Philadelphia Phillies Prospects: Pitchers-a-Plenty, Hitters' Remorse

Where in the heck did Kyle Kendrick, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, and Cole Hamels come from? 

It can't be from the Phillies farm system. That place has been barren for decades! 

Let me look it up...wow, these players were all drafted by the Phillies in the top five rounds. That is a very good team there, and with some role players, they could win their division. 

Hold on, they did!

Okay, enough with the sarcasm. Contrary to popular "expert" opinions, the Phillies farm system has coughed up some excellent major league talent in the past few years. 

MVP talents to be exact. Yes, talents is plural. Want to know what other farm system has produced two MVP's for their parent team within the past 10 years? There aren't any.

However, that was years ago, and it proves it is almost impossible to predict the course of every prospect. Some you're going to hit on, others you will wonder where they came from or where they went. 

Kyle Kendrick, Robinson Tejeda, Chris Coste—these three were tagged to have little to no future in the major leagues, but each got there with the Phillies, Tejeda dealt after his first year to Texas, and Kendrick and Coste with pivotal roles on this and last season's club.

The 2008 farm system will, once again, be tagged as one of the worst in baseball.  Admittingly so, our stock of quality batters is, to say the least, thin.  Some may wonder why we dealt Costanzo, who seemed to be our hope and future at third base. 

You have to look one level lower at Adrian Cardenas. This 20-year-old hit .318 and slugged .442 with Lakewood last season. He was selected to the Futures game during the MLB all-star break and was an all-star for the South Atlantic League. 

He has recently been moved from SS to 2B to allow another prospect to get his chance.  Don't think twice if he's moved from 2B to 3B when he arrives in Reading or the Lehigh Valley.

Other bats to take a look at are catcher Lou Marson and outfielder Greg Golson. Other than that... good luck in the draft. Personally, I'm pulling for Gary Burnham to get a call.

Pitching is at a surplus at this moment. Pitchers such as Scott Mathieson, Josh Outman, Kyle Drabek, and Carlos Carrasco could one day help anchor the Phils starting pitching or be a key piece in a big trade. 

Carrasco has already thrown two no-hitters, however they were both seven innings long.  Outman is an outstanding lefty who has developed a new delivery which disguises his fastball, changeup, and curveball.  He went 12-7 in A and AA last season with a 2.99 ERA.

Pitchers who could see time this season on the major league level are Jay Happ, Joe Bisinius, Fabio Castro, and Zach Segovia. Also, for a wild card, someone to look for in a few years could be Carlos Monasterious.  He may just turn out to be the biggest piece of the Bobby Abreu trade.

The Phillies are looking good with pitching, but hitters are few and far between as of right now. They need a good draft and need to pick up some position players in the early rounds. 

Are they the best? No way, but they aren't as far behind as the experts like to think.