I know you’ll find this site when you search for “Mike Costanzo” and “Michael Bourn”, if you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments here. To see the bulk of what I’ve written on Costanzo, click here. I did interviews with Keith Law and Bryan Smith of BP who both commented on Costanzo as well. I haven’t written a whole lot about Bourn because he spent all of last year in Philadelphia. Basically, lots of speed, very good defender, good plate discipline for the most part, but virtually no power. Any other questions, post away. Thanks for stopping in.

EDIT: Way back in January, my prediction for Costanzo was

So then, 2007. Mike will open the season, his age 23 season, as the starting 3B at Reading. At 23, he needs to be in AA, and he needs to put up a season in the .820-.860 OPS range to remain a prospect worth watching. It’s certainly not unrealistic to expect a .280/.370/.470 season from him at Reading. Parkwise, Reading plays fairly well for hitters

His actual line was .269/.368/.486……not bad.

Wow. The Phillies traded Michael Bourn, Geoff Geary and Mike Costanzo for Brad Lidge and Eric Bruntlett. Gotta say, I didn’t see that coming. Bourn is the classic case of “can he play every day”, Geary is a fungible middle reliever, and we’ve debated the merits of Costanzo for a while now. I’m not a big believer in Costanzo being an above average regular at the major league level, Bourn I’m a bit more optimistic on. This is clearly a pretty big gamble, but it will allow us to move Myers back to the rotation. Bruntlett is basically a throw in, a slightly more offensively inclined Abe Nunez who can play all of the INF positions.

Again, wow.

We kind of touched on what to expect from Jaramillo going forward in the Reader Top 30 threads, where he took the 13th spot. Some felt he didn’t merit a ranking that high, which is understandable considering his less than amazing 2007 numbers. Baseball America’s Team USA breakdown

Bryan Anderson (Cardinals) and Jason Jaramillo (Phillies) split time behind the plate in the Arizona Fall League. Although Anderson is the more promising prospect, there is not much difference between the two in current ability. Anderson, who hit .298/.350/.388 for Double-A Springfield as a 20-year-old, is an offensive-minded catcher with good contact-hitting skills. Jaramillo, 25, hit .271/.350/.361 for Triple-A Ottawa right and shows more patience at the plate than Anderson does right now. Jaramillo also did a bit better than Anderson at throwing out base-stealers in 2007. Having the lefthanded-hitting Anderson and the righthanded-hitting Jaramillo should make for a nice platoon for manager Davey Johnson.

“Anderson is the better hitter of the two, but Jaramillo gives you more consistency behind the plate with above-average arm strength and accuracy with his throws,” a scout from a National League club said. “There isn’t much of a drop-off with either one behind the plate, but Jaramillo is the better defender. Anderson gives you more punch, but it’s not like Jaramillo is a bad hitter. This is a guy who had a really nice year in Triple-A (in 2007).”

Whether he’s just being nice for the sake of it, it’s nice to see something positive here, and it’s again highlighting his performance defensively, which is a plus. Anderson, for what it’s worth, was ranked as the Cardinals’ 6th best prospect entering 2007, and one of the better catching prospects in the minors.

Just saw the list at Baseball America, no real surprises, but felt I’d pass it along. I think they might try and bring back guys like Burnham and Brito, but we’ll see.

Righthanders: Ryan Cameron, Matt Childers, Julio de la Cruz, Landon Jacobsen, Gary Knotts, Tim McClaskey, Bubba Nelson, Chris Rojas, Brian Sanches, Heath Totten, Charles Weatherby, Jason Wylie
Lefthanders: Eude Brito, Allen Davis, Chris Key, Luis Villarreal, Cory Willey
Catchers: Jason Hill, Dusty Wathan
First basemen: Gary Burnham, John Urick
Second basemen: Carlos Leon, Peeter Ramos
Third basemen: Joey Hammond, Brennan King
Shortstops: Gookie Dawkins, Danny Sandoval
Outfielders: Shaun Boyd, Nic Jackson, Greg Jacobs, Matt Padgett, Jim Rushford, Pedro Swann