It’s getting close to one of our favorite times of the year, when Baseball America releases their annual prospect ranking from the Phillies farm system. This year’s ranking will be released on December 13th (two weeks from today). Here is their top ten schedule, with the AL East and Central having already been announced.

What will the Phillies list look like? You can imagine it will have a distinct BlueClaws feel to it. Domonic Brown, who had 65 ABs with the Phillies, is still rookie-eligible so he will be on the list, and is the certain #1 (will be his 3rd straight). Rookie eligiblity: less than 130 ABs and 45 days on the 25-man roster (excludes September with 40-man limit…he had 34 days total).

Behind Brown, I would think it would be Jarred Cosart, Brody Colvin and Jonathan Singleton, all members of the 2010 BlueClaws, in some order.

As usual, members of the media (myself included) voted in a survey conducted by Mike Drago in the Reading Eagle. Click here for the results.

(more…)

No surprise, since the BlueClaws won the South Atlantic League Championship, but six BlueClaws were ranked among the top 20 prospects in the South Atlantic League by Baseball America, who surveyed the league’s managers and scouts.

1. Jonathan Singleton: Singleton, who was named the best prospect in the SAL as part of the league’s annual awards, topped the list. Playing the year as an 18-year old (he turned 19 on September 18th, the day the BlueClaws clinched the title), he hit .290 with 14 home runs and 77 RBIs. He entered the year as the organization’s 18th ranked prospect, might enter next year as the organization’s top prospect.

4. Brody Colvin: Colvin, who turned 20 on August 14th, went 6-8, 3.39 with Lakewood, but had a 2.00 ERA from May 14th on through the rest of the season. He finished 8th in the league in ERA and gave up one earned run in 10 playoff innings. He was a 7th round pick from Lafayette, Louisiana in 2009 who signed with the Phillies on the August 15th deadline. He entered the year as the 12th ranked prospect in the organization.

7. Jarred Cosart: Cosart, who turned 20 in May, pitched for Lakewood in the first half, where he went 7-3, 3.79. He hurt his shoulder on June 26th and missed the rest of the season, but still pitched well enough to make the list. He struck out 77 hitters in his 71 innings and is now pitching in the Instructional League in Clearwater. He entered the year as the 8th ranked prospect in the organization. Cosart was a 38th round pick in 2008 from League City, Texas.

8. Jonathan Villar: Villar, another whose stock moved up immensely this year, was a key part of the July 29th trade that netted the Phillies Roy Oswalt. Before he left (and he was sent to the Hi-A California League), he hit .272 with 38 stolen bases (and was 4th in the league before the trade).  He entered the season in the top 20 in the Phillies system and figures to be among the top ten in the Houston system.

11. Trevor May: May was the SAL Postseason Pitcher of the Year, where he gave up one run in 11.2 innings pitched (and one ER in 22.2 innings in four postseason starts as a BlueClaw). He opened the season with Clearwater (5-5, 5.01) and was sent to Lakewood on the 4th of July, where was 7-3, 2.91. On July 27th in Delmarva, May struck out 14 Shorebirds to tie a BlueClaws single-game franchise record.

19. Sebastian Valle: Valle had a very good year and still was just the sixth BlueClaw ranked, a testament to the strength of the team. The 20 year old hit the game winning home run in the 5th inning of game four of the South Atlantic League Championship Series. On the year, he led the team with 16 home runs (in one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in the league).

–

Loved this quote from Greensboro manager Andy Haines:

I could watch them play every day. They had so much talent, but what I liked was the way they played so hard. (Manager) Mark (Parent) did an outstanding job with that team. Their players had talent, but you could see them getting better and better every time we faced them.

Williamsport had three players ranked among the top 20 prospects in the NY-Penn League in a survey released by Baseball America. IF Cesar Hernandez, OF Domingo Santana (who BlueClaws fans are already familiar with) and OF Aaron Altherr (who was also ranked among the best in the GCL) could all be with Lakewood when the 2011 season opens in April.

