I figured we’d handle all three outfield spots separately, even though a few of these guys are probably interchangeable within the three positions. Some guys to consider

Quintin Berry (23) — Michael Taylor (22) — Jermaine Williams (21) — Matt Spencer (22)  — TJ Warren (19)

Jermaine Williams has some of the worst statistics imaginable. But I listed him because he’s still young. McDonald and Warren both have played more in RF than LF, but one/both could end up in LF I guess.

At least a few decent options today….

Jason Donald (23) — Fidel Hernandez (22) — Freddy Galvis (18) — Jesus Villegas Andino (21) — Alan Schoenberger (19)

Now we move to 3B, another horror show within our organization. A toolsy 19 year old who struggled in his debut as our top 3B prospect….ouch.  Candidates to consider

Welinson Baez (23) — Hector Made (23) — PJ Antoniato (24) — Derrick Mitchell (21) — Travis Mattair (19)

For the sake of sanity, let’s only rank Top 3…scratch that, Top 2.

We’ve got one obvious candidate here, another pretty good candidate, then a lot of uncertainty. Let’s try and rank a Top 5 again, here are some guys to consider…

Adrian Cardenas (20) — Brad Harman (22) — Michael Garciappara (25) — Tyler Mach (23) — Adam Sorgi (23) — Ambiorix Rincon (21)

Yesterday we looked at the catcher position, one of relative strength for the Phillies, and today we look at a position of relative weakness, first base. In general, you don’t see as many true 1B prospects, because it’s basically the last stop on the defensive spectrum, and guys who start out at 1B need to have exceptional offensive capabilities to really be considered upper echelon prospects. Nevertheless, we’ll need to rank our guys. We can try to come up with 5 guys here, but 3 might better serve our purposes. I’ve added a link on the top bar of the page to the depth chart page. I might tinker with the layout, but it will serve the purpose for now.

Guys to consider; Charlie Yarbrough (23), Doug Morales (21), Matt Rizzotti (22), Michael Durant (22), Karl Bolt (22), Francisco Murillo (21)

This is a feature I want to add, probably on the top bar of the site. I was going to just use my own rankings/thoughts to fill it out, but I figured I could solicit opinions from the masses, and maybe we can debate the merits of player X going ahead of player Y. Basically, this is a look at each position, and trying to pick the best 3-5 prospects at each position. I’d like to kind of factor everything into the discussion, not just how close the guy is to the majors. These rankings aren’t static, we can evaluate and change them midseason and then after 2008. We’ll do it one position at a time, we’ve got the time to do it that way, and hopefully it will encourage plenty of discussion. Let’s start with catcher, a position of newfound strength in our system, and we’ll rank the 5 best catching prospects. Guys to consider

Travis d’Arnaud, Jason Jaramillo, Lou Marson, Jesus Sanchez, Tuffy Gosewich, and Tim Kennelly

So, rank them in order from best to worst in terms of their total prospectiness……

I was trying to figure out how to add this to the site, and I think the best way to do it is to add it to the left side of the page for easy navigation. Basically, there will be links to all the Phillies affiliates, and when you click on the link, you’ll be taken to a post that covers the roster/depth chart for the team. Each post will be updated as the season progresses, and it will all be done in one post, that way you don’t have to sift through 20 posts to find out who is currently playing 3B for Lakewood, for example. I may make a second post that will just be a running “leaderboard” for the level, which will contain the top hitters/pitchers and the updated standings for the league. All of this info will be readily available at minorleaguebaseball.com, but this might save you a click or two. If it doesn’t look the way I intend it to, I may just remove it, but I want to give it a shot. So, you’ll see 6 new posts now, one for each level, and they will then be permanently accessible on the left side under the navigation.

Once players are assigned, please check in and see if I’ve missed anyone, then it can be kept as up to date as possible.