The latest hot topic appears to be Zach Segovia moving into a position to make the bullpen out of spring training. The Inquirer makes a brief mention here, citing his most recent impressive outing against the Yankees, and the Daily News talking about his control and composure. This idea seems to really be picking up steam recently, and maybe more because of everyone else’s general state of suckitude rather than Segovia’s complete dominance. As I highlighted in my profile of Zach, pitching out of the pen, at least for now, might be his area of greatest value to the big league club. The overpowering velocity isn’t there, the strikeout numbers aren’t there, but he doesn’t walk a lot of guys, and that’s an important component for any quality reliever.

Quick update on our top Draft and Follow prospect, Rashad Taylor. Through 71 AB, his batting line:

.423/.535/.809,  25R, 4 2B, 4 3B, 5 HR, 21 RBI, 19 BB, 12 K

Hey Pat, please make this guy a quality offer.

Also, a plea to my fellow Phillies fans….don’t panic about Cole Hamels and his spring struggles, he’s going to be fine.

In Baseball America’s latest prospect blog entries, some updates on Phillies prospects are given. First, Scott Mathieson has begun long tossing from 150 feet and appears to be right on schedule. He should be back to pitching from a mound sometime in July, and might make a cameo in September. However, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be effective right away, as pitchers coming back from TJ almost always go through control/command troubles while regaining arm strength. The realist says that sometime mid 2008 he should be fully ready to contribute at the big league level, the question remains in what role he’ll play. Some argue he should get a shot to be the next closer, others argue his highest value is still in the rotation. Until we know what his arm/stuff is going to look like post surgery, that type of speculation really is just that, speculation.

Mentioned in the same article, Scott Mitchinson is also recovering from shoulder surgery (which I apparently missed) and should also be back and throwing in July. Also, there was a blurb on Drabek and his most recent outing in a Low A spring training game. Apparently the Phillies tried to alter Drabek’s delivery, and because of it, he suffered with a bit of velocity drop and wasn’t sharp. He revised his mechanics, somewhere between what he originally was using and what the Phillies suggested, and his fastball velocity shot back up into the 94 range with improved control, his curve was great, and his changeup was better than it was last season in his brief debut. Drabek was also praised for his attitude and ability to work with his coaches, which has to be seen as a great sign. It looks like he’s a lock to start the year at Lakewood, barring a late injury here.

If you’re a subscriber at Baseball Prospectus, you know all about similarity index and comparable players. If you don’t know, here is a real brief summary. Basically, the backbone of this is the PECOTA system, and is broken down into four main attributes; on field production, shear amount of numbers, physical traits like handedness, and then finally defensive position. The database contains over 20,000 seasons from major leaguers since World War II, as well as 10 years worth of minor league seasons from 1997-2006. Similarity index is basically a snapshot of all of the player’s comparable, with an index of 50 being a very common player, historically speaking, and a rating lower than 20 meaning the player is very unusual in a historical context.

Just for fun, on this miserable looking Friday, I looked at the comparable lists for the Phillies 10 best prospects, according to my prospect grades I did a little while back. Here are just a few brief thoughts on each guy.

1. Carlos Carrasco: SI = 57. At this point, his ten most comparable pitchers isn’t a pretty sight, but near the bottom of the top 10, then the 11-15 range, you see names like Jeremy Bonderman of 2003 (#7) and Yovani Gallardo of 2006 (#12). Because he had such a night and day change from 2005 to 2006, it’s tough to project him. The upside is definitely there.

2. Adrian Cardenas: SI = 24. Lots of interesting guys in his Top 20, including David Wright (#3), Ian Stewart (#13) and Milton Bradley (#14). Again, we’re dealing with a small sample size, hence his low Similarity Index.

3. D’Arby Myers: SI = 7. Clearly, because he was only 17 in the GCL, he’s a somewhat unique case. However, numbers 8-10 on his list include Carl Crawford, Jose Reyes and Carlos Gonzalez, one of the best prospects in baseball.

4. Scott Mathieson: SI = 66. Mathieson’s top 20 is all over the map, but does include a few really good signs, including Jake Peavy circa 2004 (#3) and Catfish Hunter circa 1969 (#7). However, it also includes guys like Victor Santos and Seth Etherton. We won’t really know anything about his future until sometime in 2008.

5. Josh Outman: SI = 59. Outman’s top 20 is absolutely ugly in every way. He really turned things up in 2006, and he was outstanding over the last 6 weeks of the season, but he still has control issues. We can only hope his list looks better at this time next year.

