The Phillies have acquired a plethora of minor league talent over the past year and have a promising future of young prospects to be excited about on the farm. On Tuesday evening while the big league club hosted the Dodgers, the Phillies announced their minor league players of the month. Taking home the honors for July is outfielder Carlos Tocci and lefty Ranger Suarez.
OF Carlos Tocci (High A) and LHP Ranger Suarez (GCL) are the Phillies’ minor league player and pitcher of the month for July.
— Jake Kaplan (@jakemkaplan) August 5, 2015
Tocci, ranked by Baseball America as the the Phillies seventh best prospect, started the season with Class 'A' Lakewood and was promoted to Advanced 'A' Clearwater after hitting .321 for the Blueclaws. In the month of July, he hit .348 with 15 runs scored, four doubles, a homer, six RBI's and three steals. He's played 40 games with the Threshers and struggled at the start, hitting just .216 at the beginning of July. Once mid-July hit though, Tocci's bat caught fire. By the end of the month, he had a .305 average. Overall on the season with the Threshers, the 19-year-old outfielder is hitting .302 with six doubles, a home run, 22 runs scored and 10 RBI''s. Between Lakewood and Clearwater, he's slashed .313/.372/.396. At just 19 years old, Tocci has shown plenty of promise at the lower levels of the Phillies organization. If his bat continues to produce, the Phils July Player of the Month could start the 2016 season with Double-A Reading.
Meanwhile, taking home the Phillies organizational Pitcher of the Month is left-hander, Ranger Suarez. A 19-year-old southpaw out of Venezuela, Suarez is playing rookie ball with the Gulf Coast League Phillies. In four starts in July, Suarez went 2-0 with a 0.79 ERA, striking out 17 and walking three. He's appeared in six games overall, four of which were starts, and is sporting a 3-0 record to go along with an impressive 0.65 ERA (2 ER allowed in 27.2 innings pitched). In his last outing, he tossed six shutout innings, scattering two hits while striking out five and walking one. On the season, he's struck out 20 and walked just four. Suarez has spent time in the Phils Venezuelan Summer League during the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons and has a combined 8-4 record and a 1.52 ERA in 130.1 innings on the mound during his time with the Phillies organization. We could see Suarez at Williamsport this season, but what the Phillies choose to do with the six-foot left-hander remains to be seen.
