Future Phillies Report: Nick Williams Reducing Strikeout Rate, Still Showing Pop

An impressive year for the Phillies' farm system continued this week with the promotions of two of their second base prospects, Jesmuel Valentin and Scott Kingery. Valentin replaced Taylor Featherston at Triple A when Featherston took Andres Blanco's spot on the Phils' roster, and Kingery replaced Valentin at Double A.

Valentin is a former first-round pick and Kingery was the Phils' second-rounder in 2015. It's a good sign for the organization that even their second-tier prospects are advancing up the chain.

But in this last Future Phillies Report before the non-waiver trade deadline, let's take a look at how the Phils' most intriguing prospects have been performing lately.

OF Nick Williams (AAA)
Williams' call-up could be coming soon. He continues to hit, he continues to show power, and he's even reduced his strikeout rate lately.

Williams has punched out just nine times in his last 17 games, a span of 67 plate appearances. He has 90 K's on the season in 395 plate appearances, which really isn't that egregiously high of a strikeout rate. Still, the Phillies wanted to see less swing-and-miss from him and lately he's obliged.

Williams' power was slow to emerge this season as he was playing in the coldest conditions of his life, but things changed right around the second week of May. Over his last 70 games, Williams has hit .289 with a .489 slugging percentage, hitting 26 doubles, three triples and eight home runs. His run production has increased each month.

Defensively, Williams has been playing a lot of left field lately. It makes sense because that's the position he is most likely to play when he's called up to the majors. Odubel Herrera is in center field for the Phillies and Aaron Altherr will be the regular rightfielder the final two months. And so 15 of Williams' last 26 games have been in left field.

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He has the defensive ability to play all three outfield spots, but Williams likes center field the most, saying the various routes a CF takes make him feel like more of an athlete than he does in the corner outfield. 

But it's his bat more than anything else that has gotten Williams this far in his pro career. He's knocking on the door to the majors and should be added to the 40-man roster soon.

SS J.P. Crawford (AAA)
Crawford has slowed a bit after a month-long hot streak, going 6 for 36, all singles, in his last 10 games. He's hitting .261/.336/.346 through 60 games at Triple A and .262/.360/.362 in 96 total games this season.

Defensively, Crawford has not been as sound over the last few weeks, committing six errors in his last 20 games after having just two in his first 40 at Triple A. 

Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said earlier this week that it wasn't a consideration to bring up Crawford when Blanco got hurt. That may frustrate some Phillies fans, but there's just no need to rush him to the majors while he's not hitting. The Phils have to be confident that when they're ready to promote these guys — Crawford, Williams, Jake Thompson — that they're ready to hit the ground running and stick in The Show. So far, Crawford has held his own at Triple A but hasn't dominated. And that's no big deal considering he's 5.6 years younger than the average age in the International League.

Crawford could see some time with the Phils in September. But he's not going to be handed any sort of job just because he's long been considered a top prospect. The fact remains that at the minors' two highest levels, Crawford has hit .264/.357/.384. He's yet to truly break out the way most top-five prospects do. 

SP Jake Thompson (AAA)
Thompson wasn't going to stay perfect forever and his ridiculous run of four earned runs in 62⅓ innings ended in his last start Tuesday. Thompson gave up three runs in the first inning and five in five innings, but still got the win thanks to a big offensive night from the IronPigs.

Through 20 starts at Triple A, Thompson is 10-5 with a 2.57 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. A good sign was that even in defeat, eight of 10 balls put into play against Thompson were groundballs. Over his last 10 starts, Thompson has a 1.20 ERA and a groundball rate of 51 percent. 

That one misstep will not change the Phillies' opinions about Thompson's readiness for a call-up. All that is standing in the way is Jeremy Hellickson, who could very well be traded by the Aug. 1 deadline. 