6. Edgar Garcia. No comparables in the PECOTA system yet.

7. James Happ: SI = 62. Happ’s top 20 is ugly as well, but interestingly, Doug Davis circa 2000 is his #3 comparable. Prior to Happ adding velocity on his fastball, he shared a lot of similarities to Davis. You could do worse than Doug Davis, who is a capable innings eater, but with a strong 2007, I’d imagine Happ’s comparable pitchers list will change a bit.

8. Joe Bisenius. No comparables in the PECOTA system yet.

9. Dan Brauer. No comparables in the PECOTA system yet.

10. Ben Pfinsgraff. No comparables in the PECOTA system yet.

Since a few guys aren’t in the system yet, I figured I’d look at a few lower ranked prospects and see how they stacked up.

Matt Maloney: SI = 60. Doug Davis circa 1999 comes in as his #2 comparable, and Brian Fuentes circa 1999 his #7 comparable.

Michael Bourn: SI = 49. The 2004 version of Tim Raines is his #4 comparable, and the only guy that looks anywhere near decent is Randy Winn circa 1998, who is his #15 comparable. Maybe this helps affirm my worries about him being a regular player in the big leagues.

Today’s player profile is a guy I’m having a hard time figuring out, 2002 2nd round pick Zach Segovia. Since being drafted in 2002, Zach has seen his share of ups and downs, including Tommy John surgery in 2004 and what appears to finally be a return to full health in 2006. With much uncertainty surrounding the Phillies bullpen entering the season, his name has been mentioned a few times as a possible candidate. Entering his age 24 season, he’s seen his performance fluctuate wildly, and his ERA hasn’t always matched his peripherals, couple that with his sometimes less than awesome stuff, his possible conditioning issues, and he really is impossible to project.

First, lets take a look at his numbers, season by season, and see if we can figure them out.

2002, GCL: 34.1 IP, 2.10 ERA, 21 H, 3 BB, 30 K

An impressive debut at age 19 for Zach. He kept his hits way down, allowed only 3 walks, and struck out 30. Expectations were obviously high after the strong start.

2003, GCL: 9 IP, 4.00 ERA, 8 H, 0 BB, 6 K
2003, Lakewood: 49.2 IP, 3.99 ERA, 63 H,  14 BB, 27 K

Clearly something was up here. His hit rate went through the roof, and while his control was still solid, his K rate plummeted. The Phillies knew something was wrong, and sure enough, he had done ligament damage in his right arm and needed Tommy John surgery, causing him to miss the entire 2004 season.

2005, Clearwater: 144.2 IP, 5.54 ERA, 168 H, 48 BB, 83 K

At first glance, the ERA is awful, and he allowed a ton of hits with few strikeouts. However, there is a silver lining, that being his great control. With pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgery, command and control are normally the last things they regain, but Segovia still displayed great control in his first season back, and maybe more importantly, he pitched 144 innings, showing that his arm was healthy.

2006, Clearwater:  49.1 IP, 2.19 ERA, 39 H, 12 BB, 41 K
2006, Reading: 107 IP, 3.11 ERA, 90 H, 24 BB, 75 K

In his second season back, his trademark control again remained intact, but this time, his hit rate jumped right back in line with where it should be, though his K rate was still lagging behind. I like to look at walk rate and strikeout rate separately, as I think K/BB can sometimes be misleading,  but he does average 3 K per BB, which is decent. The other great asset which he has retained is the ability to keep the ball on the ground and not allow home runs. In 394 IP as a pro, he’s allowed only 30 HR, a very respectable number. In 2006, he allowed 10 in 156.1 IP, again not a bad total. Last season he also induced 220 groundballs to only 170 flyballs, a solid ratio for a guy who doesn’t strike out many guys.

So, if we look at his numbers overall, they are pretty decent. His 2005 ERA is bloated, but that’s to be expected for a guy in his first year after Tommy John. Now we have to look at his stuff. Depending on who you talk to, it appears the majority opinion is that he hasn’t regained his pre Tommy John velocity, and two years removed from the surgery, he probably never will. From most scouting reports of him last season, he was consistently in the high 80’s with his fastball, hitting 91 or 92 on occasion. He has at least average secondary offerings, and his stuff plays up a bit because of his excellent control, but it does leave us with a tough time projecting his future.

Command and control guys, or finesse pitchers if you will, have much less room for error than guys with overpowering stuff. Often times, flamethrowers are overrated by scouts, and even despite terrible numbers, are more well thought of as prospects because of the notion that they “might put it all together one day” and become special. However, a larger percentage of these guys never make it, and end up flaming out because of lack of control. On the other side, finesse pitchers who are able to outmaneuver minor league hitters often struggle when they get to the big leagues, mainly because they fall victim to nibbler syndrome, where they try and be too fine and hit corners, end up walking a ton of guys or always end up behind in the count, which results in fat pitches hit to all quadrants of the park. The obvious best solution is a guy with good stuff who also has good control. But those guys don’t grow on trees.

