Draft Q/A with Jim Salisbury

* Interviews, 2007 Draft

Jim Salisbury, excellent baseball writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, was kind enough to answer some questions for me in preparation for this week’s draft. As many know, lots of teams play these things close to the vest, as to not tip their hand before the draft, but Jim had some insight into the thinking within the organization, and was gracious enough to share it with us. This week, I’ll keep posting more tidbits and draft rumors if I can find them, as well as keeping you up to date on the minors. So, here is the Q/A with Jim, enjoy.

PhuturePhillies:  Have you heard anything about the Phillies draft and follow guys? Rashad Taylor seems to be having the most success, while Shawn Epps and Patrick Murray also put together solid JuCo seasons. Any word on whether the Phillies are going to make a play at these guys?

Jim Salisbury:  None of these guys will be signed…. They were unable to come to terms with Taylor and Epps and Murray is bound for Oral Roberts.

PP: With the “Draft and Follow” being scrapped in the new collective bargaining agreement, have the Phillies made it known that they plan to be more aggressive in the later rounds and take more risks with high ceiling guys and sign them right away, or will they take less touted guys who are going to be easier to sign in the last 15 rounds?

JS:  I still think they will take chances on D & F types later in the draft and try to sign them before the Aug 15 deadline. I’m not sure how successful they will be signing these types of players because the Phillies are a team that will not pay above slot. That’s an ownership mandate

PP: What has the reaction been to the first round of the draft being televised this year? I’d have to think the old school guys like Arbuckle and Wolever aren’t too pleased with this.

JS: They actually like it a lot. Marti was enthused about it as far back as the winter meetings, when it came up in scouting director meetings. He thinks it will shed some nice attention on the high school game. I think the only drawback is it’s going to slow down the first day a lot.

PP: Have you heard any names mentioned yet for the Phillies first few picks? Is the org looking to fill a specific position in the first round or just go with the best available guy?

JS: They will always look best available. However, I get the feeling that their dream scenario is to come away with a couple of good bats with their first two picks (19 and 37). Wolever loves bats. He pushed for Utley and Cardenas. As far as the team’s No.1 pick, I don’t have the name of a hitter for you, though I have some hunches, which I will throw out in the next few days. The Phils are  playing this close to the vest, which tells me they have a guy they like, but don’t want to name him as to alert other clubs. I think they could go HS hitter first. They like the HS catcher from Pa., Devin Mesoraco, a lot, but I don’t think he’d be their guy at 19. I think they’d love to get him a little later. They love his makeup. If they are successful in getting a couple of hitters early, I think they’ll look to load up on pitchers. Some of the names I’ve heard are Phillippe Aumont (6-7 high schooler from Quebec); Indiana high schooler Jarrod Parker and Rice lefty Joe Savery. They like a hitter, OF Jason Heyward, a lot.

By the way, they recently signed two fifth-year college kids, lefty Matt German from Northern Illinois and 6-8 righty Paige Dumont of Sonoma State.

PP: This year, the high school crop of players, especially pitchers, seems much deeper than the college bats, an area the Phillies could really use. Do you see them trying to take a college bat first anyway, as their last few drafts have been heavy on high school guys in the first 10-12 rounds.

JS:  I know they’d like to get a bat first. It could be college. Right now my hunch is it will be HS, but you never know. There’s a lot of decoying going on right now. In the Internet era, scouting bosses are reluctant to give names as to tip their hands to teams around them in the draft. For instance, they downplayed the heck out of Drabek last year, then nabbed him.

PP: A non-draft question. Any word on D’Arby Myers? He hasn’t shown up on any full season rosters yet, even after his excellent debut last year in the GCL at age 17. I’m assuming he’s in extended ST, is that because the Phillies felt he just wasn’t ready for full season ball?

JS: They love him. Gillick saw him at the workout at CBP before last year’s draft and really was impressed. He’s doing fine. I assume he’ll go to the GCL. He’s young and did not play in a powerhouse HS program. He’s still raw and needs time.

PP: How much of an influence did Pat Gillick have on last year’s draft? Were there any areas in particular where he was much different than Ed Wade in terms of strategy or specif drafting patterns?

