There has been a lot of talk about the talent in the Phillies system and how it stacks up against other teams. So I decided to take a look at two things, where does the talent come from, and what kind of talent is it. For this exercise I purely used my Baseball America Prospect Handbook to have the same set of evaluators on each team. For teams, I have used a sample size of 10, the five teams in the NL East and BA’s Top 5 farm systems. I have adjusted for trades so these lists are slightly different than how they appear in the handbook. I looked at the data to see if there were any trends that showed how to build a good farm system that the Phillies might be missing on. Continue reading How we stack up: The Construction of a Farm System
All posts by Matt Winkelman
Spring Training: What to watch for?
Let me start off this post by saying that we have a month of spring training left so there is a lot of change to come and all spring training events are small sample size due to the variability of each encounter because the primary objective is to ready oneself for the season.
Spring Training is the time for snap judgments and irrationality, but here are some tips to think about as we go through another month of Spring Training
Context Matters:
Looking at pure stat lines tells you very little. For example Joseph and Brown hit home runs off a pitcher who has never pitched above hi-A and Asche’s opposite field double should have been caught. That being said, don’t discount any event, everything is information, the context is an important part of that, don’t leave it out. To gather the most context, watch/listen to the game (if possible), read play-by-play, read the recaps, and when in doubt just ask, someone probably caught it. Continue reading Spring Training: What to watch for?
Top 30 Prospects
My Philosophy:
I value elite tools; there is a level of ability that just cannot be taught to a player. That being said once you hit hi-A you need the other skills to let those tools work in games. The corollary to this is that an elite player is worth way more than a major league ready replacement player. A player whose upside is being a #5 starter, middle reliever, or bench bat has little value to a team beyond their pre-free agency years. Their value is much less than a guy with a chance to be an average regular even if there is some risk. This means there are guys who put up great numbers in the minors who just aren’t going to make it. Baseball is hard and they just don’t have the raw abilities. Continue reading Top 30 Prospects
2013 Breakout Prospects
Yesterday was about the prospects off of the radar who may get on to lists and gain attention. Breakout prospects are players who are going to make a leap in value and projection. They could be anywhere, if you think Biddle is going to start pitching 93-95 and make his changeup a plus pitch, then he might be a breakout prospect as he jumps in national rankings.
The process is almost as important as the result so please share what kind of adjustment or change is going to make this prospect really make a huge leap this year.
2013 Sleeper Prospects
Everyone has their guy that they think is not getting enough attention and will become a legitimate prospect in the coming year. This is the chance to put that idea down for all to see. Just as with the Top 30s we will likely come back to visit this later to see how we did.
For the purpose of this exercise a “sleeper” is a prospect outside of the consensus Top 30 who you think will make a leap onto the list next year or is someone that has a big league future that people are overlooking. We will do “breakout” players tomorrow.
Reader Submitted Top 30s
Now that we have finished our collective list it is time for everyone to submit their own lists if they want to. I will post them all up here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aq9atTaYBdErdDFibUpEVENleTB0Mnk1X0dSb19DSWc#gid=1 so that they can be compared against each other. I will try to remember to bring this post back up mid-season so that we can see how we all are doing even if it will be impossible to judge for another 5-10 years.
Please post your Top 30 along with what ever name you want me to post it up as in its own post rather than reply to a previous one.
Reader Top 30 – Complete List
The Reader Top 30 is finally completed and here is your list:
- Biddle
- Quinn
- Morgan
- Joseph
- Franco
- Ruf
- Asche
- Pettibone
- Martin
- Tocci
- Aumont
- Gillies
- Watson
- Greene
- Valle
- De Fratus
- Collier
- Wright
- Cozens
- Hernandez
- Gueller
- Walding
- Pullin
- Giles
- Colvin
- Rupp
- Dugan
- Lino
- Green
- Brady
What is everyone’s initial reaction? Continue reading Reader Top 30 – Complete List
Reader Top 30 #30 – Kevin Brady
Reader Top 30 #29 – Second Attempt – Zach Green
Reader Top 30 #29
Gabriel Lino takes the #28 spot, two more to go and here is your poll.
Continue reading Reader Top 30 #29
Phuture Phillies 