Mike Adams to the DL, which means Ken Giles is coming up.  Giles has been a darling of fans so far because of his minor league numbers and triple digit fastball.  However, you might want hold off before anointing him a dominant closer.

What you’ll See Now:

Giles will sit with the fastball mostly 96-98 but you will see 99s and 100s.  He has had enough control to get it in the zone for the most part (walks were up in AAA), but he still lacks command of the pitch.  When he misses he will miss up, and major leaguers will be able to time that pitch.  He pairs that with a short slider around 90 mph.  It is more of a quick cutting pitch that a wipeout pitch.  There is potential for it to be a plus plus pitch in the long term, but right now it lacks consistency.  He might mix a splitter in at times, but it is far behind his other pitches.

Overall Giles is far from a complete product.  He is going to flash complete dominance at times, but he is likely going to have some really horrible outings as guys time up the fastball up.  He should get better over time, but for now he is not ready for a high leverage role.  The key is for the Phillies to not have him lose confidence in him and continue to give him consistent work.

Long Term Outlook:

There is closer or high leverage reliever upside here, but it comes down to the command.  Giles’ fastball is straight as an arrow so he is going to need to locate it in the zone to keep hitters off balance.  The slider needs continued growth to be putaway pitch for hitters sitting on the fastball.  The floor here is inconsistent middle reliever that always gets a chance because of the fastball.