Five Phillies prospects on Baseball America’s updated Top 100 list

Five Phillies prospects made it onto Baseball America’s updated top 100 list, and the order has been shuffled since the offseason.

Thursday Baseball America released their updated top 100 list after just over a month into the regular season. In that time, some of the top prospects have graduated to the major leagues. Five Phillies prospects made the list, one more than the list set before the season.

Here are the Phils who made the list with their position:

Mickey Moniak (No. 13)J.P. Crawford (No. 19)Jorge Alfaro (No. 32)Sixto Sanchez (No. 61)Rhys Hoskins (No. 88)

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Moniak, Alfaro, and Sanchez all moved up on the list, while Hoskins is the newcomer. Crawford actually fell from No. 12 to No. 19 between February and now.

The order of the Phils prospects has changed notably compared to the offseason list, with Moniak being the team’s new No. 1 according to BA. Nick Williams also drops out of the top five with Hoskins and Sanchez both moving up a spot. Alfaro stays in the same spot at No. 3.

Crawford’s drop is almost certainly due to his rough start to the 2017 season. Through 31 games, he has a .155/.279/.182 line with 25 strikeouts and 19 walks in 130 plate appearances. He has done a little better in May, but it is still by no means good. Crawford is still 4.7 years younger than the average player in the International League, but his struggles are still worrisome.

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Meanwhile, Moniak is off to a solid start at Low-A Lakewood. He has a .280/.333/.364 line through 31 games so far. He has just one error in 61 chances in center field. Moniak isn’t off to a blistering start, but it’s certainly better than Crawford’s.

Alfaro is off to a great start at Triple-A posting a .859 OPS in 26 games with Lehigh Valley. He has three home runs and 14 RBI so far. While strikeouts have been an issue – he has 32 so far through 110 plate appearances – if he continues to hit like this, we can live with it.

Sanchez has overpowered Low-A hitters through five starts, striking out 28 in 24.1 innings with just three walks. His ERA for the year stands at 3.70 with a 0.904 WHIP. He hasn’t gone past the fifth inning yet, but few players do at that level. Considering Sanchez is doing this at 18 years old – 3.8 years younger than the average South Atlantic League player – he is definitely worth getting excited about.

Perhaps the hottest hitter the entire farm system for the Phils this season has been Hoskins. Through 33 games in Triple-A, he has a .348/.422/.652 line. His eight home runs and 26 RBI are both tied for tops in the International League. His 21 strikeouts and 14 walks in 128 plate appearances are both excellent numbers.

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The team will be patient with calling up Hoskins, but his mercurial rise in the last year and strong hitting will give the front office a lot of pressure from the fan base to call up the hot-hitting prospect.