Pressure on Phillies to make right call

Crawford, the team’s first-round pick in last year’s draft, looks like a winner.

But those two additions to the organization are offset by numerous flops and misjudgments, from draft picks such as Anthony Hewitt, Zach Collier, Larry Greene and others to recent $12 million international signing Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, who was supposed to contribute in the majors this season but can’t because of continued shoulder soreness.

This draft, crucial because of the dismal state of the farm system and the organization as a whole, and for the lofty spot in which the Phils will pick, arrives at a time when the team called attention to recent draft misses.

Hewitt, the team’s first-round pick in 2008, was sent from Double A, where he was hitting .140, to Single A, on Tuesday.

More than a decade’s worth of strong big-league finishes and forfeited high-round picks (the cost of doing business on the free-agent market) dropped the Phillies in the draft’s pecking order for many years.

After such uninspiring first-rounders as Greene (39th overall in 2011), Hewitt (24th in 2008), Collier (34th in 2008), Joe Savery (19th in 2007) and Greg Golson (21st in 2004), the Phillies can’t afford to be wrong with this year’s first-round pick.

Amaro has personally seen a dozen or so potential first-round picks, more than in other years.

Scouting director Marti Wolever has come under fire for poor recent drafts and his involvement in a controversy that led to a former draft pick being suspended by the NCAA earlier this spring (see story).

Amaro, whose seat is even hotter than Wolever’s for the sorry state of his big-league team, said Wolever will make the final call on Thursday night’s first-round pick.

After years of taking risks on high-ceiling athletes and rolling the dice in the developmental process, the Phillies would like to get a polished player who projects as a sure-fire contributor.