JS: Gillick shares the Arbuckle/Wolever mind-set of drafting high ceiling, athletic-types. But he lets Marti run the show.

Thanks again for the time, Jim.
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The biggest thing I took from this is the comment that the owners have mandated not breaking slot, probably because they don’t want trouble from the Commissioner’s Office. I suspected this, but knowing it for sure now, it does kind of disappoint me…quite a bit actually. It’s also interesting that Wolever is the “bats side” and Arbuckle would seem to be the “arms side”…a very interesting dynamic.

18 thoughts on “Draft Q/A with Jim Salisbury”

  1. It would be nice to read one thing about the ownership group that didn’t deepen my loathing for them. On the other hand, I’m not sure I could handle the shock… great Q&A. Very interesting stuff.

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  2. This team is still trying to come back from the Wade era losing so many high draft choices.

    This is a thing that will take at least 2-3 more drafts to get us back to among the best 10 clubs.

    Now the absence of high celing position players neds to be addressed along with pitching which is always needed.

    My hope is that they’d devote their 1st two picks to position-player-bats and in 2nd round a pitcher…,probably a hS guy.We get those extra picks which we have in which gives more hope for quality choices early. Getting plenty of pitching along w plenty of position players could go a long way toward enhancing the team’s future.

    We pick at #19, 37,83,107 all of which fall in/close to the Top 100 prospects…as listed by BA.

    Then 113, 143, and 173.

    These comprise our picks in the first 5 rounds.

    In ’08, we probably will have lost 2 pitchers (garcia and Lieber) as well as Rowand…whose moves could generate a big bonanza in the ’08 draft: getting PERHAPS 2 picks for each one!

    Now, THAT’s a draft I’ll really be looking forward to!!

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  3. There was an article in the Philly Inq today about a kid from Souderton that has a pretty live arm and is projected in the 4th-7th rounds. If they get a chance, it sounds like this kid is pretty good and isnt much of a signability risk especially being from philly. Im really getting excited for the draft now.

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  4. Phillies have good scouting, are not losing draft picks anymore, and will clearly be helped by 2 – 3 more good drafts. I don’t think that is enough to put us back in the top 10, however. We just don’t draft that low in the first round. So, really without the chance to draft guys like Burrell with the primo first round pick, we are unlikely to crack the top 10 farms unless the team is willing to either break slot for a couple of draft guys a year or spend more than we are spending on international talent. Possibly need to do both if we continue to be close to wild card and therefore drafting in second half of first round. The other wild card that could turn that around is if the team is out of contention at the trade deadline and succeeds in moving some of the vets for good young talent instead of repeating last season’s salary dump.

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  5. This was excellent. Thanks to the site and thanks to Jim Salisbury. Jim covers the baseball draft (and the Phillies participation in it) better than any of the local media. The troubling comment about slot is troubling because it likely takes all the Boras clients out of the picture in the first round. Not that I wanted a Boras client per se but taking them off the board restricts the flexibility that they may need to maximize value. The Phillies have done a very good job gauging signability in the last 3 drafts. And as apparent last year they were willing to throw six figure bonuses at HS guys taken 11-20.

    The first 18 picks in the minorleagueball.com mock draft layed out a scary scenario. steagles took Jackson. I think I would have taken either Middlebrooks or LaPorta (probably LaPorta). It would help the Phillies cause if LaPorta and Borbon and Weathers go in the first 18 picks I think.

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  6. Wasn’t a fan of steagles draft, to be honest. Jackson is ok at SS, I like him, but I think he can be had at 37. Everyone knows I’m driving the Mattair bandwagon at 37. I don’t really know about LaPorta. Sure, he can rake, but he’s limited to 1B, and he isn’t going to need 4-5 years of minor league development time.

    As a Phillies fan, I expect the worst and hope to be surprised.

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  8. I’d be fine with Frazier but disappointed with the other two. 19 might be a little of an overdraft for Frazier but the guy’s a producer and college bats are really safe picks in the first round.

