Over the past weekend, Mike Drago of the Reading Eagle published his yearly prospect survey. Mike requests input from about two dozen industry people who watch or cover a fair amount of games and players among the Phillies’ affiliates. He received 16 responses and used a weighted scoring system to determine a player’s perceived value (first-place votes earning 20 points, second place 19 points, etc.). I was one of the 16 respondents.
J.P Crawford received 15 of 16 first place votes. Jake Thompson received the other first place vote. Nick Williams received 11 second place votes. Thirty-four players received votes. The results of the poll were as follows.
- J.P. Crawford SS Reading 317 points
- Jake Thompson P Reading 287
- Nick Williams OF Reading 278
- Cornelius Randolph OF Gulf Coast 253
- Jorge Alfaro C Reading 236
- Roman Quinn OF Reading 225
- Franklyn Kilome P Williamsport 215
- Zach Eflin P Reading 197
- Ricardo Pinto P Clearwater 154
- Carlos Tocci OF Clearwater 145
- Aaron Altherr OF Philadelphia 144
- Andrew Knapp C Reading 138
- Jarad Eickoff P Philadelphia 113
- Scott Kingery 2B Lakewood 104
- Nick Pivetta P Reading 93
- Ben Lively P Reading 63
- Darnell Sweeney OF Philadelphia 59
- Rhys Hoskins 1B Clearwater 36
- Alberto Tirado P Clearwater 34
- Malquin Canelo SS Lakewood 29
The next ten were – Matt Imhof, Alec Asher, Brandon Leibrandt, Dylan Cozens, Jimmy Cordero, Kelly Dugan, Jose Pujols, Deivi Grullon, Willians Astudillo, Jesse Biddle.
Four others received votes – Felix Paulino, Jonathan Arauz, Aaron Brown, Lucas Williams. (All four were on my ballot.)
I returned my ballot with the following disclaimer. “Really tough this season. I haven’t seen enough of half of the guys in the MLB top 20. I relied on what I’ve read and even box scores (shudder) to some extent. My bias toward players I have seen probably works for and against them, but my bias against relievers is probably permanent, for now. Anyway, here goes.”
1. J.P. Crawford
2. Cornelius “C” Randolph
3. Jake Thompson
4. Jorge Alfaro
5. Ricardo Pinto
6. Andrew Knapp
7. Franklyn Kilome
8. Roman Quinn
9. Jerad Eickhoff
10. Nick Williams
11. Zach Eflin
12. Scott Kingery
13. Felix Paulino
14. Darnell Sweeney
15. Nick Pivetta
16. Jonathan Arauz
17. Aaron Brown
18. Dylan Cozens
19. Rhys Hoskins
20. Lucas Williams
I ended with the following – “PS – I really, really, really like Randolph. And Alfaro makes me go, “Wow!”. I had him lower until I saw him in a sim inning, hitting off Stephen Inch (in his third sim outing). He’s big and packs a wallop. And Williams’ approach at the plate is similar to Randolph’s. If Kingery is as good as they think/hope, this looks to have been a really good draft. Did I mention I like Randolph?”
I approached my poll by listing the top 20 prospects that I have actually seen this season. Then decided where to slot the players I hadn’t seen, or hadn’t seen enough. It came down to the pain I would experience if a player left the organization. The more the pain, the higher the ranking.
I know I have some glaring omissions. I don’t apologize for those. For example, Carlos Tocci. I have watched him for half a season. I enjoy watching him play center field. He plays a nice center field. But, he doesn’t hit well enough. Opposing outfields are playing him shallower than they did his first time through the league. If he doesn’t put on some weight and muscle, I don’t see how he’ll ever hit enough to play in the majors. Sorry.
It appears that I penalize pitchers I’ve seen like Imhof and Leibrandt, but reward players like Arauz, Brown, and Lucas Williams. Maybe I’m “too close to the trees to see the forest”. But the players I’ve seen the most leave an impression one way or the other.
I’ll post the Mike Drago’s Reading Eagle Top 20 Survey on the Rankings Page tonight or tomorrow.
