Phillies Organization Has Four Prospects Ranked Within Top 50 in Baseball
By John Town
The Philadelphia Phillies shortstop-of-the-future has been named baseball’s top prospect
Baseball Prospectus, one of the top outlets for baseball prospects, released their midseason Top 50 Prospect List, naming shortstop J.P. Crawford, the Phillies first-round pick in the 2013 MLB Amateur Draft, as the best prospect in baseball. Crawford spent the past year in the top 10 across multiple rankings.
Prior to 2016, BP named Crawford the No. 4 prospect across MLB. With the players once listed ahead of him graduating to the major leagues, Crawford was the clear choice.
Crawford has split this season between AA Reading and AAA Lehigh Valley. He continued to show his advanced approach in Reading, posting a higher walk (18.1%) than strikeout percentage (12.7%).
After an initial slump with the IronPigs, Crawford has heated up at the plate. Since June 22, he has put up a .370/.424/.481 hitting split with a 166 wRC+.
Overall, four Phillies prospects made the list in the following spots, three of which came in the Cole Hamels trade:
- SS J.P. Crawford-No. 1
- OF Nick Williams-No. 23
- RHP Jake Thompson-No. 36
- C Jorge Alfaro-No. 46
In their prospect rankings, BP gave a description on why each prospect will likely succeed but also why each could potentially not succeed.
Here is what Baseball Prospectus had to say about these Philadelphia Phillies highly ranked prospects.
Next: J.P. Crawford, SS, Lehigh Valley