It was rumored before, its official now.
Pitching Staff
Brett Anderson (A’s), Geno Espineli (Giants), Clayton Richard (White Sox), Jake Arrieta (Orioles), Trevor Cahill (A’s), Kevin Jepsen (Angels), Brandon Knight (Mets), Mike Koplove (Dodgers), Blaine Neal (Tigers), Jeff Stevens (Indians), Casey Weathers (Rockies), Stephen Strasburg (San Diego State).
Catchers
Lou Marson (Phillies), Taylor Teagarden (Rangers)
Infielders
Brian Barden (Cardinals), Matt Brown (Angels), Jason Donald (Phillies), Mike Hessman (Tigers), Terry Tiffee (Dodgers)
Outfielders
Dexter Fowler (Rockies), John Gall (Marlins), Matt LaPorta (Indians), Colby Rasmus (Cardinals)
Phuture Phillies 
Bishop Eustace grad Blaine Neal. Makes the squad. I pitched against him in HS.
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so…how long till Sweet Lou gets the call up?
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I believe they will be gone for almost a month. And who knows if he gets called up after they return. Arbuckle basically threw a wet blanket on him last week with his comments, so I don’t think they are all that eager to bring him up. I expect Jaramillo will be the 3rd C when rosters expand.
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I can see Donald getting the Sept. call, however.
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Is there any shot that Golson will be named?? Apprently, he was a finalist and roster spots do open. Having 3 guys on the team would be vindication for a farm system that takes so much criticism.
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golson hit a HR in the AA all star game and is 2-3, but also had an error. Donald started a DP and was 1-1 (single) with a walk and a HBP and Marson was 0-1 with a walk and outman pitched a scoreless inning, gave up a hit and got a strikeout.
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“I expect Jaramillo will be the 3rd C when rosters expand.”
Calling up Jaramillo instead of Marson won’t be a popular decision but at this point I believe it’s the right one. Maybe the second half will change my mind but I doubt it.
Jumping Marson over Jaramillo would send a terrible message to your AAA all-star catcher and would only damage his trade value along with his confidence. It’s Jason’s turn first, let’s see what he can do, even if it is just to showcase him for a deal. Besides, Jaramillo is still ahead of Marson as a defender which is the most important thing for a 3rd catcher.
Neither one will be a significant upgrade in the near term anyway. Ruiz is still a good defender and he could easily improve his second half numbers at the plate. He knows the staff already and besides, he’s the 8 hole hitter and the Phillies have bigger fish to fry.
Having said all that, I will be furious if they trade Marson in a deal bringing anything less than a bona fide ace, and since there aren’t any out there, we need to keep him.
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Mike Koplove is also from Philadelphia. Went to Chestnut Hill Academy and U of DE.
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xfactor are u related to jaramillo
marson had improved at every jump. checkout the last time
the phillies had a catcher with his potential
sadly u are probably right. this team always takes the gutless
path.
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I Thought this was a business. You do what’s best for the team and if jaramillo feeling are hurt too bad.
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Its not about hurting feelings. I’m as excited about the potential of Marson as everyone and expect he is the future of the Phillies but right now, he is not better than Ruiz or Jaramillo.
Note: as a business, it would be foolish for the Phillies to devalue one of its assets, Jaramillo, by passing him over.
From a strictly business point of view, it is much better to showcase him with some September at-bats and then deal either him or Ruiz during the off-season for other needs.
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Could it be that our system is better than the “experts” (this site aside) say it is? 5 guys named to the futures game out (Bastardo was hurt and thus did not play). 2 guys on the Olympic team. 7 AA players make it to the All Star game six of them are 24yrs old or younger and are legit major league prospects (of some form). Yes most of the talent is in AA or under but still AA is close enough. Add in a Happ here and a Bisenius there from AAA and I think we almost certainly have what it takes to make a move for the big club this year that won’t hurt so much in the coming years. We have to think though in terms of Dealing Golson and Donald vs Marson and Carassco. Starting a Deal with Donald or Golson then adding in an Outman and finishing up with a guy like Jaramillo, Bisenius or even Happ should be a strong offer for whatever we would want to get. Its certainly is much stronger than we could have offered in the past.
