Phillies Fall 2016 Top Ten Prospects: Near Misses

Over the past week, I have been releasing a countdown of the Philadelphia Phillies Top Ten Prospects as of Fall 2016.

That Phillies top prospect list shows that this vastly improved organization has a tremendous mix of talented youngsters coming at a variety of positions.

The current top ten includes three pitchers, a catcher, a second baseman, a shortstop, and four outfielders. At least three of these prospects appear ready to impact the team in the 2017 season.

But there were others who didn’t make the cut, but who were close. Players who are legitimate big league prospects. 

Certainly a few of them would have made the top ten list in the estimations of other talent evaluators. Let’s examine a few of the prospects who just missed my list.

Pharm Report: High-A Clearwater Threshers

The Phillies ‘High-A’ level minor league club, the Clearwater Threshers, currently find themselves in first place in the Florida State (FSL) League standings in the North Division.

The Threshers are 26-16, which has them a half-game up on the Tampa Yankees at the top of the standings, though the club has lost their last two games.

Manager Greg Legg was drafted as a player by the Phillies in the 22nd round of the 1982 MLB Amateur Draft out of Oklahoma State University.

Legg made 22 plate appearances in the big leagues with the Phils across eight games as a utility infielder in the 1986 and 1987 seasons, so he is very familiar with the dreams of his young charges.

The Threshers recently got a bump in their lineup with the injury rehabilitation of Phillies' utility player veteran Cody Asche, who is working his way back from an oblique injury.

Asche has hit just .167 over his first 18 at-bats while playing exclusively in left field. Jordan Hall with CSNPhilly.com quoted Asche just this past Monday on his position switch last year from 3rd base to the outfield.

Phillies Top 10 Prospects from TBOH

Shortstop J.P. Crawford is the Phils top prospect

The Philadelphia Phillies website "That Ball's Outta Here" (TBOH) released their Phils Top 10 Prospects list yesterday.

The release came just after the trade of Jimmy Rollins, in which the team received a pair of pitchers, lefty Tom Windle and righty Zach Eflin, each of whom made it onto the ranking.

TBOH named shortstop J.P. Crawford, the heir apparent to Jimmy Rollins as the shortstop of the future, as the Phillies top overall prospects. Crawford has received that same designation by nearly all national outlets. He is considered to be about two years away from the big leagues.

Here are those Top 10 Phillies prospects. You can read the full TBOH article, including an evaluation on each of the prospects, at this link:

TBOH Phillies Top 10 Prospects

1.   J.P. Crawford, SS
2.   Maikel Franco, 3B
3.   Zach Eflin, RHP
4.   Aaron Nola, RHP
5.   Tom Windle, LHP
6.   Carlos Tocci, CF
7.   Dylan Cozens, RF
8.   Matt Imhof, LHP
9.   Roman Quinn, CF
10. Jesse Biddle, LHP