One of the interesting things that happens as the trade deadline approaches is when teams deal away their aging parts, opting to give younger players a shot at big league playing time. That appears to be happening in Philadelphia, where the Phillies are expected to deal away Michael Young with Cody Asche reaping the benefit.

Cody Asche was drafted in the 4th round of the 2011 draft out of the University of Nebraska, and struggled initially in the the NYPL before turning it around the next season and continuing to hit well throughout his minor league career. With Asche, I feel that this is a common case of a prospect being better in fantasy than in a real life.

Asche has a smooth left-handed swing and flashes occasional power. Over the course of a full season I would expect him to hit in the .270-.280 range as a ceiling. However, he has shown a tendency to strike out, including a 21.3% clip in AAA this season, so the worst case scenario is around .240-.250. The power is average, and should more often than not translate into doubles rather than home runs. A reasonable expectation is 12-15 HR over the course of a full season, with 25-30 doubles.

The problem for Asche is that he doesn’t really has a position, long-term. He lacks the range and quick reaction ability to stick at the hot corner. He probably won’t hit well enough to compensate for his defensive deficiencies. Unless the bat is better than expected, he should wind up being a solid bench player on a major league roster.

I play in a 20 team league with 25 man MLB rosters and 15 man MiLB rosters, and Cody Asche is on my roster, but only because I inherited a team with a horrible minor league roster and he was available. I promoted him with the hope that he could temporarily fill the hole I have at 3B, where my other options are guys like Luis Valbuena and Mike Aviles. Best case scenario, he carries his AAA hot streak to Philadelphia and puts up a few solid weeks of production, enough for me to entice a less informed owner into giving up more than Asche is really worth to get him.

Ryan Potter also writes for Beyond the Box Score and co-hosts a weekly podcast, Born on Third, with fellow TDG contributor Craig Goldstein. You can find him on Twitter @80GradeWant.