Happy Monday to you. If you’ve been following along for a while now, you know that I’m generally critical of the current front office. But even I didn’t think they were capable of screwing up the Paul Owens Award, given to the Phillies minor league hitter and pitcher for the year. But, they did screw it up, again. As announced here (scroll down), the 2007 winners were Mike Zagurski and Quintin Berry. I’d LOVE someone to explain these choices. Berry had a nice season, he elevated his prospect status, but come on. Jason Donald put up better numbers at a higher level at the same age. Mike Costanzo had a huge second half at a higher level. Adrian Cardenas had a better season at the same level at a much younger age. And while Berry seems like a mistake, the Zagurski decision is indefensible, just like it was indefensible to give the award to Robinson Tejeda in the season where he spent a lot of time in the majors. Zagurski put up great numbers in the minors, but spent a good bit of time with the big league club, and he finished the season on the DL. Andrew Carpenter’s season wasn’t better? Josh Outman’s season wasn’t more impressive?

A true head scratcher, but that’s becoming common place for this organization.

Are you surprised? I’m not. Generally speaking, the short season leagues, ie rookie ball and short season ball, are generally filled with guys who were drafted in the first 20 picks, as well as guys repeating the level putting up monster numbers. The only guy who had a shot for the Phillies was d’Arnaud, not shocked to see him not make it. That begs the question, which Phillies deserve to make the NYPL list? Savery? Naylor? Make your predictions below.

….please cross your fingers. This can only be considered good news for every level of our organization.

Brad Harman, a personal favorite of mine, had a scorching second half of the season. In his age 21 season, playing at High A Clearwater, Harman finished the season posting OPS numbers of 1.033 and .998 in July and August. Knowing that, and looking at all of his numbers, where do you think he will rank in the Phillies Top 30 prospect list this offseason?

I thought this would be an interesting comparison. Happ and Outman are arguably the Phillies two best LHP prospects, assuming that Antonio Bastardo still has a ways to go. Outside of the hand they throw with, the two pitchers are very different. Happ is 4 inches taller than Outman (6’5 to 6’1), and if you believe the media guides, has 25 pounds on him. Despite the height difference, Outman actually throws harder than Happ, with a 91-93 fastball, compared to Happ’s 89-92.  Happ’s second best offering is his changeup, while Outman’s is a slider, and Happ’s breaking ball is more of an over the top 12-6, as opposed to Outman’s sharp slider.  Happ is a year older than Outman, and has also pitched at higher levels to date. Here are their numbers at the respective levels.

Continue reading JA Happ or Josh Outman? →

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while now, you surely remember my reaction to the Phillies taking Tyler Mach in the 4th round back in June. You remember my dismay, that the team would take a low ceiling, four year senior in the 4th round when much better talent was still available. After the draft when Mach signed, he flew out of the gates, hitting over .400 in his first handful of games. My detractors were lining up to tell me how wrong I was, and saying that Mach should already be promoted to a full season league. Let’s revisit that post, first with my summary, and then with some of your thoughts.

Continue reading Some thoughts on Tyler Mach →

After coming from behind to win the Western Division Championship and getting momentum on their side, it seemed not a matter of “if” the Cleawater Threshers would win the Florida State League Championship, but “when” would they win the championship.  The team won the first two games of the finals series at Brevard County, then came home to Clearwater on Monday for the third game.  Though the team dropped the game on Monday at home they stormed back on Tuesday night and wrapped things up.

Continue reading Clearwater Threshers Win 2007 FSL Championship →

A while ago we debated who took the biggest step forward and who took the biggest step back this season. Now that the year is complete, we have a bigger sample to look at, and we can re-visit this question. Don’t necessarily just pick the guy with the best/worst statistics, consider what was expected of that player before the season. For example, it’s tough to call Welinson Baez a step back this year, when most people assumed that he was bordering on non-prospect status entering this season anyway. So, consider expectation and performance, and then list your biggest step forward and biggest step back.

Pat Overholt started last season as a reliever, and pitched decently well, piling up the strikeouts at Lakewood and Clearwater. This season he was converted into a starter, eventually making it to Reading. His numbers

2006, A- : 45.2 IP,  37 H, 26 BB, 52 K
2006, A+ : 26.1 IP, 20 H, 10 BB, 41 K

Then as a starter

2007, A+ : 73.0 IP, 67 H, 30 BB, 56 K
2007, 2A: 77.1 IP, 85 H, 38 BB, 50 K

So, what role do you see Overholt taking in 2008, will he start back in AA? Have your say below.

Donald had a breakout season this year, mashing at both Low A and High A after being thought of mainly as a utility infielder in the future. The question for today is, where do you see Jason Donald in 2 or 3 seasons? Is he playing shortstop in AAA? Has he moved to 2B or 3B? Has he been traded because the Phillies don’t see a spot for him? Also, what type of major league player do you expect him to be? An average shortstop offensively? Above average? A spare part infielder?

Have your say in the comments.