The Phillies made their first round of Spring Training cuts today with the following players re-assigned to minor league camp: Pitchers: Adam Morgan, JC Ramirez, Kyle Simon, Joe Savery; Infielders: Michael Martinez and Cody Asche, Catcher: Tommy Joseph and Outfielder: Joe Mather. Joining that group on Monday at the minor league complex will be Pitchers Jonathan Pettibone and Ethan Martin, along with outfielder Zach Collier.  None of these moves were unexpected, although I am slightly surprised Savery’s demotion came so early.

Of the above group, the most impressive in limited action this Spring were Morgan, Joseph, and Asche.

So, a full two weeks of Spring Training games have been played and to start the chatter, here is where I believe things would stand if the season started tomorrow:

Catchers(2): Kratz, Quintero. Ruiz serving his suspension

Infield(6): Howard, Utley, Rollins, Young, Frandsen, Galvis

Outfield: Brown, Revere, Mayberry, Nix, Young.  If Young is not ready for the start of the season, I see Pete Orr making the team, as he can play both the INF and OF and can run.  Ruf simply is too much of a defensive liability at this stage to make the team. He needs to play 50-60 consecutive games in LF in Lehigh Valley. Continue reading Two Weeks In… →

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 →

I don’t mean cut, like Ethan Martin sent to minor league camp, but like which Minor League FA or “other” gets released. I will go ahead and guess that it’s Aaron Cook.

The Phillies traded 27 year old relief pitcher Michael Schwimer to the Toronto Blue Jays today for 22 year old Low A 1B prospect Art Charles. Schwimer, who spent a good portion of last year with the big club ran into problems with the organization towards the end of the year last year after a disputed injury to his arm left the tall righty out of action for the final six weeks of the season. Schwimer was 2-1 with a 4.46 ERA in 35 games and helped stabilize a very rocky Phillies bullpen in the middle of last season. His relationship, which had been described as rocky at times with the Phils organization became a bit more rocky when Schwimer refused to report to AAA Lehigh Valley last August after being sent down by the Phils. Schwimer cited arm problems and publicly stated he should have been placed on the DL, rather than sent down (which would have ensured his major league salary). He didnt pitch in another game for the organization after that.

Charles was drafted in 2010 by the Blue Jays in the 20th round of the draft out of Bakersfield College. The 6’6, 245 pound left handed hitter, batted .236 in just over 200 AB’s split between rookie ball and Low A. He does have some power, as he hit 13 HR’s last year, but was crippled by a strikeout rate that hovered around 30%.

The analysis of this trade is that it stinks. While I have never hid my admiration for Schwim ( I know him and like him quite a bit as a person), the Phillies traded something for what looks to be nothing. Schwimer did have options remaining this year, meaning he could have been sent down to the minors for another year. He was undoubtedly progressing as a pitcher, and while never likely be be a closer, he does continue to have the potential to perform in a middle relief role with competency and success.

Schwimer was a victim of “telling it the way it is” as opposed to telling it the way the organization would like it to be on several issues over the last couple of the years. Its tough to fault a guy for voicing his honest opinion. That being said, when the honest opinion is coming from a 27 year old middle reliever and that opinion differs from the organizations opinion, you are likely to find yourself in Buffalo for the next baseball season (Toronto’s AAA affiliate).

Good luck to a good guy.

So some guy says the Phillies are aggressively pursing Giancarlo Stanton. It would have to be aggressive, otherwise, they’d just be waved out of the room and a large man in a suit would show them the door.

Rube: GIVE ME STANTON, NOW!!!  I’VE GOT NEARLY UNLMITED SUPPLIES OF FRINGY RELIEF ARMS IN THE HIGH MINORS AND ALSO SOME KIND OF KNIFE IN MY POCKET!!! No, I won’t show you the knife. Oh, trust me, it’s a knife. Like one of those ones with the wavy edge? What’s that? Serrated? Am I saying it right? Ser…serrated? 

THAT’S RIGHT, I’VE GOT A SERRATED KNIFE, A CATCHER OF YOUR CHOICE, AND A LOWER LEVEL THIRD BASEMAN, PLUS A FUTURE #4 STARTER. DUDE! BRO! COME ON! DON’T TASE ME, BRO!

Pope who did what? I missed it. Busy noticing our ballplayers announcing their arrival times via Twitter. CHRIS NICHOLS GETS IN TO TAMPA TONIGHT AT 7:30 Y’ALL!

Keith Laws list came out today, some surprises.

Continue reading Keith Law Org Top 10 →

For those of you who live in the MD/DC/Northern VA area, or those who like to hit the road for whatever reason, I am thinking about trying to set up a meet-up for one of the late-May Reading games in Bowie. It’s a Tuesday-Thursday series after Memorial Day, and all three nights are 7:05 starts.  I’d prefer to wait until it gets closer so we can at least make an effort to go see one of our preferred prospects on the mound. 

So I guess for now, just drop comments here so I can see if people are interested at least in the abstract.  Then as we get into early May I’ll ask again, pull your email addresses from WordPress, and we can work on a plan via email.