It’s good news that Clearwater Thresher starter Brody Colvin got the call to Reading. He is scheduled to make his first Eastern League start Tuesday night against the San Francisco Giants farm team in Richmond Va. Brody earned the promotion after pitching well in the Threshers rotation after a brief trip to the bullpen earlier in the season.
At one time Colvin was a highly rated starter in the Phillies system. He was dubbed one of the four Baby Aces but was left behind for another season at High A for more seasoning. The other “Aces” Trevor May, Julio Rodriquez and Jonathan Pettibone were promoted to Reading to start this season. With Pettibone getting promoted to AAA Lehigh Valley Colvin will join May and Rodriguez at Reading.
Colvin is in his fourth year in the Phillies organization. After a difficult 2011 season he has finally started to pitch well. In his last nine starts he has had six quality starts pitching six or more innings and giving up two or less runs. Only in two of those starts, both times against the Dunedin Blue Jays, did he struggle. In those six quality starts he pitched 38 innings striking out 38, giving up only seven runs.
Baseball Betsy and I watched Colvin’s last Clearwater start Wednesday night in Dunedin. He struggled against the Blue Jays with his fastball command. His fastball sat at 90 mph on the scoreboard and topped at 92. I recall two of his strikeouts when he struck the batters out relying on his 78 and 82 mph breaking balls. He just did not know where his fastball was going that night. Brody was working with Phillies rehabbing catcher Brian Schneider after pitching most of the season with Cameron Rupp as his catcher. Colvin left after only 4.2 innings giving up five hits and six runs but the real problem was his five walks.
See tape of the strike outs HERE and HERE
I suspect the Phillies minor league department might want to get Colvin qualified to pitch in the Arizona Fall League which starts October 9th. All 30 major league organizations send their top prospects at AAA and AA to the AFL. Usually only one A+ ball level player per organization is allowed. The AFL announced recently that Reading’s manager Dusty Wathan will manage the Peoria Javelins in the six team league. The Javelins will be made up of prospects from five other teams in addition to the Phillies. Each major league team sends its six or seven top minor league players to designated teams in the AFL.
Baseball Ross 