Brett Phillips will always be of interest to me because he was considered the centerpiece of the trade the Astros made for Carlos Gomez 2 years ago. As a quick recap of how that trade turned out: huge bust for the Astros! The Astros sent Phillips, Josh Hader, Domingo Santana and Adrian Houser for Gomez and Mike Fiers.
Of note in the trade, the USA Today quoted the Brewers as saying “they would not have done the trade without the inclusion of Phillips.” So obviously, there was high hope for the development of Phillips within their system.
Through 14 games this year, his Average, Slugging Percentage and On-Base-Plus-Slugging are all above his career averages in the minors. Hopefully this bodes well for his chance to see Big League action this year!
Player History:
Let’s just jump right into the breakdown of Phillips as a player.
Here are some takes from scouting reports about Phillips from before and around the trade:
- Phillips has the tools to be a quality defensive center fielder with good enough offense to be a regular in the lineup.Phillips in a word: Balance
- Basically, Phillips does everything well. It's possible he won't be great at any one thing, but having balance to be good at so many aspect of the game is extremely valuable, especially in center field.
- The one question mark people have had was whether he would hit for enough power.
- At 6-foot, 175 pounds, Phillips has a prototypical center fielder's build. He plays outstanding defense, with quick and correct reads of the ball off the bat, good range and speed to chase down balls hit to all directions.
- Phillips is truly a "captain of the outfield." His arm strength is well above-average, making him capable of playing right field. However, I believe Phillips' skills fit best as the outfield general taking charge in center.
- Phillips has always had a good on-base percentage, making him an excellent candidate for a top-of-the-order position. He makes things happen.
It is interesting to me that Phillips did not seem to be a prospect of note until the 2015 season. He was drafted 189th overall, in the 6th round, out of Seminole, Florida. He did not seem to gather much attention as a prospect until 2015; he was not a top 10 Prospect for the Astros from what I saw until the Baseball America Mid-Season update when he jumped to the #2 prospect in the system. That was even after he was dubbed the Astros Minor League Player of the year in 2014.
Though it appears that the trade for Gomez was an absolute bust for the Astros (even given the inclusion of Fiers), Phillips has yet to come through on the promise of his breakout 2014 and 2015 seasons. He was the Brewers No. 4 ranked prospect going into 2016 (after debuting as No. 2 after the trade) but droped to No. 11 coming into 2017. His stats in the minor leagues coming into this season look like this:
Games: 468
At Bats: 1738
H: 806
2B: 93
3B: 41
HR: 49
SO: 449
Avg: .278
OBP: .360
I am no baseball statician, but my response to these numbers: “good not great.” But from everything I have heard about Phillips, he is an excellent teammate and great clubhouse guy. His defense is lauded and his personality is magnetic. It stands to reason that if he gets the right opportunity (maybe if the Brewers sell off their remaining valuable pieces as part of a rebuild?), that Phillips will make the most of it.
As an Astros fan, I don’t want to be reminded of this trade by seeing Phillips make a name for himself at the Major League level with another team. But as a baseball fan, I am absolutely rooting for this guy!
Look of the Card:
When I look at the 2015 Phillips Inception, the first thing I think of now is the new statue of Ken Griffey Jr. outside of Safeco Field. The kicker is the way Phillips’ hand comes up in front of his chest just like Griffey in the statue. The positioning of his face is pretty intriguing to me; I think the intended effect is that he is watching a home run, but the upward tilt of his face makes me think it was more likely a pop-up!
The second thing I notice really is geometrical line created from the front tip of his helmet that extends down to his hand that is still holding the bat. It’s a very unique position for an Inception card as far as I can tell. It centers the Astros of his jersey very well and creates a balance to the card that I think is very cool. I wish the orange of the Astros jersey looked better against this background, but I also wish he was still in the organization…
This card just fires random connections in my brain, because when I look at his signature, I immediately think of the heart monitor used in hospitals; the one that always flat lines in movies and TV when people die. The contrast of the tall letters to the small letters just gives a very “up and down” effect.
The word that comes to mind for the 2016 version is “awkward.” Again, there is an interesting balance to the card created by his outstretched arms, but that’s where the fun begins.
The twist of his right arm holding the bat captures a moment that will forever look like he about to break his arm. And of course, he has a blue sleeve on his left arm (set against a black and purple background).
The best part of the card is his face. I am not one to judge, because I am about 99% I have made similar faces when batting or throwing, but my face was never immortalized on a baseball card. I love the concentrated look on his face, but the folds of his jaw and cheek skin just make me chuckle every single time I look.
At least the white and blue Brewers jersey looks very good against the background; much more pleasing to see than the Astros orange against the baseball look of the 2015 card.
Card Value:
As stated above, I decided to go with a player that has been featured in two different years of Inception. Whenever I have two cards to look at, I like to put them in a table instead of listing them out or keeping them in paragraph form. Its just looks so much cleaner and easy to understand to me. So here are the numbers for the 2015 Phillips base card and 2016 Purple Parallel for Phillips. The numbers in parentheses are the total number of listings at the time of my research.
|
|
Current Listings eBay |
Sales on eBay |
Listings on COMC |
Sales on COMC |
|
2015 Base |
$3-$35 (13) |
$0.99-$4.95 |
$3-$10.99 (18) |
51 total sales |
|
2016 Purple Parallel |
$4.75-$5.25 (2) |
$0.99-$5.00 |
$4.75-$5.25 (2) |
2 total sales |
The conclusion from this data is pretty simple and similar to other studies I have done with Inception: there is not a ton of hope in Phillips becoming a star and the earlier version is slightly more valuable. Obviously the listing for $35 for the 2015 base is pretty ridiculous in light of the rest of the listings and the sales, but it’s worth noting that SOMEBODY thought to do that. Sometimes I wonder if outliers like that are the result of typos. Maybe that person mean to make it $3.50 but did not double check their work?
Regardless, I like Phillips a lot and I like his Inception cards. Thanks for hanging with me!
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