Reading Fightin Phils feature four top Phillies draft picks

Randolph, Moniak, Bohm, Haseley at Reading end of June 2019
(photo credit: George Young Jr)

Many fans of the Philadelphia Phillies make the trip to FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading, Pennsylvania at some point. Roughly 75-80 miles northwest of Philly, those fans make the trip to watch the Reading Fightin’ Phils, the club’s Double-A minor league affiliate.

Minor league baseball has its own attractions, with frequent giveaways and other promotional activities. There is often access to the players that you rarely get in a big-league ballpark, and the seating is fantastic in a more intimate setting.

Recently there was something even more exciting for fans who were able to get to Reading. For the first time in the history of the franchise, four Phillies first round draft picks were all being featured in the Fightins lineup at the same time.

The Phillies top prospect, 22-year-old third baseman Alec Bohm, was the club’s first round choice at third overall in the June 2018 MLB Draft out of Wichita State. Bohm was promoted last Thursday from High-A Clearwater after tearing through four levels of the system since being drafted last year.

Bohm made his home debut in Reading with a fantastic performance on Thursday night. “It was an outstanding game, all-around (for Bohm),” said Reading manager Shawn Williams per The Reading Eagle. “He did it all here tonight.”

Bohm has slashed .331/.406/.535 with nine home runs, 32 extra-base hits, 42 RBIs, and 43 runs scored over 298 plate appearances across three levels this season. It was just announced that Bohm has been selected to play for the United States team in the prestigious MLB Futures Game as part of the MLB All-Star festivities next month.

Adam Haseley suddenly finds himself starting for Phillies, ready or not

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Series of unfortunate circumstances propel Haseley to the bigs

There has been no official announcement from manager Gabe Kapler, general manager Matt Klentak, or anyone else in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

But there is no other way to look at the present situation regarding the Phillies injury-depleted outfield. Against all odds, Adam Haseley has become the starting center fielder for a Philadelphia Phillies team that still hopes to contend for a National League East Division crown.

The center field position has been in flux for weeks. The year opened with Odubel Herrera beginning what appeared to be his fifth season as the everyday starter. At just 27 years old and with a contract that runs at least through the 2021 campaign, and with no other healthy candidates appearing ready in the organization, Herrera’s job appeared as secure as any on the team.

However, Herrera came up injured on April 17, just 17 games into the 2019 season. At that exact same time, the perennially injured Roman Quinn was ready to return to the team. Quinn immediately was inserted into the lineup in Herrera’s place.

As most anyone who has followed the team over the last few years could have predicted, Quinn didn’t last long. After just seven games, he came up injured once again. Scott Kingery, the super-utility player who the team believed was also capable of covering center field, also came down with his own injury issues.

This began a nearly two-week period in which the position was in flux. Andrew McCutchen was moved over from left field to cover center field most days. The problem there was that it left a hole in left field. Aaron Altherr‘s game had completely fallen apart, to the point where he was released. Nick Williams wasn’t hitting at all, and would eventually find himself shipped back to Triple-A.

Herrera finally returned from the Injured List on May 4, but he did not produce. Over 22 games and 70 plate appearances during the month of May, Herrera slashed just .175/.257/.302 with no homers, nine RBIs, and five runs scored. He was proving a black hole in the batting order.

And then it really began to completely unravel. Just over a week ago as the club returned home from a tough road trip, Herrera was arrested following a domestic assault incident at an Atlantic City casino hotel. He is now being investigated by Major League Baseball, and his career with the Phillies may be over.

For a second straight series a top opposition prospect bat debuts against the Phillies

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Brendan Rodgers was the third overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft

For the second straight series, Citizens Bank Park has been part of the introductory process to Major League Baseball for the top prospect of the Philadelphia Phillies opposition.

Earlier in the week, top Milwaukee Brewers prospect Keston Hiura made his big-league debut. The 22-year-old second baseman was the Brewers’ first round selection at ninth overall in the 2017 MLB Amateur Draft out of the University of California-Irvine.

Hiura went just 2-12 over his first three games, with both hits coming in his first start on Tuesday night. But all the California native has ever done is hit, wherever he has played. He was tearing up the Triple-A Pacific Coast League to the tune of a .333/.408/.698 slash line with 11 homers, 24 extra-base hits, 26 RBIs, and 23 runs scored prior to his promotion.

Last night in South Philly it was the visiting Colorado Rockies turn to break in their top prospect. Like Hiura, Brendan Rodgers is also an infielder who was their first round choice, going at third overall in the 2015 MLB Amateur Draft out of a Florida high school.

