Baseballtown is in store for excitement 

By Tony Zonca

The last few years, the nucleus of the Reading Phillies roster was so old – how old was it? – that the equipment guys issued walkers along with the balls and bats.

Preferred reading in the clubhouse wasn’t Sports Illustrated or Maxim it was the AARP magazine.

And in the dugout during games, players didn’t spit out sunflower seeds for fear their dentures would wind up on the floor.

Those were old teams, patched together by free agents and castoffs, which helps explain why the Phillies haven’t so much as sniffed post-season play since 2001.

This year’s group is much younger, averaging 25.5 years per man, and seven of the 24 players on the roster are among the top young prospects in the organization. Thirteen of them were originally signed by the Phillies organization.

“This should be an exciting team,” said P.J. Forbes, returning for his third straight year as R-Phils manager. “It’s so good to see so many (homegrown) Phillies around here. It says we’re heading in the right direction and that our guys are beginning to develop.”

Three of the organization’s top pitching prospects will bolster the rotation – Carlos Carrasco (No. 1), Josh Outman (No. 4) and Andrew Carpenter (No. 9).

Carrasco, who turned 21 last month, was a combined 12-6, 3.86 ERA between Class A Clearwater and Reading last year. Though he was inconsistent after the June call-up, he managed to twirl a six-inning, rain-shortened no-hitter against Altoona to bolster his confidence.

We talked about the trio of talented arms with minor league pitching coordinator Gorman Heimueller (Reading's pitching coach in 1999 and 2001) one sunny day in Florida.

About Carrasco, he said: “I noticed a big difference in him in big league camp. What I liked the other day is he gave up a home run to Jayson Werth, the first hitter, and came back and stayed under control and struck out the next three guys. In the past, if he walked a guy or gave up a big inning he might let it snowball a bit. That’s part of the maturing process.

“Everybody knows about his stuff: He’s got more than a good enough fastball, an outstanding changeup, and a good curveball that keeps getting better. Now that he’s up in the higher levels he’s getting the experience and the reps and the innings, and he’s developing and learning how to pitch.”

In 13 starts in Reading last year (6-4, 4.86) his stuff, especially his vaunted changeup, was erratic.

“You probably didn’t see his changeup consistently because his mechanics and delivery weren’t consistent,” Heimueller said. “I think a lot of times he was pitching not to walk people. You look at his numbers; in the same amount of innings between Clearwater and Reading he had twice as many walks in Double-A. When he got up to the higher level at times he tried to be too fine and he started to walk some guys, and then I think he started to guide the ball sometimes.”

Outman, 23, was 12-7 with a 2.99 ERA between Clearwater and Reading. He led all Phillies minor leaguers with 151 strikeouts and was second in ERA. His 2.45 ERA was best in the Florida State League. He allowed no more than one run in 12 of his 18 starts in A-ball. He was just 2-3 with a 4.50 ERA in Reading, but he held Double-A left-handers to a .209 batting average.

“He’s got a great left arm,” Heimueller said. “His whole thing is being consistent with his fastball. We want him to stick with throwing one breaking ball – the slider. I think last year, when he went to the Arizona Fall League and then pitched for the World-Cup winning USA team was a great experience for him. I think that allowed him to mature more as a pitcher.

“He has a great arm, a quick arm. He’s not going to look pretty in his delivery, but he’s got some funk in it that helps throw off the timing of the hitter. You can’t teach bat speed and you can’t teach arm speed, and at the end of his delivery, it’s a gift. He works hard, he’s getting better at maintaining his composure on the mound, and like Carlos, I think his best teacher is experience during a game.”

Carpenter, 22, was a second-round pick in the June draft out of Long Beach State. He broke out in Clearwater last season in his first full pro season, going 17-6 with a 3.20 ERA. He pitched a seven-inning perfect game in August against Ft. Myers, and was 10-2 with a 2.05 ERA after the All-Star break. He pitched six or more innings 20 times and had 19 quality starts (among 24). He went 2-0 with a 2.92 ERA in two FSL playoff starts.

Said Heimueller: “If you watch him in one game, you’ll say, ‘Yeah, he’s OK,’ but you really appreciate him watching him start after start, with his command of the fastball. He’s got a good mix of four pitches – his fastball, a good changeup that he’s worked on, a curveball, and for an out pitch he’s got a split.”

Eleven of these precocious Phillies have championship rings from Lakewood in 2006 or Clearwater in 2007. No. 8 prospect Lou Marson was the catcher on both of those ring-bearing clubs. So what was so special about those clubs, Lou?

“We just came to the field everyday ready to play,” said Marson, quiet and shy, a young Mike Lieberthal. “We had a good group with our good pitching, and we hit at the right times. Hopefully, we can do that again here.”

Marson, 21, as the catcher of the Tender Trio, is like a guy entrusted with the keys to the vault.

“I don’t really look at it that way,” he said. “I’ve been with Carrasco since the Gulf Coast League, and I’ve seen him grow as a pitcher. He’s going to be pretty good, and I played with Outman and Carpenter last year. So I know these guys.”

Marson wasn’t ready to sign a promissory note, but he believes the Phillies have what it takes to hoist a pennant over FirstEnergy Stadium this year.

“We also have good pitching coming out of the bullpen, which is important, so I think we’re very capable of repeating,” he said about the last two seasons. “We also have some older guys who will help us out a lot.”

He might have been talking about the likes of Joey Hammond, Mike Spidale, Juan Tejeda and Javon Moran among the position players, newcomers Kip Bouknight, Justin Pope and Shane Youman among the pitchers.

The club should be strong up the middle with Marson, second baseman Brad Harman (No. 20 prospect), shortstop Jason Donald (No. 15) and center fielder Greg Golson (No. 7), who hit .400 this year in big league camp.

Donald and Carpenter, by the way, opened up a few eyes with the big club. Donald slugged a pair of two-run home runs against the Blue Jays late in spring training, and in his only outing, Carpenter pitched four scoreless innings against the Yankees.

Pitching will be the key for this club, but it also showed it can hit when at one point in spring training it averaged 12.5 knocks over a five-game span.

Yes, the season is bursting with early promises. And why not? The team, which opens tonight in Altoona, is youthful and confident, two virtues usually reserved for that special glad season of life.

Let the games begin.

This story was posted on April 3, 2008