No real news to report today, things are shaping up, and the only real developments I can forsee between now and Monday would be a trade of Wes Helms, but it looks like there is zero interest around baseball. Maybe the Phillies can move him for a reliever out of options and take a flier on a guy, who knows. But, this weekend I plan to put in a bunch of work on the site to get things ready. I won’t be around Monday, so we’ll resume normal service on Tuesday and start getting prepared for the minor league season.
Today’s open ended question; which Phillies prospect will get the most AB’s for the big league club this season? Your choices are limited, but we did one for pitchers, so we’ll do one for hitters as well.
Phuture Phillies 
maybe Jason Donald or Marson, probably not many, but they should get some at the end of the year if they are still progressing by the time of expanded rosters
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I think it will probably be Happ getting 5 or 6 at bats in the 2 or 3 emergency starts he will get this year. I don’t see any position players getting called up this year that I would call a prospect. The one exception could be Jaramillo but only if there is an injury.
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I think the most obvious choice is Jaramillo.
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Jaramillo, given the odds of one of the catchers spending at least a little time on the DL and also based on his being the only prospect that is arguably ready.
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I agree it will probably be Jaramillo because of injury but I’ll take a flyer that Golson ends up taking over Bourn’s role as the 5th OF/PR by the All-star break and ends up with the most at-bats.
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Yea I’d have to agree with Jaramillo… he could potentially spend some time in the majors this season.
I’d say possibly an outfielder also… the outfield seems set on paper, but there some pretty breakable guys out there- Werth has perpetual wrist problems, Jenkins is old as dirt, Burrell’s ankle always seems to be bothering him, Victorino is prone to freak-accidents.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a young outfielder get a shot… although do we even have any that are close to major-league ready?
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I would actually disagree on the outfield prospect getting alot of ABs. If we are in a playoff race we’ll need to hit our way there and need power from the outfiled to do it. I could see us getting help from outside the organization but not within. Golson, given all his spring glory, is still not ready, Berry/Brown/Myers/ are not close. Slayden is a DH.
We have a couple of middle infield prospects that have both progressed well and might get a shot but our OF prospects seem to be further off than Harman, Donald, and Cardenas.
We have Snelling and TJ who probably will get a shot when an injury occurs.
Of course I am being a little hypocritical with how far away Donald/Harman/Cardenas are but the seem to have shown improvemnet where others continue to struggle or have been slowed with injuries.
Just my opinion.
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Maybe Golson during September?
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I think it would depend on who gets hurt, what player is already on the 40-man, what player has to be put on the 40-man this November, ect.
ex. If Jimmy Rollins would be injured and miss a month and Jason Donald is hitting .300 in AA and fielding well, what do you do?? Same with Carpenter. What if he’s pitching very well in Jube and an opening occurs??
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Jaramillo. The sooner the Phillies can determine which backstop is the catcher of the future, the better. Only way to do that is give Jaramillo some playing time at the ML level. Plus, he’s a switch hitter, which gives Cholly some versatility off the bench. I’m hoping not to see him until the rosters expand, though, since any sooner would mean that Chooch or Coste were injured.
If Golson shows a dramatic improvement in his approach at the plate he might be the guy. I’m skeptical but hopeful.
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I’ve seen Jaramillo a few times and think he has a slow bat. He does make contact, but I envision him as a backup catcher for Philly in 2009-10 before he’s traded. Marson should be the catcher of the future, say in 2011 or so if he beats out Ruiz. I doubt very much the Phils put big money into the catching position thru 2013 at least.
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Good point section 113….. If there was a problem they probably would be more inclined to look for help outside the organization…. I also overlooked the fact that Dobbs can play right and left.
But still, if they have 2 outfielders land on the DL simultaneously (which really isn’t that much of a stretch), even if Dobbs and Taguchi took over, they’d have to pull someone from somewhere to fill in the 4th and 5th spots temporarily. Even if Golson doesn’t get his act together completely at the plate, he’d still end up a decent emergency bench player as a pinch runner and late inning defensive replacement.
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a longshot…Mike Spidale
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am i the only one that thinks marson jumps Jamarillo in prospect status?
