Philly Front Office

Many of us during the baseball season get excited over prospects. You dream on players who are about 20 years old to one day save your team or maybe be part of a trade for a star. Some are destined for greatness, others you may never hear of again. All that being said, you will not believe how the story of the Phillies, and really baseball as a whole, has been written by the Top 100 Prospects of 15 years ago. First, take a look at the list below and try for your jaw not to dislocate.

Click for the Top 100 (Phillies prospects in RED, future/former Phillies in BLUE)

1. Bryce Harper – Nationals
2. Mike Trout – Angels
3. Jesus Montero – Yankees
4. Domonic Brown – Phillies
5. Julio Teheran – Braves
6. Jeremy Hellickson – Rays
7. Aroldis Chapman – Reds
8. Eric Hosmer – Royals
9. Mike Moustakas – Royals
10. Wil Myers – Royals
11. Jameson Taillon – Pirates
12. Dustin Ackley – Mariners
13. Shelby Miller – Cardinals
14. Manny Machado – Orioles
15. Matt Moore – Rays
16. Michael Pineda – Mariners
17. Freddie Freeman – Braves
18. John Lamb – Royals
19. Mike Montgomery – Royals
20. Chris Sale – White Sox
21. Jacob Turner – Tigers
22. Desmond Jennings – Rays
23. Brandon Belt – Giants
24. Martin Perez – Rangers
25. Lonnie Chisenhall – Guardians
26. Dee Strange-Gordon – Dodgers
27. Chris Archer – Rays
28. Zack Britton – Orioles
29. Kyle Drabek – Blue Jays
30. Gary Sanchez – Yankees
31. Casey Kelly – Red Sox
32. Tyler Matzek – Rockies
33. Jarrod Parker – Diamondbacks
34. Kyle Gibson – Twins
35. Randall Delgado – Braves
36. Travis d’Arnaud – Blue Jays
37. Mike Minor – Braves
38. Brett Jackson – Cubs
39. Jon Singleton – Phillies
40. Brett Lawrie – Blue Jays
41. Manny Banuelos – Yankees
42. Jordan Lyles – Astros
43. Dellin Betances – Yankees
44. Jenrry Mejia – Mets
45. Aaron Hicks – Twins
46. Tony Sanchez – Pirates
47. Alex White – Guardians
48. Trey McNutt – Cubs
49. Wilin Rosario – Rockies
50. Billy Hamilton – Reds
51. Christian Colon – Royals
52. Jose Iglesias – Red Sox
53. Nick Franklin – Mariners
54. Jason Kipnis – Guardians
55. Zack Wheeler – Giants
56. Brody Colvin – Phillies
57. Jean Segura – Angels
58. Simon Castro – Padres
59. Wilmer Flores – Mets
60. Miguel Sano – Twins
61. Drew Pomeranz – Guardians
62. Zack Cox – Cardinals
63. Grant Green – Athletics
64. Devin Mesoraco – Reds
65. Nick Castellanos – Tigers
66. Danny Espinosa – Nationals
67. Anthony Ranaudo – Red Sox
68. Danny Duffy – Royals
69. Jake Odorizzi – Royals
70. Jarred Cosart – Phillies
71. Jake McGee – Rays
72. Derek Norris – Nationals
73. Yonder Alonso – Reds
74. Jurickson Profar – Rangers
75. Anthony Rizzo – Padres
76. Tyler Chatwood – Angels
77. Cesar Puello – Mets
78. Andrew Brackman – Yankees
79. Stetson Allie – Pirates
80. Nolan Arenado – Rockies
81. Matt Dominguez – Marlins
82. Tyler Skaggs – Diamondbacks
83. Chris Dwyer – Royals
84. Tanner Scheppers – Rangers
85. Brent Morel – White Sox
86. Craig Kimbrel – Braves
87. Andy Oliver – Tigers
88. Josh Sale – Rays
89. Zach Lee – Dodgers
90. Rubby De La Rosa – Dodgers
91. Chris Carter – Athletics
92. Hak-Ju Lee – Rays
93. Arodys Vizcaino – Yankees
94. Jonathan Villar – Astros
95. Deck McGuire – Blue Jays
96. Wilson Ramos – Twins
97. Drake Britton – Red Sox
98. Austin Romine – Yankees
99. Matt Davidson – Diamondbacks
100. Joe Benson – Twins

Baseball America Top 100 prospects team by team breakdown

Can you believe the names on that list? Bonkers. Let’s start with the Phillies.

