It’s hard to say without reviewing all the Top 20 lists, but I’d guess the Phillies are probably bottom third right now. In a few months Dougdirt takes all of Sickels’ scores and ranks systems based on the scores, that and BA’s Org rankings will be the best indicators.

But, yeah, it’s slim right now. I started messing with my top 30 Phillies prospect list a week or so ago, in an effort to get over feeling bad about the playoff exit. It didn’t help. Last year’s top 5 seemed really, really strong, then it dropped off gradually through the top 15. This year it’s May, then a step down to Biddle, bigger step down to Valle, virtual cliff to everyone else.

I know he is probably a bit overrated (e.×. some people say possible hall-of-famer), but I would be pretty happy with an omar vizquel-like

I get the impression there’s some depth in the low minors (there is almost nothing of value at the top aside from relievers) but it’s too early to tell if any of those guys will be blue-chip prospects. If Amaro were to start leaving the farm system alone and let it build itself back up, then I think it would be very solid again in 2-3 years (Sickels seems to agree). But right now, with Brown off the board and multiple other blue-chippers having been jettisoned, there’s just not enough there.

One really troubling thing is that the top guys are almost entirely pitchers, and 3 of the top 10 are righty relievers. Aside from guys they just drafted, the system is really barren of position players. A Brendan Ryan type of guy isn’t bad or anything, but you don’t want to build your farm system around guys who can’t hit. Consider how much a guy like Brendan Ryan goes for on the open market. Vizquel was highly regarded, but I think that really is an absolute-best-case scenario. Valle is another guy who is okay, but probably not going to be a franchise-changer. May and Biddle could keep the rotation strong for years to come, but those relievers probably aren’t going to make much of a difference. Recall how much Carlos Silva and Geoff Geary really affected the Phillies organization, despite their effectiveness.

Rodriguez is intriguing. Not physically dominant – his fastball was only 92-93 in the game I saw him pitch, but the difference in speeds between his pitches is ridiculous. I think he still needs some work on locating the off-speed stuff, but if he can figure that out, he’ll be somewhere between a decent #3-#5 pitcher. I almost want to make a Moyer comparison just based on the speed of his off-speed stuff, but don’t mistake that for any other comparison; Rodriguez isn’t going to be a paint-the-corners junkball specialist, and his fastball actually breaks the speed limit.

From the “others” list:

Cesar Hernandez struck me as a 2B version of Galvis – good glove, no bat. The BA may improve, but I don’t think the SLG will. He doesn’t have the frame to get much bigger, and I think he’ll always be a slap hitter. He batted either 8 or 9 every time I saw him, with Hanzawa the other bottom-of-the-order batter.

I’m not sure how Ruf made the list. 25 years old, playing A+, and didn’t seem like a significantly better hitter than Savery while playing 1B and DH.

Matches mine (for whatever that’s worth).

I think it’s partly a sign of how down the system is and partly how good the draft was.

Clock’s about to start ticking on James this year. Bello could be a nice back-up, but only if he has some flexibility as a position player. Or we could trade him.

Carlos Rivero? Not really a top 30 prospect. He’s on the 40 man, but I doubt he’ll still be on it at Thanksgiving.