Philadelphia Phillies: Five Areas Where They Need Improvement
By Chuck Booth
Time for a shot in the arm from a top prospect for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Before i begin, I know that he’s only hitting .188 in AAA right now but it’s only nine games. Also with Crawford’s refined approach at the plate, .297 on-base percentage in AAA and a .379 on-base percentage in the minors this year, it’s clear that J.P. Crawford can diagnose a pitch on its way to the plate.
That’s usually the biggest struggle for a prospect so it wouldn’t be an issue for Crawford to struggle with hitting in the majors as long as he was getting on base. Even before his promotion to AAA Crawford wasn’t hitting well in AA but he had an on-base percentage that was close to .400. having Crawford at second base would be better than the current situation for the Philadelphia Phillies with Cesar Hernandez going out and compiling a slash line of .253/.303/.309.
The Philadelphia Phillies want to make sure that Crawford takes time in the system but for ultra-talented prospects sometimes it’s best to drop them in the bigs and see what happens. Manny Machado, Corey Seager, and Bryce Harper all made the leap to the majors and it doesn’t seem to have hurt their development.
Worst case scenario they use one of his options and demote Crawford back to AAA if he struggles but you won’t know until we see him play in the bigs.
Next: The Rule 5 Strikes again