Phillies at the Time

There is a solid amount of red on that list, but the names inspire mostly groaning instead of pride. Domonic Brown, the one-time hope and savior of the Phillies just never really got it going other than one month in 2013. Later in the year after some promotions, he even became the #1 player on this list. Back then he was seen as a 5 tool player, but damn near all of those tools never reached their potential. The real killer part was that he was the one prospect GM Ruben Amaro refused to trade. Brown did make his debut that year, but after just a few months, Ruben decided an upgrade was in order and traded two more prospects, Jonathan Singleton and Jarred Cosart, for Hunter Pence. Rounding out the quadrumvirate was Brody Colvin. He had a bad season in High A that year and eventually stalled out in Reading.

July 29, 2011: Phillies vs Eagles

Not seen in Phillies red are several former Phillies prospects who were previously included in trades, including: Kyle Drabek, Travis D’Arnaud, and Jonathan Villar. Drabek and D’Arnaud were previously used as the big prospect pieces in getting Roy Halladay to Philadelphia while Villar was part of the Roy Oswalt trade.

While it would have changed the trajectory of the entire organization had Brown become a star, at least none of the prospects traded away would eventually bite us. D’Arnaud had the best MLB career, but even he topped out only as a solid regular.

Future Phillies

Here is where things get fun. Can you imagine telling you of 15 years ago that Bryce Harper would spend more than half his career with the Phillies? You’d be more incredulous about that than the time travel part of the situation. That he would likely go into the Hall of Fame with a Phillies cap on would be unfathomable.

Nearly as crazy as Harper in red pinstripes is that two pitchers on the list would each start two opening days for the Phillies in the future, one we’d be happy about and the other not so much. That’s not the crazy part. The crazy is that if I told you one of them was Jeremy Hellickson, you’d respond with “ok, so who is the one we don’t like?” Oh, poor naive you from 15 years ago, scroll down to #55, the greatest free agent signing in Phillies history. Excuse me? Zack Wheeler went from the Giants to the Mets for Carlos Beltran then missed most of 3 years due to injury before getting seemingly overpaid by the Phillies at 5/$118m. He’s another who could see the Hall with a red cap on.

Look at some of the other names: Jean Segura, Nick Castellanos, and Craig Kimbral all were part of the best Phillies teams of the last 15 years. If you had told me back then that Matt Moore and Kyle Gibson were here too, I would probably would have lost my damn mind.

Phillies at Giants: Remembering the 2011 Trade Deadline

Hall of Famers

In Harper and Wheeler, the Phillies landed two of the best names on this list. While Harper is already a HOF shoe in, Wheeler is moving closer and closer to that designation with every start. Who else from the 2011 Top 100 is getting in?

How about the second coming of Mickey Mantle, injuries and all? Mike Trout was climbing the WAR list like no tomorrow over his first 8 seasons, racking up 72 WAR. Just those first 8 seasons were top 100 all time and more than Derek Jeter, Tony Gwynn, and Manny Ramirez would put up in their whole career. Even though the second half of his career wasn’t as kind, Trout is first ballot HOF.

Who else do we have? There are two of the best closers of all time in Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman, two positions players who are the best of their generation in Nolan Arenado and Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado isn’t too shabby either, and finally Zack Wheeler’s pitching nemesis in Chris Sale. That’s 9 likely Hall of Famers on the list.

Every Year With Mike Trout

The Rest

This list is also riddled with names of guys who were a big part of the story of baseball over the last 15 years. Anthony Rizzo was part of the Cubs curse breaking World Series team (with Chapman). Zack Britton was the best closer in baseball for awhile. The Royals had 9 players on this list and won the World Series in 2015. Not on that team was 2013 ROY Wil Myers who was part of not one, but two blockbuster trades one of which brought KC the title and the other brought Trea Turner to Washington. Michael Pineda and Jesus Montero were once traded for another in a swap that no one won. Other trades that are remembered for the wrong reasons are Shelby Miller first to the Braves for Jason Heyward then to the Diamondbacks for former #1 pick Dansby Swanson, and Chris Archer sent from the Rays to the Pirates for top prospects Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows, and Shane Baz. Sadly, the list also lost Tyler Skaggs.

All in all, the list produced 5 ROYs (Harper, Trout, Kimbrel, Myers, and Hellickson), 6 MVP awards (Trout, Harper, and Freeman) plus a ton of Top 5 finishes (Trout, Machado, Freeman, Arenado, and Rizzo), but surprisingly only 1 Cy Young award for Sale despite him and Wheeler being among the best in baseball for years. It is a hell of a list.

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One last thing. The reason for this post was for more than the cool memories. Right around the time the original list came out, my dog was born. Bodie (named after Patrick Swayze in Point Break and if I ever get another dog his name will be Johnny Utah) was born in the best Phillies season ever and was here through both good times and bad. He was older than my kids and my marriage, and I will love him forever. He passed away yesterday at 15 years old. Here’s my guy the day I got him…

List: Baseball America

Stats: Baseball Reference