Phillies top prospect J.P. Crawford is having a disappointing 2017 season. (Frank Klose/SportsTalkPhilly.com)
By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
As quickly as momentum seems to be building for the Philadelphia Phillies to make changes to their coaching staff after the 2017 season, scouts and talent evaluators seem to be jumping off of the J.P. Crawford bandwagon.
Kevin Cooney of The Bucks County Courier Times spoke to various scouts that seem to have soured on the team's No. 1 prospect. One scout went a step further, suggesting that right now there's not a debate about whether the Phillies are better off with Crawford or Freddy Galvis at shortstop:
Scouts haven’t been kind in their assessment of Crawford or his progression in their conversations recently. Of the five scouts that have been talked to in recent weeks, all five were down on Crawford’s ability to live up to the “top five prospect” hype that was bestowed on him as recently as a year ago.
When asked what he would do if he was in the Phillies' shoes, that same scout was blunt.
“I’d sign Freddy Galvis,” he said. “Better defender. Has more power. It’s not even close right now.”
If we are talking about June 2017, this scout is right, there's not a debate about whether Galvis or Crawford is better. Though he isn't fielding quite as well as he did in 2016, Galvis remains one of the game's better fielding shortstops. He does also have seven home runs, a year after hitting 20 home runs and driving in 67 RBIs. There are certainly good parts about Galvis.
That said, there seems to be this forced debate between these two. Eventually, Crawford is going to get a chance to play at shortstop, and it's entirely possible that the 22-year-old develops more power, just like Galvis has. It's also possible that it takes him time to grow into his high potential as a fielder, just like it did for Galvis. It should scare some fans that we've reached the point of having to even compare the two, but perhaps it's a sign that it's time to adjust our expectations for Crawford. It isn't, however, a sign that Galvis, who can become a free-agent after 2018, is the team's long-term answer at shortstop.
Trending: Who will be the Phillies manager in 2018?
Even if Crawford fizzles out, which still is far from a certainty when you consider his age, the idea that Galvis would then be the team's long-term shortstop doesn't make a ton of sense. While his ability to be a top-notch defender at multiple positions and pop are nice, they lead you to think that he could be a valuable bench piece on a contending team. He still has a career batting average of .242 and a .297 on-base percentage this year, so he's probably not good enough offensively to start for a World Series contender.
As for Crawford, the slew of scouts that critiqued him in Cooney's story are just the latest to rip him. One scout told Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports earlier this month that he/she thinks Crawford may have been 'overgraded.' That scout was actually generous compared to the anonymous scout that ripped Crawford's approach in Sports Illustrated's 2017 MLB preview.
The Phillies promoted Crawford to Triple-A last May. Once Crawford was promoted to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, he slashed just .244/.328/.318 in 336 at-bats, which kept him from reaching the major league level last year. After the IronPigs' 14-5 loss to the Pawtucket Red Sox tonight, Crawford is hitting just .203 in 237 at-bats this season. He does continue to walk at a good clip, but the fact that he has a .227 batting average in 573 career at-bats at Triple-A is alarming for someone that Dusty Wathan said had a chance to be "an anchor" for the Phillies organization.
