Minor League Games - June 13th, 2023

[andyb]

The other significant Asian prospect is Hao Yu Lee. Middle infielder (mostly 2B) with above average power for the position and a really good hit tool. At Jersey Shore and young for the league.

[Patchmk88]

Yea I'm aware of Lee. Maybe it is Pan I was thinking about then. I'll have to search back through threads to see if I can find the snippet on him. Having a discussion in a family text string about potential major league SPs in our minors (we haven't come up with many) and I couldn't get the tidbit on here out of my head or the player it was about.

[andyb]

Pan is younger and was part of this January's signing class. He is only 20 and is one of the younger players in the Florida State League. Good velocity (96-98) paired with decent control that has enough secondary pitches to start. Those 2 are really the only prominent prospects we have signed in Asia the last few years. A few more are from Australia or New Zealand.

[Patchmk88]

I used our surprisingly efficient search function and it was Pan that I was thinking about. It also happens that most of the tidbits I had read and partially stored in some deep space in my brain were from various posts by you! Thanks for the help jogging my memory.

[andyb]

He is definitely one of the success stories this year since he has moved from mid-level signing ($350K bonus) to one of our top 20 prospects in a mere 5 months.

[Austinfan]

Kroon has more upside because he's put up RC+ 127 over 416 AA PA, with only 1000 total PA (most college players have close to 2000 when they hit the majors). Now we'll see if he can build on that when he hits AAA ball sometime this summer. In a normal development path, he would have had a full season in AA at 23, AAA at 24. So age is less informative due to his delayed career path.

[andyb]

Most college players that make the majors have far less minor league plate appearances than 2000. 1500 is more the high end when you get beyond AAAA players. Physical development also happened during the pandemic season even if there were no games.

He is a nice little story. Matt Winkelman ranked him 50th during the offseason and a nice start might be pushing him towards 40th. But he is still 26 in AA. Lots of players make breakthroughs at that age. Casey Martin mastering High A at age 24 does not say much either though Martin does have higher end tools than Kroon. Kroon just is not a top prospect because of his age, not really his experience which is midlevel.

[Matt_Winkelman]

I like Kroon a lot, but in the way one likes their favorite bench player a lot. Kroon was able to play some CF before the ACL injury last year, but they have backed off of that some (also Rojas lives in CF). He definitely isn't a big time prospect, but there is some Dalton Guthrie outcomes here and maybe some high end Matt Vierling outcomes. So I guess his upside is guy who suddenly a competent bench player for a few years, and that is a better prospect than I think he is thought of.

[andyb]

He definitely isn't a big time prospect, but there is some Dalton Guthrie outcomes here and maybe some high end Matt Vierling outcomes.

I don't disagree with that, though he is older than both players at the same level. When one can run a bit and puts together enough offense to survive on a major league bench that is a good thing. Just Guthrie at age 26 started in Lehigh Valley and Vierling IS 26 now and is several years ahead of that timetable.

To me he is a nice story. He has clearly improved and can do a number of things that make him useful. I just think he is behind Guthrie and others at the same age unless he takes another step forward. Also if Pache replaces Guthrie shortly on the major league roster it will be tough to see him getting promoted any time soon unless the Phillies did something like move on from Kingery.

[Austinfan]

Yeah, I'm not expecting a 4 WAR starter, but the Phillies really need a RH bat off the bench who is better than Sosa, Guthrie or Harrison. Ellis showed flashes, Ortiz showed a little improvement. But neither is probably the answer.

Rojas and De La Cruz are different matters, there you're hoping for upside, an above average starter, not a bench player.

[schooldoc]

Saw a lot of Casey at ShoreTown while he was with Jersey Shore. He can be a fun player to watch, because he does have tools. He has some pop, he can run and he can definitely pick it at short. The question with him is his strike zone control. He still fishes for too many high fastballs and breaking balls away, but he has been able to get his OBP into a solid .370-.380 range this year. It was time to promote him.