Updating Phillies' Mickey Moniak and other first-round notables

With the MLB season winding down and the minor leagues heading into their respective playoffs, it seems a good time to revisit the names we became all too familiar with earlier this season ahead of the amateur draft.

Let's start with the player the Phillies ultimately settled on, 18-year-old outfielder Mickey Moniak. After hitting around .300 for most of his Gulf Coast League season, the kid struggled at the end, something that should be expected given the length of his combined seasons, the unfamiliarity of it to him, the newness of his surroundings, and just plain old fatigue.

Still involved in a playoff run, he finished the regular season with a .284 average in 46 games played, and the promising part is that his bat has, for the most part, translated in the early going. Moniak has continued his use of all fields, has made just a single error in the outfield, and has stolen 10 bases in 14 attempts while batting in the leadoff spot. However, he also struck out 35 times in 194 plate appearances.

The bad news? He walked four of them. Groome turned 18 on Aug. 23, though, so the importance of this summer from an organizational view was little more than getting his feet wet professionally. "He throws some intense stuff,'' Goose Gregson, Boston's Latin American pitching instructor, said shortly after he began working with him. "He could be a horse.''

Groome is expected to start for the Spinners in tonight's second playoff game  against Hudson Valley.