With the holiday weekend pushing this week's roundup back to Tuesday, we're actually less than a week away from the annual Major League Baseball Draft. I'll be publishing a brief Q&A later this week that I've done with Andy Seiler from MLB Bonus Baby, the SB Nation blog devoted to the draft, but in the meantime, I want to point you to Andy's MLB Draft Notebook that he's offering through his website. If you have any interest in the draft at all, it's well worth the $9.99 that he's selling it for on the sidebar of his website.
I'm also going to point you to the rather lengthy (but excellent, as always) piece that James from Phuture Phillies wrote previewing the draft from a Phils' perspective. It's impossible to know what Marti Wolever & Co. will do with their first round pick at this point, let alone their later picks, but James takes a look at past draft history and tries to narrow down the list of possibilities.
Additionally, I think the prospect roundup will take a week hiatus while we focus on the draft from next Monday through Wednesday. So cherish this as the last roundup for -- gasp! -- 13 days, as we give Domonic Brown the week off and check in with some other Phillies prospects...
Phillippe Aumont, RHP, Reading: You generally want to hesitate to draw any overarching conclusions based on a 10-start sample, but it's hard not to think that the wheels have fallen off for the big righthander. Friday's start wasn't pretty no matter how you slice it -- 4.1 IP, 8 H, 7 R (6 ER), 4 BB, 2 K -- and in 44.2 innings on the year, he's now walked more batters (35) than he's struck out (34). Reports are that his sinker just isn't the same pitch out of the rotation, and while it's still too early to give up on Aumont as a starter, it's not exactly looking good right now.
Anthony Gose, OF-L, Clearwater: Ask and ye shall receive! I'm certain that Gose must have read last week's prospect roundup, because after I dinged his plate discipline, he tallied 6 free passes in 7 games (against 5 strikeouts). More generally, his .256/.320/.393 line so far this year (through 235 PA) compares favorably to his .259/.323/.353 line from last year, especially considering that the former is actually above average in the pitching friendly FSL. Another reason to be optimistic: Gose improved in last season's second half, and if he can replicate that feat this year, he'll make another jump up prospect lists.
Domingo Santana, OF-R, Lakewood: Santana ripped a homer on Memorial Day, but it's otherwise been tough sledding for the 17-year old, as he sports a .190/.341/.313 line through 182 plate appearances. The 15.9% BB is nice to see, but his ISO has tumbled to just .123, and he's still struggling to make contact, with a whopping 45.6% K. He's a prime candidate to head to the New York-Penn League once play kicks off there in a couple of weeks, and while there's no real reason to be concerned, it is fair to question whether the Phillies may have been a bit overaggressive in assigning him to Lakewood in the first place.
Jonathan Singleton, 1B-L, Lakewood: Ho hum, just another 13-for-30 showing since our last prospect roundup. The 18-year old notched a 4-hit game, a 3-hit game, and a pair of 2-hit games since last Monday, enough to garner a couple of mentions from prospect guru Kevin Goldstein over at Baseball Prospectus. At this point, I can't tell you anything that Singleton's season numbers don't, so here they are (through 77 PA): .409/.481/.682, 13.0% BB, 19.7% K, .273 ISO.
Drew Naylor, RHP, Reading: The Aussie was fantastic last Tuesday (9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K), and a little bit less so on Sunday (5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 2 K). His FIP is down to 3.25, though his peripherals still don't really wow anyone (5.9 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 40.2% GB). Naylor celebrated his 24th birthday yesterday, so he is what he is at this point, and I remain convinced that it's not enough to make it as a major league starter. The bullpen could possibly be another story, as he's always reportedly had a nice curve, and if he can add a few ticks to his fastball by working in shorter stints, perhaps his K numbers would inch back up into a more acceptable range.
Sebastian Valle, C-R, Lakewood: It's only been a few games, but we might be seeing the Mexican backstop starting to turn things around. Valle had a hit in every game he played in over the past week, going 7-for-19 since last Monday with a pair of homers (just his second and third on the year). What's more, he earned a two free passes while only striking out three times over that stretch. A .244/.293/.350 line is far from what was expected of him heading into the season, but the calendar has only now turned to June, so there's time for Valle to right the ship if he can build on his recent good stretch.
John Mayberry, OF-R, Lehigh Valley: Mayberry's 26 years old, so he is what he is at this point, but he's showing in Triple A this year that he has the ability to help a major league team. He's played all three outfield spots for the IronPigs, managed a .283/.345/.497 line, and still shows the ability to hit southpaws (.333/.383/.500 against them on the year, .283/.355/.495 in his minor league career). It's a shame that Mayberry doesn't have the ability to fake it defensively at third base a la Greg Dobbs, because with the way the bench is producing, it could use a jolt. Unfortunately, Dobbs isn't going anywhere anytime soon precisely because he can man third in a pinch. Sorry, Junior Mayberry, but the Phils will have to look elsewhere for a slump-buster.
Freddy Galvis, SS-S, Reading: The good news is that the switch-hitting shortstop posted a 9-for-24 week that included a double, a walk, and a pair of stolen bases. The bad news is that the mini hot streak only raised his season line (through 191 PA) to .225/.265/.253. Sure, he's 20 and in Double A, but we're talking about a guy with a career OPS of .556 in pro ball; I mean, even the much maligned Abraham Nunez has a career .675 OPS in the minor leagues. We can always hope that Galvis will make a quantum leap as a hitter, but it's probably not worth holding our collective breath at this point.
Mike Stutes, RHP, Reading: Stutes wasn't exactly fantastic in Reading's rotation last year, but the fact that he was double-jumped there didn't help matters, and the scouting reports on him seemed generally positive, so I thought he had a chance to take off if he was shifted to the bullpen (which I noted in my offseason prospect rankings). Stutes did manage to whiff 2 in 2.1 scoreless innings the past week, but the early returns on his career as a reliever have been underwhelming, to say the least: 7.5 K/9, 6.2 BB/9, 0.34 HR/9, 42.5% GB, 4.07 FIP. Simply put, the 24-year old needs to trust his stuff and start throwing strikes before he slips off the prospect radar completely.
Julio Rodriguez, RHP, Lakewood: Rodriguez was an 8th round pick of the Phillies back in 2008 out of a Puerto Rican high school, and the organization has brought him along slowly. Still just 19, the righthander appears to be on the Trevor May plan, as he joined up with the BlueClaws last week and delivered a solid outings on Wednesday (3.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 6 K) and Sunday (5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 BB, 6 K). It's way too early to draw any conclusions, but the 12 strikeouts in 8.2 innings is a good sign, as is Rodriguez's ground ball rate, which is at 55.6% in the early going (after sitting at just 37.8% in the GCL last year).