Five Phillies prospects land on updated Baseball America Top 100

Five Phillies prospects are on Baseball America’s top 100 prospect list for April 2018, the same amount as the offseason list.

Baseball America released their updated top 100 prospect list for April 2018 Friday as they re-organized their list post-spring training and Opening Day. Five Phillies prospects landed on the list:

• SS J.P. Crawford (15)
• RHP Sixto Sanchez (25)
• 2B Scott Kingery (30)
• RHP Adonis Medina (86)
• LHP JoJo Romero (100)

For the most part, each prospect is at the same place on the list as they were when BA released their offseason list. Crawford and Kingery moved up one spot, while Medina dropped two spots.There were no mercurial rises or falls due to what happened in the spring.

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This may be the last time Crawford and Kingery are on the list. They both have been playing nearly every day since the season started and could certainly blow through their rookie eligibility by the end of the month. They and many other players will graduate from the last, leaving room for plenty of new prospects in the next month or two.

BA rated Sanchez’s fastball as a 70 out of 80 on the scouting scale.

His changeup is rated as plus, his curveball as above-average, and slider as average. Sanchez’s plus command is what really separates him from many other pitching prospects. BA praises his easy delivery.

Sanchez will start this year back in High-A Clearwater, where he ended last season. Between Clearwater and Low-A Lakewood, Sanchez had a 3.03 ERA, 0.958 WHIP, and 4.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 18 starts.

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Medina works off of his plus fastball-changeup combination and strong command. He also has an above-average slider, giving him a strong three-pitch mix. He doubled his strikeout rate last year in Low-A Lakewood while also lowering his walk rate. This year he will hope to continue that success in Clearwater.

JoJo Romero took one of the biggest jumps among Philadelphia’s prospects last year, showing increased velocity and better secondary pitches. He now sits comfortably in the low-90s with his fastball and can run it up to 96. Romero’s changeup and curveball are both above-average to plus pitches. He also possesses a slider that could be a decent pitch in time.

His command is solid as well as he only walked seven percent of hitters last year.

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Romero starts this year in Double-A, less than two years after being drafted in the fourth round out of Yavapai junior college.