An inside look at the Phillies top prospects.
(MLBPipeline lists the top 30 prospects on each team’s website. While biding time waiting for baseball to resume, Steve Potter will provide his views of these young players. A Clearwater resident, his passion is seeing and following these prospects in person. Normally, Spectrum Field and Carpenter Complex are his second homes. His 4th Annual Phillies Minor League Digest is on sale at www.amazon.com.)
LHP Cole Irvin.
Phillies #22 prospect according to MLB.com … 26 years old … 2016 5th round selection out of the University of Oregon …
Cole worked his way quickly up the ladder after initially pitching for Williamsport in his draft year ... he skipped over Lakewood and started the season at Advanced A Clearwater and earned a same season promotion to Reading to finish 2017 .
In 2018 he had an outstanding year for Lehigh Valley going 14-4 and posting a 2.57 ERA in 161 1/3 IP ... last summer he made his major league debut splitting time between AAA and the majors
Projection : Folks who consider Cole to be a “soft tosser” are mistaken ... we’ve seen him reach the mid 90’s which he showed as well pitching out of the bullpen last summer for the Phillies. He’s a very cerebral and prepared pitcher, a bit of a throwback as he pitches to contact with a four pitch mix ... normally has very good command and control, from my perspective he has the capability to be a long term major leaguer.
