The Phillies Have a Lot of Minor League Pitchers Under Contract

Agreed, and a lot of them, like Scott Elarton, are guys where you’re just kicking the tires — it’s a 50/50 at best between “reasonably useful depth guy” and “will retire from baseball after or during ST.” If he turns out to be okay, they’ll have no trouble cutting ties with a guy like Nate Bump, who has been a textbook AAAA guy for as long as I can remember.

Some of them are filler fodder as well – Whatcott’s a 26-year-old in A+ that they used as their closer late in the year (45 games played, 26 games finished). I think he was the short reliver/setup man before that. Only 63 IP with a 1.254 WHIP and 6.6/2.6 K9/BB9 ratio.

Out of the three A+ prospects (Colvin, Rodriguez, May), I’d say Colvin’s the most likely to make the majors, Rodridguez is the most likely to have a long MLB career if he makes it, and May has the highest ceiling.

Colvin: 20 years old. 116.2 IP, 1.483 WHIP, 6.0 K/9, 3.2 BB/9
Rodriguez: 20 years old. 156.2 IP, 1.009 WHIP, 9.7 K/9, 3.2 BB/9
May: 21 years old. 151.1 IP, 1.242 WHIP, 12.4 K/9, 4.0 BB/9

I think Colvin’s numbers were deflated both by injury and some tweaks they’re trying to make to his mechanics (he has a cross-body delivery). He has a low-to-mid 90s fastball with ridiculous movement (sometimes uncontrollable), a good curveball, and a mediocre changeup. He’s also a true athlete, as he was considered a potential OF prospect with good speed and middling power.

I imagine most people here know I like Rodriguez. Low 90s fastball, mid 70s changeup, and a slow-ass curveball. He’s got a rather hinky delivery that seems to be deceptive. I don’t think he’ll be anything more than a #3 long-term, but if he can get more control, he’s got junkballer stamped on his forehead. Rodriguez had the second-lowest ERA and second-lowest WHIP in the FSL last year (the Mets’ Darin Gorski was lowest in both).

May…I have a feeling he’ll either be great or a complete and total bust. He won’t be a #4 or #5 starter. He’ll either be a #2, a closer, or top out at low AAAA. He’s got a 4-seamer, a curve, and a changeup, and appeared to be tooling around with a 2-seamer late last year.

One sleeper prospect is Pettibone.

Pettibone: 20 years old. 161.0 IP, 1.137 WHIP, 6.4 K/9, 1.9 BB/9
He’s almost the opposite of all the other prospects – great control, but only his fastball is currently a plus pitch. The fastball has a bit of sinking action on it, which batters have been driving into the ground. He had a 1.30 GO/AO ratio, which was actually the lowest of his career. Of the big 3 prospects, only Colvin was at that level of groundball creation.