#OnDeck: Phillies have plenty of NL East prospects to dread in the coming years

Prospect rankings: They can be faulty. Not to deride the very challenging work and scouting that goes into them, but you never know when a twisted ankle or a fungus allergy is going to sap a young player's power and take him out of the top ten and into obscurity. Jesse Biddle was a top Phillies prospect until he was forced to take time off to deal with personal issues that seemed out of the blue to anyone outside of his inner circle. Several of the very young picthers on the list below have gone through Tommy John surgeries that lost them a year, or more, of service time.

There's a lot of time and space between any prospect and a Major League Baseball field, so to hang your hopes on a 20-year-old with some polishing still needed at High A can be heartbreaking.

With that obligatory statement out of the way, the Phillies aren't the only retooling club in the NL East. The Braves are recycling their roster, the Marlins are reaping the benefits of their system, the big arms of the Mets farm system are priming, and the Nationals are one of those clubs with a solution to every problem. Combined, the NL East made up 17 of MLB.com's top 100 prospects, three of which were Phillies (No. 21 J.P. Crawford, No. 37 Aaron Nola, No. 55 Maikel Franco), but giving them 14 other guys to not look forward to facing 20 times a year in the near future.

No. 6, RHP Lucas Giolito, Nationals

Giolito was an elbow sprain away from being a serious No. 1 pick in the 2012 MLB Draft, so his top-10 status is not shattering anyone's world.  Mike Rizzo remained fixed on Giolito, even after the 20-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery, and so admired his highly touted arsenal – a heater than can touch triple digits, a change-up that devastates lefties, and a weaponized 12-to-6 a curveball – that he decided the rewards outweighed the risks. But that's an oranizational philosophy, as the Nationals are always looking for the next generation.

No. 10, RHP Noah Syndergaard, Mets

Go ahead and roll your eyes at the obnoxious depth the Mets have of young pitchers. But Syndergaard gives them either the ability to trade one of their assets to fill another need, or keep them all and just be ridiculous. Syndergaard suffered a standard dent in his stats jumping from Double to Triple A this past season, but the 22-year-old is projected to nail down 9.52 K/9 and 2.55 BB/9 paces this year, as well as, unfortunately for the Phillies, make his MLB debut in 2015.

No. 27, RHP, Tyler Kolek, Marlins

Kolek had plenty of attention in high school, as a pitcher who could throw 102 m.p.h. and didn't allow a hit in three starts. When the Marlins drafted the 19-year-old Texan, they knew his change-up and slider were going to be enough to devour the hitters in Single A, but he was going to need some time to develop the mental edge and strategic prowess needed to compete against professional batters. After their farm system lost some pitchers in front of Kolek, however, his progress became more of a priority. If the Marlins rotation needs help this year – it should be pretty okay – Kolek will not be its savior. The day he reaches his projected ceiling, though… look out.

No. 38, 2B Jose Peraza, Braves

It's been a frantic rise for Peraza, whose 2014 started in Single A, where he hit .342 in 66 games while stealing 35 bases. The Braves quickly ushered him to Double A, where he made the All-Star Futures team. The transition also did nothing to disrupt his 19-game hitting streak at the time (which he maintained with a three-run home run in his first game). At this point it's just a matter of waiting to see what awesome thing Peraza will do on each new level to which he is promoted. Already, he's been included on the 40-man roster of the big club and was named the organization's Minor League Player of the Year.

No. 42, OF Michael Taylor, Nationals

Any future gap in the Nationals' stellar outfield looks to be filled by a number of different candidates, with Taylor's name listed among them, making his early move from shortstop to the outfield retroactively useful. He's still striking out a ton – 144 times in 110 games – but hit 23 home runs and stole 37 bases in Double and Triple A, a widely-cited improvement on his historically lagging offense. His speed, arm strength, and instincts are all annoyingly on par with the high bar set by the talented Washington outfield (He had 10 assists from center field for the Harrisburg Senators in 2014).

No. 52, RHP A.J. Cole, Nationals

Cole got a record-setting $2 million for signing a contract with the Nationals after being drafted in 2010. Struggling at first, Washington used him as a trade chip to acquire Gio Gonzalez from the A's, but got him back in 2013 in the Michael Morse/Mariners trade. So once again, Washington gets to have their cake and devour it too, handful by handful, chewing with their mouths open.

Cole threw 134 innings between Double and Triple A in 2014, ending with a better ERA (3.16) than he did in Single and High A the year before (3.60 in 142.2 IP). However, the Nationals' systematic reverence for their young pitching assets continued, as Cole was shut down at the end of August after reaching his set pitch limit for the year. "He's got the ultimate pitcher's body," Washington manager Matt Williams said of Cole, who needs only more control on his breaking pitch to compete in the majors.

