Skip to main content

Promising OF prospect Cozens missing Fall League with arm injury

Dylan Cozens, image- Tug Haines
An attempt to show off in front of various team coaches and front office personnel seems to have cost Phillies outfield prospect Dylan Cozens a chance to play in the prestigious Arizona Fall League. A week prior to heading out to take part in the highly regarded autumn exhibition league that features many of baseball's top minor league talents, the skilled slugger hurt his arm during routine drills in Clearwater, FL, at the organization's spring training facilities.

"My first throw I went to make from right field I went to throw it and I was trying to throw it pretty hard, and I was trying to show off a little bit, like maybe show off the arm, and it just like grabbed on me and tightened up real bad," Cozens confessed in a phone interview on Friday. "And then, I overthrew the guy a little bit and they made me do another throw and I went to throw that one and it hurt pretty bad and I was like, 'I'm shutting it down.'"

Medical examinations, including an MRI and x-rays, followed for the 21-year-old, who wrapped up his 2015 regular season with the Double-A Reading Fightins. The diagnosis was a forearm strain and swelling of the UCL in his left arm.

Initially, it was unclear how much time Cozens would miss, so he flew out to Arizona to join six other Phillies minor leaguers as members of the Glendale Desert Dogs for the month-long AFL schedule. After further evaluation, the imposing six-foot-six 235-pounder was ordered to return to Clearwater for rehab work with the organization's training staff.


The missed opportunity doesn't have Cozens feeling down, as he takes it as a lesson learned and could possibly still play this off-season with a team in Puerto Rico when the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League gets underway.

Until the arm issue came about, it had been a solid year for the lefty batting former two-sport high school standout. Cozens, who also had promise on the football field, was selected by the Phillies in the second round of the 2012 draft.

After three full years directing his attention strictly toward baseball, Cozens feels that he's made considerable progress toward his ultimate goal.

"I didn't know the game at all when I was drafted. I was just out there playing basically on raw talent. I mean, I've learned so much as far as playing the game every day and each year going through seasons and stuff, you learn different things. I just definitely see myself as, each year, continuing to get better and better," Cozens stated.

This year, the Arizona native began his campaign with the first and second-half division champion Class A Advanced Clearwater Threshers in the Florida State League, where he posted a .282 average with five homers, 46 RBI and 18 stolen bases in 96 games. Following a late-season promotion, Cozens would sport a .350 average with three home runs, nine RBI and two steals in 11 regular season games before heading into the playoffs with Reading in the Eastern League.

His personal progress and playing for two post-season bound clubs made the year more enjoyable for the youngster.

"It was definitely one of my best years so far as a Phillie," Cozens said. "I had a ton of fun. Being able to be a part of two playoff teams was awesome. I had great teammates and had a bunch of fun."

Cozens, who was ranked by Phillies Nation this year as the Phils' number nine prospect, along with some of those teammates he mentioned make up a core group of prospects that the Phillies hope will make their current rebuild a successful one.

"A lot of us feel like we're going to be the guys in the next year or so, so we're just trying to be good teammates to one another and get closer and closer and take the core group from each team and, hopefully, that'll be the big league product in the future and you've got such a talented group of young players and we're gonna go up there and king of try to do what the Cubs did this year, which is just a bunch of young guys taking over and maybe go farther than they did."

Other AFL notes-

One day prior to flying to Australia to begin playing in an off-season league there, outfielder Aaron Brown, who was a teammates of Cozens with Clearwater this year, was tapped to replace him with Glendale for the remainder of the AFL season.

The lefty batting Brown, who was the Phils' third round pick last year out of Pepperdine, is 4-for-11 (.364 average) in his first three games

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eric B Needs to be Cut (and My Name is Rakim)

While the Phillies are on a hot streak this month, one player on the team is not. Eric Bruntlett is 1-for-12 in July. Since the start of May, Bruntlett's apex in batting average has been .167 on June 14th. Bruntlett's ineptitude can be tolerated no longer. Get rid of this guy NOW! Eric B. is the 2009 Endy Chavez. Remember Endy...the guy who in 2005 managed just 2 hits in his final 42 games played as a Phillie? That is about the sort of output the Phillies are getting from Bruntlett, and it's time to fix this void. Julio Lugo was designated for assignment last week by the Red Sox and is expected to become a free agent. The Metropolitans are rumored to be interested. Why wouldn't the Phillies be interested in a guy who could surely outhit Bruntlett? Lugo was hitting .284 through 37 games played this season with Boston. Suspended Lehigh Valley IronPig Pablo Ozuna is eligible to return next Wednesday. Ozuna is batting .294 through 51 games at triple A. Miguel Cairo is also...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...

5th spot, Wall, Old timers, Links

The race for the Phillies' fifth starter spot is still on. While it's not fully fair to compare Grapefruit League stats, when some of the pitchers have had "B game" and scrimmage outings mixed in, Kyle Kendrick and Carlos Carrasco look to be falling behind Chan Ho Park and "Jay" Happ. Happ added to his solid Grapefruit League stats (2.45 ERA, 1.09 WHIP in 4 games) today against the Rays. Pitching coach Rich Dubee had been displeased with Kendrick even before he surrendered 8 earned runs in 3 innings of work yesterday against the Braves. Park has been working on improving his change up, with (Coach) Jamie Moyer. Park noticed Moyer's location control on his change, so he sought out Moyer to teach him the grip and positioning of the ball. Moyer, of course, feels good about helping anyone on the Phils' staff. Park has been coached by greats like Nolan Ryan with the Rangers and Sandy Koufax with the Dodgers, so Moyer is in great company. Park is working h...