IF Cesar Hernandez: ranked 9th, signed as an amateur free agent from Venezuela in 2006 and spent two years in the VSL, one in the GCL and this year with Williamsport, where he hit .325 and stole 32 bases. A switch hitter, he was 27-69 (.391) batting right-handed. He sounds like the leadoff hitter on the 2011 BlueClaws.

OF Domingo Santana: ranked 12th, signed as an amateur free agent from the Dominican Republic in 2009. Santana turned 16 in August of 2008, signed with the Phillies in March of 2009 and went to the GCL. This year, he opened with Lakewood (hit .182 with three HRs) and was sent to Williamsport when their season opened (hit .237 with five HRs). Still, he turned 18 in August and was one of the youngest players in the league, a league often filled with 21 and 22 year old college pitchers straight out of the SEC or Pac-10. That he was here in Lakewood to open the season tells us what the Phillies thought of him in the first place and he’ll probably be back to open 2011 with…

OF Aaron Altherr: Ranked 15th (in the NYPL and 9th in the GCL), a 9th round pick of the Phillies in 2009 (from Arizona, originally from Germany)…Altherr hit .304 in the GCL over 27 games before a promotion to Williamsport, where he hit .287 in 28 games to finish the season. Here is what Chuck LaMar said about him recently:

“He started out in extended spring this year. Outstanding athlete who just needed, like all of them, to continue to play our game and get at-bats. I just saw him along with Benny [Looper] and Marti [Wolever] and the group and he’s going to be the next name that surfaces that the folks who follow us closely may not have heard of. Next year, when he goes to Lakewood, they’re going to start to hear about him. Not only keep an eye on him. I don’t know how low you can pick rotisserie guys, but I’d get him in my farm system somewhere.”

Related: The Gulf Coast League top 20, which features LHP Jesse Biddle and Altherr.

The GCL Champion Phillies had two players ranked among the top 20 prospects in that league by Baseball America, it was announced last week. Both, LHP Jesse Biddle and OF Aaron Altherr, could well be with the BlueClaws when the 2011 season opens in April.

LHP Jesse Biddle: Ranked 7th, a first round pick by the Phillies in 2010, from Germantown Academy, Philadelphia…Biddle went 3-1, 4.32 with the GCL Phillies before a late-season promotion to Williamsport. Here is what scouting director Marti Wolever said about Biddle at the time of the draft pick:

“We draw a lot of comparisons to Clayton Kershaw in high school. We just felt, at this time, he was the best high school left-hander on our board. It really was a no-brainer. … We saw Clayton in high school in Dallas. They’re about the same size. Jesse’s arm might work a little easier quite frankly than Clayton’s did. But I think ceiling-wise and stuff-wise, they’re very comparable. We think Jesse’s got a chance to be that type of guy in the big leagues.”

OF Aaron Altherr: Ranked 8th, a 9th round pick of the Phillies in 2009 (from Arizona, originally from Germany)…Altherr hit .304 in the GCL over 27 games before a promotion to Williamsport, where he hit .287 in 28 games to finish the season. Here is what Chuck LaMar said about him recently:

“He started out in extended spring this year. Outstanding athlete who just needed, like all of them, to continue to play our game and get at-bats. I just saw him along with Benny [Looper] and Marti [Wolever] and the group and he’s going to be the next name that surfaces that the folks who follow us closely may not have heard of. Next year, when he goes to Lakewood, they’re going to start to hear about him. Not only keep an eye on him. I don’t know how low you can pick rotisserie guys, but I’d get him in my farm system somewhere.”

So there you go. We’ll have reports from the NY-Penn League list soon (a list which presumably could include one or both of these two). Then they’ll have the SAL list, which we figure could have a bunch of BlueClaws on there.

Thanks to John Manuel of Baseball America for answering a few questions about the BlueClaws and the Phillies farm system. Manuel has done the annual Baseball America Phillies top 30 the last two years and last week ranked former BlueClaws OF Domonic Brown as the #1 prospect in all of Minor League Baseball.

On Brown, Manuel had a great line after I asked about a player comparison: “He’ll be a guy they compare others to.”

Here is the original top 50 list.

The full Q&A is below the fold.

