The Phillies will promote long-time top shortstop prospect J.P. Crawford, Tom Housenick of The Morning Call reports on Twitter. He will need a 40-man roster spot before he can be called up.
Crawford, 22, has been viewed as one of the game’s elite prospects for the past two or three years. While evaluators mostly forgave a less-than-inspiring run at Triple-A in 2016, though, they began to raise questions about Crawford’s outlook as he struggled there again this year.
On mid-season ranking lists, Crawford plummeted. He currently rates 60th on MLB.com’s listing and 92nd on Baseball America’s, while missing on a spot amongst the top fifty prospects named over the summer by ESPN.com’s Keith Law.
The change of heart seemingly motivated the former 16th overall draft pick, as Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote recently. Indeed, Crawford has been on a tear of late. In sixty games since the start of July, he’s slashing .284/.383/.533 with a dozen home runs. It’s especially promising to see the power coming for a player who is most known for his glovework and on-base/contact ability.
Philadelphia will hope that Crawford can maintain that momentum with him to the majors. It’ll be interesting to see how he’s utilized upon his arrival. Freddy Galvis has moved around of late, opening some daylight at shortstop, though Crawford himself has spent some time appearing at other positions. Ultimately, the organization surely hopes that Crawford will take over everyday duties at short, so he’ll likely have an opportunity to stake a claim that job at some point.
YES! YES! YES! YES!
Yes
The AAA team makes the playoffs, then loses its shortstop …
But I guess the future is now….
Oh yea we need him for the MLB postseason lol. It’s all good I’m pretty sure Lehigh Valley is getting Walding from Reading.
Was at his game yesterday: last AAA at bat will be a walk off
He played today.
JP Crawford>Amed Rosario
Dream on…
JP didn’t need to visit Vegas to make it through AAA. Also I bet Crawford gets more walks this week than Rosario does this month.
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears.
LMFAOOOOOO
JPC has a .891 OPS since June 10th…. .280/.380 lol. Hes ready.
1. Cesar Hernandez 2B
2. Altherr RF
3. Herrera CF
4. Hoskins 1B
5. WIlliams LF
6. Alfaro C
7. Franco/Galvis 3B
8. Crawford SS
thats “not awful”
They have to move on from Franco. He’s had too many chances.
Hes only played 2.5 seasons, and he was good his rookie year. He’ll get 2018 at least
Yep, they’d be foolish and showing a lot of impatience if they dumped him already, given where they are in their rebuild,
Great to see the Phillies relevant again. Wonder if theyre going to make any big FA splashes this off season.
The Phils are in last place haha. Please no big signings this free agency because none are any good.
The Tigers called up Candalario. Does that make them relevant? The White Sox called up Moncada. Does that make them relevant? Won loss records is what makes a team relevant. Phillies are not yet relevant.
JP Crawford and I go way back! At the Futures Game in 2014, the families stayed at a hotel where I used to work, and his mother gave me a backpack that she said JP wouldn’t be able to take back since his luggage was full, so I proudly own and display the backpack that JP Crawford once purchased and touched at least several times!
Therefore, I’m an expert (just like local fans in their analysis of their hometown players), so any questions let me know.
Sincerely,
JP Crawford Expert
Maybe he will make that backpack more valuable in the coming years.
Was eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter so his addition to the Phillies’ 40-man roster was imminent.
Yup
I really am a believer that Franco deserves one more chance. He’s still fairly young and if he can actually make the adjustment to hit outside pitching like he did his rookie year he would be a solid middle of the lineup hitter. His defense is solid he just needs to learn that you can’t hit outside pitching by trying to pull the ball every time and swinging out of your shoes. They have some quality bats and paired with some good pitching and a bullpen they could surprise next year. However the homegrown pitchers or even ones we traded for and put in the farm system haven’t panned out except for basically Nola, so pitchers need to be bought this off season to make them competitive.
I agree on Franco. Guy deserves one more yr to figure it out. Still think he can be a .280 30 hr guy
Completely disagree. He got a new hitting coach that preaches patience, however he is still swinging at the first pitch every at bat. He had a stretch of 30 at bats where he swung at the first pitch 24 times. Of those swings he put the ball in play 7 times and got 2 hits. This guy has got nothing and he isn’t appealing to the fan base.
Honestly though, if Stairs preaches patience, then he’s really not relaying that message effectively. Pretty much every regular contributor has seen their walk rate drop or only improve marginally (around 1.5%) and going from a 4.5-6 walk rate just makes you less than awful.
Well it wasn’t exactly walking. It was getting in a hitter’s count every at bat, so each player would get a hittable fastball. Also, the players on this team are clueless as to what walking is. Franco didnt walk his way off the island.
Stairs is bad at being a hitting coach. Literally the only person that improved enough worth noting is Altherr, and he always had that upside anyways
Williams and Stairs have very strong relationship, as does Hoskins and Altherr. TBH Franco and Odubel are just not teachable.
Hoskins and Williams were this good prior to Matt Stairs… and Altherr showed flashes of this success in 2015. Stairs hasn’t really made much of a difference other than guys declining
Let him in AAA for the playoffs. He’ll get more out of playing meaningful playoff games in AAA than he will playing meaningless games in the bigs. Call him up if Lehigh Valley gets eliminated. At some point, you have to give your minor league team a break. The Iron Pigs made the playoffs despite the Phillies calling up more than half their team. Why take another player from the now?
Who do they take off of the 40 man to call him up? Please let it be Tommy Joseph…
Moved Florimon to 60 day.
what is his ethnicity, hawaiian? only asking because of the sleeve. Wong has a similar piece.
No he is a Cali kid.
Maybe I’m dumb for thinking this, but as an Indians fan I see a little bit of Lindor in him
Think it’s moronic they call him up to this joke of a club, and miss valuable playoff game experience. He came from high school, what pro playoff experience does he have ? Not much at all.
A .243 hitter in a full AAA season and everyone thinks he savior is coming
Because he had a bad start, since June he is hitting .284
Tbh Ty Kelly would be my savior if he took Franco out of an everyday role.
I don’t think many Phillies fans think he’s a savior. Many are down on him now. But all teams need smaller pieces to be good. A versatile fielder with modest offensive production is valuable. I would gladly take his current production for this year over the course of several years in the major leagues. I don’t care if he hits .243 if he’s taking his walks along with some pop.
Why would they call him up now? I would say to let him stay hot in the AAA playoffs and build his confidence back up. Now if he struggles in the majors he may fall right back into the issues he was having before.
He led Lehigh Valley into it. Hit two very important homers this week and had a walk off hit in a must win game too. If anyone deserves a callup at this point, based on recent play, it is Crawford. If you watch Lehigh Valley at all you know hat the heart and soul of the offense will be if they can get the big fellow going.(Cozens)