2014 Phillies Sleeper/Breakout Prospects Open Discussion

2014 Reader Top 30

Everyone has that one player they believe is just going to explode on to the scene this year.  Whether it is the growth of a single tool, the ability to stay healthy, or just to survive another level, a prospect’s stock can change wildly.  In general most people think of a sleeper as a player who is completely off the radar, and a breakout prospect as a player who is going to have his stock take a large leap forward, but feel free to define it as you choose.

I will post my sleepers along with my Top prospects, but for reference here were my 2013 picks.
Sleepers: David Buchanan, Braden Shull, Manuare Martinez, Marek Minarek
Breakout Prospect: Carlos Tocci

Lets hear yours.

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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

32 thoughts on “2014 Phillies Sleeper/Breakout Prospects Open Discussion”

  1. Sleepers: Lewis Alezones, Trey Williams, Bryan Martelo
    Breakouts: Zach Collier, Andrew Pullin, Harold Martinez

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  2. My two breakouts: Samuel Hiciano, Malquin Canelo

    Hiciano’s power is legit. Played hurt for much of the summer, still hit 7 bombs.

    Canelo is the best defensive shortstop I’ve seenin Williamsport in my 5 seasons (don’t know if that says much considering who else has been here). But he started to find it with the bat down the stretch. Was only 18. He should be back in Williamsport as the every day shortstop because of some dude named Crawford at Lakewood.

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  3. Breakouts: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if LGJ and Tommy Joseph made this list? I do agree that Hiciano with his 7 homers has potential plus I think Milner was vastly underrated in the top 30 listing and will be top 15 next year.
    Sleepers: Keys and Viza, 2 pitchers from last year’s draft.

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  4. Sleepers:Keys and T. Williams. I think T.Williams is being a little overlooked in system. A couple years ago, he was a 1st rd type talent. Yes I know he may move to first which could decrease his value.

    Breakout-Pullin. I just have a good feeling about him. A 2nd baseman w/ his offensive game could play big. Think he’s in for a big year.

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  5. I think Tyson Gillies is being overlooked this year. He had a good 2012, then his coaches changed his batting style to add power last year, which worked as he cracked 200 ISO in Reading, but failed that it screwed up his AVG and OBP. He still plays good defense at CF and has the arm to play right. I can see everything finally clicking for him this year him allowing him to hit 300 with 10-20 HR power in AAA. If that happens he’ll replace Mayberry as the Phillies backup CF by year’s end, be a MLB back-up next year, and compete for a starting job in RF or CF in ST 2016. I hear he still has a great attitude and I look forward to seeing him showing off his hustle, legs, and arm in ST games this year.

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    2. I met Gillies at ST last week. He has the make-up off a classic CF and he’s a super cool dude. He was one of the only ones who really interacted with the fans. I’m pulling for him this year.

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  6. Sleepers: Angelo Mora, Logan Moore, Grenny Cumana, Kevin Brady (does he still exist?)

    Breakout: Brian Pointer. Now or never, Brian.

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    1. Going by his Twitter account, no, I’d say Kevin Brady got released (unless he’s not teaching full time, anyway)

      Breakout: Hmm. Maybe Greene will finally get it together? And, as much as I rag on Gillies, it’d be nice to see him do well this year.

      Sleepers: No idea.

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  11. Maybe a future topic can be “make or break” as defined by the need to have the kind of year that exhibits sufficient mastery/progress to think the guy is still a prospect or has stalled out/gone backward. Top of the list would be Green. He is potentially different from a guy like Hewitt in the category of commitment level. I think the org might run out of patience with LG with another year like 2013 whereas with Hewitt it was always apparent he was trying hard. Pointer, Walter, Musser all seem to been at a make or break point too.

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    1. I might call Altherr or Dugan the breakout. Franco was in many org Top 5s last year. Gonzalez was definitely a sleeper. Not sure anyone saw him coming.

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  14. I think Cord Sandberg has been really overlooked in a lot of top prospect lists I’ve seen. I think he’ll make a splash this year.

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  15. Breakout for me is Greene and Aumont (may be ineligible) – huge tools but can they use them
    I was a fan of Gillies last year but since he did not get better at the end I have little hope any more. I also think Cord will be a big disappointment given his somewhat high expectations and limit to LF

    Sleepers: Milner, Child,
    Purely on defense I like Moore and Canelo which could carry them to backup in the majors.

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    1. Aumont is ineligible, yes. Still, when he’s on, he’s quite good…wherein lies the problem. I’m interested to know if he’ll have finally eliminated his consistency issues this year.

      As far as Shull: hard to say. That he only appeared in 4 GCL games last season (June 24th/28th & July 8th/26th) leads me to believe he was released, but there’s no indication that he was on milb.com. Is there a better place to look for this information?

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      1. Had they released Shull, I think someone on here would have heard about it. Good question, though. Anyone have a timely and thorough MiLB transactions site to share with us?

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  17. Sleeper: Mike Nesseth (career delayed by injuries and miscellaneous stuff, but he’s figuring it out and could end up being a decent major league piece), Tyson Gillies (we’ve written him off so often, that he’s actually way underrated now), Jan Hernanez, Guellar (still very young, and an arm is an arm is an arm)

    Breakout: Biddle and Crawford (both guys really take their game to the next level), Hiciano, Cozens

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    1. Nesseth actually has a reasonable shot at making an appearance in Philly this year with the normal number of bullpen injuries

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  18. I’m going to go with Wilmer Oberto and Ricky Bielski as my sleepers! And if the report from Jay Floyd is right that first full minor league workouts are Friday, we should be seeing the first list of workout groups soon and can see who is still with the organization.

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    1. Buckley’s an interesting guy. He could move quickly if he’s getting results. Kind of like where I thought Colt Murray was two years ago. That didn’t work out, but Buckley’s the same type – pretty good velo and a bullpen all the way kind of guy.

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  20. Pointer is my breakout guy. And sleepers, I’ll take Franklyn Vargas. He only managed to get into 13 games last year out of the pen, and didn’t even go to WIL. Have to wonder if he was dealing with some injuries or if they were remaking part of his delivery or something.

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    1. Pointer would be a pleasant surprise. Once upon a time in a stretch of 47 games or so he ops’d 856. It feels like he is going into his age 24 season but alas he is only 22.

      Having said that I think the odds are long against him.

      I think Vargas was definitely hurt last season it doesn’t appear he pitched in any games before July 10th.

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