No. 63, C Kevin Plawecki, Mets

"Steady as a rock," Plawecki was called by the local paper during his high school days. The young catcher would go on to be a finalist for the Johnny Bench award twice, and after being drafted by the Mets in 2012, he bashed his way to a .305 BA and .838 OPS in 2013. He joined Noah Syndergaard on the All-Star Futures team and is currently lurking in Triple A (where his normally solid CS% took a hit when he threw out only three of 29 base stealers in 40 games), waiting to fill the NL East's void for a productive young catcher.

No. 66, LHP Steven Matz, Mets

The Mets' first pick in 2009 (though 72^nd overall; the Mets were really put on hold that year), Matz has benefitted from the input of major leaguers at several pivotal points in his brief career. As a 10-year-old he was getting pitching lessons from Neal Heaton, and as he recovered from a 2010 Tommy John surgery, he was taught to evolve his slider into a curveball by former pitchers Frank Viola Jr. and Ron Romanick. By 2013, after a bout with shoulder tendonitis and a few wasted seasons due to injury, Matz came back with a vengeance, to the point that it was said it was like he hadn't missed any developmental time at all. A career of slowly putting everything together culminated in 2014, when at 23 the lefty made 24 starts in Single and Double A, allowing only three home runs and striking out 131 in 140 total innings with a 2.25 ERA. So the Mets have a superhuman young pitcher in their system with fast-healing capabilities. Can't wait for that.

No. 70, C J.T. Realmuto, Marlins

As previously stated, catchers are either at the beginning or end of their careers in the NL East, leaving the door open for one of these prospects to take charge. Realmuto broke a national record in his senior year of high school with 119 RBI and tied the record for hits with 88. The Marlins drafted him and he spurned Oklahoma State to sign with them in 2010. In his second year with Triple A this season, Realmuto's offensive numbers spiked up from .239/.310/.353 to .299/.369/.461. This earned him some Major League action, where he went 7-for-29 in 30 games. Miami brought in Jhonathan Solano to serve as a bridge from Jarrod Saltalamacchia to Realmuto, giving the prospect more time to develop.

No. 72, OF Brandon Nimmo, Mets

They don't have high school baseball in Nimmo's native Wyoming for some reason, so the Mets scouted the outfielder at the Under Armor All-American game in 2011. Nimmo was the MVP, and signed with the team as an 18-year-old for $2.1 million after being picked 13th in the draft, surpassing Michael Beaver (Phillies, 1966) as the top picked Wyomingite in draft history. He hit .278/.394/.426 in 2014 and had a career-high in home runs with 10 in a season in which his first half was superior to his second. Nimmo has the skill set of a center fielder, but with Juan Lagares exciting people in the Mets' outfield, Nimmo's potential 2015 call-up will likely see him take on a corner role, according to Baseball America.

No. 78, RHP Mike Foltynewicz, Braves

A recent addition to the future of the Atlanta Braves, Foltynewicz came over from Houston in exchange for Evan Gattis this offseason. The 23-year-old righty was the 2012 Astros Minor League Player of the Year and was considered the fourth best prospect the Astros had in 2014. He suffered a traditional hangover from being promoted to Triple A (His ERA ballooned from 2.87 to 5.08), but he is already a candidate for a starting job in Atlanta's rotation this season.

No. 82, OF Michael Conforto, Mets

The son of a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a former Penn State football player, Conforto was an All-Tournament Team player in the 2013 College World Series and the Pac-12 Player of the Year. He played for the Brooklyn Cyclones in the New York-Penn League in 2014, slashing an astonishing .331/.403/.448, (which was among the league's best though he only made it into 42 games) and vindicating the Mets' interest in him with extremely mature plate discipline, taking walks and getting on base as stoically as he could stroke for power. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to hear about a 21-year-old marinating in your rival's farm system.

No. 93, C Christian Bethancourt, Braves

The same deal that netted Atlanta one of its other top prospects in Mike Foltynewicz also made room for Bethancourt by shipping out Evan Gattis. The NL East has been a much quieter place without Brian McCann patrolling Turner Field (you tend to miss a perennial All-Star slugging catcher when he's gone, even if he is gruff and humorless), but 23-year-old Bethancourt is primed to take over. He was cited after the 2012 Arizona Fall League for having a great arm and sharp instincts, and earned his first MLB at-bat in 2013, in which he struck out against the Phillies on three curveballs from Tyler Cloyd. The next season, after hitting .283 in Triple A with a .716 OPS, eight home runs and 48 RBI, he vacationed with Atlanta in September, getting 117 AB (as opposed to just the one in 2013), hitting .248/.274/.274 and throwing out five of 15 base stealers.

No. 94, RHP Lucas Sims, Braves

Still 20 years old, Sims hasn't gotten past High A ball yet, so as far as a solution to any rotation problems in the majors, he's been labeled as needing another season under his belt. He threw the most innings of his life in 2014 with 156 1/3 in 28 starts, walking 3.3 and striking out 6.2 per nine innings, ending with a 4.20 ERA. But that low-90s heat and sexy curve have kept plenty of people interested, and with Sims likely starting at Double A this season, he is considered a big part of Braves pitching in the future.