READING — Minor league clubs of all levels and sports often promote themselves as the launch pad for future stars to the big leagues, but the Reading Fightin Phils may have a better claim to that than most this season.
Five of the Philadelphia Phillies’ top 10 prospects according to Baseball America will start the 2015 season at FirstEnergy Stadium, the most of which are on the mound.
First-round Phillies draft picks Jesse Biddle and Aaron Nola star in a rotation strengthened by trade acquisitions Zach Eflin, Tom Windle and Ben Lively.
“The rotation is built of some guys that we think are going to have a very bright future in Philadelphia,” Reading manager Dusty Wathan said at the club’s media day Tuesday.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a rotation to where every night a fan can come to the ballpark and see something special. It’s been very fun to watch at spring training.”
But with great potential comes great expectation, especially within an organization that has declared a major rebuilding phase at the top. Dealing with that pressure is easier said than done.
“I think that there’s probably some level of expectation that the majority of us are going to be the ones playing in Philadelphia soon,” Biddle said. “We, as a unit, can’t be worried about that. We have to be worried about one pitch at a time, one game at a time, and just maintain a level head.”
Biddle was the Phils’ first-round pick in the 2010 draft, but has been sidelined with strange injuries in
the past couple years. He was diagnosed with whooping cough and was hit in the head during a hail storm, causing concussion-like symptoms.
After a break from baseball last season, the southpaw finished the season in single-A Clearwater with two wins in two games and a 0.90 earned run average.
“All I’m trying to do is find consistency,” Biddle said. “I was very happy with the way spring went and I was very happy with the way that my season ended last year, whether it was playing instructional ball or going to Puerto Rico and pitching there. I feel really good where I’m at.”
Reading, meanwhile, struggled down the stretch last season. Hampered by injuries and a scramble of call-ups — most notably that of closer Ken Giles — the Fightin Phils finished 66-76 and ranked last in the Eastern League in runs scored.
Perhaps this star-studded rotation can breathe new life into the club.
Nola, Philadelphia’s No. 2 prospect, was a first-round pick by the Phillies last year. He went 2-3 in seven games at Clearwater before finishing 2-0 in five starts at Reading. His ERA dropped from 3.16 to 2.63 when he made the jump to double-A.
“I’m excited to get back onto the field, start my first full season, get back on the mound and compete against hitters,” Nola said.
The 6-foot-2 right-hander was taken seventh overall out of LSU following an 11-1 season with a 1.47 ERA and 134 strikeouts for the Tigers in 2014.
Nola is known for the movement he gets on his pitches. (Wathan said he gets his pitches “over the plate, and not many of them are straight.”) His control is good and he’s getting better at off-speed pitches.
But the biggest adjustment will be dealing with more runners on base, which he didn’t see often in college. So speeding up his delivery is a must.
“I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit quicker to the plate than I have in the past,” Nola said. “I’m still working on that, I’m still working on getting better at being quicker. The biggest thing is getting my catcher the chance to throw the guy out.”
The rest of the rotation features the fourth-through-sixth top prospects in the organization — Eflin, Windle and Lively, respectively.
Eflin and Windle came to the Phillies in the trade that sent Jimmy Rollins to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Eflin was drafted 33rd overall by San Diego and traded to Los Angeles in the Matt Kemp deal. Windle was a second-round pick by the Dodgers in 2013.
The 6-foot-6, right-handed Eflin spent the majority of last season in high-A Lake Elsinore in the California League, where he finished 10-7 in 24 starts with a 3.80 ERA.
Wathan said the rotation wasn’t planned to look the way it does and that it was just the way it worked out from spring training, adding, “We never really lined it up.”
Lively was acquired from Cincinnati in the Marlon Byrd deal. Drafted in 2013, Lively had a breakout season last year. He finished 13-7 with a 3.04 ERA in 26 combined starts between single-A Bakersfield and double-A Pensacola.
He was crowned the Reds’ Minor League Player of the Year for 2014 and is ranked the sixth-best Phillies prospect.
But Lively said there’s more to be excited about for the coming season than what has been dubbed the future of the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
“It’s not just the prospects, it’s the whole team,” he said. “Going through the spring, it was just fun to watch this team play. Everyone’s hitting the ball great, everyone’s pitching good.”
Good enough to play together in Philadelphia someday?
“I hope so,” Lively said, smiling. “It’s a good group of guys. Everyone’s down to earth. No one’s one of those guys you don’t want to be around. It’d definitely be fun to play with each other up in the big leagues.”
Not lost in that group oozing potential is Elvis Araujo and Nefi Ogando, bullpen pitchers on the Philadelphia 40-man roster who Wathan said are “probably going to get some more important innings.”
Aaron Altherr, also on the 40-man, starts the season in Reading this year after hitting 14 homers and driving in 57 runs for the Fightin Phils last season. He’s joined by speedster leadoff man Roman Quinn and power hitter Art Charles, both up after great seasons in Clearwater last year.
But there’s no doubt the spotlight is shining brightest on the starting pitchers.
“There’s a lot of expectations on these guys, but I think they’re up to it,” Wathan said. “... Hopefully things pan out like we envision them. You don’t see this kind of rotation a lot of times at this level.”
The Fightin Phils open their season with road series in Portland and New Hampshire before the home-opener against Richmond on April 17.