Philadelphia Phillies Top 20 2012 PRE-SEASON Prospects in Review

Philadelphia Phillies Top 20 2012 PRE-SEASON Prospects in Review

It is time to begin our yearly reviews of the Top 20 Prospects List for each organization, moving over to the National League today with the Philadelphia Phillies. Remember, this is the pre-season list. It is not a new list.

This list was originally published October 28, 2011.

1) Trevor May, RHP, Grade B+: 4.92 ERA with a 91/43 K/BB in 90 innings for Double-A Reading, 84 hits allowed. Still has a strong K/IP ratio, but has had some significant command issues and has been hit hard in recent starts as a result.

2) Jesse Biddle, LHP, Grade B+: Solid campaign, 3.38 ERA with 90/36 K/BB in 88 innings for High-A Clearwater, 84 hits allowed. No complaints here.

3) Sebastian Valle, C, Grade B-: Hitting .246/.267/.402 with nine homers, nine walks, 66 strikeouts in 244 at-bats for Reading. Thrown out 28% of runners. Raw power is obvious, but needs a lot of work with the strike zone.

4) Brody Colvin, RHP, Grade B-: 4.06 ERA with 79/43 K/BB in 90 innings, 93 hits for Clearwater. Repeating the league and has improved slightly.

5) Larry Greene, OF, Grade B-: Just getting started, hitting .304/.417/.380 with 14 walks, 25 strikeouts in 79 at-bats for short-season Williamsport in New York-Penn League. Lots of walks, lots of strikeouts.

6) Justin De Fratus, RHP, Grade B-: Just activated after being hurt all year, bad elbow.

7) Phillippe Aumont, RHP, Grade B-: 4.33 ERA with 37/23 K/BB in 27 innings for Triple-A Lehigh Valley, 21 hits allowed, 10 saves. Too many walks at this point.

8) Julio Rodriguez, RHP, Grade B-: 3.76 ERA with a 91/43 K/BB in 89 innings for Reading, 78 hits. Scouts still don't care for him that much, but he continues to perform and he's only 21. Would like to see fewer walks.

9) Michael Schwimer, RHP, Grade C+: 3.60 ERA with a 15/8 K/BB in 20 major league innings, 17 hits. Looks like a competent middle relief option.

10) Maikel Franco, 3B, Grade C+: I thought he could break out, but this isn't it: .241/.294/.373 with 22 walks, 52 strikeouts in 316 at-bats for Low-A Lakewood. Still very young at age 19.

11) Roman Quinn, INF, Grade C+: .282/.371/.370 with eight steals in 10 attempts, nine walks, 24 strikeouts in 92 at-bats for Williamsport. Speedy, interesting, athletic, strikeout rate is high.

12) Austin Wright, LHP, Grade C+: 3.84 ERA with 86/40 K/BB in 91 innings for Clearwater, 92 hits. Has looked outstanding at times, but inconsistent. Live arm.

13) Perci Garner, RHP, Grade C+: 4.74 ERA with a 60/48 K/BB in 89 innings for Clearwater, 83 hits allowed, 1.42 GO/AO. Not a lot to get excited about with this performance, but has pitched well in his last two outings.

14) Lisalverto Bonilla, RHP, Grade C+: Got named to the Futures Game, stock is rising, 1.55 ERA with 64/21 K/BB in 46 innings between Clearwater and Reading, 31 hits. Impact relief potential if he maintains his command.

15) Jon Pettibone, RHP, Grade C+: 3.65 ERA, 65/25 K/BB in 99 innings for Reading, 105 hits, 1.40 GO/AO. Strike-throwing inning-eater type, ceiling isn't as high as some of the others, but at least he doesn't walk the world.

16) Austin Hyatt, RHP, Grade C+: 5.69 ERA, 66/37 K/BB in 92 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, 108 hits. I liked him as a pre-season sleeper, but it isn't happening, has regressed since strong Double-A season last year. I thought he could do what Tyler Cloyd is doing instead.

17) Freddy Galvis, SS, Grade C: Hitting .226/.254/.363 in 190 major league at-bats, seven walks, 29 strikeouts. Excellent defensive player, but he can't hit, at least not yet. Young enough to figure it out, and his glove will keep him employed for a long time, but impatience makes it an uphill battle. I find it difficult to rank defense-only players on lists like this.

18) Tyler Greene, SS, Grade C: .176/.261/.289 with 17 walks, 68 strikeouts in 142 at-bats between Lakewood and Williamsport. Has some of the best tools in the system, but quite raw.

19) Mitchell Walding, SS, Grade C: .317/.371/.427 in 82 at-bats for Williamsport, six walks, 16 strikeouts. A nice start to his pro career.

20) Jiwan James, OF, Grade C: .251/.298/.390 at Reading, 17 walks, 79 strikeouts in 267 at-bats. Still looks great in uniform, still doesn't know how to hit.

21) Joe Savery, LHP, Grade C: 5.87 ERA, 15/7 K/BB in 23 major league innings, 26 hits. 4.09 ERA with 13/2 K/BB in 11 Triple-A innings. I expect he will be on the margins of major league bullpens for the next 10 years.

Several pre-season Grade C types have boosted their stock, such as Cloyd, Cesar Hernandez, Darin Ruf, Leandro Castro, Cody Asche, the resurrected Zach Collier, Adam Morgan, and Tyler Knigge. It is interesting that several of their top pitching prospects have similar statistical profiles.

Overall, I think the summary I wrote last fall is still valid:

Everyone talks about how the Phillies love tools players on the hitting side and physical pitchers on the mound, and they do focus on those things. But there is more to the farm system than just the athletes. They also mix in polished college players in the middle and later rounds most years, which adds some depth to the system and gives the tools guys someone to learn from.

I'm not really into Harold Garcia and Cesar Hernandez, but you can make a case to rank them more highly than I do, depending on how you want to balance offense and defense. I think they can all be fine utility players but I have doubts they will hit enough to get beyond that.

Graduations and trades have thinned this system out, but there are still a lot of things to like. Several of the Grade C guys are players from the 2011 draft who have higher potential but need to play, so this list could look much stronger next year once we see how they pan out. I'm not convinced that any of the toolsy outfielders are going to amount to much, and they need to start hitting or the new additions will pass them.