It’s almost time to restart this year’s Readers’ Top Thirty. If you recall, I ran the first poll about two months ago and Andrew Painter was the overwhelming choice as the Phillies’ number one prospect.
The workaround was successful. Hopefully, I can recreate the steps I took.
In the meantime, let me share the prospect rules we follow. I will continue to follow baseball’s standards for prospect lists which state –
“To be eligible for a list, a player must have rookie eligibility. To qualify for rookie status, a player must not have exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues, or accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the 26-player limit period, excluding time on the disabled list or in military service.”
Players who exceeded their rookie status during the 2022 season – Matt Vierling, Bryson Stott, Darick Hall, Cristopher Sanchez.
Notable players who still maintain rookie status – Hans Crouse, Damon Jones, Donnie Sands, Michael Plassmeyer, Dalton Guthrie, Francisco Morales.
Players who are gone – Luis Garcia, Jadiel Sanchez, Logan O’Hoppe, Ben Brown, Jonathan Hennigan, Andrew Brown, Jonathan Guzman, Ben Pelletier, Josh Stephen, Jose Tortolero, Edgar Cabral, Nick Fanti, DJ Stewart, DJ Jefferson, Tyler Adams, Edgar Made, Ethan Evanko, Daniel Brito, Tyler Carr, Julian Garcia, Kyle Dohy, Austin Ross, Mark Appel, Jeff Singer.
Ballot Features
- The ballot will be 10-20 players long.
- I’ll decide which players are on the ballot.
- I’m hesitant to put 26-year-olds on the ballot or guys who’ve been in the organization for six years. (I talk tough, but didn’t follow these qualifiers.)
- A player will be added as each player comes off.
- Comments will be permitted.
- You can suggest additions in the comments section. If it’s a serious miss on my part, I’ll add him, but the point is to get a representative example of our community, not provide choices so you can mirror your personal lists.
- Adding one or more of your suggestions may result in one or more players being removed from the poll. This doesn’t mean removed players can’t be added later.
- You don’t have to vote if you don’t like the selections.
- I suggest you vote before reading the comments. Don’t let the comments influence you. If you’re easily persuaded by the comments, maybe you shouldn’t vote.
- I’m not going to ask for individual top 30 lists. I don’t receive enough participation to make collecting them worth it.
- I reserve the right to set aside any outcome if I determine that anything irregular occurred.
We should be able to get a representative example of how the Phuture Phillies community values and rates our prospects.
Poll Features
- The choices will be in alphabetical order.
- The Other option will be OFF.
- You can choose ONE prospect.
- Repeat voting is blocked.
- Results have been hidden in the past. I will continue that policy.
MLB’s Current Top 30. This is just another industry list. It’s just here to give you an idea of what the guys who don’t see or talk about our prospects as much as we do think about our prospects.
- Andrew Painter
- Mick Abel
- Justin Crawford
- Griff McGarry
- Johan Rojas
- Lee Hao Yu
- Erik Miller
- Ethan Wilson
- Gabriel Rincones
- Alex McFarlane
- Francisco Morales
- Simon Muzziotti
- Jordan Viars
- Rickardo Perez
- William Bergolla
- Hans Crouse
- Jhailyn Ortiz
- Yhoswar Garcia
- Emaarion Boyd
- Christian McGowan
- Donny Sands
- Micah Ottenbreit
- Jean Cabrera
- McKinley Moore
- Orion Kerkering
- Casey Martin
- Alexeis Azuaje
- Jaydenn Estanista
- Enrique Segura
- Andrew Baker
Here is the 2022 Phuture Phillies Readers’ Top 30 Prospect List.
Bryson Stott – graduated to the Phillies- Mick Abel
- Andrew Painter
Logan O’Hoppe – traded- Johan Rojas
Luis Garcia – lost to waiversMatt Vierling– graduated to the Phillies- Hans Crouse
- Yhoswar Garcia
- Erik Miller
- Ethan Wilson
- Griff McGarry
- Jhailyn Ortiz
- Simon Muzziotti
- Francisco Morales
Mickey Moniak – traded- Jordan Viars
- Damon Jones
- James McArthur
- Lee Hao Yu
- Kendall Simmons
- Christian McGowan
- Erubiel Armenta
- Micah Ottenbreit
- Alexeis Azuaje
- Rickardo Perez
- William Bergolla
- Cristian Hernandez
- Andrew Schultz
Daniel Brito – elected free agency- Dominic Pipkin
- Jordi Martinez
- Jamari Baylor
Kyle Dohy – released- Jean Cabrera
- Billy Sullivan
- Casey Martin
- Ethan Lindow
- Yemal Flores
- Andrew Baker
Here’s the 2023 Prospect Pool. These are the prospects I intend to use to populate the polls. Let me know of any “obvious” misses after you check the One Last Thing section below this section.
