Phillies: Dylan Cozens wins International League Player of the Week
By John Town
After a strong week at the plate, Phillies prospect Dylan Cozens was honored with the International League’s player of the week award.
I wrote just two weeks ago about how Dylan Cozens was flailing his way through his first 24 games in Triple-A. His line was at .165/.232/.341 with a 42.1% strikeout rate. The Phillies prospect looked like his 2016 run of dominance came to an end.
However, Cozens has turned his season around since that time. Since I wrote that article May 3, Cozens has a .326/.404/.696 line with five home runs.
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Cozens had an especially great week last week. Between May 8 and 14 alone, he hit four home runs and drove in eight runs. His OPS for the week was 1.290 with a .393 batting average. Cozens’ strikeout rate wasn’t even that bad at 20%.
One of those home runs came in the first leg of a doubleheader Sunday afternoon against the Buffalo Bisons. Cozens took a fifth-inning pitch and absolutely demolished it.
The home run went 459 feet, landing in the concourse in center field. It was the longest home run ever hit at Coca-Cola Park. Only 13 home runs were hit farther at the major-league level this season according to MLB Statcast.
Thanks to his great performance at the plate, Cozens was selected as the International League’s Player of the Week. He is the first IronPig to win the honor this season, and hopefully, he won’t be the last.
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Overall, Cozens’ numbers for the season still aren’t great thanks to a poor start to the season. Currently, his line through 37 games stands at .221/.293/.466 with nine home runs and 28 runs batted in. Hopefully, Cozens can sustain his recent success.
Along with Cozens, two Phils pitching prospects also received player of the week honors. Double-A Reading’s Drew Anderson took home the award as the Eastern League’s pitcher of the week. In two separate starts, Anderson gave up just one run in seven innings on a solo home run without walking anyone.
In his last start Sunday, that home run was the only hit he gave up. Anderson struck out 17 batters over those 14 innings. His ERA for the season stands at 4.67 due to several poor starts in April.
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In addition, Low-A Lakewood’s JoJo Romero was named the South Atlantic League’s pitcher of the week. The 2016 fourth-round pick went eight shutout innings in his lone start of the week. Romero gave up just one hit and three walks along with striking out eight batters in his start. The righty has a 2.20 ERA in six starts with the BlueClaws so far this season.