The Phillies promoted Gage Wood, last year’s first round pick and the organization’s top pitching prospect, to Reading this past Monday. That gave him a couple days to meet his new teammates and watch a little Double-A baseball before he debuts with Reading Friday night in Portland.
Wood struck out 40 hitters in 26.1 innings of work at Low-A Clearwater and posted a 3.42 ERA in eight starts with the Threshers. Many opposing scouts who saw him felt he could have been moved up a level or two — he was skipped over High-A Jersey Shore and sent directly to Double-A Reading — earlier than he was. There are only a couple of college pitchers who were selected in the first round of last summer’s draft, who are still in Low-A ball.
While Wood is beginning his Double-A journey in Portland, the Fightins return home next week and Wood would likely pitch on Thursday or Friday. Up to this point, the Phillies have been very cautious with the innings they are giving him. His longest outings of the season have been four innings, which he accomplished four times with Clearwater. He averaged 54 pitches per start with Clearwater with a high of 68 pitches coming back on May 9.
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There is some speculation that come June 1, the Phillies will begin allowing the 22-year-old right-hander to bump up his pitch count and innings. He only threw 77.2 innings in his final two seasons when he was at Arkansas, where he threw a no-hitter in last year’s College World Series. The Phillies are not expected to push his innings too high this season and may want to keep some of those innings for a late season audition in Philadelphia.
With Clearwater, Wood was heavily reliant on his fastball, throwing it over 60-percent of the time. He also has a very good splitter that he uses about a quarter of the time. Currently, his curveball and splitter are primarily pitches to keep hitters honest, although he does get some swing and miss with both pitches.
The splitter could be a key pitch for Wood. He currently throws it only about three-percent of the time, but has been able to get left-handed hitters to go after the pitch with little contact. With more refined hitters at the Double-A level, Wood will need to have that pitch not just against left-handed hitters, but against righties as well to keep them off pace.
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