Here’s What the Phillies 25-Man Roster Should Look Like

We all know the rules of baseball - the dreaded "service time".

The Chicago Cubs felt like they might be contenders this season, one of their top 25 players and their best young prospect is Kris Bryant.  He did make the team out of spring training, the stud prospect was kept in the minors long enough so that the team could secure an extra year of control.

After ripping the cover off the ball with nine homers, 15 RBIs and had 17 hits in 37 at-bats (.459) during spring - he was sent down to the minors where he batted .321 with three homers and 10 RBI in his first seven contests at Iowa.

It's time for baseball to change.

Think about it, just every team is looking for ways to build the farm system, get younger, the draft has become so much more important - yet teams are encouraged to hold their younger players down as long as possible - so they can control them longer.

Two things we love about the NFL and NBA offseason - the draft.

While we might not know the baseball drafted players as well or at all, one of the exciting things about what your favorite team build is seeing which young players will be added the very next season - in baseball it could take years.

Rookie ball, Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A, is all of that really needed?

A 20 year old kid can come in and and bang heads on the offensive line, but he can't throw from 60-feet, six inches?  A 19 year-old kid can come in and stare LeBron James in the face, but can't come in and face Cole Hamels?

He should be able to if he is good enough.

We hear all the time in baseball "he's not ready", is the 20 year old kid drafted into the NFL ready at 20 - probably not.  But players who can make it raise their level and sometimes surprise you - maybe they are ready if put in the situation.

It's time for baseball to change - do they really need five, sometimes six different minor league teams and systems?

I think one will do.

The best 25 guys make the big league team - they next 25 develop in the minors.

The NBA seems to be ok without a minor league, heck they have the D-League and some teams don't even choose to field a team.  The NFL has no minor league - they seem to be ok at finding talent and stashing guys away on the five man practice squad.

Baseball thinks they always going to find this "diamond in the rough", find that guy playing independent ball, he's not worth making Kris Bryant sit in the minors for a month to you don't have to pay him.

People say all the time, let them develop, learn how to pitch in the minors. I have a hard time thinking picking Jesse Biddle brain everyday would make Aaron Nola a better pitcher than picking Cole Hamels brain every day - just saying.

People say well the NBA and NFL use the college game as their minor league system - you do know that colleges play baseball too right?

Just checking.

So with that said, and the Phillies being awful right now and for the foreseeable future, lets take a look at what the Phillies 25-man roster should look like if baseball's rules weren't so antiquated.

1B - Ryan Howard
2B - Chase Utley
SS - JP Crawford
3B - Maikel Franco
LF - Cody Asche
CF - Roman Quinn
RF - Dom Brown
C - Carlos Ruiz

Bench - Odubel Herra
Bench - Freddy Galvis
Bench - Cesar Hernandez
Bench - Darin Ruf
Bench - Cameron Rupp

P - Cole Hamels
P - Aaron Harang
P - Aaron Nola
P - Phillippe Aumont
P - Ben Lively

P- Justin De Fratus
P - Elvis Aruajo
P - Jeanmar Gomez
P - Hector Neris
P - Jake Deikman
P - Ken Giles
CL - Jonathan Papelbon

The MLB Draft is tonight, maybe the Phillies can add some more pieces that can help this team sooner than later - the last two first round picks have been Aaron Nola and JP Crawford

(ESPN.com senior baseball writer Jayson Stark talks about the Phillies minor league system and the MLB draft)