Phillies ranked last in MLB in 'talent under 26'

Happy Thursday! In today’s send:

• Yahoo Sports recently ranked the Phillies 30 out of 30 in their assessment of “young talent.” But it’s not as bad as it seems.

• We have some interesting quotes and decisions from Paul George.

• Nova bball picked up a win over Seton Hall.

There’s also an Adam Eaton jump scare.

In the email today:

• 👀 Phillies ranked last in MLB in 'talent under 26’

• 🎙️ Paul George's mouth covers over another Sixers loss

• 🏴‍☠️ Villanova averts rock bottom at Prudential Center in comeback win over Seton Hall

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Yahoo Sports recently ranked the young (age 26 and under) talent for all 30 MLB clubs.

And they ranked the 2025 Phillies' collection of youngsters dead last.

The situation isn't as dire as it seems on the surface. Here are three reasons why Phillies fans shouldn't stress out about this.

1) The Phillies' collection of players over 26 is impressive. And they're not exactly geezers.

As the Yahoo piece notes, "a trio of impact players in Philly — Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Jesus Luzardo — miss our cutoff by a few months." The definition of young is subjective, and while "the Daycare" is certainly a misnomer at this point, these players would have scrambled the whole Phillies analysis if Yahoo used an age cutoff of 27 instead of 26.

Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, and Kyle Schwarber, meanwhile, will play their age-32 seasons this year. Nick Castellanos will be 33. The members of the starting rotation, with the exception of Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola (ages 35 and 32, respectively, and showing no signs of decline), are in their 20s: Cristopher Sanchez (28), Ranger Suarez (29), and the aforementioned Luzardo (27).

And in the high-leverage section of the bullpen, in addition to Orion Kerkering (23), the Phils boast Jose Alvarado (30), Matt Strahm (33), and Jordan Romano (31).

These guys are in their primes, for the most part. And that limits the ability of prospects in the organization to crack the active roster at the moment. Which leads us to...

2) Players with MLB experience are worth twice as much as farm system prospects in Yahoo's scoring system, and the Phillies are stronger in the latter category.

While Johan Rojas and Rafael Marchan earned the Phillies just 2 points in the 10-point "Young MLB hitters" category, SS Aidan Miller, OF Justin Crawford, and OF Gabriel Rincones Jr. earned 2 points in the 5-point "Prospect hitters" category. And these guys--Miller and Crawford in particular---are not far away from the majors. Barring trades, they will likely contribute to the major league Phils long before players like Harper and Turner suffer significant declines.

That dynamic is even more pronounced in the "Young MLB pitchers" and "Prospect pitchers" categories. The former, worth 10 points, contains just Kerkering and Michael Mercado. But among prospects, the Phillies earn a 4/5 Yahoo ranking because of Andrew Painter, Moises Chace, Mick Abel, and Seth Johnson.

The Phillies' strongest score comes in a category that's worth less in these rankings, but may be most important to the team's long-term outlook.

3) There is a path forward for the Phillies without a rebuild.

Here's our big-picture take:

• The Phillies are well-positioned to compete for a championship this season (and probably the next few seasons) with a strong core of veterans close to their primes.

• As those veterans start to hit the age where they're expected to decline, it's not difficult to imagine a new core forming around Painter, Miller, Crawford, and others. And guys like Harper and Turner should still make meaningful contributions to supplement any new core, even when their very best years are behind them.

• There's always free agency, and the Phils should have salary flexibility after the 2025 season.

Could everything go horribly wrong? Of course. The Phillies' veterans could decline faster than expected, the highly-touted prospects could turn out to be busts, there could be disastrous trades, and injuries can ravage the team at any time.

But that's true for every club. Overall, the Phils organization is in a good spot.

A high percentage of the teams ranked above the Phillies in the Yahoo piece would certainly swap places with the Fightins in a heartbeat.

There are old school game stories about last night’s Sixers loss on the internet if you need one. This is not going to be one of those stories.

The Sixers trailed by double digits most of the game, pulled ahead by as many as four points late, but somewhat predictably couldn’t close the deal at Madison Square Garden.

Paul George played one of his best games of the season (25 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) in the loss, which was probably his best case scenario after the 24 hours prior.

Wednesday morning, we thought we had all the PG content we could ask for when he came out with this beauty.

That’s spectacular. George played in Indiana, Oklahoma City and with the Los Angeles Clippers before coming to Philadelphia. Not only has George never won an NBA title, none of those franchises ever have.

So…what exactly is George’s frame of reference for what the “habits of a champion” look like? Is he basing this on watching The Last Dance?

We had a few more paragraphs teed up just on this absurd quote. Fortunately (or unfortunately), George had another one in the chamber. A bigger, better one.

Yup. George waited until the Sixers had lost nine of their last 10 to fall to 20-37 to announce that now would be a good time to give 100% of his focus to basketball. It’s 10 of 11 now, naturally.

X is positively PACKED with hot takes about George’s announcement that he’s stepping away from the microphone. They all say more or less the same things, i.e., he’s an overpaid drain on the team and that this decision came way too late.

We’re more of this mindset.

We would have advised George to maybe stay quiet awhile given the Sixers’ recent nose dive.

Then again, George has hundreds of millions of reasons not to listen to us, or anyone else for that matter.

Many of the “bracketology” websites are too data-heavy to be really useful. There are times, though, where they can distill a college basketball team’s season at a glimpse.

Take the Villanova page at bracketologists.com. It tells you the whole story in short form. The Wildcats are objectively bad against good competition (2-6 against Quad 1 teams), and their worst losses (Columbia, Georgetown, Virginia) are damning.

A loss in Newark last night would have been worse than all the others. Down 16 to putrid Seton Hall (7-20 overall, 2-14 in the Big East), Villanova stared into the abyss before somehow climbing out to daylight.

By now, everyone knows that Eric Dixon is the nation’s leading scorer. Seton Hall found out the hard way last night.

Dixon finished with 32 of Villanova’s 59 points. His performance drew merited raves.

It’s unfair to say Dixon won this game for Villanova by himself, but just barely. Wooga Poplar kicked in with a double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds). No other Wildcat scored in double figures; Enoch Boakye never shot the ball once.

Villanova moved to 17-12 overall and 10-8 in the conference with the win. The Wildcats host Butler Saturday afternoon, then finish the regular season at Georgetown. Two very winnable games against teams below them in the conference standings.

Two games the Wildcats absolutely have to have if they still have NCAA tournament dreams. Can Dixon will this team to one more March Madness appearance? It will be a compelling watch regardless.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On February 27, 2009, the Phillies released pitcher Adam Eaton.

Eaton went 4-8 with a 5.80 and 1.64 WHIP for the 2008 World Champions of Baseball.

Overall in his Phils career, Eaton posted a 6.10 ERA over 51 games and 268.2 innings.

📊 Poll

Results from Wednesday:

Baun can’t leave. He just can’t.

🔗 Links

• ⏱️ The NFL is considering revising the overtime rules again.

• 🗽 The Giants not only don’t have Saquon Barkley any more, at present they don’t even have a single quarterback under contract.

• 🏀 Legendary St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli joins Geno Auriemma among notable winners of this year’s Joe Lapchick Character Award.

• 💵 The Dodgers’ contract gymnastics have the team on the hook for over one billion dollars of deferred money.

• 🐝 The Sixers are in free fall, but the Charlotte Hornets’ recent performances suggest that they’re in the tank game for real.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Thursday, February 27, 2025

• Flyers at Penguins, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN+)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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