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By BILL SAVAGE; Times Leader Sports Correspondent
Sunday, May 28, 1995     Page:

MOOSIC — It is perhaps a bit early to compare the current level of talent
in the Philadelphia Phillies’ minor league system to what it was when Jerry
Martin was a young player in the 1970s.
   
But the former major league outfielder, now a roving hitting instructor in
the Phillies’ organization, marvels at the improvement since he took his
current job in 1990.
    “It’s nice to go into towns and not get beat up day in and day out because
you don’t have the players to compete with other organizations,” Martin said.
   
When the Red Barons moved from Maine in 1989, the Phillies were
consistently rated as having among the worst, if not the worst, farm systems
in baseball.
   
And, for the past several years, that’s been reflected in the minor league
standings, as the Phillies have been at or near the bottom for the most part.
   
But through the end of this past week, they were No. 1 among baseball’s 28
organizations. With first-place teams everywhere except at
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the Phillies were 25 games over .500 and on top of the
second-place Pittsburgh Pirates and third-place Florida Marlins.
   
“When you consider the way the big league club is playing, as well as the
system, it’s a lot of fun,” Red Barons manager Mike Quade said.
   
The Phillies have apparently revived their system through a series of
successful drafts under Mike Arbuckle, the scouting director hired a few years
ago by general manager Lee Thomas.
   
The best team, so far, has been Class A Piedmont, which was 18 games over
.500 going into Friday night.
   
Two of Piedmont’s pitchers, Rich Hunter and Larry Wimberly, had combined
for 14 wins and the team had five of the top 10 hitters in the organizational
rankings.
   
Former Red Baron Rob Grable, the organization leader in hitting, home runs
and RBI, was leading Reading and, despite some injuries, Clearwater was
battling for first place in the Florida State League Western Division.
   
The Red Barons were the only team in the organization with a losing record.
   
But, given the success down below, that shouldn’t be the case in years to
come.
   
“You look at what Montreal, the Mets and, before that, Cleveland, have
done, and it should be a good sign for the future,” Quade said.
   
“The question, too, is you have to look at the rosters of those teams. You
can be winning at Piedmont at that level with a bunch of college kids.
   
“The White Sox have been winning in their system with nothing but older
people for a long time. But we’re not doing that here.”
   
Quade started his career in the Pittsburgh organization when it was
developing some good players.
   
Then he was a coach and manager in the Montreal organization, in recent
years the standard by which farm systems have been judged.
   
Martin comes from a different perspective. Shortly before him, the Phillies
groomed Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski and Mike Schmidt, among others.
   
Martin was in the next wave, with Larry Christenson and Tom Underwood, and
before Lonnie Smith and Keith Moreland.
   
“It’s hard to compare it with when I was coming through, but it’s nice just
to be getting better quality of players,” he said. “It’s definitely heading in
the right direction.”
   
Especially, he says, in his area of expertise. The Red Barons, for
instance, had two of the organization’s top 10 hitters in Kevin Jordan and Tom
Marsh, and Martin can’t remember the team ever having as much offensive
firepower as it does this year.
   
“We’ve got more here, from my point of view, than at any time since I’ve
been here,” he said.
   
Organizational success usually does move upward. Quade had a super team in
Harrisburg in 1992 and many of his players from that team starred for Montreal
last year.
   
And the Binghamton Mets have had strong teams the past two seasons, with
the result being that Norfolk is rolling over the International League this
year.
   
With the Phillies having three choices of the first 42 in June’s free agent
draft, the opportunity is there for more constructive work below the Red
Barons’ level.
   
I
   
t’s nice to go into towns and not get beat up day in and day out because
you don’t have the players to compete with other organizations.
   
Jerry Martin
   
Roving hitting instructor