2019-2020 Winter Leagues

andyb 2019-11-18 14:21:37 UTC #84

And we lost to Mexico 3-2. Bohm was 0-4. Jo Adell with a HR. He's been the best player on the US team most of the way.

Apparently there are 2 more chances to qualify. One spot in an Americas tournament that will include teams like Cuba and the Dominican in March. And then one more worldwide tournament later on. Who knows what kind of roster the US would be able to put together at that point in Spring Training though. It will be interesting if even Bohm is available in March. He won't be on the 40-man at that point, but will the Phillies want to disrupt a potential fast track Spring Training that could put him in Philly in June or July?

andyb 2019-11-18 20:35:37 UTC #85

It has been a really slow offseason for Phillies playing internationally. Grullon and Canelo are the only 2 to have played in the Dominican and Grullon only got 14 ABs the first couple of weeks and have not played since. Canelo is also a minor league free agent now.

Puerto Rico started this weekend and Jeff Singer gave up a run in his first appearance. Not sure if others are scheduled to play later.

While Latin America is slow (no Venezuela for MLB organization players this year), Australia looks to be well represented. Season starts Wednesday and the Phillies have sent a large contingent of players to Adelaide: Logan O'Hoppe, Mitchell Edwards, Cole Stobbe, Curtis Mead, Rixon Wingrove, and Ben Aklinski are all on the roster. Add in Kyle Glogoski on the Aukland NZ team and Josh Tols on Melbourne for at least 8 minor leaguer. O'hoppe is incorrectly listed as a pitcher but assume he and Edwards are sharing the catching spot for Adelaide as they are the only 2 catchers on the roster.

And Adelaide likes to put up videos. Exhibition game below. Announcers pretty bad. 1:29:40 mark has a nice RBI double from Logan O'Hoppe scoring Mitch Edwards. Edwards and Mead with a couple of hits each.
https://adelaidegiants.com.au/videos/

nycphils 2019-11-18 23:49:14 UTC #86

How would you assess the talent level in Australian winter league? AA? Worse?

julio 2019-11-19 04:15:06 UTC #87

I would say lower than AA. Generally, American players who go to Australia aren't yet at the AA level. The American Phils prospects who are there - O'Hoppe was in Summer A; Stobbe in A ball; Aklinski in High-A. The other five (Edwards, Mead, Wingrove, Glogoski, Tols) are Aussies, who've been playing in the ABL in some cases for several years.

Also, for the record, it's not a "winter league." In places like the Dominican and Venezuela, baseball is played in the summer (same as our summer) and winter (tropics). The ABL plays in the summer - in the southern hemisphere.

zambonir 2019-11-19 04:22:50 UTC #88

A good point! Australian league also starts and ends much later than the Latin American leagues I assume.

julio 2019-11-19 04:40:27 UTC #89

The ABL starts this week - They typically play in weekly "rounds," and only in the latter part of the week - Wednesday thru Sunday (and often only three or four dates in a given week - many of the players and coaches have other, "real" jobs). The season starts this week, on Wednesday the 20th. Adelaide opens at home on the 21st (Thursday), with four games in three days against Brisbane. Note that they're many hours ahead of us - Adelaide's first game is at 3:50 am Eastern time - which is 7:20 pm Adelaide time.

The regular season schedule runs through January 25, 2020.

Austinfan 2019-11-19 05:07:02 UTC #90

I might move the Australian league up a notch, a decade ago it was probably GCL level, five years ago A-, now it's approaching A+ as the supply of Australian prospects increases by leaps and bounds.

andyb 2019-11-19 14:14:57 UTC #91

Australian prospects are only a tiny bit better (or really more numerous) than in the past. It is still a niche sport there. Maybe there are 30-40 minor leaguers and a handful of major leaguers at any time. Not leaps and bounds.

