2010 MLB Draft Results: Philadelphia Phillies Drafting for Future, but Whose?

Is Jesse Biddle the Philadelphia Phillies’ pitcher of tomorrow, or is he the next player to be dangled the next time the Phillies need help at the trade deadline?

Only time will tell.

In the three other major professional sports leagues, the annual player draft is an opportunity to discover what players will be on what teams in the immediate future. 

NHL, NFL, and NBA teams pick players in the draft who will be on the team and, for the most part, playing a role the following season.

Not so in the Major League Baseball First Year Players Draft.

Major League Baseball teams often draft players for one of two reasons.  They are either drafting players that can fill an anticipated need in the not so distant future or players that are good-looking prospects who can fetch a high bounty in return on the trade market. 

Generally, an already successful team will draft as much for the latter reason as the former.

It is unclear what the Phillies have in mind.  On the one hand, the Phillies are in constant need of pitching, and they pursued pitching three times in the first four rounds of the draft.  On the other hand, none of the three pitchers they drafted are without issues.

Pitchers that look to have developed skills but issues to work out make great trade bait.

Let’s have a look at the first three rounds of the Phillies’ 2010 draft.

 

First Round: 27th Pick Overall-LHP Jesse Biddle, 6’6”, Germantown Friends High School (PA)

See video of Jesse Biddle here .

At 6’6″ and 240 pounds, Biddle is obviously an exciting left-handed pitcher from a raw-materials perspective.  As a recent high school graduate, however, his short-term outlook is limited. 

He has a fastball that hits 92 mph and a change-up that might be his best pitch, though comes in a bit too fast to be successful when he’s throwing low-nineties with the fastball.

According to some scouts as well as MLB.com, Biddle has control issues and has room to grow on his fastball. 

For a team like the Philadelphia Phillies, these sorts of comments are likely to be ones that they will pass on to whatever team they try to trade him to two, three, or even four years down the road.

The upside here is, of course, that Biddle is only 18 years old—if he grows another inch, adds a couple of miles per hour to his fastball, and gets a little control of his pitches, he could develop into a very good major league left-hander.

For my money, I’m betting that’s exactly what Ruben Amaro says in July of 2012 when he’s shopping this guy for a deadline deal.

 

Second Round: 77th Pick Overall-RHP Perci Garner, 6’3”, Ball State

Perci Garner is a 6’3″ right-hander out of Ball State who also happens to be a former backup quarterback for Ball State. 

Garner works with four pitches, primarily a 92-94 mph fastball and a very good curve, along with a slider and a change-up.  Garner’s weakness at this point is his command, but his future appears to be in his own hands—he has the build and the raw skills to be a solid major league power-pitcher if he can develop his game, and his control, in the minors.

 

Third Round: 108th Pick Overall-Catcher Cameron Rupp, 6’1”, University of Texas

At 6″1″, 240 pounds, Rupp is a bit of an ox behind the plate. Rupp had a very successful career offensively at the University of Texas, maintaining an on-base percentage above .380 and hitting for some good power. He also threw out 30 percent of base-stealers during his college career.

The Philadelphia Phillies probably aren’t looking to replace Carlos Ruiz anytime soon, but if Rupp continues to develop as he has from high school—where he won the Aflac All-America Home Run Derby—to college, he could make it interesting in a few years—or he could be the next Crash Davis.

 

Fourth Round: 141st Pick Overall-LHP, Bryan Morgado, 6’3”, University of Tennessee

I’ve never completely understood the obsession in Major League baseball with left-handed pitching, given that most hitters are right-handed.  I particularly don’t get it for the Phillies, who never have to worry about facing two of the most lethal left-handed hitters in the game.

Nevertheless, the Phillies have took their second left-handed pitcher of the draft, Tennessee Volunteer Bryan Morgado, in the fourth round.  The Chicago White Sox took Morgado at 102nd in 2009, but he returned to school to improve his draft stock.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, Morgado had major issues—he only started five games, and in the twenty games he pitched overall he walked 36 batters in 52.1 innings pitched.  On the other hand, he also struck out 75 batters, for a 12.9 strikeout-per-nine-innings ratio, which is just wacky.

This is the type of guy whose strikeout ratios will mesmerize some people into thinking that he is just a little maturity away from being a dominant starting pitcher—think Juan Cruz and Kyle Farnsworth.

He has journey-man middle-reliever written all over him.

 

Fifth Round: 171st Pick Overall-RHP Scott Frazier, 6’7”, Upland High School (CA)

 

Scott Frazier is the stuff that broken dreams are made of—a lanky kid from Southern California with a nothing-but-potential 92 mph fastball and a good curve-ball that sits in the 73-75 range. 

In the first game of high school season, Frazier threw a 17-0 no-hitter in which he allowed only a walk and an error while striking out 18 batters.

With a bit of development, he could be the best of this bunch, but he isn’t in that place yet.

Frazier has been signed by Pepperdine and, in all likelihood, will be pitching for them next spring.

 

Overview

For as long as they play in Citizen’s Bank Park, the Philadelphia Phillies will be looking for pitching, and in the 2010 Major League Baseball First Year Player’s Draft, they certain grabbed their fair share. 

While all of these guys have potential, none of these guys are automatic future major leaguers.

Sometimes potential is a lot easier to sell on the trade market than it is to actually turn into success.  I suspect that the Phillies will use these players re-load their minor league system for the deadline deals of tomorrow.

Frankly, there’s nothing wrong with that.

 

Asher B. Chancey lives in Philadelphia and is a co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com .

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