When Roy Oswalt was 21, he was in Low A ball, which is a level behind where Cosart is now, and pitched 150+ innings with a 4.46 ERA. Sometimes it just takes the guy a little longer to figure it out.
If it's any consolation...if Cosart AND Singleton weren't in the deal, I would have taken a pitchfork to MMP looking for Wade.
Not sure what you guys were expecting from Pence. This isn't a Ken Griffey Jr in his prime here. We got two of the top 50 prospects in all of minor league baseball. What the hell else do you want? Remember what we gave up for Randy Johnson, who is a surefire HOF guy? We gave up a top 60ish pitcher in Freddy Garcia, Top 50ish Carlos Guillen and John Halama who was not seen as a top prospect. What exactly are you wanting us to get from Hunter Pence? lol
Since when is getting two high quality prospects not a good deal? Don't get me wrong, pence is good but if you expected a lot more than this, then you had ridiculous expectations.
Especially guys with power stuff. Jonathan Mayo even mentioned that his command is improving. That implies that it has been an issue for him in the past. That's what the minor leagues are for. I see no reason for alarm with Cosart "lack of results" with his current club.
State of the farm system. Though we already knew that it was bad. Ha>>>ed wade is doing more now to help the phils win than when he was actually their gm
I do think that some of the astros farm system was underrated, altuve for example. But it still says volumes that the top 2 prospects in our entire farm will be the guys we picked up in this deal. Any proof of why we made the deal is right there.
It'll be interesting to see if the Phillies hitting coach tries to tweak Pence's hitting mechanics or plate approach. Pence is at an age where hitters typically peak but I think there is still room for marginal improvement.
Depending on which list you look at, Stros have 3 top 50 prospects now...Cosart, Singleton and Altuve. That rivals Atlanta, Texas and Tampa.
I don't believe that for a second. They wouldn't trade Brown even for Oswalt (his contract may have had something to do with that though). I think they got more than they did in the Oswalt trade. With that said I think Wade needs to be fired. He can only make deals with the Phillies. I almost have to stop and wonder if he getting kickbacks in some way.
True... it's kind of sad when you are far and away the worst ML team and teams that are contending also have far better farm systems. Not that the organizational rankings published by various baseball outlets are the end all, be all of things but even after focusing on multiple drafts, we were still barely out of the cellar in those rankings. That shows just how bad off we were in that area and it also raises some doubt about some of the early drafts under Wade, not that I'm necessarily pinning anything on him or the scouts. Drafting is obviously a crap shoot to a large extent and that's the kind of risk you take when you neglect the pipeline for so long. It isn't as simple as refocusing on the draft and fixing things right away. It takes time and luck. Some around here thought we would be middle of the road in those rankings after the last few drafts. That is far from the case. Still a long, long road ahead. Moves like this one today are a mere baby step in the right direction.
