This content is free to view, so I’ll link it here. BA profiles Aaron Altherr, Harold Garcia, Troy Hanzawa and Anthony Hewitt on their “32nd player team” which is a list of guys who just missed the cut for the annual Top 30’s, and then missed the cut for #31, which they also include if you buy their book directly from BA. Altherr is the most interesting guy on the list, and a guy I’m interested to see in 2010, though I suspect he’s going to go through plenty of growing pains.
Monthly Archives: January 2010
SONAR takes on 3B prospects
The third installment of the SONAR position by position breakdown focuses on the hot corner, looking at the best 3B prospects in the game and how they fared with my newly created metric. if you’re new to the whole SONAR concept, I recommend you start here, then check out the report for first base and second base. Third base has its difficulties, just like the up the middle positions, because the defensive value dropoff from 3B to the positions further down the defensive spectrum is steep, especially the drop from 3B to 1B, which is a common transition for some slow footed sluggers. Check below the fold and we’ll dig right in
Phils Sign Bocock to Minor League Deal
The Phils signed 24 year old SS Brian Bocock, out of the Giants organization to a minor league deal today. Bocock spent last season primarily with Class A Advanced San Jose and hit .241/.303/.339 in 430 AB’s with 3 HR and 48 RBI. He was originally a 9th round pick of the Giants in the 2006 draft and saw some time in the majors in 2008 with the injury depleted Giants. He hit .143 in his 77major league at bats. Bocock provides depth at best for the Phils affiliates as they have lost Miguel Cairo, Jason Donald, JJ Furmaniak and Brad Harmon, among others from the ranks of the middle infield.
Reader Top 30; #18
Freddy Galvis is the winner of the run-off for #16, so he takes that spot, with Brian Rosenberg taking #17 by default. We’ll move on to #18 today. Kyrell Hudson and Joe Savery both got write in support, so I’ll add both of them to the voting for #18. Sorry for the delay on the writeup for the next installment of SONAR position by position breakdowns, I’ve been short on time, but I hope to have it done in the next day or two. Check below for more…
Reader Top 30; run-off vote
The voting for #16 is tied and has been within one vote or so for most of the day that I’ve seen, so we’re going to do a run-off vote between Freddy Galvis and Brian Rosenberg. The winner will be #16, the runner up will be #17, and then we’ll move on to #18.
So, vote below. I’ll leave this open for 24 hours.
Reader Top 30; #16
Moving along. Jiwan James took the #15 spot, edging out a few other candidates. With him slotted in at #15, I thought it would be interesting to look at the breakdown of the top 15 according to you
C [1] – Valle (7th)
1B [1] – Singleton (13th)
2B, 3B, SS [0]
CF [3] – Gillies (4th), Gose (5th), James (15th)
RF [2] – Brown (1st), Santana (6th)
LF [0]
RHP [7] – May (2nd), Aumont (3rd), Ramirez (8th), Cosart (9th), Mathieson (10th), Colvin (12th), De Fratus (14tH)
LHP [1] – Bastardo (11th)
So that’s 7 position players and 8 pitchers so far. Lets move on to #16
Signing Time
The minor league signings keep coming with the Phils inking 3B Brandon Pinckney and P Jordan Meaker to minor league deals. Pinckney,28, can play all over the diamond, but played primarily 3B last season for Norfolk, the AAA affiliate of the Orioles. He hit .291/.309/.358 with a homer and 21 RBI’s in 267 AAA at bats last season. Meaker, 24, is a big (6’6, 220) righty, who played college ball at Dallas Baptist University. He was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 20th round of the 2008 draft. Last season in Low A Ball, Meaker was 4-1 with a 5.67 ERA in 29 games (3 starts). He walked 37 and struck out 40 in his 60 innings of work, with a WHIP of 1.76
Greg Golson designated for assignment
Its a mad world. The Rangers have DFA’ed former Phillies prospect Greg Golson to clear space on their 40 man roster.
The club needed to clear a spot on the 40-man roster in order to make room for the newly-signed Khalil Greene. Golson, 24, appeared in one game with the Rangers last season, but spent the majority of the season with Triple-A Oklahoma City, batting .258/.299/.344 with two home runs, 40 RBI and 20 stolen bases. The former first-round pick is a tremendous athlete, but catching on as a fifth outfielder in the majors is probably the best-case scenario for him.
This prompted me to go back to last November, when the deal was made, and see what I said.
So while he may have been useful as a defensive replacement/pinch runner, Mayberry offers similar upside, but as a position player in a platoon in left field, with real usable power, and perhaps even more down the line.
Bottom line, I think Rube is 1 for 1, and I’m pretty happy about this deal. Best of luck to Greg Golson, and welcome aboard John Mayberry.
Sounds about right. Would be kind of funny if the Phillies put in a claim on him and bring him back.
Reader Top 30; #15
The voting for #14 was interesting, as a number of candidates received a decent share of the vote, but Justin De Fratus edged out Brian Rosenberg by a few votes, taking home spot #14. There was write in support for a number of guys last round, but I saw a few more mentions for Freddy Galvis, so I’ll add him. Remember if you vote OTHER to specify who you are writing in for, as just a blind vote for the other option doesn’t tell me the name. Check below for #15
Rangers sign Jorge Alfaro
This was the young catcher out of Columbia that the Phillies were linked to for the last few months. Apparently the Rangers have signed him for $1.3M. At that price, it makes sense for the Phillies to pass. Just thought we’d put this one to bed, since he was mentioned in passing in a bunch of posts over the last few months.
Phuture Phillies 