Also like Hiura, Rodgers had been tearing his way through the Pacific Coast League when he got the call. He was slashing .356/.421/.644 at Albuquerque with 20 extra-base hits, nine homers, 21 RBIs, and 34 runs scored.

Rodgers made his big-league debut with the Rockies on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park. (David B. King)

A natural shortstop, Rodgers is expected to play mostly second base in Colorado, the position at which he debuted last night. That is due to the presence of All-Star shortstop Trevor Story already in the lineup for manager Bud Black.

Watching talented young hitters such as this make their entry into the big-leagues, Phillies fans have begun to wonder, where is ours? When will a legitimate top young hitter again come out of the Phillies minor league system and establish himself as a force in Major League Baseball?

Phillies Nation places Alec Bohm at top of latest Phillies Top 20 Prospects rankings

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Alec Bohm ascends to the top of the Phillies prospect rankings

The Phillies Nation official Top 20 Philadelphia Phillies prospect ranking is being updated here based on a survey of select members of our current staff taken as Spring Training wound down back in late March.

Taking part in the survey were Editorial Director Tim Kelly, lead writer Matthew Veasey (yours truly) and staff writers Alec Whitaker and Drew Rhoades.

We each presented individual Phillies top 20 prospect lists. These were subsequently compiled into what you find presented below as our official ranking.

As always, the staff here at Phillies Nation follow the organization on a regular basis, from the lowest levels of the minor leagues on up through the big league club. We regularly read evaluations from industry experts and those who closely follow the team.

In forming our opinions we incorporate those of the scouts and industry experts from various sources including MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, Fangraphs and a variety of other respected outside resources. We also attend games in person at a number of levels and watch televised broadcasts of the big club and minor league affiliates. As often as possible, we work to see players and prospects actually perform on the field with our own eyes as well.

This latest Phillies Nation version of the current Phillies Top 20 Prospects is meant to present fans of the team with a clearer picture of the very best youngsters now moving through the organization’s minor league system.

Our usual standards applied: in order for players to be considered, they must have not used up their rookie qualifications of 130 big-league at-bats or 50 innings pitched with Major League Baseball.

To come up with each player’s ranking, I simply took each of our staffer’s lists and assigned a numeric point value based on those lists. A first place ranking from our staffer got you one point, a fifth place spot five, a 12th place spot got you 12 points and so on.

A dozen prospects found themselves on all four of our lists. You will find them as the No. 1-12 ranked prospects below. The next five from 13-17 were named on three of our four lists. The final three players at 18-20 were on two lists. Two other players were also named on two lists but ranked lower overall.

Full write-ups on the top 10 are supplied with 11-20 simply ranked. And once again as a bonus, players who were mentioned by at least one of our staffers but who did not make the overall top 20 are presented as well.

Director of Player Development Joe Jordan departs Phillies organization

Jordan has seen mixed results over seven years.

The Philadelphia Phillies announced on Tuesday that director of player development Joe Jordan would not continue with the organization. His exit from a position that he has held for the last seven years was swift and sudden.

“…last week I walked into Matt’s (Phillies GM Klentak) office and told him I didn’t think I was the guy to take this thing forward,” said Jordan per Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Much of what you need to know about the bottom line reasoning behind Jordan’s exit from what is essentially the traditional “farm director” position can be traced back to his hiring.

Jordan was hired by former general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. Over the last few years since Amaro was replaced by Klentak, the new Phillies GM has done what pretty much every new head of any organization does in all industries – bring in his own people.

Those people have included “new thinkers” like Klentak, well-versed in video and computer analytics. In a comprehensive piece on the changes, Matt Gelb of The Athletic named three of those individuals as assistant GM Bryan Minniti, minor league information coordinator Ben Werthan, and player-development coordinator Dana Parks.

Gelb described behind-the-scenes maneuverings involving an increased role for Minniti over the past year which likely helped lead to yesterday’s announcement:

“…Minniti, who was promoted to assistant general manager last offseason, oversees  the club’s player-development process along with amateur talent procurement. He has begun to exert more influence in how both departments are run. Two sources said Jordan was asked to take a reserved approach — more hands off — this season.”

The Phillies did not immediately name a new farm director. There are internal candidates, but the club has shown with many of its recent hiring’s such as manager Gabe Kapler that they are willing to search aggressively outside of the organization for new talent fitting their ever-increasing move towards an analytical approach to talent evaluation.

What all this means for the future is that the new director of player development will either be one of the newcomers, perhaps Parks, or will be a new hire from outside who fits that same mold.

