The draft is less than a month away, and I suppose its time to start considering what the Phillies will do. As we all know, the Phillies do not have a first round pick, and this year the sandwich round contains 17 picks, meaning the Phillies first pick will not come until the 2nd round, #75 overall, with their second pick coming at #106. This takes some of the fun out of the draft buildup for me, since its tough to project the first 30 picks, let alone the first 80 picks. Its going to be impossible to peg one guy, or even a handful of guys. There are a number of teams (Yankees, Red Sox) who will take a guy with a large price tag that falls, so that is one potential road block. This year’s draft is very pitching heavy, there are very few impact bats available, even those that could fall to us in the 2nd round. Check below the fold for more…
Category Archives: 03. Draft Central
Interesting tidbit from Keith Law on the draft
ESPN has added a draft blog, and Keith Law will be adding tons of stuff there leading up to the draft. Law had this to say
Based on my own evaluations and conversations with many scouts and scouting directors, the pool of first-round talent seems to run only about 20 players deep; since the first round has 32 selections this year, we could see some teams calling audibles at the end of the round, overdrafting players who’ll sign at discounts or taking players they like but whom the industry views as second- or third-round talents.
While I’m still bitter we tossed away a first round pick on Ibanez, this draft class, at least at first glance, doesn’t appear to be especially stacked, especially in the range where we’d have picked. If the Phillies can employ a strategy of grabbing 2-3 premium talents that slip a bit, they could still end up with an above average haul in 2009.
First thoughts on the 2009 draft
Everyone here knows how much I love the draft. Part of the luster from this year’s draft is gone because we won’t have a first round pick and will pick near the end of the second round, but as always, I’m excited about the draft nonetheless. Steven Strasburg is the clear #1 pick, Grant Green is likely the 2nd best player in the draft, and the Phillies will be looking much further down the board. While we need to target the best player available with our first few picks, what areas of the system do we really need to strengthen? My first glance, when looking at our current prospects, is that we need to focus on corner infielders, as well as middle infielders. We have a glut (relatively speaking) in the outfield, as well as at catcher. I suppose we could also use a few more prospects with plus raw power, as Taylor is really our only legit power prospect. And I suppose it never hurts to have a few more arms, particularly lefties.
I’m getting close to unveiling my new prospect evaluation toy I’ve been building, and I will also crank out my Top 30 list, hopefully by the end of next week. And once spring training games start, we can monitor the progress of Jason Donald, Carlos Carrasco, Lou Marson, and others. Should be fun to watch, so stay tuned.
Phillies to concede the 2009 draft
Hyperbole! With the signing of Raul Ibanez, the Phillies forfeit their first round pick in 2009. Because they did not offer arbitration to any of their free agents, they won’t receive any compensation picks. So the Phillies will not pick in Round 1, there will be a decently sized compensation round between the first and second round, and then the Phillies will pick near the end of round 2, likely to be somewhere in the 60’s. Of course if they sign another Type A free agent they won’t pick till the 3rd round. Last year’s draft was great, as I’ve detailed a number of times. This year, they are going to have to go well over slot a number of times to make up for the lack of picks. We’ll see if they do. No using getting upset over it right now, nothing we can do about it.
Phillies take Robert Mosebach in Rule 5 Draft
Head over to mlb.com and you can watch the Rule 5 draft for free. According to the Phillies scribes, they don’t expect the Phillies to take anyone. The Phillies will pick 21st due to 40 man rosters loaded to capacity ahead of them. I’ll post the picks made, including anyone the Phillies take, or any Phillies prospects that get taken.
[Update 1] Phillies take Robert Mosebach, RHP from the Angels. Here are his numbers. I’ll look for more later, he’s a starter with awful peripherals, but is still young. He also served up 56% groundballs in 2008, so that’s something.
[Update 2] Phillies take 2B Kyle Haines from the Giants and Javis Dias from the Padres in the AAA phase. The Phillies also lost John Suomi to Kansas City, Brett Harker and Ronald Hill to the Marlins in the minor league phase.
