The Phillies are not in a rush to see J.P. Crawford and Nick Williams (Frank Klose/Philliedelphia)
By Matthew Shinkle, Sports Talk Philly staff
The future of the four major Philadelphia sports teams all look pretty bright.
If you are following the Phillies, two names you ought to know are J.P. Crawford and Nick Williams, both currently at Triple-A Lehigh Valley making their final stop before, hopefully, joining the Philadelphia Phillies sometime soon.
Greg Joyce, beat writer on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs for The Express-Times, went on 97.3 FM ESPN Atlantic City's The Sports Bash and talked about when we could expect to see them in Philadelphia:
“[Lehigh Valley] might be putting together a potential playoff run, which a lot of the guys that are here, they did last year in Reading last year and they talked about how much that kind of helped them. And you talk about development at the minor leagues, but there is also an element of developing winners, and if you can get a core group of guys down here that are going to be in the major leagues soon enough, you can get them to play together in a playoff run down here, I think that can go a long way. Obviously, you want to see what these guys have at the major league level, but I don’t think there’s any rush with the Phillies not being in contention for anything this year, so I think it’d be an interesting decision to make, whether those guys go up in August or if they wait to see what this team does potentially with a playoff run and gain them that useful playoff-like atmosphere in baseball.”
Joyce raises an interesting and worth-while point: The Phillies don't really have any rush to promote either Williams or Crawford this season. While the fanbase may want to to see these players, and their stats give the illusion they have the skills to make the jump and stick, having them endure competition at a single level for a prolonged time, and maybe even make a playoff run, could be incredibly beneficial.
They could stay with Lehigh Valley, make a playoff run in August, go as far as they can go, and then still play for a few weeks in the majors as September call-ups to get some meaningful experience before looking to make the team out of Spring Training next season.
While the stats may look great with Williams hitting nearly .290 with 8 home runs, and Crawford continuing to draw walks and play superb defense, consistency is also another important factor the Phillies are looking for.
Philadelphia fans remember the constant ups and downs of Domonic Brown years ago, and feel the pain now of watching pretty much the same thing happen to Darin Ruf for about four years now.
With that in mind, maybe practicing patience with Crawford and Williams is the safest option. After all, they are two of the youngest players in all of Triple A, and this is both of their first seasons at that level. Williams has had what you could call maturity issues, now having been benched on two separate occasions for not hustling, and Crawford has just recently started to perform well in Lehigh Valley. For example, less than a month ago he was hitting under .200.
The Phillies are already aware of the potentially perennial future MLB players they have in these two – the most dangerous thing they can do is promote them before they're ready and have them shuffle back between the majors and minors. With little expectations in Philadelphia this year, keeping them in Lehigh Valley for a little longer is most likely the Phillies smartest move.
Listen to the whole interview below.
