Which Phillies prospects have taken a step forward over the last week?
With the Phillies being ahead of schedule at the Major League level, there has been less attention on the Minor Leagues this year than in the past few seasons. The focus is rightfully all on the big club right now, but there are still prospects that need to be talked about.
Trending Up: Will Stewart, LHP, Lakewood
Stewart is one of those prospects that has been consistently good the entire season. He’s been the best pitcher on a Lakewood staff that has been dominating the South Atlantic League.
This year, he is 8-1 with a 1.96 ERA in 18 starts. He’s thrown two complete-game shutouts, including a three-hit and ten strikeout performance on May 30th against Greensboro.
Until recently, Stewart had been pitching deep into almost every start. He hasn’t thrown more than five innings since a seven-inning start on June 13. Although, he hasn’t been throwing that many innings, it hasn’t been because of subpar performances.
Besides his lone bad start of the season on July 27th, he hasn’t thrown more than 80 pitches since that June 13 outing.
Lakewood is just trying to prevent a burnout down the stretch. Fewer innings now will lead to full season of a locked-in Will Stewart.
This is something the Phillies might start doing with their rotation as well to keep the rotation rested during the stretch-run to the playoffs. Lakewood is 3.5 games up in the South Atlantic League North division after clinching the first-half title.