2012 Week: Phillies top prospects from a decade ago

Who were the top names in the Phillies farm system ten years ago?

Top prospect ranking season is in full bloom. We’re in the middle of counting down our top prospects here at The Good Phight. Matt Winkelman is in the midst of the same thing at Phillies Minor Thoughts.

But this is 2012 Week. So for a brief moment, let’s turn our focus away from the future of the Phillies and instead take a look at the past.

Here are the 2012 Phillies top prospect lists from several major sources. I’ve written out the top ten from each source, as well as any other players of interest further down the list. I’ve linked to each prospect list and the accompanying write-up, and if you’re really interested in this kind of thing I highly recommend reading the pieces. It’s fun to read the 2012 scouting reports with the knowledge we have now.

I’ve included some of my thoughts below, but I don’t have a grand point to make here about the state of the Phillies player development system. Really, I just thought this would make for an interesting trip down memory lane. I’m sure we all have plenty of unique memories about several names on these lists.

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MLB.com

20 total prospects: https://www.mlb.com/prospects/2012/phillies/

1. Trevor May
2. Jesse Biddle
3. Brody Colvin
4. Larry Greene
5. Phillippe Aumont
6. Sebastián Valle
7. Justin De Fratus
8. Freddy Galvis
9. Maikel Franco
10. Jonathan Pettibone

Roman Quinn (11), Aaron Altherr (12), César Hernández (14)

FanGraphs

16 total prospects: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-15-prospects-philadelphia-phillies/

1. Trevor May
2. Jesse Biddle
3. Sebastián Valle
4. Brody Colvin
5. Jonathan Pettibone
6. Maikel Franco
7. Jiwan James
8. Phillippe Aumont
9. Justin De Fratus
10. Larry Greene

Freddy Galvis (11), Roman Quinn (12), Aaron Altherr (15)

Baseball Prospectus

20 total prospects: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/article/16201/future-shock-phillies-top-11-prospects/

1. Trevor May
2. Jesse Biddle
3. Phillippe Aumont
4. Freddy Galvis
5. Sebastián Valle
6. Jonathan Pettibone
7. Larry Greene
8. Roman Quinn
9. Julio Rodriguez
10. Maikel Franco

Justin De Fratus (12), Carlos Tocci (13), César Hernández (16), Aaron Altherr (17), Mitch Walding (18), Jake Diekman (19)

Minor League Ball (SB Nation)

21 ranked prospects, 21 unranked: https://www.minorleagueball.com/2011/10/28/2519502/philadelphia-phillies-top-20-prospects-for-2012

1. Trevor May
2. Jesse Biddle
3. Sebastián Valle
4. Brody Colvin
5. Larry Greene
6. Justin De Fratus
7. Phillippe Aumont
8. Julio Rodriguez
9. Michael Schwimmer
10. Maikel Franco

Roman Quinn (11), Jonathan Pettibone (15), Freddy Galvis (17), Mitch Walding (18), Joe Savery (21)

Mentioned but unranked: Aaron Altherr, Tyler Cloyd, Ken Giles, César Hernández, Adam Morgan, Darin Ruf

Phillies Nation

26 ranked prospects: https://www.philliesnation.com/2012/01/prospect-nation-2012-the-prelude/

1. Trevor May
2. Sebastián Valle
3. Jesse Biddle
4. Phillippe Aumont
5. Justin De Fratus
6. Brody Colvin
7. Freddy Galvis
8. Julio Rodriguez
9. Jonathan Pettibone
10. Jiwan James

Michael Schwimmer (13), Larry Greene (14), César Hernández (16), Jake Diekman (18), Maikel Franco (19), David Buchanan (22), Cameron Rupp (24), Aaron Altherr (25)

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Some stray thoughts

• To me, three players from these lists stand out as the most successful major leaguers: Trevor May, Freddy Galvis, and Cesar Hernandez. In other words, the consensus top prospect (May), a mid-tier prospect (Galvis), and a prospect who didn’t make the top ten on any list (Hernández). Prospects are hard to predict, who could’ve guessed?
• Oh, and then there’s Ken Giles, who was only mentioned on of the lists at all — and he wasn’t even ranked!
• Just two players from these lists played for the Phillies in 2021: Freddy Galvis and Roman Quinn. It’s funny how one of them was still considered a young kid trying to figure things out, while the other was making his triumphant return to the franchise as a grizzled veteran.
• Of all these prospects, the pitcher who threw the most innings for the Phillies is Justin De Fratus (194 IP). David Buchanan comes in second with 192.1 IP.
• On the hitters’ side, César Hernández has the most plate appearances with the Phillies (3282) far surpassing Freddy Galvis (2560) and Maikel Franco (2539).
• I remember being really pumped about Phillippe Aumont for a while. Was he ever really that exciting, or was I just desperate for something good to come out of trading away Cliff Lee? Who’s to say?
• It would be nice to learn what more of these guys did after they left Major League Baseball. Sebastián Valle still plays in the Mexican League. Phillippe Aumont was on the Canadian national team as recently as 2019, and he pitched in Canadian independent league ball that year too. In May 2020, Jiwan James did an interview for the Jersey Shore BlueClaws website and said he had been coaching a lot of high school and travel team baseball. But it would be interesting to know more about what life is like for a former top prospect after leaving the minor leagues.
• And speaking of that, I really wonder what ever happened to poor Larry Greene. The former first-round draft pick doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, nor is he the first person to come up when you Google “Larry Greene”.
• How many of these players will we see play in the majors in 2022? Trevor May and César Hernández are locks, since they’re already signed to major league contracts. Freddy Galvis will seemingly be playing in Japan next year. Jake Diekman should be able to land a major league deal once the lockout ends. Ken Giles will hopefully be healthy again and pitching for the Mariners in 2022. Darin Run will be back with the Giants in his second year of arbitration. Things are a little more up in the air for Maikel Franco, Jesse Biddle, and Roman Quinn. And could Aaron Altherr attempt a return? He was quite good for the NC Dinos of the KBO in 2020 and 2021, so it’s certainly a possibility.

Photo By Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images