First reported here by Murray but we now have confirmation from Jim Salisbury http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/good-news-bad-news-2-phillies-prospects?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Quinn ruptured is achilles doing sprints near his Florida home. He has already had surgery to repair it, the Phillies are also looking into having him get surgery on his wrist which has been healing slowly since it was broken by a pitch in June. It took Ryan Howard 10 months to return to the field so Quinn could see action towards the end of next year, but odds are he will be highly limited and without the aid of his speed for much longer. This is a severe blow to the Phillies farm system as a whole.

In better news Tommy Joseph is headed to the Dominican to play winter ball. He will be behind the plate for Estrellas de Oriente.

One of the most interesting and potentially rewarding part of the offseason is finding former prospects and guys with tools in minor league free agency.  Most of these guys will switch orgs to man AA and AAA teams with the hope that they might get a cup of coffee in the majors.

The Phillies have already locked up their biggest names that could have been available in Jim Murphy, Leandro Castro, and Jiwan James.  All will be back in the org next year and will all make at least a visit to big league camp.  There are some names of interest left, but there is no one who would be a huge loss if they left the org.  The full list from Baseball America http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/minor-league-free-agents-2013/.

Philadelphia Phillies
RHP: Gabriel Arias (Hi A), Justin Friend (AAA), Mike MacDougal (AAA), Juan Sosa (AA)
LHP: Bobby Bramhall (AA), Tom Cochran (AAA), Mauricio Robles (AAA), Greg Smith (AAA)
C: John Suomi (AAA), Shawn Williams* (AA)
2B: Matt Tolbert (AA)
3B: Josh Fields (AAA)
SS: Miguel Abreu (AAA), Andres Blanco* (AAA)
OF: Derrick Mitchell (AAA)

First go read the free version here http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2014-philadelphia-phillies-top-10-prospects/, and then if you give BA money go read the scouting reports here http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2014-philadelphia-phillies-top-10-prospects-with-scouting-reports/, and if you give them money read the chat transcript here http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2014-philadelphia-phillies-top-10-prospects-chat-with-josh-norris/.

For those lazy the Top 10 are:

1. Maikel Franco
2. Jesse Biddle
3. JP Crawford
4. Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez
5. Roman Quinn
6. Carlos Tocci
7. Ethan Martin
8. Cesar Hernandez
9. Aaron Altherr
10. Severino Gonzalez

Rather than give a word for word recap of all of these reports I am going to give my reactions and quick thoughts. Continue reading Baseball America Top 10 Phillies Prospects →

So we’re about half way through the AFL season, and we’ve finally got our first Phillies’ AFL home run. Cameron Rupp “went yard” (as the kids say) on Tuesday. He’s been the healthiest position player thus far, with Kelly Dugan gone with turf toe, Aaron Altherr missing a lot of time with a hand injury, and Cam Perkins now possibly shelved after taking a fastball (“only” 89mph) to the helmet, per a Twitter report from @JoshOrensteinTM from Trackman.dk.

As for hurlers, Ken Giles has gotten nine outs and allowed 12 baserunners in his last three outings. Mike Nesseth got lit up yesterday, while Kyle Simon had another good outing earlier in the week before giving up a run yesterday. Austin Wright also with a mixed bag of a week – a bad outing last Friday, followed up with a clean inning with two Ks yesterday.

Here’s the link for the Phils’ Off-Season League stats. Cesar Hernandez has gone deep twice now, and is OPSing near .850. Jesus Manuel Chavez seems to be getting use, at least sometimes, as a lefty specialist. He’s faced a couple more LHB than RHB and he’s been used for less than an inning a handful of times. In total, he’s struck out seven and walked just one in 7.2IP.

http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/org.jsp?id=phi

Continue reading AFL Update – 11-1-2013 →

In move different from previous seasons, the Phillies have sent four of their low minors hitters to their Dominican Academy this winter to get extra work in.  The four players are Lakewood Third Baseman Mitch Walding whose season ended prematurely with a broken rib, Lakewood Left Fielder Larry Greene, Williamsport Second Baseman Andrew Pullin, GCL Outfielder Cord Sandberg, and GCL Third Baseman Jan Hernandez.  They will not be playing in organized games in the DWL but they will be work with coaches to get some extra reps in.  All five players had underwhelming years and have plenty of things to work on this offseason.  Overall this is a positive step in working to try and make up for lost time or accelerate development.

Kenny Giles day took a decidedly downward turn around the eight inning of the game on October 19, when he was called upon to pitch to hitters and attempt to retire them. He was unable to do the latter. At all. Just saw his results from today, and they were ok, I guess. No runs, a walk, a hit and 2Ks in his first (and likely only), inning. Aaron Altherr has not appeared in a game since the 16th. I’m wondering is he’s still nursing that hand injury he had early on.

Cam Rupp has continued to hit, and injury replacement Cam Perkins has a couple knocks. Cam those guys hit? They certainly Cam. Cam, Cam. (Apologies to any Marilyn Monroe fans out there).

Kyle Simon has been pitching well so far, allowing just four baserunners in 5.1IP, and Austin Wright has two scoreless outings since his initial two scoreful outings. And finally, Mike Nesseth continues to exist, throwing baseballs with varying success. Hashtag analysis.

Here’s the link for the Phils’ Off-Season League stats. Of note there – Cesar Hernandez has been hitting some and taking some time in center field for Los Bravos de Margarita. Severino Gonzalez walked three men in his two innings of work, (wait, he did what???), and apparently Rodrigo Lopez is associated with the Phillies still. Somehow.

http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/org.jsp?id=phi

Continue reading AFL Update – 10-24-2013 →

A breaking ball is defined as a pitch that creates movement with sharp spin induced from the wrist. But all of the similarities end there. Almost all breaking balls fall into the slider or curveball, but there is a lot of slurviness in between and each pitcher defines their pitches differently.  There are different components to a breaking ball and they parallel those of the fastball. There is velocity or hardness, deception, command, movement, and breaking out from movement, shape.  Many of the components of a breaking ball are inherent to a pitcher based on their arm, wrist, and delivery.

Velocity in relation to a breaking ball is not a cut and dry with big velocity equaling success. The most obvious implication of velocity is that the faster the pitch the less time the batter has to adjust to the pitch.  The trade off to velocity is that it can often come with less movement.  This is due to the physics of a thrown baseball, in order to get sharp movement on a hard breaking ball, the pitcher must impart more rotation on to the pitch.

Continue reading Top Tools: Breaking Ball →