A Farewell To Arm – Joe Savery.
Joe: I’m not brave any more Billy. I’m all broken. They’ve broken me.
Billy: That’s ok, Joe. We want you at first base.
Joe: But I’ve only played pitc…oh wait…yeah, ok, sounds fun.
Discuss.
Reader Top 30 – Final Recap & Reader Lists
Another year, another list of 30 prospect names in an order. Due to the length of the exercise circumstances change between 1 and 30, so it is far from a perfect list, but here is your chance to give your opinion on it as a whole.
Additionally feel free to submit a personal Top 30 in the comments.
- Maikel Franco
- Jesse Biddle
- J.P. Crawford
- Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez
- Carlos Tocci Continue reading Reader Top 30 – Final Recap & Reader Lists
2014 Spring Training, Day 5
Tomorrow the full squad begins working out at the Carpenter Complex. As of today, the only guy I haven’t seen in camp is Michael Martinez. You don’t know how good it feels to finally be able to type that.
Okay, I watched 3 BP sessions on Saturday, Sunday and today. Here’s what I saw from the prospects.
Tyson Gillies – First, this guy shows boundless energy. He seems to run everywhere. He chases down a lot of fly balls during BP, and does it at full speed. Saturday, he continued to make good contact, swinging well though the ball with lots of line drives as the result. He reached the RF Berm on a couple swings. He’s the only guy I’ve seen bunt after the two mandatory bunts each batter has to lay down at the start of his turn at bat. I missed his BP on Sunday. (He was part of a group that batted after shagging fly balls from Samuel). Monday, he was still making good contact on most of his swings. Continue reading 2014 Spring Training, Day 5
Joe Savery Claimed by Oakland Athletics
Joe Savery who was DFA’d to make room for AJ Burnett, has been claimed by the Oakland Athletics. On the surface Savery is a fringe bullpen arm with a minor league option left. The Phillies are stacked with fringe bullpen arms making Savery redundant for the organization. Continue reading Joe Savery Claimed by Oakland Athletics
Interview with Josh Norris of Baseball America
Josh Norris wrote the Phillies section for Baseball America this year. He answered a few of my questions about the system as well as a few specific players. The full list of Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects can be found here.
Since they were drafted Dylan Cozens and Zach Green have been linked together. Both put up big power seasons in Williamsport in 2013. Green is ranked 15 as a 50 high and Cozens comes in at 22 as a 50 Extreme. What differentiates the two of them in your mind?
First and foremost is experience. This was Cozens’ first full season playing pro ball, and he performed well. There’s still a long way to go. He’s not real strong in the outfield, and some scouts already posit that he’s a first baseman in the long term.
By contrast, Green has plenty of baseball in his past. He performed well above-average in the New York-Penn League and showed enough with the glove that he didn’t get any “he’ll definitely have to move” comments from evaluators I spoke with.
To boil it down to one sentence: Cozens is an extreme because of his lack of baseball experience. Continue reading Interview with Josh Norris of Baseball America
Reader Top 30 #30 – Weekend Runoff – Mitch Gueller
Samuel Hiciano, Gabriel Lino, and Mitch Gueller finished with 29, 28, and 27 votes respectively and so here is your runoff to end voting. Continue reading Reader Top 30 #30 – Weekend Runoff – Mitch Gueller
Spring Training 2014, Day 2
I arrived at the Carpenter Complex early and found out that the position players who had already reported would be taking batting practice in Bright House Field at 10:30AM and that it would be open to the public. I checked the schedule for the Carpenter Complex fields (each guard is issued one each day) and found that the pitchers and catchers would be following the same regimen they followed on Thursday. So, rather than watch PFPs and strugglung to get a peek at the pitchers thowing off the mounds, I walked over to watch BP. Continue reading Spring Training 2014, Day 2
Baseball Prospectus Top 10 Phillies Prospects
I am a big fan of the Baseball Prospectus Top 10 prospects. Right now the prospect team assembled there is really talented and have been able to get a lot of eyes on a lot of players. This leads to reports that are some of the most detailed outside of major league front offices. The Phillies list itself is posted here.
- Maikel Franco
- Jesse Biddle
- J.P. Crawford
- Kelly Dugan
- Carlos Tocci
- Deivi Grullon
- Severino Gonzalez
- Cesar Hernandez
- Yoel Mecias
- Cord Sandberg
Continue reading Baseball Prospectus Top 10 Phillies Prospects
Reader Top 30 #30
Last spot on the list Continue reading Reader Top 30 #30
Spring Training 2014, Day 1
Spring Training 2014 began officially this morning when the pitchers and catchers exited their locker room in Bright House Field and entered the outfield in Schmidt Field for calisthenics. For those of you who haven’t been to the Carpenter Complex, I have attaced an overhead shot of the area below.
