4. Brett Phillips, OF
Birthdate: 5/30/94 (22 years old)
Level(s) Played in 2016: AA
Stats in 2016: .229/.332/.397, 16 HR, 12 SB
I have been out on an island on Phillips as a top 50 player for almost a year now as he’s been a top 100 guy fairly consensus, but not quite as high as I’ve had him, and his on field performance this year probably isn’t going to win me any converts.
When you watch Phillips play you see all the skills you’d want in an elite corner outfielder. He has the quick, powerful stroke from the left side in batting practice. He has the raw speed that flashes constantly. He has an arm that makes scouts drool and has received full 80 grades on the 20 to 80 scouting scale.
When you watch Phillips play you see all the skills you’d want in an elite corner outfielder
The problem for Phillips to this point has simply been consistency. Whether it’s a mental thing, or what’s going on, he seems to get into funks that just rip apart his stat line for weeks at a time.
This year, he had a full month from July 9th to August 9th where he had a .160/.280/.230 line and struck out 37 times in 119 plate appearances. Coming into that, he had a .246/.333/.455 line on the season. Leaving that month, those numbers were .223/.318/.394, which is just about where he ended up on the season.
Phillips has struggled in his pitch recognition against premium breaking stuff, yet he seems to own certain pitchers who have excellent breaking stuff. He does get extremely high marks for his work ethic and coachability, so I have high expectations that he can continue to make progress going forward.
The Brewers will likely send Phillips to AAA Colorado Springs in 2017, which will inflate his raw numbers a bit, but if you see that strike out rate start to head toward the 25% strikeout rate, you could see that progress made.
Next: #3