The league is probably Low A quality, maybe short season A. Fewer real, high-end prospects than the SAL league, but older players (both Australian and career minor leaguer) up the quality over rookie complex leagues. It is a good test for our rookie league guys, but someone like Aklinski should dominate there. Guys like Edwards and Wingrove had close to an 800 OPS there last year and could not have come close to that in Low A ball last season.

phillychuck 2019-11-19 22:09:25 UTC #92

Andy, I think it's gotten closer to high-A than low-A recently, but we should be able to tell by the performance of our players compared to how they performed at their levels this season in the states. Complex guys should struggle, and A+ guys should do well in general if the level has improved.

andyb 2019-11-19 23:19:33 UTC #93

I just see rookie league guys doing very well there every year. Cozens was better in the ABL (or at least equal when you adjust for parks) after his SAL season. There are some older players that do well. Batting champ last year was some guy named Michael Fransoso who hit .430 after topping out in High A in 2015 then playing in independent leagues.

I expect our contingent will generally play well there. I just don't think O'Hoppe, Mead, Wingrove and others are remotely ready for High A yet.

andyb 2019-11-24 14:57:09 UTC #94

Australia results starting to come in. Rixon Wingrove doing his best Dylan Cozens impression (2-12, HR, 4 BB, 5 K). Gift Ngope is over there too and has homered twice. Aklinski also with a HR in his first 4 games. Edwards (3-12, 2B) and O'Hoppe (3-6, 2B) are sharing the catching for Adelaide. Lone prospect struggling was of course Cole Stobbe (1-12, 2 BB).

Glogoski gave up a run in 2 IP in his first start with 2 BB and 4 Ks. Probably rusty.

andyb 2019-12-06 18:28:28 UTC #95

The boys for Adelaide beat up on a Korean team last night:
https://adelaidegiants.com.au/game/607307

25-4
O'Hoppe, 2 HR, 7 RBI (1 Grand Slam)
Wingrove another GS
Even Cole Stobbe got on base 4 times

andyb 2019-12-09 18:58:16 UTC #96

O'Hoppe continues to be hot in Australia with his 3rd HR:
https://twitter.com/AdelaideGiants/status/1203232367613136896

All against the weak Korean team of course. Traded prospect Curtis Mead also has 3 HRs. Kyle Glogoski is really the only bad news as he has not been good at all in his 3 starts. Something is off compared to last year when he dominated.

Jeff05 2019-12-18 07:22:43 UTC #97

I bet the "boys for Adelaide" can't wait to get to Perth for this week's series. It reached 43.7C in Adelaide, today, and the next two days are forecast to reach 44 and 45! And, it's called a 'Winter League'!

Austinfan 2019-12-18 15:22:22 UTC #98

Meh, 111 F isn't a big deal if you've played in the Texas League!
Clearwater doesn't get that hot, but the humidity . . .

Now Bridgeport, Lakewood, that's a different story.

Jeff05 2019-12-18 16:09:56 UTC #99

Ok, just been to Wikipedia - point taken AF. On Friday, it is expected that Australia will experience it's hottest day on record - beating the record set earlier this week. There has even been some speculation that Oodnadatta might beat its national record maximum of 50.7C (123.3F)! Mind you, I don't think there's a baseball competition in that part of the world.

andyb 2020-01-03 15:54:34 UTC #100

Jose Taveras is part of the late season reinforcements for Adelaide in Australia. Most of the younger pitchers that started the season have been shut down until Spring Training. Of course all their games were cancelled this weekend because of heat and air quality from the fires.

https://adelaidegiants.com.au/news/pitching-duo-complete-signing-spree/

Logan O'Hoppe has had the best season among the hitting prospects (821 OPS) though I think all 3 of his HRs were against a weak Korean squad. Rixon Wingrove (679), Ben Aklinski (585) and Mitch Edwards (565) faded as the season progressed. The traded Curtis Mead had the best year (843 OPS). Always thought he was a sleeper prospect if he could stick at 2B.

Latest stats:

http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/org.jsp?id=phi&y=2019