Kevin Goldstein gave props to Jason Donald today in his ranking of shortstop prospects in the minors, ranking Donald 8th. The list
1. Reid Brignac (TBD)
2. Chin-lung Hu (LAD)
3. Carlos Triunfel (SEA)
4. Brent Lillibridge (ATL)
5. Jed Lowrie (BOS)
6. Hector Gomez (COL)
7. Chris Nelson (COL)
8. Jason Donald
A third-round pick last year, Donald never lived up to expectations in college, but he’s been the most pleasant surprise in the Phillies organization this year. Donald is one of those players who is more valuable than the sum of his parts. The are no real weaknesses in his offensive game, as he hits for average with gap power and draws his share of walks. Defensively, it’s much of the same, as he rarely makes the spectacular play, but he’s fundamentally sound and consistently converts every ball he gets to into an out. He’s a solid but unspectacular talent with no real career path within the organization due to the presence of both Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley
9. Elvis Andrus (TEX)
10. Brian Bixler (PIT)
Phuture Phillies 
This is good news. If he can be solid afield and continue to hit with gap power and show excellent discipline at the dish, he can be our new third baseman in a year or two if Costanzo can’t handle it or is transitioned to the outfield. I’m really excited to see where he’ll be and what he’ll do next year.
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Ahead of Andrus? That is some pretty lofty praise. His numbers this year (such as his OPS) surely deem it necessary.
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And in case others missed it, Baseball America put out its “Best Tools” report where it breaks down the players with the best tools in various category by league. We pretty much have Best Defensive Catcher sewn up (Jaramillo, Marson, Tufewich). So we have that going for us 🙂
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good to hear. hopefully donald, cardenas, and mach can pave the way for a ryan howard trade in 2008, so this team can finally bring in enough top tier arms to build a pitching staff that can vault this team ahead of the braves and mets.
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Trade Ryan Howard? Are you on Crack?
Go Jason Donald! Tremendous job by Phillies Brass to draft him.
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I think the Phillies scouting department is one of the best in baseball. Its just the genreal manager and the ownership that doesent allow the organization to get better.
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Donald seems sure to start next season at Reading, but he SEEMS to adapt quickly to each new challenge.
He seems to be our righty answer to third base to make up for what Constanzo lacks in hitting lefties…at the least. And since Constanzo’s fielding is highly suspect, Donald should win the all-out fight for the 3rd base position.
based on OBA AND fielding. Constanzo to LF…??
A fortunate choice beyond expectations!!
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If the Phillies can find a suitor for Wes Helms in the off-season, could a Costanzo/Donald platoon at 3B be an option out of Spring Training?
I don’t think that would be too far out of the question at this current point in time. Things can change relatively quickly, but that platoon has a high likelihood of success, IMO.
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Donald has proven his worth for sure this year in Clearwater. He leads the team in BA, SLG, OBP, OPS and only trails in other areas becuase other guys have more game than him. This guy is a stud! I hope he can be the future whould this team need a middle infielder in the near future.
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Great News & Well deserved!
Not sure if he is a good choice for 3rd base but he is one of my favorites.
With 3 or more good young middle infielders in the organization, it is unlikely that we will have the opportunity to see all of them in Philadelphia but we will be making trades in the future; i.e., quality players like Donald will be nice “poker chips”, if they are not in our plans.
Again, someone mentioned trading Ryan Howard. I have no idea what these people are thinking! Players like Howard are very rare. I would doubt if there are too many people in the baseball world who do not believe that Howard is the most prolific home run hitter presently or in the foreseeable future. Hopefully, the day will come when the 5th man in the batting order is someone that the opposition does not want to face either; THEN, watch-out! Maybe we need to trade Utley & Hamels ALSO!!
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Thank you, Carthurs. On behalf of all semi-rational mortals, I respectfully ask that people stop the trade Ryan Howard talk. It’s entirely nuts and, fortunately for the rest of us, it ain’t gonna happen. So let’s move on to more productive discussions.
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why trade ryan howard?
since 2003, the phillies have had a 1B put up an OPS greater than .920. first it was jim thome, then it was ryan howard. in this time of having a great power hitting 1B, the phillies offense has improved from being in the top 5 of runs scored in 2003 to top 3 in 2004. they were second in 2005, and they led the national league in runs scored last season. they have not won fewer than 85 games in this time period.
but at the same time, they have not won more than 88 games in a season, and they have not made the playoffs. in no way is this the fault of jim thome or ryan howard. the team’s lack of postseason success is the direct result of mediocre starting pitching, middle relief, 3B and bench play,
my assertion is that the phillies would be better off using some combination of tyler mach, jason donald, and adrian cardenas on the bench and at second base, while moving chase utley to 1B, and trading ryan howard. i think that the offense would still be in the top half, maybe better depending on if 3B is upgraded, and by trading howard at this time, the phillie would be able to ask for a great package of major league ready pitching (think clay buchholz, joba chamberlain, andrew miller, eric hurley, kasey kiker, justin masterson) that would set the team up with 3 or 4 aces that could carry the team on their back for the next 4 years.
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Andrew: The thought of Costanzo being a serious competitor for 3rd base in ’08 is not such a good idea…since it SEEMS that Costanzo really needs a full year at AAA to 1-get his strikeouts lessened; 2-learn how to field the position well; 3-reach at least .275 in ba and .350 oba. Without improvement such as those, he won’t be spending much time in Philly…IMO…and Donald seems like such a superior player with those skills missing from Costanzo.
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Costanzo also moved up two levels this season and started slowly. Any reason to believe he can move up another two levels and get off to a fast start with bat and glove in majors?
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I’ve been the one singing his praises, but here’s the downside (or at least present limitations) with Costanzo.
Costanzo moved up one level this year, not two. He struggled mightily in the early going (just as he did last year in high class A ball). His fielding has been less than stellar. I haven’t seen him, and there have been some explanations tendered as to why he has committed so many errors, but, nonetheless, the errors are there and it’s not very pretty.
There doesn’t appear to be anything about his current year that would suggest he is ready to be thrown into the mix at the major league level. He will be ready for AAA next year and I expect him to struggle somewhat the first month or two. If he does very well, he may be ready for a mid to late season call-up. It is just as likely, however, that he will not be ready for the majors until 2009 and don’t expect that it will necessarily be easy going for him at that time because: (a) it seems he always needs time to adjust as progresses from level to level; (b) he may be finding himself a new position, particularly if, as I expect, Pat Burrell no longer plays leftfield for the Phils in 2009; and (c) he strikes out a lot, which suggests to me that he either may never adjust to major league quality pitching or, if he does, it may take a year or two. All of this being said, Costanzo continues to progress, slowly but surely, in the minors, making adjustments at every level and showing great power and fine on base percentage.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Jason Donald may end up being our third baseman in 2009, so we’ll have to see where Costanzo fits in best. Also, don’t be surprised if he is part of a trade.
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Just thought I’d mention that Costanzo made the BA Hot List this week at #17. I believe it’s his first time on the Hot List…he’s a veteran of the Not-So-Hot List.
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