.361/.399 in 283 AB’s between Lehigh Valley and Reading; 4SB; 10%bb/18% k rates; .308 with RISP. 48 games at 3B with 9 errors (.922); 2.21 R/F. 17 games at 1B without an error; 8 games at 2B with 1 error (.972). Hulett bounced back and forth between Reading and Lehigh Valley and after an awful start in Reading, played well after the seasons first month.  Hulett is an organizational guy at this stage. Grade: B-; 2013: Elsewhere.

Clearwater

James Murphy, 27, Phils 17th round pick in 2006; .274/.365/.383 in 460 AB’s; 17HR 85 RBI; 10%bb/24% k rates; .305 vs. LH, .254 vs. RH, .307 with RISP; Hit .278 with 11HR in the second half of the season. Murphy did as expected.  Hit for power, knocked in runs and hit around .275.  Grade: B; Now with the organization for six full seasons, Murphy becomes a minor league free agent this off season. 2013: Proved he can play High A. If he wants to stick with the organization, the Phils can use him in Reading.

Chris Duffy, 24, Phils 26th round pick in 2010; .322/.404/.499 in 373 AB’s between Lakewood and CLearwater;  13 HR 71 RBI; For Clearwater: .236/.314/.331 in 157AB’s; 2HR 15RBI; 8%bb/29% k rates; .250 vs. LH, .228 vs. RH, 22 games at 1B with 1 error (.994); Duffy was nearly unstoppable with the stick in Lakewood but had some real troubles in CLearwater Played in few games at 1B, the Phillies are clearly not confident in his defensive abilities. 22 games at 1B and 82 at DH. Grade: B-. 2013: A conundrum.  What to do? Duffy mashed Low A, had troubles in High A, and presumably has trouble defensively…add to that the fact he is 24.  I say back in Clearwater, but he may have a short leash with the organizaton.

Harold Martinez, 22, Phils 2nd round pick in 2011; .242/.301/.337 in 359 AB’s between Lakewood and CLearwater; 3HR 32 RBI; 3SB; For Clearwater: .226/.276/.333 in 195 AB’s with 3HR and 15 RBI; 6%bb/22% K rate; .177 vs. LH, .259 vs. RH, .212 with RISP.38 games at 1B with 7 errors (.978); 63 games at 3B with 15 errors (.911); 2.44 R/F.  A very disappointing year for Martinez who played both 1B and 3B throughout the year and scuffled for a good part of it.  The complete lack of pop is an issue, his defense is an issue, as is his average. Grade: D+. 2013: This is one where the Phils may have their hands tied a bit.  Maikel Franco needs to be in Clearwater, immediately and playing. I think Martinez goes to Reading and see limited time at 1B/3B until Asche goes to Lehigh Valley.

Lakweood

William Carmona, 21, Phils 11th round pick in 2012; .281/.329/.423 in 196 AB’s between GCL and Lakewood; 4 HR 30 RBI. For Lakewood: .221/.270/.327 in 104 AB’s; 2HR 10 RBI; 5%bb/25% k rates; .200 vs. LH, .228 vs. RH, .250 with RISP. 23 games at 1B with 3 errors (.983); 10 games at 3B with 3 errors (.870); Carmona was raking in the GCL and was double jumped to the SAL where he struggled, although came around a bit at the seasons end. Still, as a 2012 draft pick, his season should be considered a success. Grade: B. 2013: Lakewood.

Trey Ford, 22, Phils 14th round pick in; .167/.280/.245 in 102 AB’s between CLW, Williamport and Lakewood; 1 HR 6RBI; 25% k rate in lakewood. 17 games at 2B with 2 errors (.968); 5 games at 3B with one errors (.909); 4 games at 1B with 1 error. Not much to speak of in 2012 for Ford who played in three different levels but far from regularly.  Grade: D. 2013: Either Lakewood or cut.