At the big-league level, players such as Aaron Nola, Rhys Hoskins, and Scott Kingery came into and developed up through the organization during the Jordan years. They have brought not only long-term talent but are also providing the fan base with the first group of relatable and marketable players in years.Jordan’s tenure has resulted in a somewhat mixed bag of results.

There have been undeniable steps forward. The Phillies have a handful of minor league affiliates in the playoffs this season, and that minor league system has become respected throughout the industry.

There have also been stutter-steps and frustration from high draft picks and top prospects such as J.P. Crawford, Mickey Moniak, and Cornelius Randolph who also came into and have been developing through the Phillies organization during his tenure.

Though there certainly were behind-the-scenes frustrations, the public parting of the ways between Klentak and Jordan was amicable. The 56-year-old Jordan was quoted by Bob Brookover of Philly.com:

“It would not be accurate to say that I was opposed to analytics. But I think our organization was in some form of transition and it was time for me to move on. I’m not leaving Matt at all. I had a phenomenal experience with the Phillies.“

As the organization moves forward, fans of such an increased emphasis on analytics will be happy. “Old school” fans who long for days where the eyes and minds of grizzled veteran scouts watching players and filing reports led to decisions regarding on-field talent are likely to become more frustrated.

The Phillies appear to properly recognize that there is merit to both approaches in helping push the organization forward. Klentak is now leaning more and more on his own hand-picked lieutenants to do the job of overseeing the evaluation and development of ball players with an ever-increasing emphasis on statistical analytics.

Originally published at Phillies Nation as "Exit of Joe Jordan means more Matt Klentak analytics in Phillies player development"

Future at first, outfield should be competitive for Phillies

Cozens (L) and Hoskins (R) pushing for a shot with Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies moved yesterday to DFA both reliever Jeanmar Gomez and outfielder Michael Saunders. This should prove to be the beginning of a changeover in the roster and lineup.

The baseball industry has recognized for more than a year now that the Phillies minor league system has greatly improved. Talent is going to begin flowing to the big league team soon, likely at some point this summer.

Once that talent really starts pushing to Philadelphia, there are going to be some interesting decisions for the club to make. That is going to be especially true in the outfield and at first base. Three of those four spots appear taken, at least in the short term.

Center field is currently manned by 25-year old Odubel Herrera. A 2016 NL All-Star, ‘El Torito’ was signed to a contract his past winter that is guaranteed through the 2021 season.

With the Saunders trade, 26-year old Aaron Altherr should begin to see even more regular playing time. He has been perhaps the Phillies best all around player this season. Altherr is hitting for a .278/.352/.531 slash line. He leads the team with a dozen homers and 37 RBI, and his 32 runs scored is second on the club.

At first base, Tommy Joseph is second on the club with 10 home runs. After a slow first month, Joseph has gotten his hitting game together. Since May 1, the 25-year old is hitting .290/.348/.519 with 19 exta-base hits and 25 RBI.

The Phillies are giving time right now to veterans Howie Kendrick and Daniel Nava. They also have a pair of players recently up from the minor leagues. Those two, first baseman Brock Stassi and outfielder Cameron Perkins, are seen more as reserve/role player types.

Philadelphia Phillies Spring 2017 top ten prospects

Rhys Hoskins slugs way onto the Phillies Spring 2017 Top 10 Prospects list

Back in November of 2016, I provided my Philadelphia Phillies Top 10 Prospects ranking. At that time, I broke down each player with an individual scouting report.

While my Fall prospect list is more detailed, in the Spring the ranking usually will provide a much simpler straight-up ranking list. However, I will add some general commentary if there are major updates.

First, let’s take a look back at the Phillies Top 10 Prospects from the Fall of 2016:

10. Scott Kingery

9.   Kevin Gowdy

8.  Cornelius Randolph

7.  Ben Lively

6.  Franklyn Kilome

5.  Nick Williams

4.  Roman Quinn

3.  Mickey Moniak

2.  J.P. Crawford

1.  Jorge Alfaro

I also provided a listing of “near misses”, naming several prospects who fell just outside of the top ten. That included a link to each of the individual Top 10 Prospects ranking pieces.

Phillies Fall 2016 Top Ten Prospects: #8 - Cornelius Randolph

The 2015 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft would prove to be the final one for the Philadelphia Phillies under the regime of former general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.

With the first pick in that draft at 10th overall, the club surprised many. The Phillies selected 18-year-old Cornelius Randolph out of Griffin High School in Georgia.

