The Phillies just got a strong outing from pitcher and South Jersey native Tyler Phillips. They are hopeful that they can find another diamond in the rough right in their own backyard.
On Day 3 of this week’s MLB Draft, they selected pitcher Luke Gabrysh, who pitched at Saint Joseph’s and was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. He attended Concord High School.
He’s the second SJU alum ever to be drafted by the Phillies, the first being infielder Richard Kelly back in 1969.
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Not surprisingly, he is a lifelong Phillies fan (Zack Wheeler is his favorite pitcher), and getting the call from his favorite team on draft day was more than a little overwhelming.
“My grandmother came over, my aunt,” Gabrysh said. “My girlfriend was here, the whole family. Got a call from Detroit, they passed up. Then we got a call from the Phillies, and they said, ‘You’re a Phillie.’ It still doesn’t feel real, it really doesn’t.”
“Everyone started screaming, my grandma was crying. My grandfather, he was a huge Phillies fan, passed away a few years ago. She knew how much it meant to him.”
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The 21-year-old right-hander pitched three seasons at Saint Joe’s to middling results, but said he received plenty of on-the-job training while playing for the Trenton Thunder of the MLB Draft League, which gives amateur, draft-eligible players a chance to show their stuff to pro scouts in advance of the draft.
“It was awesome,” Gabrysh said of his Trenton days. “It was the first time I got to pitch in front of thousands of people. At Trenton, every game was 5-6,000 people. The atmosphere was awesome, the coaches were great. I learned a lot because they were all ex-pros. They taught me all about the journey they went through. They said, ‘It’s not easy, but you have to work hard for it.’”
The hard work and the life lessons paid off for Gabrysh. Despite struggling a bit with the Hawks, he dazzled with the Thunder, pitching to a 1.42 ERA in nine appearances, registering a minuscule 0.868 WHIP, and striking out 23 of the 51 batters he faced. His efforts drew the attention of multiple teams this spring.
His arsenal is sinker/sweeper, and he mixes in a changeup that he uses against lefty hitters. The sinker can go as hard as 97 miles per hour, and scouts have measured more than 2,700 rpm on his sweeper. For a point of reference, Wheeler’s sweeper has averaged 2,580 rpm this season.
After signing all the appropriate papers, next up for Gabrysh is a trip to the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater for some workouts with the rest of the draft picks before he is assigned. The work will continue to make it up through the ranks, and the hope is that he can play alongside the players he idolized as a child.
“I don’t even know how that would be. It wouldn’t feel real, honestly,” he said.
