Pitchers and Catchers are doing their thing at the Carpenter complex. Jumping Jacks and PFPs daily. Word is just about everybody is present in camp already which is always a good sign. That said one can't ignore where we are today and where we might be a year from now. 2016 is all about the youth and which of those prospects returned to us in the Hamels and Giles deals are ready to emerge.
Secondly we have drafted very well in the past 3 years J.P Crawford, Aaron Nola and Cornelius Randolph but this year will be the highest we've drafted in forever. 1st pick in the draft overall. Let's take a look at some of those names we'll have to choose from
Pitching seems to be the depth of this years draft so we can start there
A.J Puk College Pitcher at Florida
Jason Groome HS Pitcher Jackson NJ
Alec Hanson College Pitcher Oklahoma
Riley Pint HS Pitcher Kansas
These guys pretty much make up the tier you would consider as a 1st overall pick
Position Player strength for a 1:1 is not as deep. There is no Bryce Harper or Carlos Correa this year but we do have:
Kyle Lewis OF Mercer College in GA
Blake Rutherford OF HS Chaminade Prep
Delvin Perez SS out of the International Baseball Academy
These guys are easily top 10 picks but the 1st overall is pretty special and you need to make sure the player's talent is commensurate with that spot.
Other names to watch are Cal Quantrill (father Paul pitched 14 years in the big leagues) and Matt Krook. Both are in various stages of TJ Rehab but both easily would have been strong candidates in the top 10.
http://www.fueledbysports.com/2016-mlb-mock-draft/
Friday, February 19, 2016
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Coming Up Pitchers and Catchers Feb 18
Almost 2 weeks from today Pitchers and Catchers will report to Clearwater. Mac has pretty much said how the starting rotation will look Nola, Eickhoff, Hellickson and Morton. Up for grabs will be the 5th spot and the front runner on talent would be Vincent Velasquez but that doesn't mean he breaks camp with the big club.
Vincent has amazing stuff but in the fold will be Brett Oberholzer as he has 0 options remaining. Adam Morgan will be in the convo seeing how he fared pretty well in 15 starts. He pitched to a 1.245 WHIP but his K/9 numbers are really low. It will be tough for Adam to sustain success in the big leagues with a K/9 of just 5.2.
Others who will be barking for a spot in the rotation at some point will be Mark Appel and Jake Thompson. Spring will be huge for Mark and I'm not sure he can do anything to break camp with the big club without first handling 8-10 Starts in LHV. Thompson is young at just 22. He is, in many circles our #2-#3 prospect so they may not want to start his service time until late this year.
Klentak has announced his approach to a rebuild with authority and it will weight heavily on pitching. In the lower levels names to watch will be Kilome, Pinto, Arano and Tirado all of whom are 21. Kilome and Tirado are flame throwers while Pinto and Arano are command and control guys.
There are other names too as in Eflin Asher, Pivetta, Lively and Eshelman
In terms of catchers the Phillies have Chooch and Rupp and most would say Rupp is going to see the majority of starts behind the plate with Carlos being a huge factor in support and teaching. Knapp will present the most interesting name in camp as far as I am concerned. He has the best hit tool of all the catchers in the system. His defense and game calling need a lot more polish however. Second to him is Alfaro. I have him rated as our #11 prospect Callis and Mayo have him higher and in the MLB top 50.
He's intriguing for sure. Plenty of raw power. The only question will be can he tame his aggressive approach to tap into that power all the while finishing his defensive skills behind the dish. Pitchers frankly don't care about their catchers offensive games. They want to know he can handle whatever they throw in the dirt and grasp the concepts of what they like to throw in different counts and such. The nuances of being a MLB catcher have much to do about pitch framing and communication skills as anything else.
Vincent has amazing stuff but in the fold will be Brett Oberholzer as he has 0 options remaining. Adam Morgan will be in the convo seeing how he fared pretty well in 15 starts. He pitched to a 1.245 WHIP but his K/9 numbers are really low. It will be tough for Adam to sustain success in the big leagues with a K/9 of just 5.2.
Others who will be barking for a spot in the rotation at some point will be Mark Appel and Jake Thompson. Spring will be huge for Mark and I'm not sure he can do anything to break camp with the big club without first handling 8-10 Starts in LHV. Thompson is young at just 22. He is, in many circles our #2-#3 prospect so they may not want to start his service time until late this year.
Klentak has announced his approach to a rebuild with authority and it will weight heavily on pitching. In the lower levels names to watch will be Kilome, Pinto, Arano and Tirado all of whom are 21. Kilome and Tirado are flame throwers while Pinto and Arano are command and control guys.
There are other names too as in Eflin Asher, Pivetta, Lively and Eshelman
In terms of catchers the Phillies have Chooch and Rupp and most would say Rupp is going to see the majority of starts behind the plate with Carlos being a huge factor in support and teaching. Knapp will present the most interesting name in camp as far as I am concerned. He has the best hit tool of all the catchers in the system. His defense and game calling need a lot more polish however. Second to him is Alfaro. I have him rated as our #11 prospect Callis and Mayo have him higher and in the MLB top 50.
He's intriguing for sure. Plenty of raw power. The only question will be can he tame his aggressive approach to tap into that power all the while finishing his defensive skills behind the dish. Pitchers frankly don't care about their catchers offensive games. They want to know he can handle whatever they throw in the dirt and grasp the concepts of what they like to throw in different counts and such. The nuances of being a MLB catcher have much to do about pitch framing and communication skills as anything else.
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