Category Archives: Prospect Rankings

2012 Reader Top 30, #1

2012 Reader Top 30

Hello everyone. First off, happy new year to you. We’re going to start the Reader Top 30 today, and for those of you who are new to the site, take a look at last year’s voting to see how everything works. To quickly summarize, we will start at #1 and select the best prospect in the system, based on total number of votes received. Once a player has been voted in to a spot he can’t be voted for again. We’ll go down the line until we get to #30. Because we’re at the tail end of the New Years holiday, I will leave voting for #1 open both today and tomorrow, and the voting for #2 will begin on Wednesday, with a new poll every weekday. There has been a bit of confusion in terms of who is eligible, so this year we’ll make things really simple. To be eligible, the player must have fewer than 130 AB or 50 innings pitched. Just another reminder, you can only vote once, and if you want to vote for someone not listed in the choices, vote “Other” and type in your answer. The poll for #1 is below, enjoy.

Check below the jump for the poll

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Baseball America’s Phillies Top 10 list

Top Prospect Lists

The list is free for all to read here. The scouting reports are subscriber only content, so don’t copy/paste. I’ll summarize in one sentence the reports and I’ll provide my own thoughts on the list after the jump.

01. Trevor May, RHP – Raw stuff still good, added a slider in 2011, now a 4 pitch guy, repeating his delivery better (improved command/control)
02. Jesse Biddle, LHP – Velo down, changeup/curveball both very good considering his age/experience
03. Sebastian Valle, C – Good athlete, improving defense
04. Jonathan Pettibone, RHP – Velo is up (now 90-94 touching 95) and has taken to the 2 seam fastball
05. Phillippe Aumont, RHP – Command still an issue, and apparently so is his attitude (first time I’ve heard that)
06. Freddy Galvis, SS – You’ve heard it all before, great glove, weak stick
07. Justin De Fratus, RHP – Slider has improved
08. Brody Colvin, RHP – Questions about his delivery/mechanics leading to health issues
09. Jiwan James, OF – Superb defender, better hitter lefthanded, may scrap switch hitting soon
10. Maikel Franco, 3B – Unconventional swing but great bat speed, not a good athlete but could stay at 3B or move to C

My immediate reaction below

Continue reading Baseball America’s Phillies Top 10 list →

BA Top 20: Phillies get hosed on the Eastern League list

Top Prospect Lists

Okay, “hosed” was used for effect, but I am a bit surprised the R-Phillies didn’t sneak at least one guy on to the list. Derrick Mitchell, Austin Hyatt, and Matt Rizzotti all put up statistically worthy campaigns, but all 3 are a tad advanced in terms of age. Hyatt’s 2nd half maybe should have warranted consideration, as he posted a 62/15 K to BB rate in 55 innings post-all star break and allowed just 4 home runs. He is 25 though and lacks projection, which is where BA focuses these lists. That said, I think there’s a decent chance he ends up with a more productive major league career than a number of guys who did make the list. The other options that might have made it were Justin De Fratus and Phillippe Aumont, but both guys were promoted to LHV and probably didn’t have enough innings to merit consideration, especially because both are relief prospects. Freddy Galvis, a long time favorite of BA, also did not make the list after putting up the best offensive numbers of his career (by a wide margin)

I’m working on a revamp of my “statistical toy” that I talked about a few months ago, blending it with what I used for the SONAR scores a few years ago to try and create something “better” and more valuable, and when I do this, I will run the numbers for each league and put together Top 20 lists of my own, which will be fun to compare with the lists put up by BA. Look for that later.

BA Top 20: FSL list includes 3 current Phillies and 2 former Phillies

Colvin, Brody, Top Prospect Lists, Valle, Sebastian

BA continues their run of league top 20s with the Florida State League, where the Phillies dominated the list, with 3 current players and 2 former players. The current crop includes Trevor May at #4, Sebastian Valle at #12, and Brody Colvin at #19, with former Phillies property Jon Singleton coming in at #7 and Jarred Cosart coming in at #9. You can see the full list here. Do not copy/paste the blurbs. Here is a quick summation

May – Good low 90s fastball, toying with a 2 seamer (which is GREAT news), curve and changeup are solid but both still need work, and his command is still his biggest question mark
Valle – Good raw power, ability to barrel balls to RF and his defense continues to make impressive progress, as he has a strong arm and improving footwork
Colvin – 90-94 hitting 95, but struggling with his secondary offerings and his fastball command and has trouble repeating his delivery (the cause of the command issues, obviously)

Singleton – Nothing groundbreaking here, good bat, good approach, raw power, but struggles against LHP
Cosart – Messy delivery, but huge arm strength, changeup grades out above his curve right now, both are inconsistent, some scouts think he’s a reliever (which I agree with)

I expect we’ll have a name or two on the Eastern League list. The FSL has 12 teams, so to have 3 of the 20 and 5 if you count the traded prospects shows the depth of Clearwater’s roster this year. Also, Pettibone, Jiwan James and Rodriguez missed the list, and both probably got consideration.

