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Philadelphia Phillies: Vince Velasquez new resident ace of staff

By Jordan Wevers

Mar 12, 2016; Clearwater, FL, USA; Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Vince Velasquez (28) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Bright House Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 12, 2016; Clearwater, FL, USA; Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Vince Velasquez (28) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Bright House Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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After only two starts in April, there’s significant evidence to support pitcher Vince Velasquez being the Philadelphia Phillies’ ace of the future. At the very least, it looks like Philly won in the offseason trade that sent reliever Ken Giles to Houston.

Vince Velasquez, or Vincent Velasquez to Houston Astros fans, has come a long way over the last 12 months, it would appear. Though Jeremy Hellickson got the Opening Day nod for the Philadelphia Phillies last week, his ceiling looks to be nowhere near as high as this Astros castaway’s will be.

Not to be overly critical of Hellickson, who did pitch six earned-run free innings of ball in the opener. He got saddled with a no decision and has since turned in a second outing where he came one out shy of logging a quality start while picking up the win. but while Hellickson is right now a nice option for the Phillies to roll out onto the mound once every five games, Velasquez looks like he could be a brilliant one.

Earlier today at home against the San Diego Padres, Velasquez three-hit the competition en route to turning in the young season’s finest outing by a starting pitcher to date. He walked none, went the distance for the shutout and struck out 16. On the season now, the 23-year-old righty improved to 2-0 with 25 strikeouts in 15 IP. He is yet to allow an earned run.

A second round pick by the Houston Astros in 2010, Velasquez was touted as top prospect in their system for quite some time. He made is debut in 2015 to mixed results and was traded to Philadelphia in the offseason with a number of now ex-Astros, including Mark Appel and Brett Oberholtzer. The primary focus coming back Houston’s way was reliever Ken Giles to shore up the bullpen and become the team’s full-time closer.

After Giles struggled in the spring, Houston named Luke Gregerson closer. Giles still has strong potential, but something is not right for the time being. While Velasquez is looking like a premature candidate for an NL Cy Young, Giles has a 12.27 ERA through four appearances with the Astros.

Paging Houston GM Jeff Luhnow… you may soon be regretting this deal. For as promising as youngsters Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers look in the Astros’ rotation, the unit would look a lot better with Velasquez back in it spinning the way he is. Keuchel had a fine 2015 season and won the AL Cy, but he will likely never punch out 16 batters in a single game. He doesn’t have the “wow” factor that Velasquez appears to possess.

The Phillies are playing .500 baseball right now. At 5-5, the biggest reason has been their rotation, whose 2.50 ERA amongst starting squads in the league ranks third. Velasquez basically threw four pitches in 2015 — a fastball, curve, slider and change-up. This year he seems to have nixed the slider from his repertoire. It took him 113 pitches on Thursday to slice through the Padres’ lineup, throwing 83 of them for strikes.

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That kind of efficiency is tough to come by for an average starting pitcher. If one is throwing that high a percentage for strikes, there’a a strong chance he’s giving up more than three hits and zero runs over the course of nine innings. Thankfully for the Philadelphia Phillies, Vincent Velasquez looks to be far from average. He instead looks very much like their next ace in the making.

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