With trade winds expected to blow much stronger in Phillies land over the next couple months I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at other organizations minor league stats to see what they may indicate in regards to minor league talent.

Here are the Boston Red Sox affiliates, the stats do not include games played beyond May 31st  :

Low Single A : Greenville Drive ( 30-20, 1st place South Atlantic League Southern Division)

Rafael Devers is an 18 year old third baseman from the Dominican Republic who is hitting .341 with a .370 OBP thru 164 at bats, he has 3 home runs and 22 runs batted I with 13 doubles.

Javier Guerra is a 19 year old short stop who is hitting .297 with a .359 OBP thru 138 at bats with 4 home runs and 21 RBI’s

Mauricio Dubon, a 20 year shortstop who has also been playing second base is hitting .295 with an OBP of .339 thru 176 at bats with 4 home runs and 25 RBI’s

Pitching wise 21 year old Jalen Beeks has stood out going 5-1 thru 9 starts

High Single A Salem Red Sox ( 26-24, 2nd place in Carolina League Southern Division)

No numbers jump off the page on this roster, the best belong to converted outfielder Aneury Taverez who was previously a pitcher in the system. He is a 23 year old who was hitting .280 with a .368 OBP thru 132 at bats as a right fielder. He was promoted to Double A where he has played 8 games.

21 year old first baseman Sam Travis has decent numbers hitting .270 with a .340 OBP thru 177 at bats, he has 10 doubles, 2 home runs and 26 RBI’s

Pitching wise 20 year old lefty Daniel McGrath sports a 1.80 ERA thru six starts and 30 innings with 31 k’s, he is presently on the disabled list.
Double A Portland Sea Dogs ( 22-29, last place in Eastern League Eastern Division)

25 year old first baseman Jantzen Witte is hitting .326 with a .393 OBP thru 175 at bats, he has knocked in 35 runs and has 16 doubles with 3 home runs

Oscar Tejeda is a 25 year old third baseman who is hitting .310 with 13 doubles in 155 at bats

Marco Hernandez is a 22 year old Dominican shortstop who is hitting .301 thru 113 at bats with only 3 walks

Pitching wise 24 year old William Cuevas is 6-2 with a 3.02 ERA and 43 k’s in 47 innings

Triple A Pawtucket Paw Sox ( 26-25, 2nd place in International League Northern a Division)

Jackie Bradley Jr ( 25 year old outfielder) is hitting .352 with an OBP of .406 in 122 at bats, he has 2 home runs and 11 RBI’s with 10 doubles

Allen Craig is hitting .328 in triple A since his outright in 61 at bats with a .431 OBP

No other active player on the triple A roster is hitting above .260 and in fact many are at or below the .200 Mendoza line including “prospects” Jemile Weeks and Garin Cecchini

Pitching wise Henry Owens ( 22 year old lefty) sports a 3.15 ERA thru 10 starts and 54 innings with 42 strike outs

24 year old lefty Brian Johnson is 6-3 with a 2.60 ERA in 10 starts with 57 k’s in 55 innings

22 year old Eduardo Rodriquez had a 2.98 ERA in 8 starts before his call up to the show.

All in all not off the wall numbers in the Sox system, they are light at triple A results and best of the system seems to be in class A again with the promotions of high talent players Mookie Betts, Brock Holt, Rusney Castillo and Mookie Betts to the show this season.

Of the players not active on the big league roster most sites now consider Yoan Moncado ( he has just begun play at Greenville with 9 games under his belt) ,Owens, Devers and Manual Margot ( is at Salem but is hitting just .257 in 105 at bats) with Johnson as the fifth as the systems top, not sure there would be enough here for me to pry a guy like Cole Hamels  loose unless they put Swihart or Betts in the deal, the single A guys are very young and would be a big gamble to go that route.

Hello, my name is Steve Potter and I am a new writer on phuturephillies. I am a published author, in a shameless act of self promotion if you are looking for a nice Father’s Day gift check out my book on the 2008 Phillies entitled “2008 Phillies – A Poetic Season”. It is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble 😃.

