We’re winding down now, working on the lefties today, and then the relievers tomorrow. I’m going to go back through all of the depth chart posts, get a sense of the responses, and then I’ll update the main depth chart at the top of the page in the next few days, so if you want to weigh in on a different position before it’s tallied, make sure to do so soon. While we’re not as strong from the left side, we’ve still got some promising arms.
15 thoughts on “Depth Charts, LHSP”
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Savery, Outman, Happ, Bastardo, Dieckman
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Savery, Outman-Happ, Diekman, Bastardo, Brauer.
Ok, I think I got basically everyone significant. I think Happ and Outman are tied. Outman looks like he’s on the upside and Happ has fallen off a little but if Happ could regain some of his ’06 form, he could be just as good as Outman. And Happ is right there at the door ready to contribute.
Diekman has a pitcher’s body and I think he’ll be able to pitch better in the higher leagues than Bastardo. Also I believe Diekman is younger by a yr or 2.
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Savery, Outman, Happ, Bastardo, Diekman, Brauer
Not as much depth as RHSP, to be sure, but there’s some interesting sleepers here. I left Castro with the starters for the time being, though I suspect he’ll probably wind up in the bullpen. I’m also not ready to write off Brauer just yet; if he can stay healthy this year, he could surprise some people and move quickly through the system.
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Whoops, I meant to put Castro in between Outman and Happ.
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Savery, Outman, Happ, Castro, Bastardo, Diekman.
As deflated as I was when I looked at the depth of some of our position players, I am equally encouraged by the depth and potential high quality of the starting pitchers. What is especially nice is that the team is well set with hitting for about 3-4 years, so the imminent arrival of these young arms bodes well in many ways.
By the way, don’t be surprised if Happ and/or Castro take big steps forward. Having seen Happ pitch and having watched his game lines (when he’s on, he can toy with batters), I think there is possibly something very big there. I have said before that he reminds me of Jerry Koosman – a big strapping, smart left-hander who is not an ace, but could regularly go an get 13-17 wins. A really nice pitcher on a team with hitting to burn.
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Savery,Happ,Outman,Diekman,Bastardo.
I think Happ will bounce back this year in AAA
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I didn’t include Castro because he spent a nominal full year in majors as a Rule 5 guy. If I considered him, I would have put him after Bastardo if considered as a starter. I think he will relieve because of his really small size. I also counted Brauer as a reliever. Not sure where I’d put him as a starter. He had a bad year in 2007 with injuries, but looked really promising in 2006. I always have problems deciding where to rank the injury guys. I guess I’d say about a tie with Bastardo if he is counted as a starter.
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I’ll stick with my emphasis on ceiling: Savery, Outman, Happ, Diekman, Castro, Bastardo, Brauer. Like PF, I can see Castro going either way (start or relief). Have read some reports Phils want to try him as a starter in AAA this year to get him innings and see how he does there. I’ve seen stranger things than Castro winding up in the Phils rotation this year, given the bizarre sequence of events that seems to happen most years.
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Let’s hope one or two of them get some command and control and start to dominate this year. I watched Happ, Outman, Savery and Castro last year struggle to various degrees to throw strikes. If they could just command the strike zone that would be progress. For example Savery walked 11 in 14 innings in the AFL and Bastardo just pitched 1.2 innings of shut out relief in the DWL but he even walked two in the process.
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I can also see Diekman as a reliever, but we never know, because Phils like to get their highest ceiling guys lots of innings and test them as starters. Doesn’t get mentioned a lot, but that strategy is also consistent with a sabermetric approach of maximizing your resources. Have seen comments in this regard lately on various boards, relating to Phils OBP. This is another area where they are consistent with a modern approach, whether intentional or not.
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I think the Phils once seriously lagged behind in the Sabermetric world, but there are many sound sabermetric principles that they now seem to adopt and put to good use. They do appear to focus on OBP and putting their best pitchers in a position to pitch the most innings. They are also more focused on hitting than on fielding – as a result, they are picking up young players that may have struggled with the glove, but can make flat out hit.
And one good thing I can say about Charlie Manuel is he plays the guys who hit – if they don’t hit, they ride the pine and are ultimately shipped out. I don’t think that’s sabermetrics, is “old school” hitting coach Charlie wanting a team that can ring up the scoreboard. It’s a good approach.
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As usual, very good discussions yesterday and today. I think we all agree you can’t ever have enough pitching because they break down so frequently. The lefties are a smaller but strong group. Outman is #1 to me because he is close (noted by Gillick) followed by Savery, who has a higher upside but is a year or two behind Outman, followed by Happ who is a great spring away from being in Philly or being the first call up. I’d put Bastardo next, based on last year followed by Diekman (who I now realize is a lefty), and then Castro, who has talent but doesn’t look like he has any idea how to pitch. Brauer is also someone to keep an eye on if he can get healthy but I don’t know if they’ll even leave him starting this year. Its not hard to envision Outman, Savery and Happ all in the majors by the end of 2009.
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Savery, Outman, Happ
Castro, Diekman, Bastardo
Brauer
That is 9 Righties and 7 Lefties. Excellent.
Gillick realized how lost the Minors were and has for the most part drafted non stop pitching, after this year’s draft 2008 our Pitching Prospects should be Top Drawer.
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Savery, Outman, Happ, Castro, Bastardo, Brauer, Diekman.
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Check out the Podcast on readingphillies.com with Chris Klein about the Phillies prospects. Big predictions: Outman will start at AAA not AA, Berry will start at Reading in LF with Golson in CF, he LOVES Dom Brown and thinks Freddy Galvis is one of the best defensive SS he’s ever seen and will start at Lakewood (opposing players watch him take infield).
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