The Philadelphia Phillies 2008 First Year Player Draft: Where Are They Now?

For the Philadelphia Philles, 2008 was quite special for the Philadelphia Phillies, as I’m sure you know. But long before the team captured the World Series title in October, the front office and its team of scouts set out to find the next great Phillie in the Rule 4 (or First Year Player) Draft, in the month of June.

So by now, I’m sure you’re thinking, “What’s the relevance for this article, Greg? Who cares about 2008?” Well a couple of recent highly touted promotions  got me thinking, which may or may not be a good thing. Earlier in the week, the Kansas City Royals promoted one of the best prospects in all of baseball when they called up slugging first baseman Eric Hosmer to the big league club. Through six games, he’s posted a line of .333/.444 /.714, with a couple of home runs.

So, as a fan of baseball in general, I was rather impressed by this, and I took to the Internet to find out exactly where he was drafted. Needless to say, I was even more impressed that he was drafted just a couple of seasons ago, and then even more impressed to see the level of talent from that draft to have already reached the Major Leagues.

Along with Hosmer’s emergence, a number of other teams found core pieces to their current roster in this draft, the most notable of which was probably the fifth overall selection, when the San Francisco Giants selected Buster Posey—now a World Champion.

Those weren’t the only two high-profile players selected in the first round of the 2008 draft though. Several other major league regulars were picked in this draft, and moreover, a number of blue-chip prospects that were traded for big name players were picked here.

Be it as a big prospect or productive player, a number of recognizable names were selected in this draft, including Tim Beckham, Pedro Alvarez, Brian Matusz, Yonder Alonso, Gordon Beckham, Aaron Crow (who would not sign), Jason Castro, Justin Smoak, Brett Wallace, Ike Davis, Andrew Cashner, Daniel Schlereth, Lonnie Chisenhall, Casey Kelly and even Gerrit Cole, who could be the first overall pick in this year’s draft.

So as the die-hard Phillies’ fan that I am, this looked to be an extremely productive draft to me, and I was left wondering, as we suffer through a lack of production on the big league roster, what happened to the guys that the Phils picked in this draft. So I decided to do some exploring, and at first glance, the results are ugly.

Their first pick in this draft came in the first round, as the 24th overall selection. The Phils chose a shortstop out of Salisbury School in Connecticut by the name of Anthony Hewitt. I suppose the good news is that he is still within the Phillies’ system.

After drafting Hewitt, the Phils’ immediately moved him from his natural shortstop position, finding him a new home at third base. The thought was that they were grooming their third baseman of the future, but needless to say, he isn’t going to be playing for the big league club any time soon.

In fact, he hasn’t even been able to stick at third base. Hewitt has bounced around between third, the outfield and even spent time as the team’s designated hitter, but just could not light a fire under his bat. In his only full season (2010), he posted a slash line of .202/.243 /.327, with 11 home runs.

Following the selection of Hewitt, the Phillies picked again in the supplemental round after losing outfielder Aaron Rowand to the San Francisco Giants in free agency the prior winter. So with the 34th overall pick in 2008, the Phils’ took an outfielder by the name of Zachary Collier out of Chino Hills High School in California.

Much like Hewitt, Collier has been a bust thus far in the Phillies system. Once a highly touted prospect, he has fallen through the system like a rock, surpassed by the talented outfielders coming through. He missed the entire 2010 season thanks to injury, and his return to the baseball field in 2011 has been slow. To date, he’s posted a line of .208/.313/.333 with the Low-A Lakewood BlueClaws, and with numbers like that, he won’t be moving through the system any time soon.

With picks like those two and the amount of talent in this year, the 2008 draft had to be a complete bust for the Phillies, right? Wrong. Though they may not have found that “can’t miss” prospect, the Phils did select a number of interesting players.

One thing that the Phils certainly did do was bolster the level of pitching talent in their system. In the third round, they selected a crafty right hander by the name of Vance Worley out of Long Beach State, and from that point forward, drafted a number of talented, but under-the-radar, pitchers that would become the base of their system, including Jonathan Pettibone, Trevor May, Colby Shreve, Julio Rodriguez, Michael Stutes, Brian Rosenberg, Michael Schwimer, Jordan Ellis and Jarred Cosart.

The one thing missing from this draft was a position player of importance. After failing with selections like Hewitt and Collier, the Phillies really didn’t hit on any of the position players they selected in this draft. One intriguing name, however, is Cody Overbeck, who is lighting the Phillies’ system on fire this season. He isn’t thought of much as a prospect, but he has made progress this season with the AA Reading Phillies. Through 31 games, he’s posted a line of .278/.325/.548, with nine home runs. It’s worth mentioning that he hit just 13 home runs in all of 2010.

The front office did what it does best in this draft, they drafted players they can use. Whether it’s developing crucial prospects to be part of the Phillies in the future or as major trade chips, the Phils have a knack for drafting interesting talents. 2008 was not an exception, when they drafted a couple of players who would become parts of major trades—Jason Knapp (sent to the Cleveland Indians in the 2009 Cliff Lee trade) and Anthony Gose (sent to the Houston Astros in the 2010 Roy Oswalt trade).

So fear not, Phillies fans. I admit that while I’m a bit disappointed the Phils couldn’t find a legitimate, over-the-top prospect like Eric Hosmer in this draft, they went for quantity instead of quality. And while normally that may not be a good thing, it seems as though they’ve managed to draft a quantity of quality prospects.

Let’s not forget. It takes more than one player to form a team, and the Phillies are well prepared to form an elite team both now, and in the future.

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