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  9. I don’t like Frazier. He has average tools, and I don’t like his swing mechanics. In a draft without a ton of high impact talent, sure, he’d be ok at 19, but there’s a very good chance there will be a lot of better options there. I’d much rather have, say, Michael Main or Casey Weathers, than Frazier. There are tons of 3B prospects in this draft, that’s what Frazier is, since he won’t play SS as a pro. I’d much rather have Middlebrooks, Mattair, Sanchez, or any number of guys over Frazier. Heck, I’d rather have Kozma over Frazier, because at least he’s a pure shortstop.

    I just don’t see the upside on Frazier, and in a draft with 20+ guys with big time ceilings, I think it would be foolish to draft a guy who projects as a mediocre major league 3B.

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  10. I was intrigued by the comment that the Phillies like Mesaraco alot but that Jim didn’t think he’d be their guy at 19. As it stands now there’s a pretty good chance Mesaraco doesn’t even get to 19 and yet the Phillies are hoping to get him later? That seems a little optimistic. Of the pitchers that Jim mentioned, it seems unlikely that Aumont or Parker will be there at 19 either. Savery likely will.

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  11. I agree with on Frazier and Burgess. All look the second coming of Mike Costanzo, especially Frazier, a whiffer in 1 of 4 at-bats in a second-rate conference. Borbon looks like Javon Moran II. It seems to me that Salisbury could do a little more fact finding on the draft, as he isn’t up to par with many posters on the Phillies boards in where a player will be drafted.
    Once again, I read where the Phils are drafting the same old tired and failed methods of the past 15 years that have produced zero playoff appearances. What’s that saying again? Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over agin expecting different results. That’s Arbuckle and Wolever for you. They are the REAL causes of the Phillies problems of the Phillies woes. Loss of draft picks? Why don’t they draft relievers that make it to the show?
    They can’t draft complimentary players because they miss on too many picks looking for that superster that’s never found, thus creating shortages in other areas. But hey, they have lifetime jobs. I can’t wait til the end of the week to count the times I hear the annual mean nothing words ‘athlete’ and high-ceiling’.

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  12. The Phillies do not have good scouts. Matter of fact, they are among the worst scouts in all of MLB. Can someone name me the Phillies top scout? We’ll compare him in this draft to Jim Robinson of the Red Sox in the state of Texas, where the Phils have a terrible scout, Steve Cohen. The Phils scouts know 1 method – old school, and it hasn’t worked in 15 years, even though Missouri scout Jerry lafferty is still looking for the next Jeff Stone.
    Has there been any other MLB team that has their Ex-scouting director/Assistant GM in place longer with no playoff appearances?

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  14. More than a little harsh IMO.

    The Phillies have a talent core that might be as good as any in the league. It’s comprised of Utley, Rollins, Howard, Hamels and Myers. All five were drafted and developed by the organization. Additionally, they’ve had Ruiz, Burrell, Bourn, Geary and Madson for the entirety of their pro careers, all of whom have some value.

    The problem on the talent evaluation side hasn’t been the drafts, but rather the free-agent and trade decisions. They buy high (Helms, Freddy Garcia) and over-value “character” and “experience” (Bell, Barajas). I think they’ve gotten enough from within to win, and Arbuckle and Wolever both seem to have good reputations within the game.

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  15. I think the bigger problem is minor league instruction. You should only draft high ceiling, raw athletes if you think they have the ability to develop in your organization. The Phillies generally stink at “developing” hitters. Rollins is the one exception I can think of over the last 7 or 8 years. The rest of the core is comprised of college bats. They’ve had more success developing prep pitchers. There have been questionable draft choices (Golson over Phil Hughes), but overall, the talent has been there, the Phillies just haven’t tapped into it. I don’t think that’s the fault of Norweyta or Wolever, maybe Arbuckle deserves some of that blame for not putting better teachers and instructors in place.

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  17. Compensation picks are here to stay, it’s just the rules for compensation are different. I don’t have time now, but if you google “collective bargaining agreement major league baseball compensation free agents” or something like that, you’ll find a good explanation of the changes. If you can’t find it, check back here later tonight or tomorrow and I’ll try to trade it down.

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