Phillies Fall and Winter League Stats

Off-season baseball has now just about wound down. The Australian Baseball League (ABL) has its championship series this weekend (today's game one is already over), but no one from the Phillies system is in that.

Basic stats for all Phillies in fall and winter ball (including the Arizona Fall League, which ran in Oct-Nov) are here, and the key rate stats are shown below.

Other leagues:

LIDOM = Dominican Winter League
LMP = Mexican Pacific League
PWL = Puerto Rican Winter League
LVBP = Venezuelan Winter League

As for the quality of these off-season leagues, talent levels can vary, but generally range from AA to AAA (the ABL is viewed as lower level):

Dominican Winter League - Mid AAA
Puerto Rican Winter League - Mid-Low AAA
Venezuelan Winter League - Low AAA/High AA
Mexican Pacific (Winter) - Low AAA/High AA
Arizona Fall League - Low AAA/High AA

Finally, similar to Spring Training stats, with small sample sizes and varying levels of competition, take all of these with a large grain of salt.

(Note that some players who are no longer in the organization are still listed with the Phillies in MLB's off-season stats. Nefi Ogando for example is with Miami, and I'm sure there are others as well.)

Some key stats are highlighted (green=good, orange=not so good). Those players included in Matt Winkelman's top 50 have their ranking on the far left.

BATTERS

Highlighting a few:

Australia: Rhys Hoskins led all Phillies in plate appearances with 217 (about 1/3 of a full season), and put up a solid .301/.369/.508 line. Cord Sandberg also played a lot, but didn't do much with it despite a .347 BABIP.

Arizona: Seems like a long time  ago now, but J.P. Crawford was shut down early after struggling in his first few games. He was replaced by Drew Stankiewicz, who did well in a brief showing. Andrew Knapp didn't hit the ball very well, but did walk a good amount (17.2%) in 64 PAs.

Dominican: Another catcher, Logan Moore, also got 64 PAs and made the most of them, hitting with power and walking 18.8% of the time. Roman Quinn batted only .212/.278/.313, but did steal 8 bases in 9 attempts.

However the biggest story to me here is this progression: 6.4%, 11.1%, 14.0%. Those are Maikel Franco's walk rates in the first half and second half of 2015, and in the Winter. Combining his 99 PAs since the all-star break with winter ball, in his last 192 PAs he's walked 12.5%, and for someone who hasn't walked much in the past, it's an encouraging sign.

Venezuela: Jorge Alfaro's return from injury and first results as a Phillie were not very memorable: a .619 OPS in only 44 PAs, with no walks and a 36.4% strikeout rate. Odubel Herrera continued hitting (and putting up ridiculous BABIPs, at .488), and Carlos Tocci was off to a good start in his first 39 PAs before having his hand broken by a pitch.

Puerto Rico: Dylan Cozens did OK (.740 OPS), while Jesmuel Valentin got some singles but not much else to finish at .611.

PITCHERS

Venezuela: Elvis Araujo walked more than he struck out in his 17 1/3 innings. MAG started 7 games and was mostly meh.

Puerto Rico: All three pitchers did well (Hoby Milner, Reinier Roibal, and Rule 5 pickup Daniel Stumpf), particularly the 27 year old Roibal in his 9 starts.

In only 25 more days the Phillies will face their first major league opponent of the Spring when they host the Blue Jays, and we'll start accumulating a new set of stats to mull over.

Also, one week from today: Truck Day.