[Update 3] Scott Lauber says the Phillies liked the reports they got on him in Arizona and plan to use him as a reliever in the spring.
Check below for the results…
Continue reading Phillies take Robert Mosebach in Rule 5 Draft
Rule 5 Draft is tommorrow
The Rule 5 draft commences tomorrow as the capper to the Winter Meetings, and if history is an indication, the Phillies will likely be a part of the festivities. Baseball America has its take on the names generating the most interest here, as well as a list of all available guys here. The Phillies will be near the end of the line, so unless they trade up, the best talents will probably be off the board, but there are a few intriguing names that might be there. Before I look at the individual names, we have to address the state of the roster to determine the likelihood of a player sticking…
Initial look at Rule 5 draft
As you know, the Rule 5 draft is next month, and the Phillies have had some success in that area, notably Shane Victorino in recent years. I believe the deadline to set 40 man rosters, ie, protect players, is sometime at the end of November. Here’s how things look right now
* The 40 man on the Phillies site doesn’t appear updated. 38 players on the 40 man roster, 2 open slots. This includes Burrell, Tad Iguchi and Jamie Moyer, who I believe have already filed for free agency, as well as Rudy Seanez, who isn’t coming back. Scott Eyre is also a FA and listed. So we’re at like 33, but its likely Eyre is coming back, as is Moyer. Burrell is less certain.
* The prospects currently protected; Bisenius, Carpenter, Happ, Mathieson, Jaramillo, Marson, Harman, and Golson.
* The rules, in terms of number of years a player can play before being placed on the 40 man relates to year drafted and age when drafted. 18 year olds (so basically prep players) must be placed on the 40 man after their 5th season, 19 year olds or older (college guys, essentially), must be placed on after their 4th season. I believe that’s accurate, based on what I’ve found before. So for the sake of the Phillies, we’re looking at guys who were drafted/signed out of high school or Latin America and debuted in 2004, and college guys drafted in 2005. By my count, that means
Carlos Carrasco, RHP (signed in 2003, debuted in 2004, which is when his contract started)
Brett Harker, RHP (5th rd, 2005, College of Charleston)
Jeremy Slayden, OF (8th rd, 2005, Georgia Tech)
Clay Harris, INF (9th rd, 2005, LSU)
Pat Overholt, RHP (22nd rd, Santa Clara)
Its pretty obvious why the Phillies sent Slayden and Overholt to Arizona. If they perform well, they are likely to be protected, if they struggle against better prospects, they might be left unprotected, depending on the number of spots needed for trades and the like. Its obvious Carrasco will be protected, the others, I’m not so sure.
2008 Draft Recap; Epilogue
Part 1: Rounds 30-50
Part 2: Rounds 20-29
Part 3: Rounds 11-19
Part 4: Rounds 1-10
Part 5: Overview of the draft/comparison to last 2 drafts
Today we put the final coat of paint on the 2008 draft in terms of short term analysis. The true value of this draft isn’t likely to be known for 4-5 years, maybe even more because of the sheer number of high school picks taken. It will be fun to watch guys progress over the next year or two, but we’ll need much more time to evaluate true worth. I have some general thoughts, as well as some comparison info to post as well. Lets get to it.
Edit. Yeah, Epilogue. I finished writing this at 4AM last night. It slipped my mind.
2008 Draft Review, Part 4
Part 1: Rounds 30-50
Part 2: Rounds 20-29
Part 3: Rounds 11-19
Part 4: Rounds 1-10
Part 5: Overview of the draft/comparison to last 2 drafts
This is the biggest portion of the draft in terms of things to discuss, so lets get right to it.
2008 Draft Recap; Part 2
Part 1: Rounds 30-50
Part 2: Rounds 20-29
Part 3: Rounds 11-19
Part 4: Rounds 1-10
Part 5: Overview of the draft/comparison to last 2 drafts
We’ll continue on with the draft recap. I wanted to highlight a couple questions asked in Part 1 here before moving on.
Phuture Phillies 