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)
A rare Saturday post, but this is something I’ve been thinking about recently, and I’ve crystallized a few of the ideas I had, so I figured I’d get it out there now, and hopefully we can develop it and discuss it over the next few weeks, and then put something in place before Spring Training starts. If you’ve been here a while, I think you realize that the comments, contributors, and everyone who stops in here is what makes this place tick. I try to provide my opinion, I try to guide the discussion, but from posting articles to providing first hand knowledge, you the readers are really what drives this sight. Without your interest, feedback and discussion, this blog wouldn’t be where it is today, and it wouldn’t encourage me to keep this place as up to date as I do.
So, I figured it was only natural that we devote a section of this site to you. My goal is to have people actively involved with the content of this site, based on first hand experiences. I have a Clearwater correspondent, our Reading correspondent from last year, Gregg, will be working on Allentown this year, I think I have someone for Lakewood, andyb is going to keep writing on the DSL and VSL prospects, but I’ll need a Reading person. This year I’d like to expand things, I want people who go to games to contribute their first hand takes on players, send me pictures from the games, amateur video if you have the knowhow to transfer the video to the internet, and everything in between. We can look at statistics and get a good idea, but if you know what you are looking for in a player, seeing him first hand is invaluable, and it really gives you a better idea of what to expect out of a guy. It’s what people at Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, Perfect Game and every other site rely on. I live in Maryland, I’m not close to any of the Phillies affiliates, so it’s tough for me to get to a lot of games every year, but I know there are lots of people here who go to games regularly, and you guys are an invaluable asset here. I will go over some things in particular to look for when watching a player, in terms of being able to provide usable feedback here. I’m not a pro scout, but I’ve read enough to kind of understand what scouts look at when watching a player. I’m not asking you to carry a radar gun or stopwatch with you to games, there are even simpler things to look for, all of which I’ll go over later.
Where to go from here. I need someone who wants to write the weekly report for Reading. If you’re interested, you can check out the work that Gregg did last year, using this post of his as an example. These reports focus on the general progress of the team and then focus specifically on the legit prospects as well. In addition, I’m going to set up a page for each affiliate where people can submit game reviews, thoughts on particular prospects, and anything else like that. In addition, I’ll create an account on either flickr or photobucket where we can upload and share pictures, and if we get video submitted, I’ll add the video to each player’s profile page as I create them. I have a number of other ideas right now that are also in the pipeline, but I figured I’d throw this out there while it was at the forefront of my cluttered brain.
per rotoworld.
Smith isn’t really a prospect at this point, and he’s going to miss most of 2008 recovering from TJ anyway. But now any hopes of saving face on the Abreu dump rests squarely on the shoulders of Carlos Monasterios and Jesus Sanchez. When they represent our opening day battery in 2012, we’ll be having the last laugh!
Also wanted to add this tidbit, found in the Red Sox prospect chat today at BA
Q: samuel from haverhill, MA asks:
I saw lincoln Holdzkom pitch a lot in pawtucket and was very impressed. Will he be a loss to the red sox and what are his chances of making the phillies bull pen.
A:Jim Callis: Classic million-dollar arm and 10-cent head. It all comes down to Holdzkom figuring out his command and taking baseball seriously, and he never has done either. He cost the Red Sox nothing and I don’t think they’re too worried about losing him. Sure, he could make the Phillies as a Rule 5 guy, but I think he’s more a tease than anything.
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 figured for my first post of the new year, I’d open it up to some discussion. I’m going to continue to work on more player profiles, and because this is the slowest time of the baseball season, we’ll probably have more of these open ended discussions over the next few weeks, at least until we get closer to spring training. I have some other things in the pipeline, but I don’t want to jinx it so I’ll keep it quiet for now. So today’s question. Which prospects do you think will end up in Philly at some point this year, and what kind of impact do you see them making?
This is just something that I thought would be interesting to pass along, in case you hadn’t come across it before. Baseball Think Factory calculates park factors for all of the minor league levels except rookie ball, both for 2007 and then a 3 year number as well, which is more accurate because of a larger sample. Park factors in general aren’t 100% reliable because of a number of factors, but they can give you a general idea in terms of which parks are very hitter friendly and which parks favor pitchers. The info can be found here.
Gonna spend some time over this long weekend working on some new player profile pages, which you can access on the left side under the player’s name. So far, we have
Carlos Carrasco
Adrian Cardenas
Drew Carpenter
Josh Outman
Dominic Brown
I’ll take requests. I’m working on more video clips, and right now I have scouting videos for about 25 other guys.
A week ago, I posted the Top 15 prospect list from Baseball HQ penned by Deric McKamey, and it sparked a nice discussion. Deric was kind enough to answer some questions for us, so I’ll share that here. Before I get to that, here is a bit more info on the project. The 2008 Minor League Baseball Analyst profiles over 1000 minor league prospects and includes detailed scouting reports, sabermetrics, Major League Equivalencies, organizational lists, Top 100 list, and Potential Ratings. The book can be purchased through Baseball HQ where the purchaser will also receive a free update to the lists in the book. People may also purchase the book through any of the major on-line bookstores. The Minor League Baseball Analyst is expected to arrive mid-January. Ok, now you know the system being used and where to purchase the full work if you want it, so lets get to the questions.
I hope everyone had a splendid holiday. I wanted to go back to the Baseball HQ Top 15 prospects, because the author of the list offered to answer some questions for us based on the list. So if you have specific questions and you didn’t post them in the original post, you can post them here, I’ll take a few and send them his way. I’m also going to try and work on some more player profile pages over the next couple days as well. I have a few other ideas in the pipeline, so stay tuned.
