The latest rumors are starting to fly, indicating something may happen soon. The regulars here know my stance on discussing the big league club, but prospects will be involved, so feel free to discuss it, but please do it here, not in other posts. Off topic comments in other posts will be deleted by myself, gregg, or PhillyFriar, so please don’t make us do extra work. Thanks.

Update –> Heyman is reporting the deal is agreed to.

Im going to be out for a little while. I’ll have an in depth analysis of this when I get back. But continue the discussion here in my absence.

The Phils continued filling their minor league needs with several signings over the last several days including:  OF Chris Duffy; INF Cody Ransom; and LHP Bill White.

Duffy, 29, is an interesting signing after the Phils had prospectively filled a need adding DeWayne Wise to an outfielder rich minor league system.  I assume the possbility exists that they are attempting to add a serviceable AAAA Outfielder in case they decide to move Brown/Taylor.  Duffy an 8th round pick by the Pirates in the 2001 draft, showed early promise, stealing 26 bases for the Pirates in 2006.  He is a career .261 major league hitter in over 700 major league at bats.  Last year, in very limited major league action he hit .125  in 19 games for Milwaukee. Continue reading Signings →

This post can serve as a discussion area for Phillies minor leaguers who are playing in various Winter Leagues.  All of the major winter leagues outside of Arizona are in mid-season, though many of the U.S. players might be finishing up their stay there.  Most winter leagues have several tiers of playoffs that tend to be dominated by native players as the playoffs get closer to the Caribbean World Series (held in Venezuela this year in early February).  The Phillies have prospects in each of the top leagues, so this will serve as a quick update on the top prospects. Continue reading Winter Leagues – December Update →

Today is the second part to the prospect tiers which I brought up the other day. To understand the reasoning, check that post. I’m only going to break the pitchers down into RHP and LHP, simply because its tough to know which guys the organization will move from starter to reliever in any given season. I’ll make some editorial comments on guys I think should be converted, but I’m just going to address them as what they are, and then comment on the upside/downside relative to a role change in their future. So, lets get going.

Continue reading Prospect Tiers; Pitchers →

Pitchers: Michael Cisco, Age 22, 6 games (all starts); 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA.  18.2 IP, 14 H 8BB 13K, .203 opp. avg., .240 with RISP, 1.17 WHIP.  In a hitter friendly league, the Phils got what they were hoping for out of Cisco who continued to impress.  His control needs some work but he is solidifying himself into realistic prospect status in the organization.

Edgar Garcia, Age 22, 10 games (1 start), 2-2 with a 5.29 ERA. 17IP 23H 4BB 10K, .324 opp. avg., 1.58 WHIP, .267 with RISP. Garcia, who missed most of the Minor League season was less then sharp in the Fall League and was extremely hittable.  Presumably, the hitters were way ahead of him, having played a full season, but with that being said, his performace disappointed. Continue reading Arizona Fall League Final Stats →

As early December approaches, minor league teams attempt to fill in their organizational holes and the Phils are no exception.  First, they have re-signed a group of players including 1B Andy Tracy, P Jason Anderson, P Alex Concepcion and OF Rich Thompson.  Having watched many a Lehigh Valley game last year, these are excellent signings from an organizational perspective.  Tracy, although in his late thirties continues to be a team leader and a very positive presence in Allentown.  He plays a very good first place and has consistenly placed among league leaders in HR’s, RBI’s, Walks, and On Base %. He also gives you some organizational depth in that he can give you a professional at bat from the left side if called upon at the major league level. OF Rich Thompson is a personal favorite of mine as he personifies the word “hustle”.  The 30 year old Reading native had a cup of coffee in the bigs a few years back, but is now viewed as an organizational guy that does many things at an above average AAA level.  Good speed, a decent bat, and excellent fielding.  More than likely Thompson will be the 4th outfielder in a crowded Lehigh Valley outfield. Continue reading Free Agent Signings →

As someone who loves to rank things, whether it be Phillies prospects, Seinfeld episodes, or fantasy football players, one of the things that I find most useful is rankings using tiers. Saying object X is ranked 1 and object Y is ranked 5 doesn’t tell you much unless you know the gap in quality between #1 and #5. For instance, if #1 is a Jaguar and #5 is a BMW, that’s different than #1 being a Ferrari and #5 being a Honda Civic. Or in baseball terms, if Domonic Brown is our #1 position player prospect, Michael Taylor is #2, and Jiwan James is #5, its important to understand the dropoff in prospect value from 1 to 2, and then 2 to 5, for instance. Lots of prospects have similar upsides, similar profiles, and similar projection, so just knowing they rank, say, 10 and 15, doesn’t tell you much unless you know just how similar the expectations are. So I’ve decided to try and create a little system to group prospects. Check below for more..

Continue reading Prospect Tiers; Hitters →

Mike over at ScoutingTheSally has a video up of Anthony Gose, and he said he’s going to write up a full report on him in the near future. Thought folks might find it interesting if they’ve never see him in the batter’s box. Enjoy.

Update: Mike’s full scouting report is now up. Check it out