After seeing my shadow, I am crawling out from the winter malaise to get back into the baseball mix.  Huge thank you’s to Matt and Brad who have held the site up over the last few months with hard work and well though out commentary. Continue reading Ground Hog Day →

Some news on the minor league side today.

Minor League Coaching Assignments – per Matt Gelb (Mickey Morandini to be a bench coach in AAA)

Phillies extended Major League Spring Training Invites to Jesse Biddle, Maikel Franco, Ken Giles, Mario Hollands, and Sebastian Valle.  All members of the 40 man roster are already invited which includes Kelly Dugan, Tommy Joseph, Ethan Martin, Cameron Rupp, Aaron Altherr, Tyson Gillies, Phillippe Aumont, Cesar Hernandez, and Zach Collier. Continue reading Minor League News and Notes (Coaching Assignments, Spring Training Invites, and more) →

I was going to consolidate all of Eric Longenhagen’s scouting reports that have appeared on Crashburn Alley, but Bill Baer has already done it, so go read them. Now.

Link

As many of you know Shane Watson has been battling shoulder soreness all year.  PhoulBallz Jay Floyd is now reporting that Watson’s latest setback and lack of progress will force him to have shoulder surgery (http://www.phoulballz.com/2013/12/watson-to-undergo-shoulder-surgery.html).  Watson recently had a set back, he had previously pitched in the Fall Instructional Leagues.

The surgery will be performed in January to correct inflammation in an enlarged capsule.  The recovery time expects to be about 3 months.  This means that he will get a late start to spring training, and it should set back his debut, but this should not set his season back too much.  This is not good news, but at very least it is not a torn capsule, a procedure which has a tendency to immediately end careers.

I don’t have time to write up a full mailbag so I thought I would do something in between, opening it up for people to ask questions and get some answers or insight.

Quick Guidelines:

• For each new Question start your own comment tree, do not reply to another question
• Feel free to chip in on other questions, be respectful to the person asking the question
• When replying make sure to reply to that comment and not start a new one
• Keep on topic to question or comment posed

I will be moderating this thread heavily to keep it clean and easy to follow, so anything off topic should go in the General Discussion thread or another appropriate thread.

Last week I started exploring the future of the Phillies with a luck at what could be in 2016.  The series continues with 2017 as some more money comes off the books and a couple more guys arrive in the majors. Just as before here are the starting assumptions.

• The Phillies are not trading away any players
• Minor Leaguers will progress as “normal” and will not have any career ending injuries.
• The Phillies will be rational about resigning players
• I am not accounting for FA acquisitions and Draft Picks, however I will have a salary total that can be used to dream on FA acquisitions that could fill in the holes
• Arbitration figures for salaries are taken from similar players

Catcher: Tommy Joseph and Andrew Knapp

This isn’t going to be a great defensive pair but it should provide plenty of offense.  In this scenario Knapp is likely in a back-up position given his inexperience, but he could overtake Joseph depending on how his hitting progresses.  More than anything else this pair should be really cheap. Salary: $1 million Continue reading Something to Dream On: The 2017 Phillies →

For Phillies fans this offseason really has been a continuation of what has been a rough 2 years.  The amount of hope left dwindles by the day, and the confidence that tomorrow will be better than today.  If you have hope, the year to target is 2016, it is when the contracts start to fall off and the first wave of prospects starts to arrive.  On the suggestions of John Stolnis (@FelskeFiles) and Corinne (@Ut26), rather than just start with 2016 or look at the end result in 2018, this is the first part of a step by step transition of a rebuilding team.

In working on this activity here are the starting assumptions:

• The Phillies are not trading away any players
• Minor Leaguers will progress as “normal” and will not have any career ending injuries.
• The Phillies will be rational about resigning players
• I am not accounting for FA acquisitions and Draft Picks, however I will have a salary total that can be used to dream on FA acquisitions that could fill in the holes
• Arbitration figures for salaries are taken from similar players

Obviously these are a lot of assumptions that will not hold true because prospects are unpredictable, draft picks especially the 2014 #7 overall pick could have large influences, and the front office will not be static for the next two years. Continue reading Something to Dream On: The 2016 Phillies →

In an article today on Baseball Prospectus Jiwan James’s Agent Joshua Kusnick laid out the offseason for a minor league free agent from his agent’s perspective.  He uses James’s offseason as his example, and it forms a really interesting narrative and rare look behind the curtain at minor league life.  The article is free so you have no excuse not to read it.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22236

After discussing who is on the roster, it is now time to discuss who might be on the roster going forward.  Pitching is a lot easier for a team to stash on a roster than it is to stash position players because bullpen arms can be regulated and coached without the need for constant in game work.  For the most part teams are looking for players who can provide a solid fastball and command out of the bullpen.  The Phillies have a couple of player who may be able to fill those roles, but more interestingly they have a couple of players who could provide rotation depth to the rate team.

Seth Rosin – RHP – Acquired from San Francisco for Hunter Pence

Seth Rosin is a big pitcher, and he generates good downward plane on his pitches.  Out of the rotation Rosin will show a plus fastball, a slider with good potnetial, and an average changeup.  Rosin will pound the zone with all of his pitches and has improved his walk rate every year.  Rosin wore down towards the end of the year as he passed his previous high in innings.  If he sticks in the rotation Rosin profiles as a back of the rotation starter, however if put back in the bullpen he could be an asset in 2014.  This potential bullpen use could make him attractive to a team in the Rule V draft.  MW: Protect Phillies: No Add Continue reading 40 Man Roster Decisions – Part 2 – Pitchers →