The Venezuelan Summer League starts Monday for the Phillies with an 11:30 AM game against the VSL Cardinals.  The Phillies play a 70-game schedule running through early August, playing 5-6  games a week.  The Phillies are one of 8 teams in the VSL (unlike the Dominican league where almost all major league organizations are represented.

The big news for the Phillies is that both of their high profile signings from last winter are on the VSL roster.  Since GCL season does not stat for another month or so, there is still a chance that a couple of these players will end up in Florida.  SS Nerio Rios is 17 years old and reported to be a plus defensive player with more offensive potential than Freddy Galvis.  Bernardo Solarte is also 17 years old and is an OF, most likely the starting CF on the VSL squad.  Solarte is a player in the mold of Leandro Castro with good speed along with power potential.

The one disappointing note is that there are no new pitchers listed under the age of 19.  These early rosters are sometimes a work in progress, so other younger signees may show up later.  Last year’s VSL staff was somewhat disappointing, so an influx of younger, projectible arms is needed.  The youngest pitcher on the roster is 17-year-old Jorge Guzman who only pitched limited innings last summer as a 16-year-old.  4 of the 5 catchers on the roster are new signees with Hector Barrios being another signee from Panama.  One interesting note is that OF Rudney Balentien (from Curacao) has been transferred to the VSL after 2 seasons in the DSL.  We will follow up this initial post with periodic updates once play has started.

Continue reading VSL Season Starts Monday – Initial Roster Posted →

The 2008 Phillies Dominican Summer League team failed to repeat the division winning year of its 2007 predecessor, but still had a successful season.  The team finished at 35-30, 2nd place in the Santo Domingo North division, 6.5 games behind the division winning Mariners.  It was a tale of two seasons for the Phillies.  After a quick 6-3 start, the team stumbled through the rest of the first half going 6-20 in their next 26 games.  This all turned around in the second half as the team won a scorching 23 of their final 30 games.

Unlike the 2007 team, which graduated an impressive 9 players to the Phillies 2008 GCL championship team, this year’s DSL squad was not as laden with prospects.  The team age was roughly league average with an age of 18.3 on offense (compared to 18.5 league average) and an age of 18.9 on the pitching staff (exactly the 18.9 league average).  The team did not provide much offense, hitting only .239 with a combined 12 HR and a team .644 OPS.  The pitching staff, on the other hand, was stellar with a team 3.16 ERA and a .632 OPS against.

Continue reading 2008 Phillies DSL Wrapup and Top Prospects →

The VSL season ended up a couple of weeks ago.  This post will summarize the season and provide a very speculative list of the top prospects.  The 2008 VSL Phillies finished the season 32-33, in 4th place 12.5 games behind the Pirates.  The Phillies took a small step back in Venezuela compared to the past couple of years as they did not add any high profile signings and did not feature a large number of younger players.  The situation is a little better in the Dominican as the team’s two highest profile signings as well as several additional young players all made their debuts there.

Continue reading VSL Season Wrapup – Top Prospects →

In this article we will take a midseason look at the DSL Phillies in 2008.  This year’s team is another young team like last year’s division champions, though it is also arguably less talented.  There are no standout young offensive players like Sebastian Valle and Leandro Castro that have emerged, though an improving pitching staff has kept the team in contention.  After a poor 12-23 start, the Phillies have won 10 of their last 12 to improve their record to 22-25, 4th place and 8 games behind the Mariners who are leading the Santo Domingo North division.

We have still not seen any information on any players the Phillies have signed in 2008 from Latin America.  Their budget reportedly increased this year to about $1.5 million from maybe $800,000 total last year.  Unfortunately this budget still places the Phillies in the lower half of the majors in terms of spending.  This may be seen in the lack of offensive prospects on the team.  Offensive prospects tend to develop a little earlier than pitching prospects.

The rest of this post will look at the hitters and pitchers that have shown the most in the early part of the season, with extra attention to the younger players who are undoubtedly the better prospects.  As always, these are statistical observations only, as first hand scouting reports are difficult to come by.

Continue reading DSL Update – Early August →

This week we will take a quick look at the VSL and DSL teams this summer.  As always, these reports are based on little more than statistics over the Internet, so they are highly subjective.  The key statistic to look for is age-based performance.  In general, the better prospects are the younger ones that get regular playing time.  Prospects over the age of 19 are rarely top prospects.  The Phillies VSL squad last year might have been a slight exception to that rule as 3 20-year-olds (Freddy Ballestas, Yonderman Rodriguez, and Harold Garcia) are all making significant contributions in the U.S. this season.  It remains to be seen if all of them are prospects, however, as each is somewhat old for the league they are playing in.

The VSL Phillies are currently in 3rd place out of 8 teams in the league with a record of 28-24.  Unfortunately the best players on the team have tended to be the older players.  The average age of the team is slightly above the league average this year and many of the younger players have struggled.  This article will take a look at the top players and prospects so far, with a follow-up article after the season ends to rank the top prospects.

Continue reading July VSL Update →

The DSL season started over the weekend with two Phillies victories.  The Phillies are currently 2-0 and in 1st place in the early going in the 5-team Santo Domingo North division.    A roster has been posted at the minor league baseball site at the following link:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ros&cid=623

Continue reading DSL Season Starts – Roster Posted →

Tomorrow is opening day for the Phillies DSL squad.  They play in the Santo Domingo North division and are coming off of a division-winning season where they went 45-18 behind a squad featuring lots of young players.  While multiple players from last season’s team are likely to graduate to GCL this year (Sebastian Valle, Yohan Flande, Ferrel Gomez, Lendy Castillo, Leandro Castro, Vlad De Los Santos, Ebelin Lugo, and Reginal Simon), several younger prospects remain.  Expect to see Rudney Balentien and Miguel Alvarez in the OF and Juan Sosa and Pedro Carpio heading up the pitching staff.  In addition, we are also likely to see the debut of high priced SS Carlos Valenzuela and the first full season from RHP Gabriel Arias. Continue reading Latin American Update – End of May →

The first of the two Latin American complex leagues starts today with the beginning of the Venezuelan Summer League.  The Phillies are coming off a 36-31 4th place finish in 2007, though may have a very young pitching staff on the 2008 roster.  Ace pitcher Freddy Ballestas is now stateside along with several others from the 2007 team.  The second best pitcher from last season, Juan Colmenarez, is still listed on the VSL roster, though he was present on the minor league Spring Training rosters earlier.  Daniel Lara is definitely back from last year to provide at least some veteran presence on the mound. Continue reading VSL Season Starts Today →