Maikel Franco, 20, Signed as a free agent in 2010; .280/.336/.439 in 503 AB’s; 14HR 84 RBI; 7%bb/15% k rates; .295 vs. LH, .273 vs. RH, .331 with RISP; Hit .346 with 8 HR and 57 RBI Post All Star Break. 122 games at 3B with 16 errors (.944); 2.21 R/F.After a very mediocre first half, Franco came on like gang busters during the second half of the season, hitting for power, average and producing plenty of runs, with good defense to boot.  May have played himself onto the Top 10 Phils prospects list, and has the potential to move quickly from here.  Grade B+; 2013: Clearwater starting 3B.

Williamsport

Chris Serritella, 22, Phils 4th round pick in 2012; .297/.349/.437 in 300 AB’s; 6HR 47 RBI; 7%bb/16% k rates; .289 vs. LH, .300 vs. RH, .269 with RISP; .293 since August 1.50 games at 1B with 10 errors (.977); Serritella was certainly one of  the Cutters most consistent hitter this year, playing just as he should after being drafted out of Southern Illinois. Fielding needs work. Serritella probably needs to start at Lakewood, but could move quickly.  B+

Cameron Perkins, 21, Phils 6th round pick in 2012; .294/.339/.391 in 289 AB’s between GCL and Williamsport; 1HR 41rbi; 5sb; .355 VS. lh, .284 VS. rh, .344 with RISP; 5%bb/14% k rates. Hit .304 for WIlliamsport after spending the first two weeks of the season in the GCL. Hit .351 since August 1. 25 games at 1B with 3 errors (.988); 14 games at 3B with 1 error (.974); 10 games in the OF without an error. After a slow start, Perkins really came around and had an excellent NYPL season after being drafted fairly high out of Purdue. Grade: A-; 2013: Perkins is an excellent candidate for the double jump.  Very good production, played in a major college program and it looks like he can play both corner infield positions as well as the OF on occasion. CLearwater.

Mitch Walding, 19, Phils 5th round pick in 2011; .233/.326/.308 in 253 AB’s; 1HR 31 RBI; 5SB; .167 vs. LH, .254 vs. RH, .297 with RISP. 11%bb/23% k rates; .194 since August 1. 64 games at 3B with 15 errors (.925); 2.89 R/F. Disappointing season for Walding who was expected to produce in a big way.  He has too much talent to not bounce back but will need to regain his confidence prior to his stroke.  Grade: C-; 2013: Lakewood prior to Williamsport season beginning and then judging whether he should stick in Lakewood or drop back come June.

GCL

Carlos Valenzuela, 21, Signed as a free agent in 2008; .187/.253/.310 in 155 AB’s; 2HR 17 RBI; 1 SB; .257 vs LH, .167 vs. RH, .278 with RISP, .111 in August; 6%bb/24% k rates; 30 games at 1B with 3 errors (.990); 9.57 R/F; 3 games at 2B with 1 error; 12 games at 3B with one error (.970). Awful season for Valenzuela who has now had 340 AB’s in the GCL between last year and this year.  Grade: F. 2013: Gone.

Zack Green, 19, Phils 3rd round pick in 2012; .284/.333/.426 in 169 AB’s; 3HR 21 RBI; 2/4 SB; .372 vs. LH, .254 vs. RH, .250 with RISP; 5%bb/24% k rates. A very good start to his minor league career for the youngster, that being said, his defense needs alot of work at 3B.  31 games at 3B with 13 errors (.870); 2.81 R/F; 9 games at SS with 3 errors (.925). Grade: B+. 2013: Lakewood to start, with the possibility of falling back to NYPL in June.

Look for the report on the middle infield on Sunday or Monday!

67 thoughts on “Post Season Report Card–Corner Infield”

  1. Couple real interesting guys there. Between Green and Walding at the lowest levels, and Franco and Asche at the higher ones, that’s quite a crop of 3B. No one to make us forget about Mike Schmidt or probably Scott Rolen, but I’d take forgetting about Pedro Feliz and David Bell at this point.

