Heading into the season, the Phillies’ farm system was generally considered to be below average by most national minor league baseball writers. Still, “below average” is a sizable step up from the big-league club in its current state. As I wrote about a few weeks ago, Double-A Reading is currently the most intriguing club in the system. The Fightin Phils will take a stranglehold on that designation if and when J.P. Crawford gets promoted sometime this summer.
From a prospect standpoint, the most intriguing part of Reading’s team (possibly with the exception of speedster Roman Quinn, who scored on a sac fly caught by the third baseman last night) is the starting rotation: Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin, Jesse Biddle, Ben Lively, and Tom Windle all are thought to have the chance (key word there) to pitch in a major league rotation. None of them necessarily possess ace-type stuff, but they’re all legitimate prospects. That’s good enough for us. We’ll try to profile all of them over the course of this homestand. First up is Lively.
Coming off his worst outing of the young season, Lively was forced to rebound Thursday night against the same team that had just lit him up. The Erie Seawolves knocked around the 23-year-old righthander last Saturday to the tune of eight hits and six earned runs in only 3.1 innings.
So how did he respond? By going seven strong and shutting down Erie’s lineup in a 2-0 victory for the Fightin Phils. The final line was extremely impressive: seven innings, three hits, no runs, one walk, and five strikeouts on 98 pitches (59 strikes). This was the equivalent of flunking a test in school, immediately receiving a chance to take it again, and then acing it.
The natural reaction is to search for the reasoning behind the turnaround, specifically what had changed. Did Lively feel more comfortable against the Seawolves hitters a second time around? Did he pore over a bunch of tape throughout the past four days? Does he simply feel more comfortable sleeping in his own bed and pitching in the familiar surroundings of FirstEnergy Stadium? Nah, the way Lively tells it, the explanation was much simpler than all of that stuff.
“I just didn’t get rained on tonight,” he said. “That was the only big difference.”
Not everything about Lively is explained so easily. For example, he’s averaging close to eight strikeouts per nine innings, but not necessarily with overpowering stuff. On Thursday night, his fastball generally sat in between 90 and 92 miles per hour, but he can crank up the velocity a few MPH’s when necessary. Complementing that pitch, he also throws a slider that’s usually clocked in the mid-80s and occasionally mixes in a curveball and changeup.
In the scouting community, one of the generally acknowledged reasons for Lively’s ability to generate whiffs (at least so far in the minors) is his deceptive mechanics. For a split-second in the middle of his delivery, the baseball completely disappears behind his elbow, which throws a hitter’s timing completely out of whack. Here’s some very amateur video:
Ben Lively of the Reading Fightin Phils pitches against the Erie Seawolves on 05-14-15. from Rich Hofmann on Vimeo.
Ben Lively of the Reading Fightin Phils pitching against the Erie Seawolves on 05-14-15. from Rich Hofmann on Vimeo.
Lively is fully aware that the deception is there, but he’s quick to volunteer that it’s not something he’s consciously trying to do out on the mound.
“Obviously, I can tell when I’m not throwing as hard as some of the other guys and [hitters] are still taking big swings and misses like I’m throwing as hard as them,” Eflin said. “But I don’t change anything up, I don’t try to hide the ball more than anything.”
Also along the lines of a lack of easy explanations is Lively’s demeanor. When I tend to think of “deceptive” pitchers, my mind automatically drifts toward the Jamie Moyer’s or Greg Maddux’s of the world. Lively’s stuff is admittedly Aroldis Chapman lite when compared back to Moyer’s, but typically deception is associated with the cool, calm, and collected surgeon consistently painting both corners (although I can still hear Moyer yelling “TWO HANDS!” at Ryan Howard catching a pop-up).
Lively isn’t that guy. In fact, he’s a pretty fiery dude on the baseball field. If you listen to Reading manager Dusty Wathan, Lively can perhaps become a little too fired up and sometimes needs to be reined in from an emotional standpoint. However, the player mostly sees positives in his personality.
“It keeps me locked into the game,” Lively said. “I know sometimes I’ve got to settle myself down, but I like that side of me. I like when I get pumped up because I know I’m going to make a big pitch when I need to.”
Off the field, Lively lives with the other two pitchers on Reading’s staff that the Phillies acquired this winter, Zach Eflin and Tom Windle. They mostly play video games and watch Netflix in their spare time. Lively mentioned “The Following” as one of his favorite shows.
That camaraderie translates to the field, as well. On a pitching staff full of legitimate major league prospects, the atmosphere can turn competitive in a positive way. When another starter throws a great game, there’s a healthy pressure to match it the next time that you get the ball. In Lively’s case, he stole a few things from one of his teammates for last night’s start.
“Last week, I saw Nola pitch the next day [against Erie] and he was busting them in, throwing that changeup and that’s what I did today,” Lively said. “I showed in and threw my changeup a lot and it worked out for me.”
Despite a couple of rough starts, Lively’s ERA is down to 3.06 in 35.1 innings pitched this season. He’s been consistently good in his minor league career (career ERA: 2.74), and while it’s far from a guarantee his stuff will translate nearly as well to highest level — Ruben Amaro, Jr. is on record that hitting on one or two of the players he acquired this offseason, which is likely a back-end starter in Lively's case — would constitute a success — the guy acquired from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Marlon Byrd has forced Phillies prospect watchers to pay attention.
Wathan pays attention to Lively on a daily basis. To the Fightin Phils manager, the explanation for his starter’s bounce-back performance was a simple one.
“He established his fastball and that’s what we talk about with all these guys,” Wathan said. “If they can establish their fastball and then can pitch off it, that’s the name of the game.”
Rain, fastball, or whatever it is, Ben Lively showed the blueprint of how he can be successful on Thursday night in Reading. Let’s see if he can keep it up.
Up Next: Aaron Nola takes the hill against Erie on Friday night. On Sunday, he threw eight innings of one-run ball against the very same team. First pitch is at 7:05.