Five Minor Leaguers to Phillies Dominican Academy

Other Stuff

In move different from previous seasons, the Phillies have sent four of their low minors hitters to their Dominican Academy this winter to get extra work in.  The four players are Lakewood Third Baseman Mitch Walding whose season ended prematurely with a broken rib, Lakewood Left Fielder Larry Greene, Williamsport Second Baseman Andrew Pullin, GCL Outfielder Cord Sandberg, and GCL Third Baseman Jan Hernandez.  They will not be playing in organized games in the DWL but they will be work with coaches to get some extra reps in.  All five players had underwhelming years and have plenty of things to work on this offseason.  Overall this is a positive step in working to try and make up for lost time or accelerate development.

Unknown's avatar

About Matt Winkelman

Matt is originally from Mt. Holly, NJ, but after a 4 year side track to Cleveland for college he now resides in Madison, WI. His work has previously appeared on Phuture Phillies and The Good Phight. You can read his work at Phillies Minor Thoughts

18 thoughts on “Five Minor Leaguers to Phillies Dominican Academy”

    1. At this point I would guess he is in good game shape (next spring we will see how he shows up), this is all about getting the swing and approach to work. If you watch side by side video of him swinging in BP and swinging in games it is very different. The BP swing actually looks pretty good with him generating power from his whole body and the bat speed is fairly good. In games his backside drops out and he his swinging with only his upper body. This messes up his swing path and ability to make contact and takes away nearly all of his power. If he has any hope of regaining some prospect status he is going to need to rebuild the game swing or no amount of conditioning is going to make him a major leaguer.

      Like

      1. That’s true, but I agree with Fly By Nite that as much as anything, this is a matter of putting Greene under close supervision, so that he doesn’t put on dozens of pounds again this winter.

        Like

  2. 2 questions:

    1) General question that will show my naivety. Why are they going to the Dominican, as opposed to Clearwater? Does Clearwater start to shut down this time of the year?

    2) What is Roman Quinn doing at this point? He would seem, to my uneducated eye, as being someone who could use extra work, assuming his injury has healed.

    Like

    1. 1. Clearwater becomes empty and what coaches are working through the winter are based in the Caribbean keeping an eye on Winter League guys and working out potential LA signings.
      2. I believe Quinn is back home. He spent the last three months working with coaches so there really isn’t much more they could offer him. He could use live pitching which is the one thing he won’t get right now.

      Like

    2. While there continues to be alot of seriously uninformed posting about the Phillies “cheap” approach to Latin American operations, the truth is that BOTH of the Phillies academies and facilities in the Dodminican Republic–especially the laout on the outskirts of Santo Domingo–are very well furnished, among the very best of any MLB clubs–as is the case with the state-of-the-art facilities in Venezuela. The Phils’ Santo Domingo facilities are quite spacious, can handle more players & staff than most other MLB operations in the DR; along with the very good facilities of the Yankees & Mets, and because the central location is another major factor, they are the frequent site of tournaments, etc for Latin American development..

      All three Phillies facilities in the DR & Venezueal operate year-round, and many youngsters from the DR and other (mostly) Carribean nations are in fulltime attendance in the academies.

      Like

      1. There has never been any posting about Phillies cheap Latin American operations during the past roughly 15 years. There has been a lot of very legitimate posts on the Phillies cheap Latin American bonus budgets. Bricks and mortar doesn’t produce MLB stars, signing top talent does. While it is true that we had pathetic physical facilities a couple decades ago, your concept that our current facilities give us a big advantage is just false. State-of-the-art doesn’t mean the Phillies have anything unusually good, it means they have upgraded from inferior to on a par with the better operations. This means that the quality of our physical facilities are no longer a detriment to our LA success, not that they can somehow make up for many years’ lack of aggressive spending on player bonuses to bring in the best talent. We show signs of starting to catch up in that department, but we still have a lot of catching up to do.

        Like

    3. Florida weather isn’t as good or as consistent. Quinn still wasn’t fully recovered when FIL finished.

      Like

    4. I don’t think he has healed completely. He was rehabbing in Clearwater during the GCL season. At one point we saw him taking groundballs, but the next day he was wearing a new splint and we didn’t see him on the field again. He was at Instructs as a non-roster player, still wearing a support on his wrist. We never saw him do anything more than watch from the stands.

      Like

  3. ”While there continues to be alot of seriously uninformed posting about the Phillies “cheap” approach to Latin American operations’……huh?
    This is not what the sublect of the posting is about…it is more their monetary frugality in the actual SIGNING of LA free agents and their continued reluctance to not even reach their allocation.
    IMO, most all are aware that their facilities are top rate.

    Like

    1. Really? I wasn’t, and I’m not sure where information like that would have been posted in the past. I appreciated the post.

      Like

      1. Over the years, Matt and Gregg have posted how well the academies operate in Ven and DR , with exceptional coaching led by a highly skilled LA Scouting Director Sal Agostenelli.
        This is not something new.

        Like

  4. I love what the Phillies are doing to support players who represent a significant investment in the future. I imagine also that it is well-received by the players.

    Like

  5. This is a change for the better. All of these 5 were originally thought to be good prospects, but the less than worthy results need fixing…if possible. A resurrection of sorts.

    Maybe the coaching approaches need to be reviewed considering the results of 2 minor lg seasons. These are all position players; given the failure rate among their pitching draftees, a review of the pitching coaching also needs serious investigation. Especially when we note that there appears to be no prospect pitcher in the system ready to compete for a spot in the rotation.
    Maybe their evaluation of prospects for the draft needs review and amendment; so far it seems they have developed precious few over the years since Hamels drafting.

    This review seems to me to be essential for the franchise’s future; without pitching the team is going nowhere. Especially since the June ’14 draft is said to be chock full of better mound prospects and we should expect the Phils to concentrate on pitching then.

    Like

    1. Of the five, two I see had seasons that were truly dismal. Greene and Walding, and Walding had the injury. Pullin was mediocre IMO and the two GCL guys I feel were part of the transistion to professional baseball.

      Like

  6. I am not sure that Sandberg’s season should be considered a huge disappointment. Wasn’t he a two sport guy in high school? Adjusting to a professional setting can’t be easy for any 17-18 year old, much less one with high expectations and offers in two sports. The move to send him seems sound but I don’t think folks should be down on him yet.

    Like

  7. Here’s a media generated false controversy for ya’. One of the writers on HardBall Talk claims that passing out extra benefits to recent draft picks is a way to circumvent the draft spending limits applicable in the CBA draft rules. So, a pox on the FO by cheating and giving a free Dominican vacation to Sandberg and Jan Hernandez, et possible al.

    Contrary to the spurious claim above, that there has been extensive writings about the Latin American facilities on this site, there has been nothing save for statistical based assumptions vis-a-vis individual Latin American players.

    And, also, there is the “stop pickin’ on the little kids, cause they just little kids” theory.

    Like

    1. If a promised ‘vacation’ is what it takes to sign some guys and it is well within the rules then I am all for it!
      Taking a competitive advantage would be a welcome change to the ‘by the book’ activity often associated with the Phillies.

      Like

Comments are closed.