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  2. Gregg, this is very nice work. I agree whole-heartedly with your evals. I think Overbeck could be with a new organization next year. Harold Martinez has to show more than he did this year. A 2nd round pick and he was terrible. I think he should be moved to Reading and sink-or-swim. I actually think he’ll swim but he’ll be passed by quickly Ashe, Franco, Carmona, Walding, Green and whoever comes along next. Duffy intrigues me and if they put him in Reading, I think he’d have a great year with the bat but he doesn’t really have a position. He might be better off in the Independent Leagues where he can hit his heart out. Some AL team might sccop him up in 2 years or so. Ruf was simply outstanding. There’s no other way to categorize it. Most of us will never see a year like that again. He’ll got to AAA and I assume we’ll see a year like Overbeck had this year. More will be expected and he’ll have a little trouble meeting that expectation.

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    2. Martinez has been poor for his 2 seasons. Flashes of mediocrity during his first year were just that – flashes. He has a lot riding on next season but at the moment it appears the Phils clearly reached selecting him in the 2nd round.

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  3. The only comment I have is that the formatting could be done to make this 1000% more readable. Love the content. Hate the formatting. Something like this might make sense
    [u]Player Name[/u]
    – Pertinent Data
    – Stats[Insert all stats here]
    – Comments
    – Grade
    – 2013 outlook

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      2. Jesus christ. I didn’t rip the guy. I didn’t tell him he’s a terrible person. I made a simple suggestion. Stop being so defensive. Especially on someone else’s behalf.

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            1. Joe – I usually like your posts but in all candor your comment was pretty insensitive If you wonder why we care it is because we appreciate what Gregg did and feel that there was no reason to speak to him sharply. We just like to see people who spend their free time contributing to this treated decently. Why does that amaze you?

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            2. You people are just totally unbelievable. He didn’t ‘speak to him sharply’. All he did was make a suggestion. That’s all it was. A suggestion. Good grief. What a bunch of babies.

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            3. Few thoughts on this topic. (The DNC has me jacked up)

              I don’t believe I was sharp at all.

              I’m a technical writer. I spend my days at work creating technical spec documents, visio flows, UI mockups, etc. If I see a better way to present an organized listing of data and writing I’m going to point it out. As I said above, I loved the content. I just thought it could be written in a more efficient way.

              Next thing, we are all adults. I don’t think I should have to butter a person up before I make (what I think) was constructive feedback. Not criticism. Feedback.

              All that being said, I think Gregg has been wonderful for this site. No offense to James, but I’ve often thought that Gregg has been running the place for a year now anyway. James seemed to check out a little bit ago. But, here’s the thing I shouldn’t have to go on this diatribe before offering someone advice. One adult should be able to offer another adult some feedback without patronizing them with unneeded platitudes before getting to the point. That’s PC corporate crap.

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            6. Joe, couldn’t you download the information and then reformat it? That would have been the simplest way to get around the problem as Gregg would have had complaints no matter how he formatted it.

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            8. You should NOT have to preface that statement with “I’m not looking for trouble”. I guess this is the results of a world where offering any sort of constructive criticism is frowned upon and everyone gets a participatory trophy.

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            9. I totally could. I was just trying to make a helpful suggestion. I guess people would prefer “+1001” posts, adds a lot more value I guess.

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            10. Joe, offering technical advice to the author in a public forum is belittling. Your motives were decent but you should probably email them directly next time. As for offering “constructive criticism”, try walking into the kitchen of your favorite restaurant and telling the chef that you have a better way for him to prepare food. Then see if you get out alive.

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    4. It’s a little tough to read, but I think an indent after the stats line and bolding the grade would suffice.

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  4. At some point next season, we could be looking at a Ruf-Hernandez-Galvis-Asche infield, Castro and Gillies in the OF, Valle behind the plate, and a couple of prosept starters (Morgan? Martin? Pettibone?) at LHV. Rare for us to see that many interesting players at AAA

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      1. Hang on DiaDerby….7 of those 10, ‘mds13’ mentioned could very well be at LHV at the same time, and all may be at some time thru the season. And the onlt reason I see Valle not being there is because he may be dealt in a package deal this off-season as some posters and a few Philly beat writers have speculated.