But the real reason I asked Greg to join this great blog site is to have the chance to talk about the Phillies minor leagues and other systems from a potential trade perspective, I will primarily focus on the Reading team regarding the Phillies but will also post  some articles on minor league systems of other organizations and highlights on players.

For my debut posting I am looking at the minor league system of the Houston Astros from a baseball statistical perspective to review what players may be potential trade chips if the Phillies work out a deal with Houston. I will look at other systems as well, here is the analysis of the Astros I did this week, stats don’t include games played beyond May 31st.

Low Single A team – Quad Cities River Bandits (35-16, 1st place in Midwest League Western Division)
Catcher Jacob Nottingham ( 20 years old) is having an outstanding year hitting .310 with a .387 OBP with 8 home runs and 31 RBI’s thru 39 games played and 148 at bats. He is 6’3″ 200 lbs from Redlands, California.

Outfielder Derek Fisher ( 21 years old). , a 2014 first round draft pick, was hitting .305 with a .386 OBP smacking 6 home runs and driving in 24. He is a product of the University of Virginia and goes 6’1″ 207. Fisher was recently promoted to high A and hit three home runs ( 2 of them grand slams) driving in a record 12 runs in his very first game at that level! He went 4 for 6 in the game which included a 3 run double 😳

Pitcher Daniel Mengden ( 22 years old) is 4-1 with a 1.16 ERA thru 38 innings ( 6 starts) and has struck out 36 batters

High Single A – Lancaster JetHawks (27-23, 2nd in California League Southern Division)

Outfielder Brett Phillips ( 21 years old) is hitting .330 with 8 home runs and 31 RBI’s thru 197 at bats, his OBP is .394.

22 year old first baseman A.J. Reed has 13 home runs and 40 RBI’s thru 185 at bats with a .281 batting average and a .392 OBP

Pitching wise right hander Edison Frias is 6-2 after 8 starts and leads the team in innings pitched with 41 ks in 42 innings

Double A – Corpus Christi Hooks ( 33-16, 1st place in Texas League Southern Division)

Top rated Astros shortstop prospect Carlos Correa ( 20 years old, 6’4″ 210) started the season at double A and tore up the league as he hit .385 (.459 OBP) with 7 home runs and 32 RBI’s along with 15 steals. He was promoted to Triple A Fresno where his stats are more human as he is hitting .240 thru 79 at bats with 3 home runs and 8 RBI’s. He is the real deal and will be an impact player in the show.

Pitching stands out at double A for the Astros in particular 2013 1st round draft pick Mark Appel who is 3-1 thru 9 starts. The 6’5″ 220 pound Stanford product has tossed 40 innings with a relatively high ERA of 5.85 with 29 K’s

Chris Devenski is 6-0 thru 6 starts with an ERA of .59, he began the season pitching out of the pen three games and has 35 K’s in 46 innings. He is a 24 year old.

22 year old closer Jandel Gustave has 5 saves

Triple A Fresno Grizzlies ( 28-22 1st place in Pacific Coast League Pacific North Division)

24 year old outfielder Preston Tucker was hitting .320 with an OBP of .378 with 10 home runs and 32 RBI’s thru 100 at bats before his call up to the Astros

25 year old outfielder LJ Hoes is hitting .320 thru 150 at bats with a .394 OBP,

22 year old outfielder Domingo Santana ( ex Phillies farmhand) is hitting .305 with an OBP of .418 and has smacked 10 home runs while driving in 25. He has struck out a whopping 58 times thru 154 at bats.

23 year old first baseman Jon Singleton ( ex Phillies farmhand) has 14 home runs and 47 RBI while sporting a .269 average with a .369 OBP thru his first 182 at bats, he has struck out 41 times

Pitching wise I don’t see any real standouts statistically at this level

Most baseball sites have Correa, Appel and Santana as the top 3 Astros prospects.