General
Manager: Ruben Amaro Jr.
Minor
League Director: Joe Jordan
Scouting
Director: Marti Wolever
AAA:
Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (International League) 80-64
AA:
Reading Phillies (Eastern League) 74-68
Hi
A: Clearwater Threshers (Florida State League) 75-63
Low
A: Lakewood Blue Claws (South Atlantic League) 68-69
Rookie
Adv.: Williamsport Cross Cutters (New York-Penn League) 43-33
Rookie:
GCL Phillies (Gulf Coast League) 27-32
Dominican:
DSL Phillies (Dominican Summer League) 38-33
Venezuelan:
VSL Phillies (Venezuelan Summer League) 32-38
System
Overview
While
the Phillies have a long way to go to reach the New York Yankees
present stretch of 16 out of 17 years of post-season appearances,
they have the longest current streak with five consecutive trips to
the postseason and won the World Series in 2008. They have improved
in the win column in each of the last six years under manager Charlie
Manuel and won a franchise record 102 games in 2011.
The
Phillies are clearly a team that is built for the present. With
long-time staples such as 1B Ryan Howard, 2B Chase Utley and SS Jimmy
Rollins now in their 30s and becoming more injury prone, 29-year old
OF Hunter Pence is not only the team’s most dependable offensive
threat, but also the youngest player in the everyday lineup. Cy
Young Award winning aces RHP Roy Halliday and LHP Cliff Lee will be
35- and 33-years old during the 2012 season, and even new closer
Jonathan Papelbon is 31-years old.
And
not only is the clock ticking on age, it’s ticking on the free
agent clock as well. Pence, LHP Cole Hamels and valuable outfielder
Shane Victorino are all on the final year of their contracts and will
be free agents after the 2012 season. The Phillies payroll is
already among the highest in the game and they won’t be losing any
big contracts at the end of the 2012 season to play those three off
of.
Maintaining
that year-to-year talent level and experience has come at a cost that
goes beyond money. The list of players traded to acquire players
such as Halliday, Lee, Pence and departed starting pitcher Roy Oswalt
is long and deep and represented much of the next generation of
Phillies talent.
Among
those departed talents are C Travis D’Arnaud (Toronto), RHP Kyle
Drabek (Toronto), OF Anthony Gose (Toronto), 1B/OF Jonathan Singleton
(Houston), OF Carlos Santana (Houston), IF Jonathan Villar (Houston),
LHP A.J. Happ (Houston), RHP Jared Cosart (Houston), IF Jason Donald
(Cleveland), C Lou Marson (Cleveland), RHP Jason Knapp (Cleveland)
and RHP Carlos Carrasco (Cleveland).
With
all that talent leaving the organization, the Phillies minor league
system subjectively ranks among the thinnest in baseball. That’s
not an indictment on the Phillies scouting and player development
departments at all, merely a reflection on the understandable
priorities of the Major League team.
2011
Draft
The
Phillies have had an unmistakable fixation with raw but toolsy high
school outfielders in the draft over the past four years. Here’s a
year by year accounting of their picks in that demographic.
2008:
Anthony
Hewitt (first round/$1.38M) - Drafted as a 3B but moved to the
outfield after one year.
Zach
Collier (first round comp/$1.02M)
Anthony
Gose (second round/$772,000)
2009:
Kelly
Dugan (second round/$485,000) - The Phillies didn’t have a first
round pick this year.
Kyrell
Hudson (third round/$475,000)
Aaron
Altherr (ninth round/$150,000)
2010:
Brian
Pointer (28th round/$350,000)
2011:
Larry
Greene (first round comp/$1M)
Roman
Quinn (second round/$775,000) - Drafted as a SS but most scouts
project him to CF.
Greene
was one of the most physically imposing sluggers in the 2011 draft
and has huge power potential from the left side. He’s also likely
the type who will take a few years to use his power and is somewhat
the opposite as a hitter as former top Phillies prospect, 1B Chris
Singleton, now with the Astros.
Just
as Greene had one of the best power profiles in the 2011 high school
class, Quinn was one of the best projectable speed players. He could
go out as a shortstop, a second baseman or a centerfielder, although
the fact that the Phillies later drafted and paid very well for two
other high school shortstops, Mitch Walding and Tyler Greene (no
relation to Larry Greene) indicates that Quinn is likely to start his
career at somewhere other than shortstop.
The
Phillies gave Walding, a lanky 6-4/180 left handed hitting shortstop
$800,000 in the fifth round to buy him out of an Oregon scholarship,
the second highest bonus on the Philadelphia draft list.
College
third basemen were another strong theme on the Phillies 2011 draft
list. Second rounder Harold Martinez was a potential first rounder
back in 2008 when he choose to go to Miami, and had a college career
marked by flashes of brilliance spread out among longer stretches
average play. He has the physical tools to become a solid big league
third baseman both offensively and defensively.