So, where does that leave Zach? Well, I’m not really sure, and in doing my grades and projections, he was a tough guy to figure out. I gave him a solid B grade in my prospect grades, and I feel like he could be a starter at the big league level, but I wrestle with that thought now. His command is obviously good enough to be a starter, his groundball tendencies are there, but is the lack of overpowering stuff going to kill him at the next level? Is he going to be better off as a 7th inning reliever, where he doesn’t have to face a lineup 3 times? As a #5 starter, I think he’d be a fine addition on most teams. On a mediocre team, he might even be the 4th best option. On the worst of teams, he might even be a credible #3 eventually. But on this current Phillies team, he might be better suited to pitching in relief. I think he’s going to spend time at Ottawa this season before he makes it to Philly, unless he’s absolutely lights out the rest of spring training and most of the other candidates in the bullpen implode. I’m not a fan of low strikeout guys pitching in high leverage situations, but with Segovia, I really have no idea what to expect out of him at the next level, so I’ll go with the “never say never” line until we have a better read on him.

A few articles of note this morning. First, a piece talking about Justin Germano, his minor league numbers and his brief major league experience, and the possibility of him moving to the bullpen and breaking camp with the team.

However, in his last six seasons of professional ball, he has three relief appearances.

”Coming up, I had the attitude that I’m a starter, and that’s it,” said Germano. ”Now, I want to do whatever I need to do to get there. ”I’m getting into the mind-set of being a long reliever right now. I pitched out of the pen a few times and felt a little uncomfortable. I’m working on figuring out what I need to do to get ready quickly.”

Charlie Manuel wouldn’t mind seeing a capable reliever emerge in a hurry. ”He has good off-speed stuff and he throws it for strikes,” Manuel said. ”The hitters aren’t used to seeing sharp off-speed pitches this early, but if he can keep getting guys out, he can be [in the majors].”

Germano as a reliever is an interesting idea. He doesn’t turn 25 until August, so it’s not like he has no chance of being a successful starter, but he really lacks the stuff to be anything more than a 5th starter on a good team/4th starter on a poor team. He’s always shown great command with poor strikeout numbers, and I’m hesitant of having those types of guys in high leverage situations, but as a long man, he could provide a cheap, decent option. Who knows, not all relievers are high strikeout/swing and miss type guys, but that’s what you look for, and that isn’t Germano. Never say never though. I rated Germano the 36th best prospect in the organization, giving him a C+

Also, an AP article talking about the Phillies move to Ottawa this season. For all your Ottawa Lynx needs, visit the unofficial and definitive Ottawa Lynx Blog.

This brief blurb touches on the progress of Alfredo Simon and Jim Ed Warden this spring. I was really expecting nothing from Simon, but had hopes that Warden would work out. It looks like his confidence hasn’t returned and he’s struggled all spring. The Phillies plan to contend from Day 1, so don’t expect them to keep either Rule 5 guy around if they don’t really turn things around soon, and I have a feeling Gillick won’t be afraid to cut bait early on. The article also mentions the idea of Germano moving to the pen.

In this article, reliever Matt Smith really tears into himself about his performance, and ponders the thought of being sent down to the minors.  Smith, the only viable lefty we have right now, probably doesn’t have to worry about that, but it’s nice to see he realizes he needs to be sharp and not just rest on his positive performance in 2006.

The Phillies bullpen is the obvious glaring weakness at this point. Germano’s name emerging is interesting, and I have a feeling you’ll hear thoughts of Zach Segovia and James Happ starting the season in the pen as well. Earl Weaver was a big fan of breaking in young pitchers in the bullpen, so with a strong spring, you’d think they might give those two a look. However, I think in terms of long term health and value, if the Phillies feel Happ will be a starter, they should leave him in relief all season, and then have him resume a throwing pattern/workload next offseason to get his arm into starter mode again. Some pitchers have a hard time bouncing back on a day’s rest, and you never really know how each pitcher will react. I think that moving a guy between roles who isn’t familiar with doing that can sometimes cause problems, whether it be the arm’s resiliency, or the pitcher’s performance. You have to wonder if Madson’s struggles last year had anything to do with him just not being in the right frame of mind to pitch in relief after starting earlier in the season. I’m sure it’s different for every pitcher.

