Reader Top 30; #18

2009 Reader Top 30

Mike Stutes took spot 17 in a runaway, capturing 94 of the 264 votes cast. Anthony Hewitt and Sebastian Valle battled it out for 2nd, taking 42 and 48 votes respectively. Andrew Carpenter received 2 write-in votes and will enter the poll for #18. Also receiving write-ins; Justin De Fratus, Brad Harman and Mike Cisco. The next few votes should be interesting as we round out the top 20, and then get into the even more speculative 21-30 range. More below…

Final voting for 17

Stutes – 94
Valle – 48
Hewitt – 42
Galvis – 25
Worley – 20
Mattair – 18
Berry – 12
Carpenter – 2
Cisco – 1
De Fratus – 1
Harman – 1

So onto 18

01. Carlos Carrasco, RHP
02. Lou Marson, C
03. Jason Donald, SS
04. Kyle Drabek, RHP
05. Michael Taylor, OF
06. Dominic Brown, OF
07. JA Happ, LHP
08. Travis D’Arnaud, C
09. Joe Savery, LHP
10. Zach Collier, OF
11. Jason Knapp, RHP
12. John Mayberry Jr, OF
13. Edgar Garcia, RHP
14. Antonio Bastardo, LHP
15. Julian Sampson, RHP
16. Drew Naylor, RHP
17. Mike Stutes, RHP
18.

57 thoughts on “Reader Top 30; #18”

  1. Worley should make an impressive 4 right handed pitchers in a row, which is nothing to sneeze at, even in the lower ranks of the pharm. I’m very optimistic about the arms down there.

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  2. Gotta go with Hewitt here. Whether or not ya like the guy, he has undeniable superstar potential, no matter how slim the chances of reaching it are.

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  3. Freddy Galvis:

    -He will eventually be a major league just because of the glove.
    -He makes a lot of contact (11.6% K rate).
    -Decent discipline (7.7% BB rate) for someone who has no power as of now.
    -If he gains enough strength to have an eQa of .260 then he will be an excellent major leaguer.
    -Scouting reports have been positive.

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  4. Time to make the case for mike cisco. A starter at south Carolina, mike was used as a reliever at williamsport. After he racked up over 10 k/9inn and an era under 2 for the crosscutters, he was moved to Lakewood where he got to start. He was even better at Lakewood, with an era under 1 in 35 innings. He did not walk a single batter at Lakewood. He is 21 years old and is the grandson of former major leaguer Galen Cisco.

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  5. i need to write in Mike Cisco for the above reasons . he accomplised the most and could move quickly No reason he cant start at Clearwater

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  6. Vance Worley. Worley was very highly rated in college, then had a so-so Senior year. Bounced back last year. Solid Arm.
    We will see if he repeats with a second good year in the Minors.

    A little early for Hewitt he is my #20.

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  8. I shall return to voting for Sebastien Valle at this point, looks like he still has some support, think you have to work him in somewhere around here at some point.

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  12. I voted for Valle. Younger than Hewitt and he has actual performance at an equally important defensive position. I think Valle probably deserves to be higher on the list than this would put him, but suffers because of the two more prominent, and more advanced — especially defensively, catchers ahead of him. If our system was as thin on catching as it is on 3B prospects, Valle likely no lower than #12. A really nice age/performance package.

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  14. Hewitt here one more time purely on tools and potential.

    I am also a fan of Valle and would probably put him a couple spots higher on my own list as well. He is behind Hewitt because I really don’t know how to place his tools. He is certainly at the top of the age/performance curve, but there are still big questions about his power and defense. Many Latin American signings are a little ahead in GCL simply because they have played so much baseball (with wood bats especially). Valle played on the Mexican junior teams and received lots of time in the DSL a year ago. I need to see him against a little better, more experienced competition to move him up on the list because of the uncertainty around his tools projection.

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  17. I voted for Q, but the poll said my vote had already been counted (must be someone else has my ISP address) so if you can add another vote to Berry, appreciated.

