Phillies Baseball

The Phillies farm system is scarce.

It is so scarce that their Triple-A affiliate, Lehigh Valley, doesn’t even have a 10-game winner in their starting rotation.

The IronPigs are also a dismal 53-79 in their inaugural season and are 26.5 games behind the division leading Yankees. They are 29-36 at home and 24-43 on the road. Their winning percentage is a disappointing .402.

The closest to 10 wins on the team is lefty Brian Mazone (9) and lefty J.A. Happ (8). Happ saw time in the Majors with the Phillies as a starter and reliever earlier this season and as a starter briefly in 2007.

The Phillies front office needs to find a way, and quickly, to restock the farm system. They haven’t had many upper-tier prospects to trade each season for a big bat or hefty arm for the stretch run and it has hurt them.

They don’t have that uber-prospect ready to be called up, inserted into the starting lineup, and make an impact.

Joshua Outman and Adrian Cardenas were those prospects but the Phils shipped them and outfielder Matthew Spencer to the A’s for Joe Blanton. In my opinion, the Phillies gave up way too much for Blanton, who still hasn’t proved his worth in Philly.

Carlos Carrasco, Greg Golson, Lou Marson, Jason Jaramillo, Happ and some others are lurking in the wings for a call-up but Happ is the only one fans have heard from so far.

The team also deemed all of those players untouchable in trade conversations with other teams.

It is time for this front office to rebuild the farm system. They have tried recently, by drafting Kyle Drabek and Joe Savery.

They thought they had their third baseman of the future in Mike Costanzo but they traded him in the off-season to Houston for Brad Lidge. Pretty good deal by the way. Costanzo was then shipped to Baltimore for Miguel Tejada.

Now, the Phillies need to find a third baseman of the future, along with some more pitching. Every team needs pitching and so far Drabek and Savery have disappointed.

Drabek is recovering from surgery and Savery hasn’t been the lights out pitcher that the Phillies had hoped he would be.

Now is the time to rebuild the system with those can’t miss prospects that can net a big name Major League player or can make an impact at the Major League level soon after they are acquired.

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