Today’s selection for the player profile is one of the brighter prospects in the Phillies system, SS/2B Adrian Cardenas. The Phillies selected Cardenas in the supplemental first round of the 2006 draft, 37th overall, and he signed quickly for $925,000. Cardenas might be one of the best stories in the 2006 draft. Originally well off the radar, his stock began to rise, and rise rapidly, when he found himself playing in front of scouts at every game, scouts who were there to see his teammate, first round pick Chris Marrero. While Marrero was thought to have the better tools set, it was Cardenas who was tearing the cover off of the ball, putting together one of the best seasons in the entire country for a high school player. In his senior season at Monsignor Pace High School (a superb prep school in Opa Loca Florida), Adrian hit .647, with 18 2B, 2 3B and 18 HR, knocking in 65 and stealing 14 bases, truly outstanding numbers. He basically went from being a mid rounds pick to a first round talent in just a few months, and was good enough to nab Baseball America’s High School Player of the Year award.

Without any real top quality middle infield prospects in the system, the pick of Cardenas may have looked like a “desperation move” at first glance, but when you see the type of hitting ability Cardenas brings, you have to re-examine that criticism and wonder if the Phillies didn’t get the best player available. Standing only 6’0, 185 lbs, there isn’t a ton of projection available on him, which is one reason he might not have been a pure first round pick. Chances are he’ll only add an inch or two and maybe 15 pounds, meaning he’ll probably max out at 6’2, 200lbs, which isn’t tiny, but also isn’t your prototypical size for an offensive machine. While he played SS in high school, most scouts/talent evaluators see him being much better at 2B, which is where he’ll play at Lakewood. His range and arm are probably not quite good enough to be a major league shortstop, though he doesn’t have to be moved to 3B yet, an area where the Phillies are also struggling, prospect-wise,  as it will be easier for him to get adjusted to pro ball, especially full season ball, playing 2B as opposed to the hot corner.

Cardenas’ greatest strength is his pure hitting ability, as seen in his monstrous senior year in high school, and his strong GCL debut. After signing, he played 41 games in the GCL, posting an impressive .318/.384/.442 batting line across 154 AB. He finished with 11 extra base hits, he stole 13 bags in 16 attempts, and he drew 17 walks to only 28 strikeouts. Overall, his debut couldn’t have gone much better. Right now, he doesn’t have a ton of raw power, and he doesn’t look like a 35 HR hitter per year at the big league level, but his swing is very compact, and he does get good loft on the ball, which indicates that as he gets stronger, he might have a good chance of being a 20 HR per year type hitter, and that’s nothing to sneeze at for a middle infielder. Glove wise, he was a solid fielder at short, but as I mentioned, his range/arm will keep him off there. He’ll play 2B at Lakewood next to Jason Donald, and the team will probably wait before figuring out where to ultimately move him to, since 2B will be filled in Philly for a while by a guy named Utley.

Which leads me to the next part of this profile. When drafted, many people were saying “he reminds me of a young Chase Utley”…..that’s not a bad comparison, huh? Like Utley, he has a very compact stroke, and like Utley, he’s lefthanded. But that’s about as far as we can go for now. Utley was a college player and didn’t make his pro debut until age 21, when he played 40 games at Batavia upon being drafted out of UCLA. Utley, who stands at only 6’1, 185lbs, is an illustration though, that you don’t need to be 6’5, 230lbs to hit 30 HR a year. Cardenas looks like he could be very similar to Utley in terms of size, and the swing is similar. One other note, in terms of comparisons. Over at Baseball Prospectus, they’ve devised similarity scores, which help to analyze what a player has done, and who he is most similar to based on all of those variables. His number 1 comparable is Marcus Giles, and in his top 10, you also find David Wright (#3), Erik Aybar (#9) and Wilson Betemit (#10), not bad names for sure. In fact, Wright and Cardenas had very similar debuts, and it will be even more interesting if Cardenas eventually ends up at 3B.

At this point, it’s tough to temper expectations on Adrian, and it’s easy to get way ahead of ourselves. His debut went just about as well as could be expected, and he’ll be making the jump to full season ball, spending 2007 at Lakewood, playing 2B beside fellow 2006 draft pick Jason Donald. 2007 represents his age 19 season, so he’ll be a tick young for the league and playing against advanced competition. There is really no need to worry about moving him to a position of need right now, the most important thing is letting his offense develop, because that is what will ultimately determine his overall value in the big leagues. If his bat is good enough, it won’t matter if he’s playing 2B, 3B, LF, or RF, he’s going to be a big asset. One interesting thing to watch will be how aggressive he is on the bases. His speed rates as merely average, maybe even a tick below average, yet he did steal 13 bases in the GCL, and was only caught 3 times. If he can swipe 20 bags at Lakewood, it further increases his value.  His 2007 should be one of the more entertaining things to watch in the Phillies minor league system.