The Phillies run on Pitching is the big story here. Nine of ten first round picks were Pitchers. Eight of ten were College Pitchers. Some aren’t worth spending a ton of time, but there are a few worth digging into more.
Gabe Craig is a right handed Pitcher, who solely works out of the stretch in relief. For all the talk about Wood being a reliever who could be on the Phillies this playoff run, I think Craig is the guy to keep an eye on. The Phillies have said they’d develop Wood as a Starter and I’ll trust them on that. The system is currently Painter – Abel – 5000 foot cliff to every other Starting Pitcher prospect in the Org.
Anyway, back to Craig. Craig has a defined reliever arsenal (the ever popular Fastball/Slider combo) and he actually has very good control of both pitches and put up cartoonishly dominating numbers at Baylor last season. With a .124 AVG against and a total of 3 walks in ~32 innings. Perhaps most shocking was that every hit on him this year was a Single. Not a single extra base hit of any type in 32 innings. Swing and miss stuff in College isn’t always swing and miss stuff in the Majors and as hitters get better eyes and more swing discipline as you move up the ladder, the walk rates may go up, but stuff with a lot of movement tends to be tough to square up at all levels.
With present control and an arsenal built for the bullpen, Craig feels more like the guy who might rocket through the system. Will the Phillies be confident enough in him to add him to the 40-man Roster 6 weeks after drafting him, then also be confident enough after less than 3 months to throw him into the postseason fire? Maybe not, but an Orion Kerkering like rise through the system to a role in the pen next Summer is extremely within the realm of possibility.
Matthew Fisher is a High School Pitcher the team was linked to as interested in the first or second round. He slid to them in the Seventh Round. You don’t draft players in Rounds 4-10 unless you’re 100% certain you can sign them, so I expect this was the plan all along, getting underslot in other spots to land Fisher here. He has a 6’3” 200 lbs frame, but he is old for a High School prospect at 19 (he’ll turn 20 just before the start of next season), so there’s not likely any further height to come. There could be further bulk with a professional strength and conditioning program though.
That added muscle could lead to another couple ticks on an above average Fastball to potentially get to a plus offering. He’s a high spin rate Pitcher, but all of his non-Fastball pitches will need work to build command of them. He has a mid-80’s slider (which I quite like) that has good movement and generates swings and misses, as well as a Curve and changeup that are a bit less developed. Probably #3 Starter upside with a possible Bullpen floor.