Phillies prospect Andrew Knapp catching fire in Double-A, earns Player of the Week honors

Reading catcher Andrew Knapp has six three-hit performances over the last eight game (Photo: Kevin Durso, Philliedelphia)

We all know about the Phillies successes since the All-Star break. A 16-5 record since the Midsummer Classic was pretty unthinkable with the way they played in the first half. After making some deals at the deadline and moving forward, the Phillies not only have some young talent at the big league level to be excited about, but even more potential on the farm. New prospects Nick Williams, Jake Thompson, Alec Asher, Jerad Eickoff, Jimmy Cordero, Nick Pivetta and Alberto Tirado have all transitioned into their new organization and are excelling for the most part. While most fans have their eyes on the progression of the new acquisitions, one farm-grown Phillies prospect everyone should be watching at this point is Double-A catcher, Andrew Knapp.

For the majority of this season, all eyes were on guys like Aaron Nola, Maikel Franco and Zach Eflin in the minors. Now, all eyes are on catcher Andrew Knapp, the Phillies second round pick from 2013. After being limited to 98 games last season due to recovery from Tommy John surgery, Knapp began the 2015 campain in Clearwater, with the Phils Advanced 'A' affiliate. He hit just .262 in 63 games, but the Phillies opted to promote Knapp to see how he'd do at the Double-A level. It was the right decision to make. In 34 games with Reading, the 23-year-old switch-hitting catcher out of Cal is slashing .403/.446/.694.

"I think [the transition to Double-A] was pretty easy. This team has a lot of talent and a lot of guys who have been here before and made it pretty easy. I could rely on them to give a scouting report if I've never faced him before. This is one of those teams you dream about playing for because we have so much talent, so many future big leaguers, that it makes it fun to come to the field every day. I think that helps a lot." [MiLB.com]

This weekend against New Britain, Knapp went 7-for-12 with a triple, two home runs, including a walk-off three-run blast, six RBI's, six runs scored and two walks. Over his last 10 games, he's batting an unreal .548 (23-for-42) with four homers, 12 runs scored, 15 RBI's, four walks and six strikeouts. His recent performance hasn't gone unnoticed by the Minor Leagues either. For the week of August 3rd-9th, Knapp was awarded Eastern League Player of the Week honors after hitting .600 (15-for-25) with four homers, two doubles, one triple, 13 RBI's and nine runs scored. Overall in his time with Double-A, he has 17 doubles, two triples, six homers, 40 RBI's and 26 runs scored. He's had six three-hit games over the last eight.

"People keep asking me what's going on, whether I'm just on fire or what, but I just feel pretty comfortable," he said. "I don't feel like I'm doing anything too crazy. I'm just playing the way I should play and just looking for a pitch to hit, putting some good swings on balls and seems like everything's pretty much going my way." [MiLB.com]

Knapp comes in at 17th on the Phillies top 30 prospect list compiled by MLB Pipeline. In their scouting report, they mention how Knapp didn't play catcher much in college, but the Phillies eased him back into that role following his surgery. In Reading this season, he's hitting .552 against lefties and .362 against righties. MLB Pipeline projects that Knapp may always be an offesive-minded catcher, but could develop into an everyday player behind the plate. This season, he's caught 10 out of the 25 runners (29%) attempting to steal. 

At this point in time, Knapp may stay with Reading to improve on his defensive catching skills. While a Triple-A promotion might make sense based solely on the offensive numbers, the Ironpigs have an everyday catcher in Gabriel Lino, who may be the teams' best defensive catching prospect. Despite hitting only .224, Lino has thrown out 40% of base stealers this season.

Knapp, along with fellow prospects J.P. Crawford, Zach Eflin, Jake Thompson and Nick Williams, are home in Reading to host the Nationals Double-A team starting on Tuesday night at 7:05pm. Ben Lively (8-7, 3.87) gets the call for the Fightin' Phils in the series opener.