Winter Leagues – December Update

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This post can serve as a discussion area for Phillies minor leaguers who are playing in various Winter Leagues.  All of the major winter leagues outside of Arizona are in mid-season, though many of the U.S. players might be finishing up their stay there.  Most winter leagues have several tiers of playoffs that tend to be dominated by native players as the playoffs get closer to the Caribbean World Series (held in Venezuela this year in early February).  The Phillies have prospects in each of the top leagues, so this will serve as a quick update on the top prospects.

Mexico

Sebastian Valle – Perhaps the Phillies MVP (relative to age and prospect status) this winter has been Valle.  He got off to a hot start for his hometown team and earned significant playing time even though his team features one of Mexico’s best catchers already in Saul Soto.  While Mexico is not the top winter league (that would probably be the Dominican), it is a significant challenge for a 19-year-old.  Valle is currently hitting .279 with 10 HR and 26 RBI.  His average went down and his walks started to increase after his initial power burst in the first 3 weeks of the season.  His OPS of .902 is still solid however.

Michael Taylor – Taylor had a brief injury-filled stay (nothing serious) in Mexico.  He ended up hitting a light .308 with 1 HR and 11 RBI (.776 OPS) but never really was healthy enough to get comfortable.

John Mayberry – After a slow start Mayberry rebounded to hit .313 with 7 HR and 23 RBI.  He added 14 BB to have a well-rounded .882 OPS.  His performance is good, though it is also somewhat expected at his age.  Mexico has a lively ball and is a hitter’s league.  Mayberry did not embarrass himself, but he also did not do enough to suggest he should be on the 25-man roster at the beginning of next year.

Neil Sellers – While at age 27 Sellers is not really a prospect, he did hit .371 with a .953 OPS.  He has at least set himself up as the first injury replacement at 3B for Polanco.

B. J. Rosenberg also pitched a little at the beginning of the year (6.2 IP, 6.75 ERA), though his season appears to have ended early.

Venezuela

Harold Garcia got regular playing time early in the season and held his own hitting .274 with 1 HR.  He only walked 2 times, however, and was a little overmatched at times (.665 OPS).  Garcia is eligible for the rule 5 draft, though is unlikely to be selected for a major league roster at this time.

Carlos Monasterios got off to a strong start but has settled down of late.  For the year he is 6-2 with a 3.88 ERA with decent peripheral stats (46.1 IP, 42 H, 15 BB, 33 K).  Monasterios is also rule 5 eligible but is behind several other high level arms at the moment for the Phillies.  Perhaps his winter season will earn him a shot at the Reading rotation though the bullpen is the more likely destination.

Others active include Freddy Ballestas (10.24 ERA) and Sergio Escalona (4.76 ERA).  Freddy Galvis has played 9 games in the Venezuelan minor leagues and hit fairly well (.344, .936 OPS).  Luis Unda (.338), Nerio Rios (4-11) and Rudney Balentien (.333) have also played well there.  Orlando Garces has been the most impressive pitcher with a 1.11 ERA in 24.1 IP.  I am somewhat surprised that the team has not actively tried to get Galvis more playing time in the senior league.  It would be a good test for him at this point in his career.

Dominican

Andy Tracy is 6-20 in the early going here.  Also, new minor league signee Wilson Valdez has hit .274 in regular playing time.

On the pitching side Antonio Bastardo made his first appearance of the year recently (1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K) and is a player to watch for next year’s major league bullpen.  Walter Tejeda has officially become a LOOGY with 15 appearances and only 8.1 IP (4.32 ERA).

Puerto Rico

The only significant offensive prospect is Quintin Berry who got off to a slow start in Puerto Rico.  Berry is 4-29 so far with 4 BB and 1 SB.  He has not played much in the last week or two, so it is possible he is injured or has been struggling to get playing time.  Winter Leagues are serious business and the teams want to win.  If an imported player is not hitting they often get benched.

Darren Byrd has been starting in the early going.  He got hit hard in his first couple starts but has rebounded lately.  He is 1-2 with a 4.74 ERA on the season with 19 IP, 18 H, 10 BB, and 10 K.  He has only given up 2 ER in his last 11.2 IP.

Julio Rodriguez has pitched briefly in relief (3.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 3 unearned runs).  He is a name to watch as he fits the mold of projectible pitchers that the Phillies are high on.  He had a solid year in GCL and is probably ticketed for the Williamsport rotation this season.  There is also a Hector Correa listed with the Phillies playing (poorly so far) in Puerto Rico.  Not sure if this is actually Heitor Correa (who could use the winter innings) or the player that the Marlins traded to San Francisco is the Paulino-Taschner 3-way deal last year.

