Philadelphia Phillies: Post-Spring Training Report Card for Top 8 Prospects

While spring training is a way for teams and roster players to prepare for the upcoming season, it also gives prospects a chance to get experience at the big league camp and, in some instances, audition for a job with the major league club.

For the Philadelphia Phillies, they invited a handful of their top prospects to camp, some of which were there with a shot to earn jobs, while others were just there so that the team could take a look at its best and upcoming talent.

Of those invited, eight in particular stood out and emerged as top prospects. They include pitching stars Adam Morgan, Jonathan Pettibone and Ethan Martin, future infield types in Cesar Hernandez and Cody Asche and the organization’s two best catching hopefuls in Tommy Joseph and Sebastian Valle.

Also in camp was Darin Ruf, who solidified himself as a top prospect with a record-breaking season at Double-A Reading. He was invited to camp with a legitimate shot to become the Phillies’ starting left fielder but fell short, as he finds himself still learning the position he spent just weeks having the chance to prepare for.

While Ruf is still a work in progress, his is a special case. Meanwhile, the other seven guys in camp came forward—some in leaps and bounds—to showcase their ability to the organization’s top executives.

So considering spring performance and minor league track records, here are the post-spring training report cards for each of the Phillies’ top eight prospects.

The grades given to each player are based on five factors. Both hitters and pitchers are judged on the basis of their ETA to the major leagues, skill in most need of work and developmental progress in terms of minor league progression and their spring training sample.

For hitters, they are also graded on their power rate and contact/strikeout rate. For pitchers, they are graded on swing-and-miss stuff and the ability to get hitters out.

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