Daily Archives: June 19, 2008

Phillies in for Adis Portillo?

Other Stuff

Hot off the presses at BA, the Phillies appear to be one of the front runners for Adis Portillo, a Venezuelan ranked right behind highly touted Michel Inoa. BA says this

As the international signing period approaches on July 2, the biggest name among pitchers in Latin America after Michel Inoa is Adis Portillo.

Portillo, a 16-year-old righthander from Maricaibo, Venezuela, is a hard-thrower with a fastball that has ranged from 88-92 mph, touching 93. International scouts love Portillo’s size—a wiry 6-foot-3 frame—and arm strength, though his present control leaves something to be desired.

“I saw him and we liked him,” said one international scouting director. “He’s got a good arm and he’s a big kid with a great body and a good feel for a breaking ball.”

The Royals apparently have strong interest, but the Padres and Phillies appear to be the top contenders for Portillo, who has been linked to both teams in potential deals of at least $1.5 million. One international scout said Portillo has been asking for $2 million, although it’s questionable whether any team will meet that price.

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Quick update on my Top 30

** My Top 30 Prospects

I figured now might be a good time to take a quick look at my Top 30 and see how poorly my rankings look. No indepth analysis here, just brief snapshots

30. Freddy Galvis, SS (A-; .233/.290/.267)

Actually hitting better than I expected, I ranked him here based on his defensive reputation and athletic ability. Everyone knew the bat was going to take a while. He’s only 18 in a league where the average prospect is 20. Hit .320 in May after an awful .143 in April. Stock up at this point.

29. Alex Concepcion, RHP (A+; .1 IP,)

Ouch. He’s made only one appearance and has battled injuries all season. Not much else to say here, I don’t know the exact nature of his injuries or what the prognosis is. At 23 now, this could derail his development to a degree if he needs major surgery. Stock down.

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Kevin Goldstein’s Top 100 Update

Savery, Joe, Top Prospect Lists

Over the next few days Kevin Goldstein is going to do brief blurbs on his Top 100 guys. Here are the udpates on Carrasco and Savery

68. Carlos Carrasco, RHP, Phillies
Eligible Next Year? Yes
Production: 3.78 ERA at Double-A (88-85-32-85)
Stock Report: He’s missed more bats at Double-A this time around, but remains a bit more hittable than one would like. Still, it’s a slight step forward.

96. Joe Savery, LHP, Phillies
Eligible Next Year? Yes
Production: 4.69 ERA at High-A (78.2-99-33-64)
Stock Report: Down. After a good start to the season, Savery has been getting hammered of late, giving up 57 hits in his last 35 2/3 innings. Some scouts are worried that something else is wrong, as his stuff has been way off as well.

An injury might explain Savery’s very mixed results. Hmm.

EDIT –> This is an update of his 2008 preseason Top 100, not a current Top 100 or a projected Top 100 next year. “Eligible Next Year” has to do with projected prospect eligibility for next season.

Thursday quick hits

Other Stuff

Just a few random musings today

* I’ve added a few more player profiles in Carlos Monasterios and Jeremy Slayden. If you look on the left side and see a player’s name, but no profile link, it means I’ve got him on the list of players to do. But as you can tell, I have a lot more guys to add. If you see someone who isn’t listed that you think needs a profile, please list it here. I can figure it out too, but it will help when I’m creating them if I can just look somewhere and see a list of guys I need to add.

* The Lou Marson watch has been added!

* As you may have read, Michael Taylor and Drew Naylor have been promoted to Clearwater along with personal favorite Ben Pfinsgraff. Probably overdue. As I’ve mentioned on Taylor, I’m still going to wait until the end of the year to judge, but at this point he’s looking like a solid prospect and this is more than a fluky 2 months. We’ll wait and see.

* Had Taylor not been promoted, the Phillies may have had a realistic chance of winning 3 batting titles in one season. Taylor was comfortably leading the SAL with a .361 average, 17 points better than his closest competitor. Adrian Cardenas is hitting .316 and is 20 points behind the league leader in the FSL, and Lou Marson is 3rd in the EL at .348. Its sure nice to see non-mercenary Phillies at the top of these leaderboards, isn’t it?