40 thoughts on “Winter Leagues – December Update”

  1. Thanks for the update Gregg.

    How would you rank the leagues, from toughest to easiest, including AFL?

    Mayberry is made redundent by Francisco so it might be time to move him. I can’t imagine he’d be in the Phillies’ plans any time soon.

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  2. In Latin America I would probably rank them:

    1. Dominican
    2. Venezuela
    3. Mexico (though the league has more offense)
    4. Puerto Rico (used to rank higher but the league has fallen on hard times).

    It is hard to rank Arizona as it is a different animal. Prospect-wise it is far superior. But the league does not have 30-year-old veterans that are the heart of the other leagues. Probably ranks somewhere in the Venezuela-Mexico range in terms of overall quality of play.

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  4. Victorino, Happ, Mayberry and QBerry for Halladay and a throw in. Move Taylor to RF, Werth to CF and Francisco to spell Raul and Taylor (againast certain pitchers)

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  5. I noted a couple of the players from the Liga Paralela like Galvis in the report. If you search the rosters of other teams you will also find a few other random Phillies like Yonderman Rodriguez (hitting .338 for Aragua) and Cesar Hernandez (.297 for Bravos). Quiroz is with Bravos as well.

    It is hard to know how informal the Liga Paralela is. In terms of quality is probably a little lower than the VSL as there are a lot of prospects at tryouts (i.e. 15-year-olds). Certainly they are interesting stats to look at, though I remember Francisco Murillo hit 17 HR there a couple of years ago and then did very little the next season in the states.

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  6. Its important to remember that you rarely see the best pitching prospects throwing in the winter leagues. Teams protect their best arms from overuse down there. Lots of junkballers and journeymen so the hitters’ stats can’t really be believed. This is where the major league “cup of coffee” guys go to be seen and to get signed for another year.

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  7. Does anyone know if they still have Galvis switch-hitting? There was some talk last season about him beginning to hit exclusively from the right side.

    And can we please go an entire thread without a Halladay trade proposal being plugged for absolutely no reason? thanks.

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  8. “And can we please go an entire thread without a Halladay trade proposal being plugged for absolutely no reason? thanks.”

    Yes, Please.

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  9. Mayberry is expendable, but I would not be surprised to see the fella hang around as #25. I just wonder who is going to replace Stairs (i.e. LH power hitter) because I can’t envision anyone in the system moving up to do that today. If Amaro is budget conscious, Mayberry may be an option.

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  10. I agree Mayberry is expendable. He does not really work at #25 because I think the preference for the team is to have 1 legit left-handed power bat off the bench. This is the Stairs role. Other than Francisco who has medium power there is not much power off the bench.

    I wonder if Francisco is as good a candidate to deal. Then Mayberry could take that spot and we could turn Francisco into a valuable bullpen piece. He certainly would net more in a deal than Mayberry. Plus with Taylor probably ready by mid-season we dont really need to stack up the right handed OF depth.

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  11. The Liga Paralela is a rookie level adjunct to the Venezuelan Winter League. It runs “paralel” to it and is for players from Venezuela with less than 3 years professional experience.

    That Correa (I thought it was Hector) is the other Correa. I clicked on his biography and he is a Puerto Rican who is , I believe, property of the Marlins. There is also a Jesus Sanchez (LHP Mexican) in the Mexican Pacific League, on the same team as Taylor, Sellers, Mayberry, and Rosenberg were. I think those guys have returned home by now.

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  12. Also I see on the link to Liga Paralela Stats above, Harold Garcia, Jorge Guerra, Francisco Diaz, are playing there. Lino Martinez is pitching. There are some unfamiliar names, perhaps they are new signees. Somebody might want to look into that.

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  13. I just thought Correa might be the Phillies’ Correa because MLB lists his stats with the Phillies. Since we have not acquired Hector and since Heitor did not throw too many innings last year it is possible that the guy in Puerto Rico is him. The minor league bios and links are notoriously inaccurate, especially in the winter (that Phillies stats link could also be the error).

    Our Jesus Sanchez is Venezuelan, so he would probably play there if he played at all. He pitched a lot of innings for us so I think I would prefer he sit out the winter. The guy in Mexico might be this guy:
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sanchje01.shtml

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  15. Alan Says:

    “And can we please go an entire thread without a Halladay trade proposal being plugged for absolutely no reason? thanks.”