(more…)

On a prospect rundown from last week, Baseball America highlights the BlueClaws as one of the lineups to watch (here)…

If you just want to see raw tools, the Phillies have what you’re looking for on their low Class A Lakewood club. Outfielders Jiwan James, Domingo Santana, Anthony Hewitt and Zach Collier each have multiple 60 or 70 tools on the 20-80 scale—though making contact at the plate isn’t one of them—while catcher Sebastian Valle and shortstop Jonathan Villar are a pair of promising international signings. The BlueClaws won’t be lacking power arms on the mound either, with righthanders Jared Cosart and Brody Colvin capable of touching 96 mph.

Happy Roster Day. I talked to BlueClaws pitching coach Steve Schrenk today and he relayed the rotation as we start 2010.

• Thursday: LHP Nick Hernandez
• Friday: RHP Jarred Cosart
• Saturday: LHP Matthew Way
• Sunday: RHP Brody Colvin
• Monday: RHP Jonathan Pettibone

Some other stuff that you might find interesting.

• Youth Is Served…In the first seven years of BlueClaws baseball, there were zero 18 year olds. Then Freddy Galvis became the first in 2008. There were four on the Opening Day roster last year (Gose, Valle, Knapp, Collier). This year, Domingo Santana is 17 (youngest player in team history), and Jonathan Villar is 18.
• Scheduling Quirks…The BlueClaws will play only four-game series until June 10^th (15 four-game series)…Until June 5^th, they will only play in blocks of eight home games or eight road games (first 56 games)…In the second half, they will play three five-game series and will not have a two-series homestand or road trip until the 37^th game of the half.
• Opening Day starter Nick Hernandez should know the strike zone. His uncle is MLB ump Angel Hernandez.
• The BlueClaws enter the season having scored 30 runs on 47 hits in their last three spring training games.
• This roster features nine of the top 30 prospects in the organization, per Baseball America, and five of the top 12.

The Prospect Handbook should arrive in the mail today from Baseball America. Very exciting.

As a refresher, here are the top ten Phillies prospects (pre Halladay deal) from Baseball America.

That’s Jason Heyward from the Braves on the cover (full size) with, from top to bottom on the right: Madison Baumgarner (Giants), Mike Moustakas (Royals), and Jarrod Parker (Diamondbacks).

10:43 am: The mail already came and no book. Maybe Monday.

Two former BlueClaws, Michael Taylor (#2) and Adrian Cardenas (#9) have been ranked among the top ten Oakland Athletics prospects by Baseball America. Kind of like the Philadelphia Athletics re-incarnated.

Taylor, of course, was a BlueClaw in 2008, where he had probably the best half of any hitter in team history (.361/10/50). He finished 2008 with Clearwater (.329/9/38), began 2009 with Reading (.333/15/65) and finished it with Lehigh Valley (.282/5/19) before being sent to Toronto in the Roy Halladay trade. He was then immediately traded to Oakland for third base prospect Brett Wallace.

He turned 24 in December and has a chance to win an Opening Day roster spot with the Athletics, perhaps as their everyday leftfielder. It’s rare that you see a guy cover four levels in two years, but that’s what Taylor did, and we wish him luck now that he has a clear path to the big leagues.

Cardenas was here in 2007, when, as a 19 year old second baseman, he hit .295/9/79 with the BlueClaws and made the Futures Game. A piano and guitar specialist, Cardenas hit .326 at Double-A Midland and .256 with Triple-A Sacramento.

Oakland got him in the Joe Blanton trade in 2008, and logically Cardenas will get a full shot at Triple-A in 2010. He just turned 22 in October.

Well not quite. Two former BlueClaws (and Phillies prospects), Jason Knapp and Carlos Carrasco, were ranked 6th and 7th respectively by Baseball America in their annual Indians prospect rankings.

Knapp and Carrasco went to Cleveland along with Lou Marson and Jason Donald in the deal that brought Cliff Lee to the Phillies back in July.

Knapp barely pitched for Lake County (in the SAL) after the trade (remember, he was on the DL with shoulder fatigue at the time of the trade) and the other three all switched dugouts in Lehigh Valley (when Columbus was in town). Carrasco and Marson played in the big leagues while Donald, stayed in AAA. He figures to be one of the former BlueClaws to make a big league debut in 2010.

