Thursday, February 22, 2007 BY ED PRICE Star-Ledger Staff
TAMPA, Fla. -- Joe Torre still remembers Steve Bilko, who was named the Pacific Coast League MVP three years in a row, 1955-57.
About 20 years ago, Mets fans may recall, there was Randy Milligan -- The Sporting News' 1987 Minor-League Player of the Year for the Tidewater Tides.
Neither one is remembered for his big-league career.
There have been plenty of players who could hammer Triple-A pitching, but it's often a different story when they get promoted. Some struggle against the better pitching. Others are unable to handle a different role. And then there is the pressure that comes with a second deck on the stadium.
The Yankees are using this spring training to see if Andy Phillips or Josh Phelps can build on their Triple-A success. The team is likely to choose one to open the season as the right-handed half of a platoon at first base, sharing time with Doug Mientkiewicz.
Phillips and Phelps have nothing left to prove in Triple A, with lifetime averages at that level of .294 and .297, respectively. But why do some players move up the ladder with ease and then stall on the final step?
Torre, the Yankees manager, put it simply: "Because the jump is big."
Phillips, who turns 30 in April, batted .300 with 22 homers for Triple-A Columbus in 2005. But because he was out of minor-league options, he spent all last season in New York -- where he hit just .240 with 56 strikeouts in 246 at-bats.
Phelps, who turns 29 in May, was once a prized prospect in the Toronto organization. When the Blue Jays traded Raul Mondesi to the Yankees in July 2002, Phelps got a chance to play and batted .309 with 15 homers over 265 at-bats.
But the next season and a half were not as good, and Toronto sent Phelps to Cleveland in August 2004. He became a platoon player with the Indians and after that season moved on to Tampa Bay. After hitting .266 in 47 games, Phelps was sent back to Triple A for the final two months of 2005.
He spent all of last year with Detroit's affiliate in Toledo, batting .308 with 24 homers. Baltimore signed him as a free agent and then lost him to the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft. As a Rule 5 pick, he must stay with the Yankees the entire season or be offered back to Baltimore.
"I think the thing is, you have to be more consistent at the big-league level," Phelps said. "You try to do more than you're capable of, it can turn against you. As good as everybody is on the major-league level, they'll capitalize on it."
Phillips alluded to another adjustment. While some players, such as Robinson Cano, get called up to be regulars, others are immediately handed part-time work for the first time in their career.
"Sometimes you take on a different role here," Torre said, "and that sometimes causes a problem. That, I think, was Phillips' biggest problem last year."
Torre said Phillips' struggles against left-handed pitching in 2006 (.195 average with one homer in 82 at-bats) was an indication he was having trouble adapting.
"The timing becomes a problem with a young player," Torre said, "because they really don't know how to do it."
Said Phillips: "There's so many variables that go into it. The bottom line is, it's still baseball."
Much of the adjustment is simply the difference in pitching. Just about anyone with a live arm will be in the majors instead of Triple A.
"It's the quality of competition you're going against," Phelps said. "There's no pushover there (in the majors). That's the big difference. You find just as many guys who throw 95 (mph) in the minor leagues, but not as many guys that throw strikes."
Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long, who spent the past five seasons as a hitting coach in Triple A, said some minor-league hitters feast on retread relievers.
"I'd say the biggest difference is the bullpens," Long said. "It's the same guys (every year). But their stuff is not what the major-league guys have."
Long said the trained eye can often tell which .320 hitters at the Triple-A level will be able to succeed in the majors and which are so-called "Four-A" players.
But even so, there are can't-miss guys who become washouts, and "non-prospects" who surprise.
"That's (one) of the things you can't explain in the game," Torre said. "That's when you cover it by saying, 'That's baseball.'"
