2017 Paul Owens Award Winners

[Squire]

2B Scott Kingery
RHP Tom Eshelman.

[phillychuck]

Can't argue much...though Rhys has an argument as a position player, and Romero or Taveras might dispute the pitchers' award.

[Squire]

If he hadn't been promoted and become the phenom of the last month I'm pretty sure Rhys would have won it but the Phillies like to spread the accolades around so Kingery was the logical choice. Just my take. And agree that Romero or Taveras are the closest pitching contenders. I'd have given it to Romero.

[California_Dreamin]

Interesting take on Romero from Keith Law at ESPN. It was a subscription article only but in it he talks about how Romero was not the minor league player of the year but was in the discussion. I found this astounding and perhaps the article reads differently but the headlines of a byline from Keith Law suggested that Romero had an incredible year.

[andyb]

The award Law is giving out is technically best "performance" for a prospect, so I think he is more looking at a subset of players that are prospects (probably top 100ish) and then looking for who had the best performance in that group. So it is not exactly him saying that Romero is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball.

The good side is that it implies Romero might now be considered a top 100 guy. He "has joined their top echelon of pitching prospects along with Sanchez, Adonis Medina, and Franklyn Kilome".

I always liked Romero because he was athletic, left-handed, and came with a plus fastball when command is considered. Those types of prospects tend to move quickly. Randy Wolf is my example and Romero throws harder (though probably without as much deception).

[Austinfan]

Pitchingwise it would be hard to pick a "winner":

Eshelman 13-3 2.40 23 starts 150.0 IP
Tavares 9-6 2.22 25 starts 154 IP
Aruaz 5-6 1.97 29g, 6 starts 97 IP
Suarez 8-6 2.27 22 starts 123 IP
Romero 10-3 2.26 23 starts 129 IP
Requena 9-4 2.74 21 starts 128 IP
Fanti 9-2 2.54 21 starts 120 IP

[schooldoc]

I don't have a problem with these choices.

I agree with Squire's point that Hoskins probably would have been the winner had he had another 3-4 weeks to put up stats. But Kingery I think was the only 25-25 guy in minor league ball, no small accomplishment.
He's a deserving winner and a legit prospect to boot.

(Remember the days when Jim Vatcher won awards like this in the Phillies' system?)

Eshelman was also a worthy candidate. I also think the tie goes to the higher-level prospect. JoJo may have another chance. With another first half like he had this year, Eshelman will be in Philadelphia mid-2018.