After starting their draft with a polished college pitcher, the Phillies continued with another college pitcher with good fastball command in Matt Imhof from Cal Poly. Imhof leads the NCAA in strikeouts thanks to a low 90s fastball that he can get good movement on. The secondary stuff needs a lot of work for him to stay in the rotation. He is young enough with enough size that the stuff FB could tick a bit up. He is more a #3/#4 starter if it all works out, but likely on the low side without a major jump in stuff.
He is a bit of a reach at #47, but if the Phillies could save a little bit of money here to spend later, he is a good value.
Phuture Phillies 
Ladies and Gentlemen, here are you 2016 Lehigh Valley Ironpigs!
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Very unexciting pick. I guess they’ll prob save some coin here, though. Lets hope with the money they’re, hopefully ,saving they draft a couple upside guys for over slot fri
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still plenty of athletes of highschool talent out there
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I am not being sarcastic but can someone explain how baseball americas #42 ranked prospect is a reach at pick #47?
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Law had him at 58 and he’s all about upside. So yeah – hardly a reach.
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My immediate reaction is that I’m fine with the pick. Seems like he’s got a solid or better fastball, he’s only 20 years old and he’s a big kid. Hopefully he can develop some secondary stuff over the next few years.
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I like that he’s only 20. Some high school pitcher being drafted was also almost about to turn 20. There is still a chance Imhof’s stuff ticks up.
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So the phillies farm system is terrible and the major league team might be worse. Why draft college kids? Especially Nola, why the hell would the phillies need a fast mover with no upside?
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because this lessens the blow of barely having anything at Clearwater on up (except for Biddle). I am ok with both picks as long as they get aggressive in acquiring upside later in draft and international signings.
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“No upside”. A bit hyperbolic, but just enough for me not to read your comments anymore. Thanks for making it clear so early this morning to avoid you on here
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I dont see how Nola has no upside?
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It depends what you mean about upside. In terms of physical projection, he looks like a fairly finished project. Obviosuly we need to see how that translates to the professional game – he has upside in the sense that it COULD translate into a 2. Obviously some (very low) chance that he could be even more. But he’s nhighly unlikely to (say) add 3 MPH to his fast ball.
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Because you have to gradually add building blocks for the next winner. If you force it with risky picks like the boom/bust picks we’ve been so fond of prior to last draft, then the odds are that you get nothing from your first and second rounders. It is a fallacy to panic and think that because the situation is so grim and you need so much help that it is pointless to bother trying to hit doubles in the draft, because only a couple of HRs will move the dial enough. That is the sort of thinking that got us where we are. People say that the Phillies are a big money team and can simply buy their average players, that their drafts must produce stars. Truth is, the Phillies have a severe shortage of average players, which they haven’t been able to find using the old checkbook. The desperation boom/bust draft philosophy really is like catching up your retirement savings by buying lottery tickets. You may read how it worked for one guy in a hundred thousand, but that makes it almost certain it won’t work for you.
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Phillies are loaded with average players. If you look at their roster in 2014 they are a combined 1.3 war, the definition of average.
Their highest WAR player is Chase Utley at 2 and the lowest is Dom Brown at -1.1.
Their other regular players are:
Adams – 0
Asche -.1
Burnett -.2
Byrd – 1.0
Diekman – 0
Hamels – .1
Kendrick – -.2
Howard – -.4
R. Hernandez – -.3
Lee – .1
Revere – -.5
Papelbon – 0
Rollins – 1.3
Ruiz 1.3
That looks like a lot of average players to me. Replacing these players with more average players from the minors might be cheaper but it doesn’t make the team any better.
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Cliff Lee is 1.7 WAR. Are these BWAR?
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got the number from baseball reference website
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I think you are misusing the stat that you present. You list players by WAR. WAR is wins above REPLACEMENT level players. A replacement level player is not at all the same thing as an average major league starter. SOme of the guys you list don’t even come to replacement level. Others are clearly above replacement level this year and some, like Hamels, are near-stars. Lee is an injured ace. Ruiz and Rollins have WARs which are just fine for this point in the season. They are well above replacement level. If you think of Hamels and Lee as average and think we had a good chance to draft someone with reasonable odds to be a better pitcher than them, then I want some of what you’re smoking. They would have been popped within the first 4 picks of the draft. Nola is projected as a solid #3 starter, with a chance to be a #2. He was consistently rated as one of the top 10 prospects in the draft. Many analysts thought he would be drafted, prior to our pick. He has a good chance to be an above average player.
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Slow and steady might make for a comfortable retirement but in baseball, it makes for a lot of .500 baseball.
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And desperation makes for slipping farther and farther behind. As I’ve said before, I would have happily taken a chance on Hoffman, but you greatly underestimate Nola.
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Because we have zero RH starting pitching prospects, any of our decent starting prospects are left-handed, not to mention pur top 2 MLB starters. Once Nick Gordon, SS/2B was off the board, it really left them no choice. I wish Gordon was still there and it gave us options with maybe Crawford in CF, Gordon at SS OR Crawford at SS and Gordon at 2B
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okay pick – but probably not as happy with it as I am the Nola pick. Maybe more to the point, I’m not thrilled with the pick in light of the Nola pick. i.e., after taking Nola, it would have been nice to see them go for some more upside at #2. But I don’t really know who the alternatives were .. as I said, an okay pick.
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Probably a decent pick with some upside since he’s a big kid. They took two college pitchers that had success and expect both to be in the rotation in 2016 timeframe. That’s what is needed.
Gillies released? Sorry, not draft related but didn’t know where to post it. Cedeno called up, for Cesar?
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Everyone complains about the high risk high upside guys the phillies were drafting. Now you get mad about lower risk guys? One is ranked in the top ten by BA and Klaw and the other 42 by BA. Stop complaining they both have good stuff
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You want a balanced portfolio, and if anything it makes sense to take more risk when you’re in need of a big hit.
That said, I don’t dislike these picks, I’m just not thrilled with them.
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Both these guys are quality and will see MLB time soon.
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Two of the top strikeout pitchers in NCAA, #2. and. #6
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Two of the top strikeout pitchers in NCAA…
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“He’s a big left-hander with a plus fastball, above-average breaking ball and a lot of deception in his delivery,” scouting director Marti Wolever said. “We’ve seen a lot of him and he’s a rotation guy — middle to the back of the rotation.” “He’s has a chance to go through it a little quicker, not as quickly as [first-round draft pick Aaron] Nola, but he throws strikes and he commands the strike zone,” Wolever said. “That certainly works to his advantage.” Some of the bats we were focused on were gone at that point and he was the best option,” Wolever said. I bet he was talking about Gatewood.
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I wonder if Wolever thinks his breaking ball is above average now or if he’s projecting it. His description makes the kid sound pretty good, but of course he’s going to sell it a little bit.
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I just hope they’re taking college pitchers because they’re the best players available, and not because they’re panicked about the near future and lack of pitching in the system.
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I’ll go ok, not super on second rounder. It really depends on how well our development staff can do in improving his off-speed stuff. I like that he gets the Ks with blah off-speed pitches in his arsenal. That does leave room for growth. Size is good. My brain tells me he’s a better pick than my gut initially felt.
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it is reckless to say a college player has no upside, especially good ones. They have obviously found a way to have a lot of success to this point. they can get better still
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is he develops a slider he should be starter (maybe #3 or #4) if his slider doesn’t develop the Phillies added bullpen arm. Either way I think they added to regulars to their rotation which is never a bad thing.
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