Updated running list

GCL: (1) – Ethan Stewart, LHP (16th)
NYPL: (2) – Maikel Franco, 3B (4th), Aaron Altherr, OF (20th)
SAL: (1) – Jesse Biddle, LHP (6th)
FSL: (3) – Trevor May, RHP (4th), Sebastian Valle, C (12th), Brody Colvin, RHP (19th)

BA Top 20: SAL list includes Jesse Biddle

Biddle, Jesse, Top Prospect Lists

BA’s Top 20 lists continue with the SAL today, and in a somewhat surprising move, only Jesse Biddle was included at #6. I looked at the list, and the league was fairly deep this year, but I guess I expected another name or two. BA notes his fastball was consistently 87-91, though we’ve read that it topped out higher than that, and they note his curveball and changeup were both solid. For a northeastern US high school kid jumping to the SAL in his first season, Biddle met and exceeded expectations, and I can make an argument putting him ahead of Christian Yelich, who came in at 5th, but its a solid ranking for him in his first season.

Of note, our old friend Domingo Santana ranked 18th on the list. His upside is tremendous, but he has a long way to go.

So far we have

GCL: (1) – Ethan Stewart, LHP (16th)
NYPL: (2) – Maikel Franco, 3B (4th), Aaron Altherr, OF (20th)
SAL: (1) – Jesse Biddle, LHP (6th)

BA Top 20: NYPL list includes Franco and Altherr

Altherr, Aaron, Franco, Maikel, Top Prospect Lists

BA continues their list of league top 20s and today’s stop is the New York-Penn League, which includes 2 Phillies in 3B Maikel Franco (4th) and OF Aaron Altherr (20th) Franco’s power potential and defense are praised, and for Altherr its his projection and athleticism that are praised.

So far, the rundown for Phillies guys is

GCL: (1) – Ethan Stewart, LHP (16th)
NYPL: (2) – Maikel Franco, 3B (4th), Aaron Altherr, OF (20th)

The SAL is up next, and I expect we’ll see a few representatives here, led by Jesse Biddle.

BA Top 20: GCL

Top Prospect Lists

Baseball America has begun rolling out their league top 20 lists. These lists are always interesting, but I don’t really think you should draw too much from them. The Phillies had only one representative in the GCL this year, LHP Ethan Stewart, a 47th round pick in the 2010 draft. The scouting report, which I’ll paraphrase, praises his big frame, solid fastball, and his aptitude on the mound, noting that he already has a good idea of how to pitch and set up hitters.

I’m kind of surprised that neither Tyler Greene or Brian Pointer made the list. In the chat, Gustavo Gonzalez and Greene were both mentioned in a positive light. Take it for what its worth, just another data point.

Two Phillies in Keith Law’s updated Top 50 prospects

Top Prospect Lists

Its an insider piece outside of the first few.

Cosart is 17th (34th pre season) KLaw notes his impressive fastball/curveball, but that his delivery is still messy.
Singleton is 24th (27th pre season) His patience is again praised, as is the fact that he is still extremely young for his league.

Trevor May received an honorable mention.

Baseball America Top 100

Top Prospect Lists

Baseball America released its Top 100 today.  The Phils were well-represented:

#4–Domonic Brown

#39–Jonathan Singleton

#56–Brody Colvin

#70–Jarred Cosart

Among guy who have been traded, Kyle Drabek ranked #29, Travis D’Arnaud was #36, and Jonathan Villar was # 94.

EDIT–>While I’m at it, the Baseball Prospectus annual was just published (not sure if this will change online) and has Brown at #4, Colvin at #60, and Singleton at #63.  Drabek is the only former Phil at #14.

Wrapping up the 2011 Reader Top 30

2011 Reader Top 30

Kevin Walter takes the last spot in the 2011 Reader Top 30, edging out Scott Mathieson. This concludes the 2011 edition, which was an improvement over last years, which was an improvement over 2008’s version. Thank you to everyone who participated and voted, and for providing plenty of feedback and conversation along the way. Now that we’ve come up with a community list, I’ll give everyone a chance to submit their own personal top 30’s, which I’ll then catalog on a new page at the top of the site for reference. Check below the fold for more.

Continue reading Wrapping up the 2011 Reader Top 30 →