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jim bob,
great points. I will also add that I’m very excited about some of our A class pitchers or lower. When you add up Roth, DeFrutus, Stutes, Schwimmer, Rosenberg, Knapp, Sampson, Worley and you throw in some wild cards like Shreve and some others that could still sign from this draft looks great for lakewood next year and in 3-4 years they could talk about our stocked pitching like they now talk of Arizona, Oakland and Boston.
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The problem with are farm system is that we have a bunch of good prospects but no elite ones. There isn’t that Cole Hamels arm or Ryan Howard hitter ready to come up. Other teams have that A-list prospect or two that can come up and immediately make a difference…look at the Reds and Red Sox. We have a lot of guys who we all hope can make one more jump in performance, but no guy is already there. Sweet Lou is trying to become the exception.
We all want to annoint Carrasco as an A-list prospect, but he really is a B-list guy. He is never going to be an Ace. Anyone who thinks otherwise is diluting themselves. Compare him to Hamels or even David Price…you cant. So while we are gaining depth and have alot of talent, we do not have anyone taking our system to the next level.
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Ed,
while I’ll agree we don’t have the A list prospects that some teams do, depth is important too especially if we can trade several players for strong ML. (See the cubs picking up Harden) and part of the reason we don’t have the A-listers is that we haven’t picked in the top 10 in a long time, which is where nowadays the sure things go to. Sure you hit on some in the later rounds but the real blue chip prospects nowadays everyone knows and they go early, or you have the “Boras signability” guys that go to Detroit, NYY or Boston.
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The farm system isn’t being underrated based on the Futures Game or the US Olympic team. Its been well documented that neither roster is picked based purely on merit, where the best guys are there. The Futures Game roster was picked by MLB, and teams even offered better prospects to be added, but were turned down by MLB. MLB teams can also request that players be pulled from the Olympic team, and some of that may have even happened before the initial roster was finalized. Matt Wieters being left off both rosters kind of invalidates the process to me. And all of thats fine, but using these two rosters as some kind of farm system barometer is missing the mark I believe.
Our system is at a high point from the time I started closely following the minors (97 or so), but that doesn’t necessarily means its in the top half of baseball. It lacks the elite prospect (like Hamels, Rollins, Howard, etc etc), and instead is filled with more B level prospects. Which is good in another way.
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Not sure if I’m deluding myself or not but the only point I’ll make Ed is that its more a question of where most of the Phillies prospects are in the system. You’re right that the Phillies do not have any Elite prospects at AAA or AA who are ready to contribute immediately. They have a few guys at the AA, A-ball level and below who have the potential to become elite players but only time will tell if they reach that point or not.
No one is saying that the Phillies system is on par with the best in baseball but they have come a long way in the last couple of years and continue to show signs of improvement.
Teams like the Reds or Rays have elite prospects today because they have been drafting in the top-10 for the last few years. You don’t get David Price picking in the 20s.
Guys like Hamels who dominate at every level are a rarity. Howard was never considered a can’t-miss guy, which is why Thome was signed as a FA..
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Nice example with Wieters, James is correct, though it’s nice to have players in the AS games and on the Olympic team, those are not a true judge on how good and deep our minor league system is… Our system IS getting better and there is talent there obviously, just nothing really top tier….
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Keep in mind that David Price is a year and a half older than Carrasco.
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oh and word is we’re getting blanton for the ML club. Buster Olney has it being fast tracked. Oh wait while i go throw up. Let’s see Sabbathia or Harden or Blaton??? His ERA is Eaton-esque before the last 2 starts and he pitches in a “pitchers park” in Oakland. I smell a 6 ERA.
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