{"id":75203,"date":"2014-04-07T18:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T18:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rcntv.rcn.com\/?p=75203"},"modified":"2023-04-19T20:37:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T20:37:30","slug":"the-sportstalk-shop-phillies-minor-league-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/the-sportstalk-shop-phillies-minor-league-outlook\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  Phillies Minor League Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Much has been made about the \u201cadvanced\u201d age of the <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/index.jsp?c_id=phi\">Phillies <\/a>as the 2014 season commences. Regardless of the degree of success of the parent club, it is essential for the long-term success of the organization that the team produces major league talent through its farm system.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some thoughts and expectations from some of the Phillies minor leagues players themselves and then more insights on players within the Phillies organization to watch this summer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Phillies Prospects 2014 Expectations\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m7vIpsMJVwE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here are more opinions on the Phillies\u2019 prospects\u2026<\/p>\n<p>1) <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=596748#gameType='S'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=1&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Maikel Franco<\/a> has spoken often about working hard and doing what\u2019s necessary to improve and become a major league ball player. While he is the most advanced, top prospect within the Phillies organization, he is very focused on trying to improve his overall game. He showed no preference to which position he will ultimately play and said he feels comfortable at playing both first and third base, stating that footwork and improving his mechanicals for the pitchers\u2019 throw-overs are his main defensive goals to work on this season. I was impressed by the lack-of-ego persona he\u2019s exhibited in our conversations this spring and he is a very likeable future star that Phillies fans can easily root for.<\/p>\n<p>2) There is now a sign in the Philadelphia Phillies\u2019 clubhouse that says \u201cRespect the Game\u201d, and that message is being echoed by the players throughout the team\u2019s farm system. <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=519237#gameType='S'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=1&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Cameron Rupp<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=519330#gameType='S'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=1&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Steve Susdorf<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=433217#gameType='S'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=1&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Andres Blanco<\/a> have all repetitively made mentions to me about playing the game the \u201cright way\u201d and the need to make good decisions and to play hard at all times.<\/p>\n<p>3) <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=446264#gameType='S'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=2&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Barry Enright<\/a> is one of the \u201colder players\u201d (28) that the Phillies brought in to add starting pitching depth. While his numbers last year were not impressive (a ERA north of 7.00 with the Angels\u2019 Triple-A team last season), I was struck by how much he talked about a young pitcher\u2019s ability to pitch when he doesn\u2019t have his best stuff. Instead of complaining or using that as an excuse, he stressed (and I have a feeling new pitching coach Bob McClure has emphasized) the need to try to throw strikes consistently even when you don\u2019t have good stuff on the mound. Eliminating walks is a major need for this organization\u2019s pitchers, and it\u2019s important that the players seemed to be getting that message.<\/p>\n<p>4) The Phillies look to be in good shape behind the dish. At many levels of the organization, the Phillies can boast two solid catching options. Rupp heads the list of catchers and spoke about the importance of having competition to make everyone better. He also identified some solid goals to work on defensively this season, to go along with his impressive offensive potential. Veteran <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=425542#gameType='S'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=1&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Koyie Hill<\/a> also started the year at Triple-A and has major league experience with several teams. Two former blue-chip prospects, <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=571830#gameType='S'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=1&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Tommy Joseph<\/a> and Sabastian Valle, still have potential and will share time at Double-A. Andrew Knapp has perhaps the highest ceiling of all the young backstops in the organization and Deivi Grullon is looking to build on a solid season in the Gulf Coast League last summer.<\/p>\n<p>5) I continue to have the same opinion of Jesse Biddle as I did midway through last season. Like in the limited times I saw him pitch at Reading last season, he needs to develop that consistency (there\u2019s that word again) in throwing strikes to reach the parent club. I don\u2019t believe he will be the next <a href=\"http:\/\/philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com\/team\/player.jsp?player_id=430935#gameType='R'&amp;sectionType=career&amp;statType=2&amp;season=2014&amp;level='ALL'\">Cole Hamels<\/a>, as I\u2019ve heard some fans assume, and I think he\u2019ll be more of a #3 or a #4-type of pitcher in the major leagues. I would love to be proven wrong as the lefty does have impressive stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Which players do you think can be future stars with the Phillies? Which players would you like to see playing at the Big League level right now? Post your comments below or email us at <a href=\"mailto:RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com\">RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com<\/a> with your opinions and baseball observations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Much has been made about the \u201cadvanced\u201d age of the Phillies as the 2014 season commences. Regardless of the degree of success of the parent club, it is essential for the long-term success of the organization that the team produces major league talent through its farm system. Here are some thoughts and expectations from&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[21,24,42,43,82,112,145,252,290,323,421,470,503,523],"class_list":["post-75203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop","tag-andres-blanco","tag-andrew-knapp","tag-barry-enright","tag-baseball","tag-cameron-rupp","tag-cole-hamels","tag-deivi-grullon","tag-jesse-biddle","tag-koyie-hill","tag-maikel-franco","tag-phillies","tag-sabastian-valle","tag-steve-susdorf","tag-tommy-joseph"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: Phillies Minor League Outlook - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: Phillies Minor League Outlook - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Much has been made about the \u201cadvanced\u201d age of the Phillies as the 2014 season commences. 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Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/author\\\/rcntvchris\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The SportsTalk Shop: Phillies Minor League Outlook - ATVN","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The SportsTalk Shop: Phillies Minor League Outlook - ATVN","og_description":"&nbsp; Much has been made about the \u201cadvanced\u201d age of the Phillies as the 2014 season commences. 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