Philadelphia Phillies: A summer of…Eshelman?

The Philadelphia Phillies may or may not take the advice of many observers that their starting pitchers are currently insufficient to compete this year.

Few are expecting them to pay for the likes of Jake Arrieta, and perhaps they won’t even take a reasonable risk on a pitcher like Chris Tillman. Therefore, Philadephia Phillies fans are wondering which pitchers besides Aaron Nola will even be worth the cost of a ticket.

Few fans plan on seeing relief pitchers such as Pat Neshek, and Neshek is fun to watch, a great competitor. He’ll pitch a lot this year, but maybe not the night you’re there. The fact is, without their team trading for a starter, Phillies fans will have to make do with (drumroll, please) Thomas Eshelman.

However, that’s not a bad thing necessarily, even if you’re saying, “Who?” right now.

Eshelman was the 2017 Paul Owens Award winner as the Phillies top minor league pitcher, and he could make the 25-man roster this spring – especially if the Phillies don’t trade for a starter before the season. As Matt Breen has noted, the product of Cal-Fullerton has excellent control. As a brief perusal of his stats indicates, he made a significant jump between 2016 (at 22) and 2017. In ’16 at the High-A and Double-A levels, he was 9-7 with a 4.25 ERA. The next year, at Double and Triple-A, he posted 13-3 and 2.40 – with significantly better figures at Triple-A. His WHIP at the highest minor league level is currently 0.942.

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Rumors about Eshelman’s control development once included the assertion that his older brother, a mentor, used a dog’s shock collar to punish him if he missed the strike zone painted on a wall. That story has been debunked; the control remains, however.

At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, he doesn’t throw especially hard, but he does have three legitimate fastballs and six effective pitches in total. Six.

It is just about a lock that Eshelman will be with the Phillies sometime this coming season. Of the 11 Paul Owens winners between 2012 and 2016, only Dylan Cozens – the ’16 co-winner with Rhys Hoskins of the position player award – hasn’t yet made it to the majors. Some of those players (Tyler Cloyd, Darin Ruf) may not become stars, but others have shown flashes of jaw-dropping brilliance (Hoskins, Luis Garcia).

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The only question about Thomas Eshelman now seems to be whether or not the Philadelphia Phillies will give him an early shot at the majors when all indicators say he should function very well there.