Phillies Notebook: Jesse Biddle inspiring comparisons to Cole Hamels

THE PHILLIES have used their first-round pick on a lanky, lefthanded high school pitcher twice in the last 11 years.

The first went on to win a World Series MVP and earn the richest contract in franchise history. The second took a perfect game into the seventh inning in his most recent start.

Cole Hamels, who made his fifth start of the season on Tuesday night, was the first player, selected with the 17th overall pick in the 2002 draft. He made his major league debut 4 years later.

The second is Jesse Biddle, the Philly native who was tabbed with the 27th overall pick in 2010.

Before the 29-year-old Hamels took the mound against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the ballpark was abuzz over Biddle's breakout night in Harrisburg a night earlier. Biddle struck out 16 of the 24 batters he faced in Double A Reading's 3-2 win.

"He has a chance to be a real special pitcher," manager Charlie Manuel said.

Of all the pitchers Manuel has seen in 50 years of professional baseball, the one he likened Biddle to was . . . Hamels.

"He's got a little bit of Hamels in him as far as the ball coming out of his hand, and stuff," Manuel said. "But he's a little bit bigger, stronger."

Biddle has bulked up since being drafted out of Germantown Friends three summers ago. He is currently 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA in four starts at Reading.

Although the Phils are unlikely to bring Biddle to the big leagues any time soon, there are at least two reasons it's worth discussing.

For one, Biddle is the most talented pitcher in the organization who is not wearing a major league uniform, and the Phils have a hole in their rotation with John Lannan expected to miss 6 to 8 weeks with a knee injury. Then there's the continuing comparison with Hamels.

Hamels was also drafted out of high school and made just six starts above Class A Clearwater in his own development before making his major league debut at age 22. Hamels, who battled a variety of injuries while in the minor leagues, made just 36 starts in the minor leagues before his big-league promotion in 2006.

Biddle has made 66 minor league starts.

Is it too early to consider Biddle the fast-track type in the mold of Hamels? Joe Jordan, the Phillies' director of player development, had a lengthy and informative answer to that query.

"I think it's a little premature, but we're obviously going to keep our eyes on this and we'll follow it very closely," Jordan said. "I think you go in with all of these guys, as far as their development plans, with 'The Plan,' and the players alter it good or bad. Sometimes their ability, their performance, it will make it go one way or the other. Nothing is in stone.

"He's where he needs to be. He earned, after what he did in Clearwater last year, the right to go to Reading. So far he's done a great job. It's been a month. The weather is going to warm up, the hitters are going to catch up . . .

"[But] we're going to follow it very closely. Because he's one of our best, if not our best. We all know that."

The Phillies haven't announced a starter for Saturday in New York, but it's almost certainly going to be Jonathan Pettibone. In his major league debut on Monday, Pettibone struck out six in 5 1/3 innings of a 3-2 win.

But if nothing else, Biddle's performance on Monday has put him on the radar of the major league decision-makers.

"I think really the thing that stood out to me more than the number of strikeouts he had, through six innings he threw 73 pitches," Jordan said. "I mean, he really just dominated the strike zone with four pitches. It wasn't that he went 90, 95 pitches to get to that number. That's what was so impressive to me.

"The last time I saw him, which was his previous start in Reading, I saw more swings and misses with his fastball than I had ever seen. His stuff is just coming. It's coming and his ability to use it is getting better. Everything came together [Monday] night. Literally, he had four pitches to go to and command of all of them, so they were in trouble."

Chase Utley was out of the starting lineup for the second time in the last nine games.

Charlie Manuel said the current schedule - the Phils are in a stretch of playing 30 games in 31 days - has forced him into finding spots to rest Utley.

"I want to make sure I can get him off his feet every now and then," Manuel said of Utley, who has battled chronic knee pain in each of the last two seasons.

Carlos Ruiz' minor league rehab assignment will come north later this week when he plays in back-to-back games for Double A Reading on Friday and Saturday. Ruiz, who went 0-for-5 in Clearwater's 12-3 loss at Lakeland on Tuesday, is eligible to return to the Phillies' lineup Sunday in New York . . . Delmon Young, who began his own minor league rehab assignment on Sunday, will play for Triple A Lehigh Valley in Indianapolis on Thursday. Young went 4-for-5 with a double and run scored in Clearwater's loss. . . After allowing 14 earned runs in the first four games, the Phils' bullpen entered Tuesday having allowed one run or less in 13 of their last 15 games.