Crosscutters News

Former Cutters Galvis & Brown Drawing Rave Reviews
By Bill Conlin Philadelphia Daily News Daily News Sports Columnist
March 10 - With one out and a runner on first in a minor league squad game Saturday between Class A players, the Human Highlight Reel moved to doubleplay depth. A ball was chopped up the middle. Teenaged shortstop Freddy Galvis, the HHR, flashed in front of the bag to field it.

"The second baseman came over to cover second," Phillies minor leagues director Steve Noworyta was saying yesterday morning at the Carpenter Complex. "But it looked like all Freddy would have was a play at first. He moves in front of the bag, makes the pickup and in the same motion and without turning at all, makes a blind flip back to the second baseman for the force. I was standing up on the roof with a couple of our people and every player on both sides looked up at us. I just shrugged and spread my arms. That's Freddy. He's just amazing, a human highlight reel."

Freddy Galvis will be 19 in November. The Venezuelan shortstop signed with the Phillies when he was 16. What caused my antenna to vibrate was the use of the 5-10, 155-pounder's name in the same sentence as the great Omar Vizquel. And this jaw-dropping story:

"Pat Gillick asked a few of the minor league people last year what the plan would be in a worst-case scenario where Jimmy Rollins went down for an extended period with defense as the main concern," Noworyta was saying. "Who would we recommend bringing up from the Double or Triple A clubs?"

The GM was taken aback by the answer. "We were pretty unanimous on it," Noworyta said. "We said if defense was the No. 1 consideration, Freddy Galvis was who we would recommend, no doubt, despite his lack of experience."

No wonder Gillick did a double-take. Galvis was playing for the Williamsport Crosscutters in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League.

I watched Galvis take ground balls for 20 minutes Friday. The kid has hands like a concert pianist, using a baseball as his keyboard. Somewhere in the process of growing up in a country that has produced shortstop virtuosos Carrasquel, Aparicio, Concepcion and Vizquel, Galvis eliminated the bad hop from his game. The glove goes down in a late blur of leather and the throw is on it way - kind of a baseball equivalent of a hummingbird working the nectar from a flower.

OK, the kid hit .203. Noworyta said Galvis will get better with the lumber. "He's starting to drive the ball," he said. "His strength is starting to come and contact is not a problem for him."

Freddy will be at Class A Lakewood this season.

Here's one more stud Phillies prospect - this one from the 2006 draft - and the player he has been mentioned with in the same sentence: Yep, 6-5, 215-pound outfielder Dominic Brown, who starred for the Cutters in '06, reminds some baseball people of the young Darryl Strawberry. And why not? The kid has more tools than a True Value hardware store and a higher ceiling than the Sistine Chapel.

Brown is a tribute to sharp scouting. The athlete out of Redan High in Stone Mountain, Ga., had signed for football with the University of Miami, a receiver with tight end size and game-breaking speed. The Miami ride scared off a lot of clubs, but the Phillies learned Brown's first love was baseball. When he was still undrafted by the 20th round, the Phils called his name. They had to go above slot to sign him, but not by much. You see the kid's ground-devouring strides and major power stick and his $100,000 bonus had to be one of the great bargains of the 2006 draft.

Dom Brown ran 60 yards in 6.6 seconds yesterday morning . . .

When you have an 18-year-old, 19-year-old and 20-year-old being mentioned in the same sentences as Omar Vizquel, Scott Rolen and Darryl Strawberry, FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood might be the hottest Jersey shore destination this summer since Springsteen was rocking his way out of Class A Asbury Park.