    Speed never takes a day off.

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  18. I’ll vote Cisco again just to build support but it’s clear he won’t win this round. Others I considered at this spot: Berry, DeFratus, Valle.

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  19. Anthony Hewitt: 55 K’s in 117 ABs. A batting average below the Mendoza Line. He should be somewhere in the 20’s, not #18. He makes the top 30 based on potential, but Valle, Worley, Cisco, even Galvis wold be more appropriate in our top 20.

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  21. i’ll admit i’ve never seen Galvis but it sounds like a slick fielding thin guy who doesn’t have enough strength to knock the ball past the pitcher. If I’m wrong, I’m sorry, but my question is do the phillies have work outs for the players like this for strength training while they are back in their home country? Do they tell a guy like Galvis we expect you to do the following works and we are expecting to see “so many pounds of muscle/weight” when you report back? Or do these guys fly home and are pretty much on their own?

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  22. Freddy Galvis age 18 in the SAL:

    .300/.288/.588

    Anderseon Machado age 19 in the FSL:

    .330/.331/.661

    Both highly regarded for their defense. Obviously they are different players and some of these no hit guys work out, but I’m not going to rank Galvis higher than Valle or Hewitt based on his glove alone. The majority of the players of his ilk don’t work out. If everything breaks right for Galvis, I think you’re looking at an Ozzie Guillen/ Royce Clayton type of player. That’s not such a terrible thing, but I think Valle has a much better chance of reaching his higher potential.

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  23. I will vote for Worley (now that Stutes is in). Worley will get the job done in Clearwater that’s for sure. Next is a toss up….

    Cisco – Put up great numbers in Williamsport & Lakewood. What jumps out at me most is the 5 BB in 49+ IP w/ 52K’s

    De Fratus – Led the NYPL in IP (as did Kendrick & Naylor back in their day) & led the Williamsport staff in K’s.

    Both just turned 21 & appear to have bright futures!!

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  29. and all previous named players have great numbers of inning pitched? fact is he has done the most of the first year guys

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  30. Cisco’s numbers are impressive in limited action but a college pitcher with great control and advanced instruction (son of Galen Cisco) should generally dominate mostly HS players in rookie and low-a ball.

    There is a reason he lasted until the 36th round and it wasn’t about signability…

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  31. Interesting question posed above. If Valle was from an American H.S., where would he be taken in the upcoming draft? I say he’d easily be in the first 3 rounds.

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  32. I know this is off topic here, but I recommend every minor league affictionado on the site to take a look at newly elected Hall of Famer Jim Rice’s minor league stats. That is pretty.

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  34. Hey Perfect…, are you a Counting Crows fan?

    I went with Valle. I like where he is for his age. In a couple of years, we might be deciding who the better catcher is: D’Arnaud or Valle. Not now but down the road.

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  35. I took Hewitt again because of his high celing but there clearly some other qualified choices. As for Galvis, Machado isn’t a good comparison. Galvis can REALLY pick it (think Ozzie!!) while Machado was very good and Machado had some extra base power while Galvis doesn’t have any yet. Physically he looks like a kid which he is. The exciting thing for all of us is how much pitching we got from last year’s draft, it really was impressive. How many of them might even be started in Clearwater this year? There will be a few and then they’ll only be a strong half away from Reading. Of course, I thought that about Savery last year….

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  36. Something about comparing a low A SS to Ozzie Smith, doesn’t sit right with me. I’ll defer to anyone who has seen him play extensively, but I think comparing him to Machado is more conservative than comparing him to the ultimate defensive player.

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  38. Galvis–by the way as to comparing a “low-A” player to Ozzie, in 2007, Gillick and Phillies discussed who could be promoted if Rollins got hurt and the desire was to get the best defensive ss in the system–their choice in 2007 was galvis!

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  39. 3up3kkk Says:
    Cisco’s numbers are impressive in limited action but a college pitcher with great control and advanced instruction (son of Galen Cisco) should generally dominate mostly HS players in rookie and low-a ball.

