There has been a lot said about the lack of pitching in the Phillies system.  A lot of blame has been put at the feet of the development staff for failing to get major league players out of the talent in the system.  There have been other complaints about the prospects traded away or the prospects traded for as well.  The end result has been that I only had 8 pitchers in my Top 30 Phillies prospects and of those only 2 starting pitchers began the year healthy (Biddle and Gonzalez).

The factor that no one seems to be talking about is the composition of the Phillies drafts over the past 6 years.  With the “oldest” prospects in the system being from the 2008 draft class, it seemed like a good place to start.  So here are all the pitchers the Phillies drafted either for high money or are still in the system from the 2008 to 2013 drafts. Continue reading Where have all the pitchers gone? →

Yesterday my Baseball Prospectus Futures Guide arrived.  I highly recommend it, the e-book is a bit cheaper, but I am partial to hard copies of prospect books to grab at any point.  You should also buy it to support the great work the BP prospect team does including two of our new writers CJ Wittmann and Chris King.  But enough of that.

The BP guide includes three comparable players for each prospect.  They represent a range of outcomes, and aren’t always accurate due to sample sizes and other weird statistical things.  These comparables come from PECOTA and I have also included the top 10 PECOTA player comparables overall from BP’s website for each Top 10 prospect. (as well as 2014 MLB projection, because they are fun)  These could change by next week as players change how they are, but keep in mind that PECOTA has a lot of data to work with and the more data it is given, the more accurate it becomes.

1. Maikel Franco – 3B (.255/.282/.427)
Handbook: Lonnie Chisenhall, Josh Vitters, Wilmer Flores
Top 10: Lonnie Chisenhall, Josh Vitters, Wilmer Flores, Mike Moustakas, Dayan Viciedo, Nick Castellanos, Nolan Arenado, Aderlin Rodriguez, Matt Dominguez, Edison Rincon Continue reading Fun with PECOTA Comps →

Reporting to AAA

Last year’s predictions went pretty well so I thought I would give it another try this year.  These predictions are based purely on opinion, and have no guarantee of coming true.

1. Both Maikel Franco and Jesse Biddle do not exhaust their prospect eligibility.  Both are not called up until rosters expand.  Biddle puts up good numbers but is blocked in the major league level and left to make adjustments in AAA.

2.  Yoel Mecias comes back healthy and is a borderline Top 5 prospect in the system.  He is promoted to Clearwater after dominating Lakewood for a few starts.

3. Roman Quinn plays SS in Clearwater when he is back on the field, the Phillies begin experimenting with him at 2B after J.P. Crawford is promoted at the beginning of August. Continue reading Season Predictions →

For sanity’s sake I have not included all relievers in the system.  For the most part, low minors relievers are not prospects unless they move very quickly or have elite stuff.  Additionally it is hard to tell whether a pitcher is actually a starter or a reliever.

Players:

MLB: Jonathan Papelbon – 33, Mike Adams – 35, Justin De Fratus – 26, Jake Diekman – 27, Antonio Bastardo – 28, Brad Lincoln – 28, BJ Rosenberg – 28
AAA: Ethan Martin  (9) – 24, Kyle Simon – 23, Luis Garcia – 27, Jeremy Horst – 28, Mike Nesseth – 25, Shawn Camp – 38, Phillippe Aumont – 25
AA: Jay Johnson – 24, Ken Giles (14) – 23, Austin Wright – 24, Nefi Ogando – 24, Tyler Knigge  – 25, Brody Colvin – 23
A+: Dan Child – 21, Steven Inch – 23
A-: Yacksel Rios – 20, Manaure Martinez – 22 Continue reading Positional Preview: Relief Pitchers →

Players:

MLB: Cliff Lee – 35, Cole Hamels – 30, A.J. Burnett  – 37, Roberto Hernandez – 33, Kyle Kendrick – 29, Jeff Manship – 29
AAA: Jonathan Pettibone – 23, David Buchanan – 24, Barry Enright – 28, Greg Smith  – 30, Sean O’Sullivan – 26, Adam Morgan (20) – 24
AA: Jesse Biddle (2) – 22, Severino Gonzalez (19) – 21, Hoby Milner – 23, Luis Paulino – 24, Perci Garner – 25
A+: Nic Hanson – 21, Ethan Stewart – 23, Miguel Nunez – 21, Jon Prosinski – 23, Colin Kleven – 22
A-: Tyler Viza – 19, Shane Martin – 22, Mark Leiter Jr. – 23, Ranfi Casimiro – 21, Alejandro Arteaga – 19, Yoel Mecias (11) – 20, Shane Watson (21) – 20
SS/Rk: Lewis Alezones – 18, Denton Keys – 19, Mitch Gueller – 20, Drew Anderson – 20, Franklyn Vargas – 19 Continue reading Positional Preview: Starting Pitching →

Players:
Ben Revere – 25 – MLB
Tony Gwynn Jr – 31 – MLB
Tyson Gillies – 25 – AAA
Zach Collier – 23 – AA
Aaron Altherr – 23 – AA
Carlos Tocci – 18 – A-
Venn Biter – 19 – SS
Steven Golden – 19 – SS
Herlis Rodriguez – 19 – SS
Jiandido Tromp – 20 – SS Continue reading Positional Preview: Center Field →