An interesting question is where would Knapp and Carrasco have fit in among the Phillies prospects? Here is the Phillies prospect list, done before the Roy Halladay trade took #2, 3 and 4).

If I had to guess, Knapp would have been somewhere around 4 (either just ahead of or just behind Travis d’Arnaud), which would be 2 when you take out d’Arnaud, Michael Taylor and Kyle Drabek, who were traded. As for Carrasco, probably between 6 and 7 (Anthony Gose & Sebastian Valle).

(Photo: Waiting For Next Year…where by subheading is “when we won’t have a Cy Young winner to trade.” lol)

January 6, 2003…Gavin Floyd becomes the first current or former player to grace the cover of Baseball America.

Floyd, remember, was the “prospect star” on the 2002 BlueClaws team, not his now-more-well-known teammate Ryan Howard. He went 11-10 on the 2002 BlueClaws with a 2.77 ERA and 140 Ks in 166 innings pitched.

His presence on the cover in this issue was because Baseball America was unveiling their 2003 Phillies top ten prospect list, as follows:

1. Floyd
2. Chase Utley
3. Marlon Byrd
4. Taylor Buchholz
5. Cole Hamels
6. Ryan Madson
7. Anderson Machado
8. Ryan Howard
9. Elizardo Ramirez
10. Zach Segovia

Utley was drafted in 2000 and would have been an original BlueClaw, but because he was polished as a college player, he was one of the few guys to skip Lakewood and went straight to Clearwater in 2001.

Byrd and Madson were on Piedmont (in Kannapolis) in 2000, the year before the BlueClaws existed. With Brett Myers, they made the playoffs and Madson and Myers lost games two and three 1-0 to Delmarva in the first round under manager Greg Legg. Legger said last year that was the toughest playoff exit for him, 1-0 with two big leaguers in his rotation.

Buchholz was with Lakewood in 2001, and threw the first pitch in BlueClaws history.

Hamels went 6-1, 0.84 in 13 starts with Lakewood in 2003 before a promotion to Clearwater.

Howard didn’t really blow up as a prospect until he hit .304 with 23 home runs in the Florida State League in 2003.

Machado and Ramirez never played with Lakewood.

Baseball America has named the Phillies as their 2009 Organization of the Year. You can read the full article through their website here. But I wanted to share what I felt was the interesting part of Jim Salisbury’s story:

But it is widely believed, by everyone from Amaro to Manuel to Gillick, that the trade that ultimately put the team on a path to success was the one that sent Bobby Abreu, one of the most offensively gifted players in franchise history, to the Yankees in July 2006. The trade was part salary dump (the Phils saved $20 million), part investment in the Rollins-Utley-Howard core.

The Abreu trade opened a spot for Victorino in right field and gave the team some of the athleticism Manuel had wanted. It also opened an outfield spot that Gillick filled the following offseason with one of his best moves, the signing of free agent Jayson Werth. It was a classic take-a-shot Gillick move, as Werth had missed the 2006 season with a career-threatening wrist injury. In 2009, the Phils’ three starting outfielders, Victorino, Werth and Raul Ibanez, Amaro’s first free agent signing, all were all-stars.

This is really a great point, and not something you would immediately think of as a turning point, especially when the Phillies have not gotten any big league games from the players they brought back.

We caught up with John Manuel of Baseball America earlier for a Q&A in regards to the top ten Phillies prospect rankings (click here) put out by BA on Monday. We thank John as always for his time.

Question: You had Brown atop the rankings last year. Obviously he had some competition for that top spot, but what did he do to maintain that ranking?

Q: Were people you talked to surprised at the way Kyle Drabek rebounded from his surgery?

Q: He was in Lo-A 18 months ago, but he’s 24 now and can obviously hit. How close is Michael Taylor to the big leagues (considering he’s got a tough OF to crack)?

Posted in 2009 BlueClaws, Baseball America, Past BlueClaws, Phillies, Q&As | No Comments »