Fourth
round pick Cody Asche out of Nebraska played third base all through
college and impressed scouts with his left handed power, but didn’t
sell everyone with his defensive potential. Faced with both Martinez
and Asche at the same level and position, the Phillies moved Asche to
second base and he performed surprisingly well there defensively. As
a left handed hitting power bat, Asche’s ceiling is much higher if
he can stay at second.
Philadelphia
only drafted three pitchers in the first 10 rounds but SEC left
handers Adam Morgan (third round/Alabama) and Austin Wright (eighth
round/Mississippi) both had very encouraging professional debuts.
Morgan is more of a finesse pitcher who relies on location and his
plus slider to get hitters out, while Wright has a power pitcher’s
build and stuff. Both should advance quickly through the Phillies
system, with Wright already having earned a midseason promotion to
the South Atlantic League after signing.
Top
10 Prospects
1.
RHP Trevor May –
Baseball-reference player profile
The
Phillies picked up plenty of pitching value in the 2008 draft without
using of their top three picks on pitchers. They selected May from a
Washington high school in the fourth round and also picked up Vance
Worley, Jonathan Pettibone, Julio Rodriguez, Michael Schwimmer and
Jason Knapp (now with Cleveland).
Philadelphia
has been very patient with the 22-year old May as well, leaving him
in A ball for three seasons despite overpowering strikeout numbers.
That has led to May being able to improve his fastball command and
the consistency of his offspeed stuff without the pressures of
getting AA hitters out. He struck out 182 hitters between the two A
ball levels in 2010 and finished third in all of minor league
baseball in 2011 with 208 punch outs.
Many
lower level minor league pitchers run up their strikeout totals with
offspeed pitches that they command well, but May is power pitcher who
relies on his fastball to rack up his strikeout numbers. He gets
very good heavy life down in the zone on a 92-94 mph heater, but is
also able to elevate his fastball with intent when hitters start
looking down in the zone. His mid-70s curveball flashes a hard, deep
bite when he is commanding it well, and he also throws a workable
low-80s changeup.
2.
LHP Jesse Biddle –
Baseball-reference player profile
Biddle
is a local Philadelphia product who was the Phillies first round pick
in 2010. It wasn’t considered a stretch by the team to pick the
local prospect at the time and Biddle’s rapid progress has proven
that out.
While
Biddle has a power pitcher’s body at 6-4/225 and topped out at
94-95 mph frequently in high school, he hasn’t consistently lit up
the radar guns as a professional yet. He throws from an effortless
delivery, making his 90-91 mph fastball seem quicker to hitters and
his plus changeup slows down hitters bats as well. Biddle made great
strides in learning how to command his big breaking curveball during
the year. Perhaps the most impressive thing about his first season
was that he posted a 1.91 ERA over his last 11 starts, showing both
improvement and durability.
3.
RHP Phillippe Aumont –
Baseball-reference player profile
The
French Canadian version of Bobby Jenks was originally selected by the
Mariners with the 11th overall pick in the 2007 draft. He
joined the Phillies after the 2009 season as part of the Cliff Lee
trade.
Aumont
was looked at primarily as a future closer even in high school, and
the fact that he was drafted that high with that profile says plenty
about his raw stuff. The Phillies attempt at making him a starter in
2010 failed miserably (3-11, 5.68 in 122 innings) with the positive
result being that Aumont emerged from the experiment healthy and with
a defined role.
The
6-7/255 Aumont’s multi-part delivery causes command issues
occasionally but it also provides deception to hitters, who have a
hard enough time catching up with raw stuff. He pitches in the 95-97
mph area consistently with a big, hard knee-buckling curveball that
is a strikeout pitch when it’s in the zone. Aumont struck out 78
hitters in 54 innings in 2011, including 37 in 22 innings at the AAA
level.
4.
RHP Justin De Fratus –
Baseball-reference player profile
De
Fratus doesn’t have Aumont’s first round pedigree (he was a 11th round pick out of a California junior college the same year Aumont
was the 11th overall pick) or his intimidating size and
raw stuff, but everything else between the two potential closers
measures up very well. The two paralleled each other in 2011,
serving as tandem closers both in AA for the first half of the season
then in AAA during the second half, with De Fratus actually posting
the more impressive overall numbers (6-3, 2.99, 15 Saves, 99 Ks in 77
IP). The big difference was that De Fratus made his Major League
debut in September and even picked up a win in five appearances.
De
Fratus has plenty of velocity on his fastball, generally pitching in
the 93-94 mph area. His out-pitch, though, is a big breaking slider
that is notable not only for its depth but for how well De Fratus
commands it, which enables him to use it early and in conventional
fastball counts.