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maybe what i should say is this…
at this point the only difference between jamarillo and marson is age, Marson has the better bat, and defensively its probably possible that marson is only about a year behind him there….
Jamarillo will be at AAA, and thats the obvious advatage
but other than the 4 years in age and 1 year in experience, Marson is the better catcher, and I think this year he truly shows that
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philliesr98:
In terms of projected ceiling, most folks rate Marson ahead of D’Arnaud, who in turn is ahead of Jaramillo. But for the moment, Jaramillo is further along, that’s all. I’m not sure Marson jumps him on the actual depth chart this season unless Jaramillo regresses badly. It’s possible, though.
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any at bats given to position prospects this year will most likely happen at the end of the year…. by the end of the year I believe Jamarillo will either have been traded at the All star break OR Marson will be considered next in line for some MLB at bats out of all our catching prospects….
it seems like Jamarillo was our first decently regarded Catching prospect we had in a couple years and we still regard him that way because he was the first and is further along
barring an injury to Ruiz or Coste I just don’t see him getting a shot with the phillies, because when that time comes I think Marson will have jumped him in all aspects of catching including his defense… This all hinges on Marson taking a big step foward in his receiving skills this season, if he’s at reading with a good rotation, this may make it even easier for him to do so…
Barring an injury to Ruiz or Coste I just don’t see jamarillo getting at bats this year, unless he takes the big step foward by extended rosters, but at this point I fear we know what we will get out of his bat, with a some more room for improvement on the receiving end…..
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Jaramillo is the only one who will get a sniff prior to possible Sept call ups. The team has stop gap players in AAA now that will get called up before any prospects. The team won’t want to use up an arbitration year for a cameo. Snelling, Omedo, Woodward, who they just signed today, and Brandon Watson are all ahead of the other guys and would be called up to back up Taguchi, Dobbs and/or Bruntlett who are all better than what’s below. I guess that could change if one of the AA prospects surprises and hits .350 with power and one the Philly starters goes down for a significant period of time but I find that scenario very unlikely.
I really don’t get the Lahey signing… Plans to drop Condrey? I know they still want a situational lefty if they can find one and that’s now Condrey’s spot. Helms is just keeping Lidge’s spot warm until they can trade him or have to release him.
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The Reds are dropping Mike Stanton who was beat out by Kent Merker (40 yr old over a 40 yr old). I think he’s a guy the Phillies will try to sign after he pases through waivers on Monday. He’s owed $3M and I doubt any other team will pay him that much so the Phils will have to wait. Its the same problem in reverse that the Phils have with Helms. I would think Stanton would want to pitch with the Phillies with them having a chance to win.
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I think if our catchers give us at the very least what they gave us last year, then Jaramillo will see the most ABs purely for trade fodder. I don’t see him as our catcher of the future.
Murray…I instantly thought of Stanton too when I heard he was let go. But would he get a shot over anyone else in our pen? Now with Lahey I dunno, we might not have the room.
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There may be reasons to watch Jaramillo in ’08 at AAA.
The FO IMO wants to see if he can improve/refine his overall game. Should he do so, there WILL be competition between him and Marson…with the outcome uncertain, conceding that Marson seems to have an edge NOW.
Good catchers who switch-hit are far from valueless; contrarily, they’re coveted.
Scouts seem to think that Jaramillo CAN put his bat on the ball well but with only moderate power likely to bring only 5-10 HRs/season. Those scouts say he is a good defensive catcher w a good arm; Marson has yet to fully reach his better balance for sideways moves behind the plate, and should show more power this ’08 season…which seems to lurk but needs to come out of hiding in ’08.
Obviously both of them are works in progress; yet don’t count out Jaramillo too soon…watch his ’08 season at AAA.
AND, by the way, don’t you think that Ruiz could give us 120 games behind the plate plus a oba of .350 and 15 HRs…? Add in improved game-calling. CATCHER seems good for a while!
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I think Casey Smith opened some eyes in ST. If he hits like last year (,290 BA last year; .281 with .333 OBP in minors career). He also showed surprising power in ST. I think Phils might have an eye on him for 2B injury replacement, maybe over Olmedo, who might be a bit better fielder but not as good a hitter. However, if Jason Donald is tearing up the Eastern League, he might get first shot at 2B.
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