Randolph was a Perfect Game First Team High School All-American in the 2015 season. He hit .526 with seven home runs and 18 RBI over just 17 games.

Ranked by Baseball America as the 20th best prospect entering the draft, I had predicted that he would go to the Kansas City Royals at 21st overall. The Royals had been all over him in the buildup to that draft.

A shortstop in high school, the Phillies almost immediately moved him to left field. It is likely his only path to the big leagues, as it will be his bat that is going to have to carry Randolph.

Reading Eagle: Phillies 2016 Top Prospects Survey

Over the last couple of seasons, especially over the last calendar year, a concerted effort finally began to completely rebuild the Phillies minor league system.

The results have been dramatic. Nearly every respected prospect evaluation resource places the Phillies organization near the top of their organizational rankings, and a number of the club's best individual prospects are featured across the most influential Top 50 and Top 100 lists.

Those changes to the young talent flowing through the organization have already begun to yield results at the big league level, as inconsistent as some of those youngsters may still be at this early point in their careers.

Pitchers Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff, Zach Eflin, Vincent Velasquez, and now Jake Thompson all entered the Phillies organization in the last two years through trades or the MLB Amateur Draft, and all have already debuted with the Phillies starting pitching rotation.

Among position players, Maikel Franco is in his first full big league season at 3rd base, Tommy Joseph is showing power at 1st base, and center fielder Odubel Herrera followed up his 2015 rookie campaign with an appearance in the NL All-Star Game this year.

Now a new, even younger group of highly regarded prospects is beginning to make their move, having reached the highest levels of the club's minor league system.

They are poised to make their own Phillies debut, some next month, some next year.

Pharm Report: Low-A Lakewood BlueClaws

The Phillies 'Low-A' level minor league club, the Lakewood BlueClaws, currently find themselves at the bottom of the South Atlantic (SAL) League standings in the North Division.

The BlueClaws are 16-24, which has them tied with the Marlins' affiliates in Greensboro for last place. Both teams trail the first place Hagerstown Suns (Nationals) by 10.5 games already.

Manager Shawn Williams' club has been hurt by the struggles of one of the Phillies top minor league pitching prospects at the lower levels, right-hander Franklyn Kilome.

Kilome thus far has an 0-4 record with a 7.30 ERA and a 1.99 WHIP. He has allowed 34 hits in 24.2 innings with a 25/15 K:BB ratio across his first half-dozen starts.

Named as our #7 Phillies prospect over at TBOH during the preseason, Kilome had a solid season a year ago with short-season Williamsport as a 20-year old during which he saw a major uptick in his fastball, leading to the lofty ranking.

Kilome struggled mightily with command and control issues during the season's opening month. In April, the righty went 0-3 with a 15.83 ERA and walked 10 batters over his first 9.1 innings.

However, things may finally be coming together for the high-ceiling pitcher who is now 21 years old.

Five Phillies Prospects in Baseball America Top 100

The Philadelphia Phillies have received more respect from yet another major prospect talent evaluation source.

On Friday evening, Baseball America released their 2016 Top 100 Prospects list, and the Phillies were honored to have five players named to those ranks.

For the few uneducated, Baseball America is a decades-old publication in both print and web media well-respected and widely recognized as one of the game’s best authorities and resources on minor league, prospect, and amateur coverage.

If you do the math, there are 30 Major League Baseball organizations. In order to at least be representative on any Top 100 list, a club would need to place at least three and preferably four players on that list.

Placing five names in the Top 100 also helps to highlight the reason that Baseball America has lifted the Phillies to #8 in their organizational rankings. 

The Phils not only have those five prospects on the way, but have depth down through the system, with a number of others who were certainly under consideration.

Baseball America Preseason 2016 Top 30 Phillies Prospects

The Philadelphia Phillies farm system is universally considered to be greatly improved, which reflected in new rankings released by a respected source.

Baseball America’s annual Prospect Handbook is being delivered all across the country. I received my copy yesterday, and reading online of others receiving theirs today. 

It is considered the bible of prospect evaluation by many, ranking each Major League Baseball organization, as well as ranking and commenting on the top 30 prospects in those organizations.

It would not be a surprise for most fans of the Phillies to learn that our favorite ball club has not fared well in recent annual organizational rankings by Baseball America. 

Since ranking 11th prior to a 2011 season that saw the team finish with its best record in franchise history, the Phils have tumbled, finishing 27th, 23rd, 22nd, and 22nd again over the last four seasons.