5.
RHP Jonathan Pettibone –
Baseball-reference player profile
The
Phillies drafted Pettibone 26 picks before Trevor May in the 2008
draft and the two have spent most of the past two seasons pitching in
the same rotation and should start off the 2012 campaign together at
AA Reading. Although the results on the field are very similar for
the pair (May has a 3.55 ERA in 375 minor league innings, Pettibone a
3.43 ERA in 328 innings), the way they go about getting them are not.
Pettibone’s fastball
registers just as much velocity on the radar gun as May’s, topping
out at 94-95 mph on occasion, but it’s a flatter pitch with less
life, and Pettibone uses it to pitch to contact, whereas May
frequently goes strikeout hunting with his fastball. Pettibone’s
best secondary pitch is a changeup that shows plus potential at
times, while his slider is still a work in progress. How much his
slider improves will be key to determining whether he can keep up
with May’s progress up the minor league ladder.
6.
SS Freddy Galvis –
Baseball-reference player profile
The
switch-hitting Galvis enjoyed the best year of his professional
career at the plate between AA and AAA in 2011, hitting
.278-8-43/.716 OPS, including 28 doubles and 23 stolen bases. It
marked the first time that the then 21-year old Venezuelan had ever
posted an OPS over .600, let alone .700.
Galvis
is already considered a big league shortstop with the glove and could
step in immediately and be an above average defensive player. His
ability to keep improving enough with the bat will determine whether
he will be able to hold down a regular Major League job, although
with Jimmy Rollins signed through 2014 with a vesting option for
2015, that job might not be in Philadelphia.
7.
RHP Brody Colvin –
Baseball-reference player profile
The
Phillies paid $900,000 to buy Colvin out of a Louisiana State
scholarship as a seventh round pick in 2009. He ranked ahead of
Clearwater teammates Trevor May and Jonathan Pettibone on most 2010
top prospect lists, but suffered through an injury plagued 2011
season and never showed his previous stuff or command even when he
was on the mound.
At
his best, Colvin throws in the 92-94 mph range, touching 96, with a
sharp curveball and effective changeup. He has lots of energy in his
delivery and throws cross-body on release, but is an above average
athlete and that hadn’t previously affected his command or
consistency.
8.
C Sebastian Valle –
Baseball-reference player profile
A
native of Mexico, Valle is only 21-years old but has played five
seasons professionally and shown flashes of big league potential in
all areas. He has shown quickness, arm strength and athleticism on
defense along with the energy and durability to handle the position
at the big league level.
Valle
hit .307-6-40 in 192 New York-Penn League at-bats in 2009 and
followed that up with a .255-16-74 season in the South Atlantic
League in 2010. He has the bat speed and strength to hit for at
least average power for a catcher at the Major League level. In that
context, Valle’s 2011 season in the Florida State League
(.284-5-40/.708 OPS) was somewhat of a disappointment. Much of the
regression is attributable to Valle’s free swinging approach at
the plate, as he walked only 13 times on the season.
9.
RHP Julio Rodriguez –
Baseball-reference player profile
While
Trevor May and Jonathan Pettibone were higher drafts in 2008, and
May, Pettibone and Brody Colvin are ranked as better prospects here
and on most other top prospect lists, the best pitcher for Clearwater
in 2011 was clearly Rodriguez. The 6-4/195 Puerto Rican went 16-7,
2.76 with 168 Ks in 156 innings and allowed only 102 hits. Better
yet, that type of performance was consistent with what the 20-year
old had already established in pro ball.
Rodriguez
pitches with average fastball velocity but has a very advanced feel
for pitching, especially with a curveball that he can change the
velocity and shape of at will. He is the same age as Pettibone and
Colvin and a year younger than May, but has a looser build and arm
and still might even have some physical projection.
10.
3B Maikel Franco –
Baseball-reference player profile
Franco
is different from most young Dominican prospects as the 18-year old
is a polished hitter with advanced strike zone judgment and the
ability to square up on different types of pitches and drive the ball
hard to all fields. He had no problem fitting in with older players
in the college dominated New York-Penn League, hitting .287-2-38/.778
OPS with 17 doubles and 25 walks. Franco’s doubles power projects
to turn into home run power as he matures.
Although
he is a well below average straight ahead runner, Franco should be
able to stay at third base as he gets older as he has very quick
reflexes and a plus throwing arm. The Phillies have played with the
idea of developing him as a catcher in the future as his tools and
makeup profile well for that position.
Others
in the Conversation: RHP Lisalberto Bonilla, OF Larry Greene,
RHP Austin Hyatt, OF Jiwan James, LHP Adam Morgan, IF/OF Roman Quinn,
RHP Michael Schwimer, SS Mitch Walding, LHP Austin Wright