I’m still sick as a dog, but saw this and wanted to post it. Article here.
Carlos Carrasco
Mike Cervenek
Ron Chiavacci
Vic Darensbourg
Jason Donald
Greg Golson
Tuffy Gosewisch
Tim Gradoville
Paul Hoover
Brennan King
Gary Knotts
Lou Marson
Brian Mazone
Josh Outman
Valentino Pascucci
Joe Savery
Casey Smith
Andy Tracy
Brandon Watson
An interesting array of prospects and non-prospects. Discuss.
Baseball America does a little feature on the website where they mention who just missed their team’s top 10 list, and Harman was the guy for the Phillies, which means he’ll end up as prospect #11 in their Top 30. Here’s the blurb
Brad Harman, 2b, Phillies. Harman played on Australia’s World Baseball Classic team as a 20-year-old before enduring a trying 2006, but he got back on track last season. He once again looks like a potential .280 hitter with 15 homers per year. With a quicker first step, he might even be able to play shortstop.
As a big Harman fan, this is obviously nice to see. 2008 is going to be a pivotal year for Harman’s baseball career.
I was looking through old prospect lists for the Phillies at Baseball America, and I went back to the 2004 list. I love going back and reading the future outlooks for guys, just to see how close they came to their predictions and prognostications. The Phillies Top 10, in order, with their future outlooks. A good idea raised in the comments, after the Phillies Top 10, I’ll give you the Top 10 lists of other teams. Check below the fold for the details
Chris contacted me and offered to do a Q/A for the site, so I’m going to put together a bunch of questions for him and send it his way in the next few days. I’ve got some ideas for questions already, but I’ll open it to the floor. If you have something you’d like answered, either submit your question via e-mail to me, or leave it in the comments. I won’t be able to get all of them in, but I’ll take a few. So, fire away.
Looks like everyone is hunting for info on Mike Costanzo. Well, thanks for stopping by. Here’s the profile I wrote on him last year. He showed the power was for real, but other flaws still exist.
I did interviews with Keith Law and Bryan Smith, who both talked about Costanzo. I also wrote a piece back in June looking at his struggles against LHP, which you can read here. My readers here voted on our Top 30 prospects, and he ranked 4th
You can also use the search feature on the right side of the page to find mentions of Costanzo here. If you have specific questions, ask away in the comments section of this post and I’ll do my best.
As I’m compiling a little list to come up with my top breakout candidates, Edgar Garcia is the first name that jumps out at me. No one mentioned him in the open thread to list possible candidates, but to me, he seems like the perfect choice. Baseball America has quickly soured on him, after placing him firmly around the top 10-12 prospects for the last 2 years, saying he’s going to drop well down the list. They cite his lack of velocity early, and then his work habits, which is the first time I’ve ever heard anything of the sort. Well, I’m not buying it, and I think 2008 is going to be a good year for Garcia. Check below for more
There’s not a whole lot going on right now, the rule 5 draft has come and gone, we’re in the transition period till we get to spring training, and I’m going to spend the majority of my time here working on player profile pages. So, send me questions, the email address is phuturephillies at hotmail dot com, and put “Mailbag” in the subject. Then just ask a question you’re curious about, or one that you think others might be curious about, and we’ll use some of these as a jumping off point for discussion. Make sure to also give a display name you’d like used for me posting your question.
Side note, our Reading correspondent from last season, Gregg, is going to be doing the Allentown report this year. That means the Reading report is up for grabs. If you have interest, use the same email address above and let me know you’re interested. We’ll also have a Lakewood spot open, so inquire if you have interest in writing either weekly report. Thanks.
I’m working on a little piece targeting guys I feel could have a breakout campaign in 2008, much like Dominic Brown and Drew Naylor in 2007. So I’ll toss this one to you guys first and get your picks, then I’ll give you mine later this week.
A new idea I had for the site. If you look to the left, you’ll see a “Profile” link under Carlos Carrasco’s name. If you click that link, it will take you to a post with links and information on the player. I added a few articles I was able to find, a picture, and then I made a little career register, highlighting key peripherals. The plan is to eventually add things like video clips, more pictures, and rankings for each player, both from me and from other major prospect evaluation sites. If you have anything to contribute to a player’s profile, just leave it in the comments on each player’s page. For now, Carrasco is the only one I’ve worked on, but I plan to work on them slowly and surely over the next few months. Feedback on this idea is much appreciated.
Lauber, who writes for the Wimington News Journal, wrote a wrapup article yesterday about the Phillies (in)activity at the Winter Meetings. The article itself is your standard fare, nothing exciting. However, he posted a followup in the comments section, and this is the part I’m interested in
You raise a very interesting point about the Phillies’ reluctance to go over slot value to sign draft picks. Was talking about this with a few people today before leaving Nashville, and it probably merits its own blog post/story in the paper someday soon. For those who don’t know, MLB sets a “slot value” for each pick in the draft and frowns upon teams that sign their picks for above slot. The Tigers are a routine offender. Yet, there’s no punishment besides a slap on the wrist. The Phillies typically adhere to the slot value, and sometimes, it costs them a chance to sign a pick (Brandon Workman last year is a prime example). One of the reasons the Tigers were willing to include Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin in the Cabrera/Willis deal with Florida is that they’re confident they can quickly reload their farm system because of their aggressive approach to signing picks. For whatever reason, the Phillies’ decision-makers don’t have that ability. So, they’ve decided to hoard what few prospects they have rather than package them in a mega-deal. It’s a philosophical divide that often gets overlooked. But it’s rather important, too.
Article link here. More below the fold
Phuture Phillies 