Looking Ahead to Phillies 2016 Outfield Mix

On April 6th, 2015 for Opening Day against the Boston Red Sox at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies starting outfield consisted of Ben Revere in left, Odubel Herrera in center, and Grady Sizemore in right field.

Six months later, on October 4th, the Phillies closed out the season hosting the Miami Marlins with a starting outfield of Darin Ruf in left, Aaron Altherr in center, and Jeff Francoeur in right field. During the game, Altherr slid over to left, and Herrera came on to play center field.

During the course of the 2015 season, Cody Asche started 61 games and played in 63 out in left field. 

With the trade of Revere to the Toronto Blue Jays at the July trade deadline, that made Asche, who began the year as the starting 3rd baseman, the player who had seen the most action at the left field position.

That 2015 outfield mix was a major change from the previous season. In 2014, the Phillies started Marlon Byrd in right field for 149 games, Revere in center for 141, and Domonic Brown in left field for 127 games.

Now as the club prepares to report for spring training in Clearwater in just three weeks, the outfield is again poised for significant changes. 

Gone are Byrd, Brown, Francoeur, Revere, and Sizemore. The outfield has been a disappointing mess for the Phillies at least since Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence were dealt away at the 2012 trade deadline. 

Reading Eagle: Phillies Top Prospects Survey Results

Back in August, I was contacted by Mike Drago (Twitter: @mldrago) of the Reading Eagle to participate in the publication's annual survey regarding the Phillies' top prospects.

The task was to provide my own personal Top 20 prospects list from the team's minor league system. 

Those were then pooled with the results of lists provided by twenty or so others who also closely monitor the team, and a Top 10 Phillies Prospects feature was released on August 30th.

One thing that became apparent from this effort was the obvious improvement in the number of serious prospects among the top players in the Phils' system. Another was the growing depth of that system. A third was that the team has a stud at the top who should be a future MLB All-Star in shortstop J.P. Crawford.

For the first time in a long time, there has been clear improvement in the Phillies farm system. That now shows in both the quality and quantity of the club's better prospects, but also in the on-field success of the minor league clubs. 

As Drago said in his piece: "After a wild series of trades, and back-to-back  strong drafts, the once-lagging Phillies minor league system now ranks among the strongest in baseball."

The AA Reading Fightin' Phils finished in 1st place in the Eastern Division of the Eastern League with a record of 80-61, and are now playing in the Eastern League Championship Series. 

The High-A Clearwater Threshers finished on top of the overall standings in the Florida State League's North Division with a 79-58 mark.

At the A-ball level, the Lakewood BlueClaws finished in 3rd place in the Northern Division of the South Atlantic League with a 73-65 record. 

The Williamsport Crosscutters finished in 1st place in the short season New York-Penn League's Pinckney Division at 46-30 overall.

Even the team's Rookie level Gulf Coast League affiliate finished strong, with a 36-24 record, good for 2nd place in the Northwest Division. 

Only at AAA Lehigh Valley, where the IronPigs lost 10 of their final 14 to finish at 63-81 did the minors system experience a losing record.

Overall, the Phillies minor league affiliates compiled a 377-319 record. In their mid-season update, MLB Pipeline ranked five Phillies' prospects among the top 89 in the game. Those are the best results the system has produced in a long time.

Here is the Reading Eagle Top 20 Phillies Prospects. In parentheses, I show where I placed that player on my own submitted list. 

Following that are the players who I submitted on my own personal list who did not make the overall Top 20 final ranking.

1. J.P. Crawford, SS (1)

2. Jake Thompson, P (3)

3. Nick Williams, OF (2)

4. Cornelius Randolph, OF (4)

5. Jorge Alfaro, C (6)

6. Roman Quinn, OF (7)

7. Franklyn Kilome, P (5)

8. Zach Eflin, P (8)

9. Ricardo Pinto, P (NR)

10. Carlos Tocci, OF (17)

11. Aaron Altherr, OF (NR)

12. Andrew Knapp, C (19)

13. Jerad Eickhoff, P (14)

14. Scott Kingery, 2B (10)

15. Nick Pivetta, P (15)

16. Ben Lively, P (9)

17. Darnell Sweeney, 2B (NR)

18. Rhys Hoskins, 1B (NR)

19. Alberto Tirado, P (16)

20. Malquin Canelo, SS (20)

My listees who didn't make the combined Reading Eagle poll Top 20: Tom Windle (11), Matt Imhof (12), Alec Asher (13), Jesse Biddle (18).

 I really like Windle to develop as a lefty arm who can help out of the Phillies pen as soon as next season. 

Also, my list was submitted before Asher's big league performances, which have been a major turnoff.