While not exciting, ~$750k for a 22 year old 4th round pick from 2023, 21 doubles 11 homers , 41 steals, decent walks not a ton of k’s- some promise. Former running back.
Sasaki was never coming to the Phillies. I don’t know what we would have to do to get in the Japanese Market, but it hasn’t been done yet.
I guess the only way would be to sign a player as a Major League FA and have him become great.
A 31-50 older prospect is still probably worth more than most 17 year-olds, even if the latter have higher ceilings. What's the worst possible outcome for Campell, that he's no better than Ortiz or Garcia or Muzziotti?
One more signee posted on the milb.com transactions page: LHP David Hernandez, 17-year-old from Mexico.
He is young for his college class too (July birthday). While his football was mainly in HS, there is a chance he is still catching up a bit. Used to play more infield so if he could add 2B/3B to the mix he might be a decent utility prospect.
Every signing period you should feel like you are at least coming away with a talent equivalent to a second round pick. A hand full of teams come away with a first round pick kind of talent. The Phils have peaked out at third round type guys the last 2 years.
I guess I can't be too surprised or disappointed by that because all of these kids were already under informal deals long before the Phillies hired Chung (just over a year ago), so it's same as it ever was. It will be another couple of years before the entire scouting apparatus feels like his, same as with Mattingly (who was hired in 2021) since changing an entire development culture takes time too.
Whereas a director of domestic scouting should be able too walk right and run a pretty good draft (though obviously that was not the case for several past Phillies guys either).
And he was basically full season of ABs in high A last season. A .703 OPS isn't great, but he has speed and a lot of positional flexibility, and this was his first real taste of pro ball, since not many ABs in his draft year. He'll be at Reading this year at age 22. It'll be what you see is what you get, because at 5'11" and 205# he is fully developed, physically. He seems like good value for the international money we traded. I doubt we could do better spending that part of our allocation. He's a guy who seems to have a reasonable chance of being a bench guy on the Phillies in 2026.
.703 OPS and 41 steals would be very acceptable. I would also presume by that number of steals that he has plus-plus speed which hopefully can translate to above average OF play. (Agreed an assumption)
He did put up a RC+ 104, so he's not a hitting league artifact.
It also looked like the Dodgers adjusted his swing to hit more fly balls.
24 games in LF, 18 in CF, 69 in RF, so he's a corner OF, but if they kept him in RF might have the arm to stick there.
Two years to evaluate him before he's Rule 5 eligible.
His Fangraphs scouting report had him at 40 speed unfortunately. Must be more smart than fast on the bases.
Ranked 46 a year ago.
Campbell was a high school infielder who ended up settling in right field during his college career at Texas, where he had a power breakout as a junior (he only played a couple of weeks of pro ball after the draft). The compact Campbell has a minimalistic set-up and swing, with basically no stride and a very short load. He’s a dangerous gap-to-gap hitter with this simple operation, which looks as though he’s using a two-strike approach the whole time, expertly guiding the bat head around the bottom of the zone. Campbell does have trouble with up-and-away fastballs at times, and right field is a tough profile when you don’t have a plus offensive tool. I’d really like to see if Campbell can once again mix an infield position into his defensive duties. If so, he’ll likely hit enough to be a versatile part-time weapon.
And it didn't really cost us $750K if I understand correctly. We didn't send money to the Dodgers, just permission to spend their $750K.
Well, opportunity cost.
Again, I’d really love to know what the plan was before they new sasaki would be posted. I thought it was strange the guardians didn’t seem to be in on any significant international guys this year, but at least they had a plan to use pool to dump roster salary. Shaving a few million from the Phils roster to get to get under the last payroll tax tier would have been more beneficial than this..