Naylor, Taylor Make Ten Pack

Ten Pack/Hot Sheet

Kevin Goldstein highlights two Phillies prospects in his latest Ten pack;

Drew Naylor, rhp, Low-A Lakewood (Phillies)
Don’t know the name? Maybe you should, because he’s suddenly the new minor league strikeout leader. A 22-year-old Australian, Naylor entered the season a bit of an unknown, but he’s putting himself on the map with six straight quality starts, including an 11-strikeout performance last week, and then his best start of the year on Saturday night–-a complete-game two-hitter with 12 strikeouts against just one walk–-lowering his ERA to 2.04 in 53 innings with 62 strikeouts and just 34 hits allowed. Naylor is an interesting player from a scouting level, as he has no dominant offering, but plenty of good ones. His fastball has average velocity and good movement, his curveball and change are both above average, and all of his pitches play up because of excellent command. His relative baseball inexperience makes him a little old for the level, but he should be in the Florida State League soon.

and

Michael Taylor, OF, Low-A Lakewood (Phillies)
During his high school days at Florida, Taylor was a monster, standing six-foot-six and 250 pounds and featuring plenty of athleticism for his size; only a firm commitment to Stanford prevented him from being drafted. His college career was disappointing, but many in the scouting industry didn’t put the majority of blame on Taylor, they put it on a Stanford program that has a reputation for creating hitting clones, forcing most players into a quick, single-plane hitting mechanic that frankly just doesn’t work for everyone. Still in love with his potential, the Phillies made him a fifth-round pick last year, and allowed him to return to his natural swing. So far that’s more than paying off, as the monstrous right fielder has homered in four straight games to raise his averages to .333/.410/.524 in 33 games for the BlueClaws. When you are looking for sleepers in the minors, you’d be best served by betting on tools, so put some chips down on Taylor.

16 thoughts on “Naylor, Taylor Make Ten Pack”

  1. gotta love the strides the system is making so far just based on player’s performances. Golson, Marson, Brown, Naylor, and Savery to name a few. i think a good draft lifts into the middle of the pack, What does everyone think?

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  4. Lakewood is loaded. They have won 6 of their last 7 games even after one of their to top starters was promoted. A case can be made that the Blue Claws have legitimate major league prospects at every position except second and that position prospect played for them last year. And Naylor and Sampson will be in a ML starting rotation sooner or later.

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  5. At least we have a bunch of help that’s a few years away…Hopefully Gillick and Amaro kick butt in the this draft and the Phillies get a respectable Farm System.

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  6. Gillick and Amaro do not kick butt in drafts. All they can do is give a larger checkbook to Arby/Wolever/scouts and unshackle them to go out and kick butt.

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  7. I’m getting increasingly excited about both of these guys. James, I know you really stress the importance of command, and it certainly seems that Naylor’s got it in bunches. My only question is: from what we’ve heard, is his raw stuff good enough to play up at the higher levels? It would seem so, but that has to be the only (slight) concern going forward about him at this point.

    As for Taylor… I’d love to hear some reports on his defense. I know he’s playing LF with Dominic Brown entrenched in RF, but if Taylor has the arm and athleticism to play RF, his value obviously increases.

    Agree with Rickey Branch by the way — this Lakewood team is loaded. When I check the box scores, I go: (1) IronPigs; (2) Threshers; (3) BlueClaws; and (4) R-Phils. Start with the garbage and work your way up, no?

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  9. Naylor was also named pitcher of the week for his league by MiLB and John Urick and Micheal Taylor were named offensive players of the week also for their leagues

    South Atlantic League
    Drew Naylor, Lakewood
    1-0, 1.00 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 1 CG, 9.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 SO
    Naylor pinnacled last week with one of the Minor Leagues’ best outings to date. One of the hottest pitchers around right now, Naylor earned his second win of the season in his previous start, by striking out 11 over eight innings and allowing one run. But the Australian did himself one better Saturday, fanning 12 in a two-hit complete-game win against Kannapolis. For the season, Naylor has 62 strikeouts in 53 innings, up against just 13 walks. The 12-strikeout effort was a career-high, but not by much as Naylor has struck out 11 batters four times in just 34 appearances in the Phillies organization, including May 4.

    Florida State League
    John Urick, Clearwater
    .421 (8-19), 3 R, 3 2B, 0 3B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 2 BB, 3 SO, 0 SB, .895 SLG
    At the end of April, Urick received his first taste of Double-A after six years in the Minor Leagues. He collected two hits in his debut in Reading, and played just three more games before being sent back down to Clearwater. One can bet that if Urick continues playing as he did last week, Reading will soon be his full-time home. Urick hit safely in all five games on the week, collecting an extra-base hit in four of them. On Saturday, Urick doubled and homered, and his third home run of the season proved to be the go-ahead run in the Threshers 7-6 win over Jupiter. Urick has been the Threshers’ choice in all close and late situations this season, as the first baseman is 8-for-21 with runners on and two outs.

    South Atlantic League
    Michael Taylor, Lakewood
    .368 (7-19), 4 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 11 RBI, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 SB, 1.105 SLG
    Taylor hit in all four games he played in, raising his season average to .333, clearly an encouraging start this season after he hit .227 in 233 at-bats last year in the Class A Short-Season New York-Penn League. Taylor made his hits count, too, collecting a homer in each of the four games, driving in three runs twice against Lexington and once at Kannapolis. He closed out the week by hitting a homer and driving in two at Kannapolis. Taylor, whom the Phillies chose in the fifth round last year out of Stanford, has a five-game hitting streak heading into Monday’s action.

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  10. taylor looks like a monster. very excited about his progress.

    PhillyFriar – i go the other way. start with reading, lakewood then clearwater. don’t even waste time with iron pigs. ugh…

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  11. Perhaps he is just applying a season average age to him, but I’ll point out that Naylor is only 21 years old right now – he turns 22 on 5/31.

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  12. With the sad news of Aussie
    Mathieson’s career possibly being in jeopardy, Naylor offers a replacement Aussie.

    Our searches in Australia could be paying off soon…

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  13. I am starting to think that control of the money is actually over Gillick/Amaro/Arbuckle’s head and rests only with Monty.

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  15. ****Oh I’m 99% sure, based on what I’ve been told, that the money lies squarely with Montgomery.****

    And doesn’t Monty have to consult with the ownership group pretty much any time they want to go above the agreed budget for the year? Kinda like when any thoughts of Lohse (thank god as he’s back to earth now) signing were nixxed?

    Considering I’ve been reading that upwards of 20 teams may bust slot, the Phillies need to if they want to compete. We’re a big market club and we need to draft like one if we want to improve the farm system.

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  16. “With the sad news of Aussie
    Mathieson’s career possibly being in jeopardy, Naylor offers a replacement Aussie.”

    Mathieson is Canadian, not Australian. He was born in Vancouver.

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