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      2. Not sure what is fantasy about it, other than trades or one or two making the big club. Martin might be a long shot, asche and morgan might start at reading but won’t stay there if they have another year like this one.

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        1. I do not think the Phillies are sending Asche to the AFL to transition to AA level. IMO, Joe Jordan has him already penciled in as the 3rd baseman at LHV in April 2013, barring injury.

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    2. I actually think this isn’t quite as far as you could go barring trades. I expect May to break spring training with LHV just because you figure that Wright, Biddle, and Colvin have spots in the AA rotation and they would move May ahead of Martin and Morgan. Bonilla will likely be in the relief corp and he is an interesting arm. Definitely a AAA team worth keeping an eye on.

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  5. A lot of these grades are exactly what I would have assigned the players too. Nice job. Definitely more positives than negatives here. The only real big disappointment was H-Mart and even he showed signs of life late in the year.

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    1. Colvin and May. I didn’t go into this season expecting a whole lot from Colvin. But May I expected to be almost ready for a major league audition by 2013.

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      1. Well since it’s the corner infield report cards that’s all I was referring to. If you expand it to the entire system then I agree and could add a few more- Eldemire and Garner are the first two that come to mind.

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        1. Can i ask why Garner? he was healthy all year and he cut his walk rate down since the beginning of the season.

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          1. I think with all the talk about his good fastball/curveball combo, more was expected than just health. He did seem to improve a little as the season went on but at the end his BB and K rates were still mediocre.

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            1. I was actually really happy with Garners health, solid pitching, and pitching at a higher level with very few pro innings under his belt. he never got a lot of short season innings due to injury but i think he stepped up to plate this year, so to speak. I will say make or break is coming real soon for him but this year renewed hope

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  6. Good job Gregg and evals right on the money. Perkins’ next landing spot in ’13, level and position, and his potential intrigue me.

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  8. Great work Gregg, an enjoyable read. I don’t think Asche has anything left to prove in AA and the major league club won’t block him. Asche and Franco’s growth in the 2nd half makes 3b a real strength all of a sudden. And Ruf’s year was truly memorable. I’m betting he starts the last game of the season in Phily this year. What a difference a year makes at these two positions.

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  9. Interesting eval. I know it is a lot of work. Good sug. on formatting but it would take more time. Touchey little group as always. Interesting that no one disagreed.

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  10. “He has too much talent to not bounce back but will need to regain his confidence prior to his stroke. ”

    When did Walding have a stroke? Sorry I am nurse and maybe I read into that line.

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  11. Maikel Franco will be starting the season in Reading, he was told by Phillies brass according to his host family in Lakewood

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    3. Solves the 3B log jam, they move Asche to LHV, keep H-Mart in CLW to try figure things out, and start Walding at LKW.

      On another note, this seems to be an increasingly popular strategy to jump players from Low-A to AA, the two high profile guys who did it this year were Taveres and Profar, and I know the Nats did it with Harper.

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    4. If Franco starts at Reading, then if that is the case, Asche is in LHV and HMart remains at CLW, and Walding to LKW.

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  12. Wow! Franco at Reading in ’13? Fabulous. IMO, he is the Phils #1 prospect with apologies to Mr. Biddle. They feel his learning curve has taken a serious up move which will continue in ’13 at AA; on to AAA in ’14…with a possible MLB call-up in Sept ’14.

    Good dreams to have. He’s the Phils best righty slugger prospect…and a good fielder. Sorry, he is only average or less in foot-speed. That’s the one thing that Schmidt had that Franco lacks except maybe also an exceptional arm.

    Franco will certainly be the Phils best 3rd baseman since Mike. He’s my #1 prospect.

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  15. Jesse Biddle #10 on BA’s Hot sheet list for the year, its based on how many times he made the list and how high

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