And even if Hellickson isn't dealt, it would not be at all surprising to see the Phillies go to a six-man rotation at some point in mid-to-late August to keep their young pitchers' innings in check. Aaron Nola is on pace for 167, which isn't too bad. But Jerad Eickhoff is on pace for 200, which is a bit much in his first full season. Vince Velasquez is on pace for 20 more innings than he's ever thrown.

CF Roman Quinn (AA)
Quinn is back on the field after missing seven weeks with an oblique injury. He began a rehab assignment Monday in the Gulf Coast League and went 2 for 6 with a walk, a steal and two runs in two games. 

The Phillies are hoping Quinn can stay healthy for the remainder of the season because this was another year in which he lost valuable at-bats. Quinn has never played in more than 88 games in a season, which must be frustrating for such a talented and versatile player. Quinn is a switch-hitter who has the best speed and CF defense in the Phillies' farm system and also has deceptive power. 

Look for him to play some winter ball to make up for some of that lost time. Quinn played 25 games in the Dominican Winter League in 2015. 

OF Mickey Moniak (GCL)
The Phillies' first overall pick has performed as advertised so far, hitting .321/.389/.429 in 95 plate appearances in Rookie ball. The Phillies saw Moniak as a high-floor, high-ceiling high school bat, saying that he was safer than many of the top college hitters available in the draft. 

He may never hit for power, but he's quickly translated his hit tool from the California HS circuit to the minors' lowest level.

C Jorge Alfaro (AA)
Alfaro had a four-hit night with three RBIs Wednesday to raise his season batting line to .295/.333/.480. It's been a great first year in the Phillies' system for the powerful catcher, who has proven he can stay on the field, playing pretty much every day since May 7.

Alfaro hasn't gotten as hot as he was to start the year, when he went 18 for 36 with six extra-base hits and 10 RBIs in his first eight games, but he's also avoided lengthy slumps. He's spent much of the season with a batting average hovering around .300, which is a good sign considering that tool is behind his raw power and arm. There seems to be a near consensus that Alfaro can, in a few years, be a catcher who controls the running game and hits 20 to 25 home runs. If he can do that with a high batting average as well, you'll be looking at one of the game's most valuable pieces.

Alfaro is already on the 40-man roster, so he could see some time in the majors in September even though he's yet to play at Triple A.

OF Dylan Cozens, 1B Rhys Hoskins (AA)
Hoskins has 29 homers and 92 RBIs. Cozens has 26 and 88. Both are going to reach 30 and 100, barring unforeseen circumstances. Those are the kind of numbers that get you noticed and promoted, even if you have glaring weaknesses, too.

For both players, that weakness is a penchant to swing and miss. Cozens has 124 K's in 376 at-bats, essentially one every three ABs. Hoskins' rate isn't quite as high — he's pretty much in line with Williams.

Hoskins is the older of the two and will be 24 next March. The expectation is that both will get invites to big-league camp, and if Hoskins really stands out, perhaps he battles with Tommy Joseph for everyday 1B duty next season. The Phils are going to want to see sooner rather than later what they have in Hoskins. If he's called up next season, he'd be the same age Joseph was when the Phils promoted him.

RHP Jimmy Cordero (AA)
The hard-throwing right-handed reliever acquired by the Phillies from the Blue Jays in last summer's Ben Revere trade was promoted to Double A Reading earlier this week after pitching eight games with High A Clearwater.

Cordero missed the first three months of the season with an arm injury but has made 11 appearances since July 1. He's shown some rust, allowing seven runs and walking seven in 13⅔ innings to go along with 12 strikeouts.

Because he is already on the 40-man roster like Alfaro, the Phils could take a look at Cordero in September even though he hasn't pitched much this season.

The Phillies have stockpiled a lot of prospects over the last two years and the often overlooked position group in all of that has been relief arms. With Cordero, Hector Neris, Edubray Ramos and Victor Arano (acquired with Valentin from the Dodgers for Roberto Hernandez in August 2014), the Phils are hoping to build a late relief corps that can rack up strikeouts. Arano has a 2.40 ERA with 68 K's in 60 innings this season at Clearwater.

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