- Abel, Mick
- Aldegheri, Samuel
- Azuaje, Alexeis
- Baker, Andrew
- Bata, Eliecer
- Baylor, Jamari
- Bergolla, William
- Bettencourt, Trevor
- Boyd, Emaarion
- Castellano, Eiberson
- Crawford, Justin
- Crouse, Hans
- De La Cruz, Carlos
- Estanista, Jaydenn
- Garcia, Jorge
- Garcia, Yhoswar
- German, Jeffrey
- Gomez, Luis
- Gonzalez, Luis
- Guthrie, Dalton
- Gutierrez, Dariam
- Hernandez, Christian
- Hernandez, Maxwell
- Jimenez, Estibenzon
- Kerkering, Orion
- Lee Hao Yu
- Lee Sang, Marcus
- Leverett, Adam
- Lindow, Ethan
- Lozano, Fernando
- Martinez, Jordi
- Mayer, Gunner
- McArthur, James
- McCollum, Tommy
- McFarlane, Alex
- McGarry, Griff
- McGowan, Christian
- Miller, Erik
- Mendez, Jorge
- Moore, McKinley
- Morales, Francisco
- Muzziotti, Simon
- Ortiz, Jhailyn
- Ottenbreit, Micah
- Painter, Andrew
- Pelegrin, Luis
- Perez, Rickardo
- Pina, Nicoly
- Plassmeyer, Michael
- Pouaka-Grego, Nikau
- Rincones, Gabriel
- Rojas, Johan
- Rondon, Leonardo
- Sands, Donny
- Schultz, Andrew
- Schulze, Brett
- Segovia, Eduar
- Segura, Enrique
- Skirrow, Noah
- Soto, Marco
- Sullivan, Billy
- Ventura, Ezequiel
One Last Thing. And, finally, here’s a list of guys coming off one or more poor seasons or guys who might be suffering from prospect fatigue.
Let me know in the comments section who among the following MUST be included in the polls. I know there are several with huge name recognition. This is your chance to get these guys added. Once polling starts, I’ll be far less inclined to add new names.
- Cabrera, Jean
- Castillo, Starlyn
- Eastman, Colton
- Flores, Yemal
- Friscia, Vito
- Jones, Damon
- Marcano, Rafael
- Martin, Casey
- Nava, Andrick
- Pena Jr., Jose
- Pipkin, Dominic
- Radcliff, Baron
- Ruffcorn, Jason
- Kendall Simmons,
- Viars, Jordan
- Wilson, Ethan
Phuture Phillies 
Jim, You’re right. A number of left out players with big name recognition. I favor Damon Jones and Kendall Simmons as being included.
Thanks for your thoughtful efforts in putting together this always fun exercise.
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Thank you.
Damon Jones? In addition to being outrighted last season, he’s 28 years old. It’s unlikely that I’ll add him to any polls. Kendall Simmons? It’ll take several more requests to get me to consider adding Simmons. He gets a lot of mileage out of that 3-week stretch in Williamsport back in 2019 but he hasn’t come close to approaching that type of offense since.
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Jim, Good point on Jones’ age. Hadn’t even thought of it.
Simmons can hit the ball hard. We’ll see if he can hit it often enough.
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I am going to have a very different list than consensus. I am not high on Rojas or Ethan Wilson. I am higher on Erik Miller, a RP who was left unprotected and not taken than either of those guys. I know that Rojas had a good AFL. And that gives me some hope. But I don’t have confidence that he will hit above .230 in majors. With a sub .300 OB%. I see a slightly slower Billy Hamilton.
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Me too. Should be apparent that I’m not high on Wilson, Martin, or Simmons. Not that high on Miller either. The Phillies didn’t see fit to protect him, couldn’t interest any team in him at the deadline, and 29 teams passed on him in the Rule 5 Draft. I like him and am glad he wasn’t chosen, but the shoulder is still a concern. Rojas is an exciting player, but he needs to be more selective at the plate. He hits pitches hard but puts a lot of them on the ground. Maybe the shift rules help a little but he has to be more selective.
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Yes the Rule 5 experience definitely is a red flag. We all may be too high on Miller.
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Goes to show we have a top heavy system when a fringe top 10 player doesn’t get selected. Great news is the top of the system is aces
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Honestly I have been thinking about the rankings and I am really down on our system overall.
Painter is elite. As good a prospect as you will see. Abel and McGarry are very good prospects. Crawford is a wild card. Too early to tell. Lee is interesting. The rest of the system is really suspect imo. Very down on the system depth.
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I would go so far as to commit the heresy of questioning whether McGarry is as good as everyone thinks he is. As he moved from A to AA to AAA his K9 has dropped and his BB9 has risen. I only saw him 2 or 3 times in Clearwater, he wasn’t here that long. I hear how great his stuff is. Do you know who else had great stuff? Phillippe Aumont. McGarry’s BB9 and BB% are very much like Aumont’s at this point in his career. His K9 and K% are better, so maybe there’s hope. But, in my mind, we don’t have 3 elite starters on the horizon. We have Painter, Abel, and a question mark.
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Thanks for hosting this. It’s usually the highlight of the off season, though I think we can all agree that Dombrowski changed that narrative this year 😀
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Jim … I know you’ve been down on Jordan Viars too, but add him to the “vote” list along with Jean Cabrera and Yemal Flores. All three are still young. The other guy who I believe deserves consideration is Bryan Rincon. Not saying they’ll all make the top 30. Just saying they deserve the opportunity to receive votes.
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It looks good, the prospect pool of 62 just breezing over the list I can see at least 23+ I would vote for first over others not listed. Thanks – looking forward to it
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I still have hope for Wilson, though I totally understand others being down on him. Viars, I think, is someone I think should be on the list. Looking forward to it, Jim, as always. I really enjoy reading everyone’s opinions.
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Jim, Thanks for doing the work to get this together every year. I’m probably alone but I still have some hope for Dominic Pipkin, somewhere in the 28-30 range.
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