Winter Leagues Still Alive with Dwindling Number of Phillie Prospects

The deadline is approaching for MLB teams to pick the prospects they want to protect before another team steals them.

Yes, that can happen.  Baseball is weird.  The Rule 5 Draft is baseball’s way of telling you that nothing is safe, not even that guy you thought nobody wanted.  Yeah, that guy.  I know, right!  Weird.  Remember when the Phillies stole Michael Martinez from the Nationals?  We sure showed them!  Anyways, yeah.  Here are our Winter League prospects, going from hottest to coldest.  Sort of.  They should all be safe, but like I said, the Rule 5 Draft is scary.

Darin Ruf (OF)

120 AB, 31 H, 8 2B, 10 HR, 27 RBI, .258/.368/.575

Another league, another home run record Darin Ruf just has to snuff out.  **Sigh**.  A power-starved lineup like the Phillies could certainly use a young monster in the fifth or sixth spot, blasting dingers like some sort of guy who has become unstoppable for no reason.  But without a DH role to fill, Darin will have to play in the field, a matter that is joked about by many.  Last week’s update included some humorous quotation marks around Darin’s position, as if he didn’t actually play it.  It was all very funny, and we all had a good laugh.  Look at you, laughing just remembering it.  Well it’s not funny.  If we force it to be a serious thing, then maybe it will become one.

Meanwhile, Darin doesn’t even care.  He just wants to go home for Thanksgiving, Venezuelan home run records be damned.

He has too much power for even him to care about.

Freddy Galvis (SS)

126 AB, 40 H, 5 2B, 2 3B, 4 HR, 14 RBI, .317/.353/.454

Heeeeey, what’s up Fre–holy shit, look at those numbers.  They’re all higher than Darin’s, except for the home runs, and even that Freddy balances out by getting hits that aren’t home runs once in a while.  Has Freddy Galvis learned how to hit?  Are people going to start taking him seriously as a third base option?

Ruben Amaro already has had secret phone conversations with his father about playing Freddy at third this winter.  This is so shifty it just might work.  Or fail.  And no one will ever know.  Because of how shifty it was.

Tyson Gillies (OF)

51 AB, 15 H, 2 2B, 1 3B, 4 RBI, .294/.357/.373

Last week, Tyson was hitting over .320, sitting pretty.  17 at-bats later, his average is below .300 and he’s back in America.

Those numbers up there are his finishing stats for Winter Ball, meaning he did cool down a bit in the stretch, but let’s keep in mind that he’s probably getting a bit gassed from trying to make up for lost time and also eating at Panda Express.

Sebastian Valle (C)

50 AB, 10 H, 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .200/.255/.360

Meanwhile, in Mexico, Sebastian Valle has taken a turn for the sub-Mendoza line.  His average has dropped 35 points and he’s only notched two hits in that time.  Of course, we’re only talking about a week.  But.  Damn.

Justin Friend (RHP)

16.2 IP, 4.32 ERA, 8 ER, 8 BB, 17 K

Justin, of the 1.32 ERA last week at this time, has seen some hard times.  On Thursday, he entered a game in the eighth, with La Guaira Tiburones down 7-4.  After surrendering a lead off double, he recorded an out, then intentionally walked the next guy, and then–single, single, strikeout, double.  When he left the field, four earned runs in 0.2 innings had left his numbers a bit cock-eyed.

But Justin was a distracted.  Based on his Twitter account, he was in the middle of orchestrating a garage sale in another country.  His bike didn’t sell for the $150 price tag but apparently somebody bought his pants.