Weekly Phillies Prospect Roundup 14-20 April

Hot:

Carlos Tocci - What I said last week:

"Yes, he reemains young for the level, but .125/.125/.175 with a nearly 30% K rate is pretty awful. Significant improvement needed on his line as this is a somewhat alarming start."

What he did this week: .500/.542/.500, 1 SB, 3K, 1 BB, 1 HBP. That's a good line. No power, but that isn't Tocci's game and it's not expected to really be his game in the future either, so no big concern there.

Willians Astudillo - To the delight of our resident Polar Bear, Astudillo had one hell of a week: .533/.533/.800, 0K, 0 BB, 1 HR, 1 2B. I don't think he'll ever be a Major Leaguer, but he's damned entertaining to follow where ever he does end up.

Jesse Biddle - Last year, Jesse Biddle had an exemplary start in his fourth game that got everyone pretty excited. He pitched 7.0 Innings against the Harrisburg Senators and struck out an absurd 16 Batters, while walking 2 with 1 Hit. In Biddle's fourth start in 2014 he pitched 7.0 Innings against the Harrisburg Senators. He struck out 11, walked 1 and allowed 2 hits. In both games he allowed 3 baserunners and put up rather dominant numbers. Now to just figure out a way to do that in the other 25 Starts and against teams as well as the Senators.

Ken Giles - Not much to expound on here, Giles continues to dominate. His control is certainly a good sign, but don't count on him just yet. Giles has a longer history of control issues than his current history of improvement. It's best to let him settle in, build confidence and solidfy these changes before rushing him to face significantly advanced hitters who may force him to adjust again before he's established this new skill.

Aaron Altherr - Good to see his name on this list again as he started his rehab assignement in Clearwater last week. Going .280/.379/.480, suggests he's ready to try Reading. His BABiP is a little high, but his other numbers are pretty reasonable and he's showing excellent patience so far.

Zach Collier - Collier could be in Phily this summer if he shows progress with his bat and would certainly make Mayberry completely obsolete as he's faster, better Defensively and at least has the potential for similar power profile and hitting. Collier went .333/.444/.533 this week. Now it's only 1 week and Collier teases with stretches like this from time to time, but he's 23 and it's not crazy to think he could be figuring it out.

Dylan Cozens - Cozens struggled mightily out the gate in the first 10 days of the season. He's still striking out too much and only walked once this week, but he had his first Homer of the season and his .318/.348/.500 line looks pretty good and hopefully it's a good confidence builder and the K's come down as he adjusts.

J.P. Crawford - I'll confess that in my draft previews last year I was fairly lukewarm on Crawford. No fault of his, but HS Shortstops as a whole are really volatile draft picks and First Rounders almost never pan out as Shortstops. Well, Crawford's bat is much better than I expected. This week he sported a .333/.417/.333 line. Not much power, but he had above average power the first week and half, so it kind of balances out. He also sported a nearly 1:1 K:BB ration which is stupendous. He had a few errors catching and throwing variety. That will need to be followed, but every prospect has fielding blips, so likely nothing much of a red flag there.

Zach Green - This may be the least Zach Green line you'll see all season, but he's succeeding with it right now, so I'm not complaining: .316/.458/.316. That's right, Zach Green put up a line I'd expect from Carlos Tocci. Good patience, no power and lots of contact, with a Stolen Base. I'd suggest some kind of Freaky Friday scenario where both Green and Tocci reached for the same bat and switched bodies, but I'm like 45% sure that's probably not the case here.

Samuel Hiciano - Remember preseason when I predicted a big breakout with lots of power? Well, the power is not quite there yet, but a damned nice line this week. Hiciano went .286/.500/.357 with a double, 5 K, 5 BB, 1 HBP. Excellent patience from a 20 year old Power hitter. I think I might have slept on Hiciano a bit in my Top 30, as I left him out due to his injury and my aversion to short season breakouts. It's early, but there's a lot to like here.

Cameron Perkins - He's not particularly strong Defensively yet, his swing is ugly, he's fairly averse to walks, but all he does is hit. Perkins makes a ton of contact (his K rate is only 13%, which mitigates his 5.5% BB rate some) and while his BABiP is obscenely high, even a 100 point drop will leave him in pretty good shape. This week he went .375/.444/.625 with 3 K and 2 BB. I'm not sure there's a hotter player in baseball right now.

Cold

Larry Greene, Jr. - .125/.125/.188. It's only a week, but that line stinks. Greene usually does well drawing walks, but drew none this week, and, to damn with faint praise, the silver lining is a 25% K rate this week, down from his 36% last year.

Gabriel Lino - Lino picked up an absurd 5 passed balls in a little over a week (he had 10 total in all of 2013 and seemed to be improving in this area). It may be time to think about another spot on the diamond for Lino.He wasn't great standing next to the plate either sporting a .167/.215/.500 line.

Perci Garner - Calling him cold is probabnly a bit strong, but the Enigma went 4.0 Innings with 0 K, 2 BB and 1 H. It's hard to know what to make of the 25 year old. On one hand his future is probably the bullpen, on the other, that would be a fairly uninspiring line for a MLB bullpen.

Others of interest

Kelly Dugan - Dugan missed the week after being hit in the hand during an AB on the 13th. He'll be back in the lineup tonight for Reading.

Mikael Franco - There's been much handwringing over Franco's start and that includes this past week, but his actual numbers for the week don't look half bad: .278/.350/.333. The power's not really there yet and he struck out more than he normally does, but he got on base and he made better contact this week. Some struggles were expected and he's spending the whole year in Triple-A anyway, so nothing to get worried about, it looks like he might be starting to come around a bit and hopefully he'll adjust to get the power back with the shorter hand load.

Brian Pointer - I picked Pointer for a breakout this year. The first week he didn't disappoint. Honestly he didn't diappoint this week either, in spite of his .158 BA, he drew 6 walks to get to a .360 OBP. Pointer is never going to hit for a high average, but his K rate and BB rate have both improved (SSS warnings abound). I don't like the trend for his Line Drive rate though. Still a solid week and after his nightmares with hitting in Lakewood, this is all positive.