Phillies Triple-A Prospects Ready for Season to Start

Triple-A Lehigh Valley starts their season Thursday and several Phillies prospects are ready for the season to get underway.

While the Phillies started their season Monday, their minor-league teams start the season on Thursday. Triple-A Lehigh Valley opens their season against the Pawtucket Red Sox at 7:05 PM. Jake Thompson will start the IronPigs’ first game for the second straight season.

Thompson and many of his teammates are more than ready for the season to get underway. Several spent the spring in big-league camp with the team and were added to the 40-man roster during the offseason. It is very likely that if they play well with the IronPigs this season, they could make their way to Philadelphia by the end of the year.

Roman Quinn, who already had the chance to make his major-league debut last year, will return to Triple-A this season. He said his goal for the year is to stay healthy for a full season.

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“I have to stay healthy for a whole season and that is my biggest goal,” Quinn told Marc Narducci of Philly.com. Beyond staying healthy, Quinn also worked on his swing from both sides of the plate and he said he feels much better about switch-hitting, telling Narducci:

“Me and [Phillies hitting coach] Matt Stairs were working on a couple of things and it had me feeling good.“I went through camp feeling good on both sides of the plate, which has never happened – either I feel good from one side and cold from the other – but I felt good on both sides and will try to build from that.”

Shortstop and No, 1 prospect J.P. Crawford is excited about what Quinn can do if he manages to stay healthy: [quote via Narducci]

“If he stays healthy, he will wreak havoc on the base paths…He makes my job hitting behind him easier.”

Another player whose season was derailed by injury was pitcher Mark Appel. He made just eight starts in 2016 before a shoulder strain and surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow cost him the rest of the season.

Appel admitted that the injuries hurt his performance to an extent, but didn’t want to lend blame entirely to that: [quote via Tom Housenick of the Morning Call]

“I’m not blaming the injuries,” he said Tuesday, “but they definitely were a factor on why I had some of the struggles.“When you go out there and you don’t feel healthy physically, it can be a grind mentally.”

Appel told Housenick that he feels like he can bounce back from his 2016 season:

“I know I can have success at this level. I had some great games when I was with the Astros in Triple-A. I had great games last year. I know I can do it.”

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Two players who could be exciting to watch in their first season at Triple-A are outfielder Dylan Cozens and first baseman Rhys Hoskins. The two “Bash Brothers” combined for 78 home runs in Double-A Reading. That number is expected to fall this season because Lehigh Valley’s Coca-Park is far less friendly to hitters, but Cozens isn’t too concerned about it.

Cozens said before Tuesday’s “222 Exhibition” to Greg Joyce of Lehigh Valley Live:

“The ballpark definitely plays a factor but I’m going to try to make this one seem not as much of a factor as people think it is.”

Hoskins also isn’t concerned and he thinks he will able to carry his success from 2016 into 2017 and beyond: [quote via Joyce]

“I don’t know about expect, but I think that I’m fully capable of doing what I did last year again and for multiple years to come,” Hoskins said. “Hitting is hitting; you still gotta hit the ball. If it goes out, it goes out. If not, it’s probably a double. Sure, there might have been some last year that snuck out, but I’m not going to change anything that I did. I’m still going to try to drive the ball into the gaps and if they go out, they go out.”

Next: Lehigh Valley Tops Reading 5-3 in 222 Exhibition

Lehigh Valley will be loaded with prospects this season, and several could be in Philadelphia quite soon.