Talented continues to flow to Double-A New Britain as the Rock Cats added catcher Kyle Phillips to their roster. Phillips replaced Bryan Kennedy who was placed on the disabled list with a bad back.
The 21-year-old Phillips was hitting .230-2-32 in 83 games. In 278 at bats he had 12 doubles and a .302 on base percentage. Phillips threw out 23% of would be base stealers. The 10th round pick by the Twins in 2002 was a career .246 hitter coming into this season.
The scouting report on Phillips: He is a natural baseball player. He does things regularly that other players need to work hard on.
He works well with his pitching staff, is good with his pitch selection and is good at getting the best performance out of them.
He is excellent defensively behind the plate, blocks the plate well and makes the big saves when needed.
However, Phillips has a slow release on his throws, which means opposing players run on him quite a bit.
His swing is fine and makes contact with the ball but...
He can't run. Director of Twins Scouting Mike Radcliffe said that Phillips is one of the three slowest runners in professional baseball today if not THE slowest.
"Matt LeCroy would beat him by 10 feet," he said of footrace.
Radcliff also considers him a poor athlete.
However, the shorter parks in the Eastern League should be to Phillips liking with his sweet swing at the plate makeing the fences reachable.
Phillips was part of the 2003 Elizabethton Twins rookie team that won an Appalachian League pennant.
