There has been a lot of speculation and debate over the weekend on whether or not Justin Crawford or Otto Kemp should be called up to join the Phillies after a frustrating series sweep at the hands of the Brewers culminated thanks to a pair of brutal defensive plays late to blow the game over the weekend.
With Crawford and Kemp getting attention, here’s a look at prospects on the Top 30 list per MLB Pipeline for the club and how they are doing as June gets underway.
Who’s Hot?
Andrew Painter, #1
Fans are waiting for the fifth-best prospect in all of baseball to toe the rubber at Citizens Bank Park after a long journey back from Tommy John surgery. He is certainly trending in the right direction to find a spot in the rotation around that “July-ish” time frame the team has been hammering since Spring Training. In his last start against a good Norfolk lineup, Painter allowed two earned runs on five hits in five innings of work while walking one and striking out five.
He is not mowing down lineups, but he certainly has been successful and has shown why he is arguably the best pitching prospect in the game with his arsenal. Additionally, Painter has dealt with some adversity in his starts which is what you want the phenom righty to deal with prior to coming to the bigs. In four Triple-A starts he is 2-0 with a 2.65 ERA in 17 innings of work racking up 20 strikeouts to just seven walks while opponents are hitting .219 against him.
He makes his next start on Wednesday.
Aidan Miller, #2
After a sluggish start to the season where he was dealing with some soreness after being hit by a pitch in his knee, the talented shortstop has turned a corner starting in the middle of May. Since May 11, the 20-year-old is slashing .313/.387/.463 with an .849 OPS in 18 games. From May 11-24, he had a 10-game hitting streak. He has four, two-hit games over his last five contests.
In April, Miller hit just .204 with a .314 OBP and slugged just .311. His month of May was a total turnaround slashing .284/.364/.432 with a .795 OPS.
Justin Crawford, #3
There might not be a hotter hitter in the system than the #3 prospect for the Phillies than Crawford. Over his last 16 games, he has picked up a hit in 15 of them, slashing .368/.442/.485 with an OPS of .927. He has also swiped nine bases while being caught just once. Despite the high ground ball rate at 63.9%, the speedy Crawford just continues to get on base racking up the hits and is second in the International League with 69 hits only behind teammate Otto Kemp who has 70.
On the season, Crawford his hitting .337 which is good for fourth-best in the International League while his .409 on-base percentage is good for 12th. He also is third in the league with 21 stolen bases.
Eduardo Tait, #4
Tait has been extremely consistent with Low-A Clearwater and over the last month, the catcher has hit to the tune of .322 while getting on base at a 37% clip. He has collected 29 hits in 22 games during that span including seven doubles, a triple, and two home runs while driving in 17. At just 18 years old, he is one of the youngest players in the league and has not been overmatched. He has the second-most RBIs in the circuit with 35 and fourth with his .497 slugging percentage.
Dante Nori, #6
The 27th overall pick in last year’s draft is starting to get acclimated to professional baseball. He has hit safely in 10 of his last 14 games primarily playing centerfield for Low-A Clearwater. At 20 years old he will look to use his 55-grade hit tool to help him navigate his first full season in the system.
Aroon Escobar, #13
Generating a lot of buzz, Escobar is getting close to earning a promotion to High-A Jersey Shore or even Double-A Reading depending on how aggressive the Phillies want to be. Recently named a Top-100 prospect in baseball according to Baseball America, the 20-year-old from Venezuela has done nothing but hit so far this season. In 44 games, the infielder is slashing .324/.421/.533 with a .954 OPS. He currently is on an 11-game hitting streak and has a five-hit game under his belt this season.
On Tuesday, he belted a pair of home runs for his second multi-homer game of the season.
Otto Kemp, #24
The Kemp mania has died down a bit, but the former Division II product’s bat has still been productive in the top of the order for the IronPigs after posting a .952 OPS in May. Over his last three weeks, Kemp is slashing .324/.397.574 with a .971 OPS to go with four homers and 17 RBIs. If he continues to swing the bat the way he is and if Weston Wilson is unable to provide more at the plate, Kemp can force his hand into the platoon role in left field with the big-league club.
Who’s Not?
Griffin Burkholder, #7
A talented player out of high school from Virginia, Burkholder is looking to get his footing in his first full season as a pro. Selected in the second round by the Phillies his speed is his best tool currently graded at a 70 (scale goes 20-80). The speedy outfielder is returning from a hamstring injury that sidelined him in the same game he tripled in his first-career professional at-bat last season. Burkholder’s first game this season was not until April 26 and he has only played in 19 games so far this year hitting .203 but he has shown some power. Of his 14 hits on the season, he has six doubles, a triple and two home runs.
Gabriel Rincones Jr., #10
After turning heads during Spring Training, Rincones Jr. had a lot of momentum coming into the season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Hitting .252 with a respectable .325 on-base percentage in his first 35 games, the outfielder is looking to bust out of a slump. In his last 15 games, the 24-year-old has just four hits over his last 41 at-bats.
The silver lining however is that he has more walks (19) than strikeouts (14) during the cold spell posting a .393 on-base percentage. Rincones Jr. seems to be turning a corner though homering in back-to-back games hitting a grand slam and walking three times in the series finale at Norfolk on Sunday and leaving the yard in the series opener against Charlotte on Tuesday.
Bryan Rincon, #14
Rincon is in his fourth season with the organization and still looking to find his stride after he reached High-A Jersey Shore in his age-19 season. Now 21, the Venezuela native is looking to find that success again. He is hitting just .174 with the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in 43 games this season.
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