Children, come here for a second. Father needs to talk to you. You know how sometimes you really really don't like a decision I've made, but you have to live with it anyways, and in the long run you come to realize it's in your best interests? No? Ok, well trust me, it is. Last night when our beloved Astros traded away the face of the franchise the fans felt that same betrayal, and like you they're too short sighted to see how beneficial this is in the long run. To help try and make thatmore clear, I want to talk about what we got for out two time All Star.
Hunter gave the Phillies a known commodity, and in exchange we planned for our future by picking up four players. Jarred Cosart, Jonathon Singleton, Josh Zeid, and the ever infamous Player to be Named Later. Cosart and Singleton are top 50 prospects in baseball, top two in the phillies farm system, and Zeid is a talented starting pitcher who hit a rough patch when called up to AA-Reading this year but as a reliever has shined with a barelt there ERA in the two's. Is this the best trade imaginable? No. Is it the best trade available, maybe. Is it a good trade for our Astros? Time will tell, but when dealing with prospects you never really know for several years, but I'm hoping yes. Let's look at the top two guys a little more closely.
Jarred Cosart is a scary proposition. His ERA was a stretch under 4.00, but his peripheral statistics indicate that he deserved much better. He comes to us sporting a 3.92 ERA in 20 games, 19 starts, 108IP, 47ER, 7 long balls, 43 walks, 79K, 8HBP, 12 Wild Pitches, a 1.306 WHIP, 8.2 H/9, 3.6 BB/9, and 6.6K/9 on the season. Two things stand out to me. His walk numbers are a little high, but he's also hit 8 batsmen and thrown 12 wild pitches so there's some control issues. However, I'm not worried. Even with these uninspiring numbers his minor league career stats are only inflated to 7.4H/9, 2.9B/9, and 8.0K/9 and a 3.67 ERA To me this means the kid has talent, as demonstrated by his prospect ranking, and it means that he's probably spending time trying to work on his changeup to compliment his already plus fastball and near plus curve. The changeup is an unforgiving mistress, and if you can't throw it just so it becomes a batting practice fastball.
The second thing that stands out to me is that he's already pitched more innings this year then he did in his last two combined thanks to being able to stay healthy. If he can finish this season strong and healthy it will mean good things could be in store. He's going to get a chance to prove himself as he's getting called up to AA-Corpus Christie. Coming off his last start as a Phillie where he threw 7 scoreless innings, I have high hopes.
Jonathon Singleton is a question mark. He could be a future masher, or he could be a flop, but all signs point to him being more than serviceable in the majors. In 228 games spanning 951 plate appearances and 796 at bats we see he has a .288/.391/.447 slash line, 229 hits, 48 doubles, 2 triples, 25 homers, 136 RBI, 170 strikeouts, a and 23 GDP. He's considered to be a plus defender at 1B and all scouting reports agree that he has the hitting ability to be an elite first baseman or a league average left fielder, another position he plays serviceably as the Phillies tried to find room for him on a roster where Ryan Howard was bottlenecking 1B.
There are two numbers that stand out to me more than anything. Not his home runs, which are underwhelming, though he does play in a pitcher dominant league right now, but he only has 23 grounded into double plays in almost 230 games. Nothing kills a rally faster than a soft grounder to the shortstop and a slow runner coming down the line to first (Singleton is considered athetic but while he does have 13 career stolen bases he also was caught stealing 10 times.) The other is his OBP of .391. He has 136 walks, and if you equate that over a 162 game season instead of his current 228 game span that's equal to about 96 walks. He shows patience at the plate.
You'd like to see less strikeouts, a guy striking out 100+ times a season is unfortunate, but if the power comes then you can forgive it. You want a guy who's swing, as one scouting report put it, "has an audible 'whoosh'" to swing the bat as often as he feels comfortable, and based on his strikeout numbers, he has good zone recognition, so those strikeouts could come down as he learns to adjust to pitchers, or they could not. Most power hitters strike out a fair amount. So long as he's not the next Mark Reynolds, 200+K in a season, I'm happy. Comparrisons have been drawn to Frank Thomas and Ryan Howard, and the best part is he's only 19.
With more trades likely to come between now and tomorrow's non-waiver trade deadline, just stay close by so Father can tell you all about it. After all, you can get this same information from about a dozen sources, but only Father knows best.
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