There have been a lot of questions about Severino Gonzalez so I thought it was time to write him up.  There isn’t a lot about him or his stuff, but now that he is in the Lakewood rotation there are more reports trickling in.

The Scouting Profile:

Fastball: The reports are that it is mostly 89-91 touching as high as 92.  There is not much about the movement on the pitch, but he can consistently throw it for strikes.

Curveball:  By most reports his best pitch, it is a low 70s breaking ball with good break. Continue reading Prospect Spotlight – Severino Gonzalez →

There really is no bigger boom or bust day in professional sports than the opening of baseball’s international signing period on July 2.  Starting tomorrow teams will sign 16 year olds to contracts for hundreds of thousands of dollars hoping they have found the kid with superstar potential.  Many won’t get past complex league,  others will change body shape too much, more will fail to go from showcase player to baseball player, but some will emerge as real prospects.  The amount of ways to bring talent into your system are finite and the international signing period remains one of the most exploitable.

The Phillies have been more aggressive in recent years signing three “top” players in 2012 in RF Jose Pujols, C Deivi Grullon, and RHP Lewis Alezones, in addition to 100k+ signees Gregori Rivero and Wilker Isavas.  While they may not sign the top player available they certainly will spend close to their allotted slot money on guys more in the 50k-200k range.  Continue reading July 2 Preview →

I was planning on releasing this list closer to the end of June but Brad mentioned it might be beneficial to do one ranking now and one in early August after the deadline when we have seen how the guys in Williamsport and the GCL fair.  I have not included any player with major league service time in 2013 or any 2013 draftees (I will address them after this list).  I have tried to avoid making any rash changes in rankings based purely on stats and have tried to let the tools and profile do the talking.

1. Jesse Biddle (Pre-season #1) – Biddle’s profile hasn’t changed a ton.  The curveball and fastball have been better than the past, but the changeup and command still have a ways to go.  It is encouraging that he has really missed bats at a level where they can punish a hanging breaking ball.

2. Maikel Franco (Pre-season #6) – I really liked Franco pre-season and somehow I kept putting guys over him.  He is a monster at the plate with plenty of glove for third.  It is true impact potential and he was way too low on the first list. Continue reading Midseason Top 20 →

As everyone is aware the major league draft occurred occurred a week ago.  The first big wave of signings have come in and the big question is what type of player are these no additions to the minor league system.  Rather than go through them and try to make a snap decision based on limited knowledge and reports as to what type of players they are this is going to explore more the type of players that comprise a minor league system.

Prospects:

A prospect is a player that has the raw ability to have reasonable projection to be a contributor on the major league level.  This does not by definition  mean that prospect equals major league regular and it also does not include player who project only to get a quick cup of coffee in the majors. Continue reading What is a Prospect? →

Given that this is one of the first time in the past two weeks that I have worked less than 12 hours I thought I would write about the draft, and it kind of spiraled from there.

I want to start by thanking dcwildcat53 for posting the picks throughout Day 3 of the draft.

Your two biggest sources of information going forward are going to be Brad’s Draft Tracker which will remained pinned to the top until the signing deadline and the 2013 Draft Page.  We will work to add more content to both going forward to keep you up to date on signings and all other information you might desire about the 2013 draft.  Look for individual threads with major signings and news to pop up as we gain information. Continue reading 2013 Draft Thoughts (And other Random Phillies Thoughts) →

I am going to start by saying I really like what the Phillies did in the draft and they actually seem to be alternating pitching and hitting heavy drafts.

JP Crawford – Not much more to say here, best player available, and at a position of both need and overall scarcity.  Crawford may need some time but he comes in as an easy Top 5 prospect in the Phillies system.

Signing Probability (Slot – $2,299,300) – 100%, it might take the whole slot but this is the Phillies guy Continue reading Top 10 Round Recap →