    This statement is itself off topic. If someone is wrong we all know it without help. My state too is of topic. sorry

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  16. Should I assume that Neil Sellers will be the everyday 3rd baseman for Lehigh Valley in 2010. To my knowledge Mike Cervenak has not been signed for next year? FYI – Cervenak is tearing it up Mexico.

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  17. ESPN is reporting that the Phillies inquired about Aroldis Chapman… I guess there is no story without an offer; but interesting. I often wonder why the Phils are not more involved in Int. F.A.; but leads me to believe they’re at a minimum kicking tires.

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  19. “And can we please go an entire thread without a Halladay trade proposal being plugged for absolutely no reason? thanks.”

    Since I am mentioning two minor leaguers in the deal, (both mentioned in the post) I dont think it is necessarily off topic.

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  20. don’t want chapman. he screams overrated to me. He doesn’t throw rediculusly hard, has a good slider, he seems like a possible closer to me.

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  21. Welcome to the Neil Sellers bandwagon. I understand the relevance of age, but you can’t ignore a 3B putting up those numbers, and this organization has seen its share of late bloomers.

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  22. I would be shocked if the Phillies tried to sign Chapman. He’s going to want Strasburg type money. When have the Phillies ever gone that route with any young player?

    Maybe they could sign him and trade him for Halladay (insert laughter here).

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  23. i’d like to see tracy get a shot off the bench. i did’nt see anything wrong with his bat last season. mayberry seems to get a raw deal. he seems fine off the bench. and monasteros’ peripherals are terrible at that level.

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  24. I’ve been on the Seller’s bandwagon from the first day I saw him at reading. I think he could be a solid all bat-no field guy off the bench.

    Kind of an off topic question, but how much do these guys make in these types of league?

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  25. The Phillies did give Floyd $4.2 million about a decade ago, when that was truly huge money. That’s probably equivalent to an $8 million bonus in today’s baseball draft. Our top for an international player was $1.2 million, even longer ago, so call that equivalent to $3 million today.

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  26. Wow- I wasn’t all that familiar with Sellers so I looked him up on the Cube. 80 power and 78 contact on his scouting report are nothing to sneeze at! Granted he is like, what, 27?

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  27. Allentown – Not sure if you were answering me or not, but I was referring to how much they are actually paid for being in the league.

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  30. Phillies 2010 Bench

    Dobbs INF-OF – Bats Left
    Schneider C – Bats Left
    Castro UTL INF – Switch Hitter
    Francisco OF – Bats Right

    Final Bench Spot: A Right Handed Hitter with Power.

    Mayberry is in the mix. Taylor, if not this year then next.

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  31. “Wow- I wasn’t all that familiar with Sellers so I looked him up on the Cube. 80 power and 78 contact on his scouting report are nothing to sneeze at! Granted he is like, what, 27?”

    I don’t know where Baseball Cube pulls their numbers but NO reputable scout would give Sellers those grades.

    There are some projection systems available at this time, such as CHONE. That program gives Sellers a projected 2010 MLB line of .256/.307/.387 (that’s given the assumption of playing time of course). Would you want a bench bat with those kind of numbers?

    Matt- The short answer is peanuts. The AAA minimum salary is somewhere around the range of $2500 a month. $1500-2000 a month for AA, and lower in the lower levels. Minor league free agents or players on the 40 man roster make more, of course.

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  32. Francisco Murillo hit around 17 HR’s in the Venezuelan Summer League one season, as I followed the box scores on that. I don’t know if he was ever in the Liga Paralela. I know Fidel Hernandez was the MVP of the Liga Paralela one season, and he hit like 7 HR’s, so I wonder about that.

    And that Wikipedia thing, Since the Francisco Murillo in question played last season in the Phillies organization, I don’t think he was killed in a drug shoot-out in 1993.

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  35. Thanks for clearing that up, Alan. I don’t know where the cube got those numbers but I nearly jumped out of my chair. Looking at them again now, I feel like I should have noticed that power is listed TWICE, once at 80 and once at 67. Should have cued me in not to put too much faith in those scouting numbers.

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  37. I wonder what kind of return there would be for blanton seeing as how the phillies had to give up cardenas, outman, and spencer for him.

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  38. Murphy also seems to think Mathieson will get a shot to make the bullpen. That makes me very happy to hear.

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