    There is a reason he lasted until the 36th round and it wasn’t about signability

    okay got ya He should of assigned himself to Clearwater

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  41. I could see Galvis get called up as a temproary replacement if Rollins were to get hurt early in the season and Donald was otherwise disposed (2B for Utley, 3B for Feliz).

    He would probably hit under .200 out of the 8 slot but play phenomal defense.

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  43. Actually Nowheels, he probably should have been advanced to Clearwater. But since he wasn’t, we are left to evaluate him based on where he played and by the skills he brings to the table.

    The performance was impressive but the skills are limited. Personally, I’m more interested with the skills at this point than I am in the performance at A- ball.

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  45. ok 3up good point but next year will tell. Isnt it fun to have
    someone to have an opinion about. Lets hope the next draft has this much talent. I ache for spring.

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  46. Well, no #1 pick and no comp picks in the top rounds….somehow I doubt that it will be.

    Ruben and Company will also probably “be smart” and “save” money by not going over slot after having to pay out so much money in raises through arbitration.

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  47. “Dkit Says:
    January 12, 2009 at 2:19 pm
    i’ll admit i’ve never seen Galvis but it sounds like a slick fielding thin guy who doesn’t have enough strength to knock the ball past the pitcher. If I’m wrong, I’m sorry, but my question is do the phillies have work outs for the players like this for strength training while they are back in their home country? ”

    The trainers design a program for players, however ultimately its up to the player to prepare- either on his own or to request/search out training help. The team may ask the player to take off weight, or put on strength- but its bad advice to ask a guy to put on a certain number of pounds (may breed bad habits or get the muscles too tight if its not done right), so you never really hear about that (especially for a minor leaguer.

    Galvis isn’t built like a puny guy- not your typical rail-thin young latin. His bat speed is coming along, and for the most part his style is to slash at the ball and make contact. With age its reasonable to think he could grow to be a Fernando Vina type hitter.

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  48. Cisco is the son of Jeff (and Janet) Cisco. Both were athletes at Winthrop. I was announcing Winthrop basketball at the time. Galen is his grandfather.

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  49. I voted Galvis, simply due to factors already stated by others….ridiculous glove and almost ridiculous K rate.

    My apprehension with Galvis is that he’ll never hit, never gain strength, and thus never play in the bigs.

    But his glove makes him a mandatory top-20 for me….

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  50. Galvis does MUCH better against leftys: .296 AVG, .333 OBP, .721 OPS. Yes, its not great but its much better than his overall numbers. That and he doesn’t strikeout….good signs.

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  52. Informative interviews with Greg Legg, Chuck LaMar, and Marti Wolever among others from tonights winter tour in Lakewood on the Blue Claws site. Noworyta’s sleeper is that Drabek pitches in Philly in 09. Looks like Dominic Brown starts the season in Clearwater. Legg gave a report on the last years hitters in Lakewood.
    http://blog.blueclaws.com/

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  54. Since someone put on the Greg Legg interview, I’ll comment here. When starting to refer to Travis Mattair, he started by saying “Chap” er a Travis Mattair. I think he confused him with Travis Chapman ..how’s that? He also says about Naughton… it’s a shame he got hurt a couple of weeks ago. Anybody know about that?

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  55. Interesting little line from Ricky Branch’s BlueClaws post: 8:28: Given the chance to talk about some recent BlueClaws, Wolever goes straight to Kyle Drabek and Dominic Brown. Talked to Steve Noworyta, Phillies Director of Minor Leagues, last week, and he mentioned that Drabek is his sleeper to make it to Philadelphia in 2009.

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  56. I think they view Drabek in kind of the same way the did Cole Hamels. He’s a guy who already has major league stuff but he needs to stay healthly long enough to take advantage of it.

    If Drabek remains 100% healthy he very well could end the season by giving the bullpen a jolt for the stretch run. Kind of like the situation with Price in TB.

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