Baseball Prospectus Top 10 Phillies Prospects for 2015

Well, We may as well tackle the list first. You can read the full writeups here. It's worth checking out, they give a solid take on tools, projection, strengths/weaknesses, etc.  So, here's the list:

1. SS J.P. Crawford
2. RHP Aaron Nola
3. 1B/ 3B Maikel Franco
4. LHP Yoel Mecias
5. LHP Jesse Biddle
6. C Deivi Grullon
7. RF Kelly Dugan
8. CF Carlos Tocci
9. LHP Elniery Garcia
10. OF Dylan Cozens

So let's address the first Question most readers will have: Where the hell is Roman Quinn? Answer: Hell if I know. Now, I can see people ranking Quinn a little lower in their Top 10. There are concerns about how his hit tool will play in higher levels as Quinn is a somewhat free-swinging-Ground Ball machine, not dissimilar to Ben Revere. That said Carlos Tocci is listed 8th and I see Quinn as faster, better present defender, better present hitter with more power and it's not like he's much older than Tocci, himself a free-swinging-Ground Ball machine. As I write this, no has asked yet in the comments about the exclusion of Quinn, but if updates are made, they'll be added to the comments of this article.

Now, on to the second question many readers will have: Who the hell is Elniery Garcia? Well, some may know him, if you read Jay's excellent daily updates. He's kind of a poor man's Yoel Mecias. He's a short, slightly built LHP with a good Fastball and developing secondary offerings. Unlike Yoel, Garcia pitched as a 19 year old in the GCL, where he's a little older than most competition. Personally, I was figuring Garcia into somewhere in the 20-25 range on my list, so his name making an appearance this high originally struck me more than Quinn being left off (even Garcia looks a little surprised in his picture in the article, as if he's saying "Really? Are you sure about this?").

Baseball Prospectus also lists 3 prospects on the rise every year. This year they are: Cord Sandberg, Aaron Brown and Matt Imhof. Sandberg's write-up was of particular note:

The easiness of the swing sticks out, though the heavy pull nature to his approach and off-balanced attacking of secondary offerings are equally visible. It’s a longer developmental road for Sandberg, but one that can lead to a projection as a regular with the unlocking of his hit tool potential as experience builds.

 Sandberg's numbers weren't great this year and I think a lot of reader's may have been down on him after a second hot start and big cool off, but this is what makes Scouting Reports so big. From the numbers you might look and think Sandberg's a guy who just can't hit, but the scouting indicates the tool is there, it just needs time to develop. That's not a guarantee, as prople loved Collier's potential and Mith Waldings potential as well, but the potential to develop is there, so don't jump off the bandwagon yet.

A few other mild surprises:

No mention of Luis Encarnacion or Jose Pujols. BP usually love big high-risk, high-reward guys, and those 2 are the biggest in the system. Yoel Mecias at #4 is a bit of an aggressive ranking. Keep in mind though that Mecias could end up a better Pitcher than both Biddle and Nola. It's not likely, but if someone wanted to argue that with a slight improvement in control Mecias could be a top #2 or borderline #2 Starter, that argument is sketchy, but not unreasonable.

Bottom line, there is some talent on the farm, but a lot of work to be done to rebuild the MLB team and not all the pieces are in the system to do that right now.