Phillies Farm System Report: Williams is Red Hot
Clearwater Threshers (5-3)
Finally, the Threshers have been a team with a few hitting prospects off to solid starts that had started to fall and a bunch of very promising arms. It was an exciting week for a handful of those players.
As always, I like to start with the one most people care about, Mickey Moniak. The first overall pick last season hit his first professional homer last week on his way to a stretch that brought his average back up to .288 after some recent struggles. He did come out of the first game of a double-header on Friday and did not play in the second game or Saturday’s game.
While Moniak is not setting the world on fire early on in his career, he is doing a good enough job at this point in his short career. Daniel Brito continued to get back on the right path offensively last week. He did end the week with a 2-5 output, scoring two runs.
On the pitching end of things, the Threshers continue to provide the Phillies with hope in the distant future. Nick Fanti, Jojo Romero, and Ranger Suarez all had tremendous starts of six or more innings. Suarez’s was easily the best, going 7.2 innings allowing four hits, a walk, and no runs. He struck out ten.
Fanti and Romero combined to go 12.2, surrendering ten hits, four total walks, three earned runs, and 14 Ks.
I have been paying attention to Trevor Bettancourt in Lakewood’s bullpen and he has been very strong so far this season. Just last Sunday, he was entrusted with three innings out of the pen. With those innings, the 22-year-old struck out five batters and gave up no runs to improve his ERA to an impressive 0.60 early in his professional career.
Next: Phillies Considering Demoting Franco
The UC Santa Barbara grad will be another arm to keep a close eye on in the system. If he continues to pitch this way, the organization could look to fast-track him to help the bullpen when they are ready to compete again.