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During the first week of the pro baseball season, the Morning Call’s Senior Sports Writer Tom Housenick sat down with us and gave some predictions about the Phillies new season, with an emphasis on “prospects to watch” this year.
Two of those predictions included starting pitchers Enyel De Los Santos and Cole Irvin having breakout years.
So far…both pitchers have done just that.
Both pitchers have very different styles, but each with a great rate of success through the first two months of the season.
De Los Santos, acquired in the Freddy Galvis deal, is a flamethrowing right-hander. He won’t be 23 until next season but certainly looks like he’s near-ready to pitch in the Big Leagues. He throws in the mid-90ies deep into his games, features a wicked slider and mixes his pitches well.
His ERA has been under two since the third game of the year and he currently has struck out 62 batters in 58 innings while walking 20 (plus three hit-batsmen.)
He has rarely been challenged but, when he has, Irvin has certainly kept his composure when working out of the stretch and/or getting caught in jams. If the Phillies are in a playoff chase and legitimately believe they can make a run in the post-season, he also could be a very effective reliever, especially if the Phillies find themselves in need of another hard-thrower out of the pen.
Cole Irvin is quite the opposite of De Los Santos, but has been almost as effective.
The soft-tossing southpaw relies on pinpoint control and has also made a habit of getting ahead of hitters early in the count.
In his most recent outing, he nearly went the distance in a four-hit, six strikeout win over Charlotte (just one walk). He has walked just 15 batters while pitching 62 2-3 innings, with his WHIP just over one.
He also never seems to get flustered on the mound and also has been busy talking with some of the veterans on Lehigh Valley’s roster, trying to pick their brains and learn as much as he can to better himself and make him a Major League-ready pitcher.
While he may not be a flame-thrower, he would be the lone lefty in Philadelphia’s starting rotation—something that would work in his favor should the team be matched up against a strong lefty-swinging opponent.
One more name to keep an eye on that Phillies fans haven’t seen first-hand so far this spring is Pedro Beato. While he does have a career ERA north of 4 coming into this season, Beato has found comfort in the role as Lehigh Valley’s closer. His control (just six walks through his first 26 innings pitched) combined with his velocity (aka ability to make batters swing and miss) could make for another nice edition for the parent club.
Keep checking back here at “The Shop” for more on the Phillies and their up-and-coming prospects. For more on “up-and-coming” position players in the organization’s system, check out last week’s entry.
To hear more about Philadelphia’s young prospects as well as other teams of interest in the RCN viewing area, check out last week’s podcast featuring MLB.com’s Jim Callis at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk or watch the show through RCN On-Demand.
