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Prior to the MLB trade deadline, the Phillies sent minor league pitcher Tyler Burch to Baltimore for infielder Freddy Galvis.  Within just a few days of the swap, Burch was facing the Class A Jersey Shore roster that was made up of his former teammates. An undrafted free agent signing out of Lewis-Clark State in Idaho in 2019, Burch had begun to excel this year in his young professional career.  In 23 relief outings combined between Class A Clearwater and Class A Advanced Jersey Shore, the 23-year-old right-hander notched a 4-3 record with seven saves, a 3.98 ERA and a 15.0 K/9 mark. Following the trade, Burch was assigned to the Orioles High A affiliate the Aberdeen IronBirds.  In his debut there, facing the BlueClaws, Burch surrendered an earned run on two hits in one inning of work. This week I talked with Tyler about the transition to the new club, facing his BlueClaws teammates and more.  Read ahead for those quotes.   -Did you know any guys on the Ir...

On Saturday night, outfielder Hunter Markwardt capped off an exciting 4-3 comeback win with a walk-off hit for the Class A Clearwater Threshers.   The team entered the bottom of the 9th trailing 3-0, but a convincing four-run outburst notched an impressive victory for the Phillies affiliate over Lakeland.   Thus far on the young season, the 23-year-old lefty batter has posted a .375 batting average through three games.  Markwardt was the Phils' 13th round draft selection out of Oklahoma Christian University in 2019. Last week I spoke with the promising outfielder about his excitement level for the new season, among other things.  Read ahead for that interview. -What's your level of excitement to get this season started?    Having not played in an official game since 2019, it's crazy to say the least.  With all the work put into the extended off-season, it's been super exciting to see how it's going to pay off in the the near future.  T...

The complete version of this post is available over on Patreon.com/PhoulBallz . Recently, I wrote a feature on promising Phillies minor leaguer  Tyler  Burch  and his diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes.  The righty pitcher was an  undrafted free agent signing last year.  To date in 12 professional appearances the 22-year-old holds a 4-1 record with a 1.51 ERA and an 8.6 K/9 mark.   Included below are some excerpts from my  discussion with Tyler in which he offers his thoughts on his own  pitching repertoire, minor league teammates Logan  O'Hoppe and Albertus  Barber , college pal Connor Brogdon and more. Chatting about developing his pitch repertoire from college to the minors... I throw a  four-seam, two-seam, slider, change up.  It's kind of a slurve, it's not  a true slider, but it has a little depth in it. It was more so tweaking my grips to make them more effective.  Hector Berios, the  pitching coac...

Tyler Burch, image- MiLB.com I invite you to visit Patreon.com/PhoulBallz in order to support my work and get access to exclusive interviews plus early access to features and news such as this. A missed baseball season wasn't the only challenge facing righty pitcher Tyler Burch this summer.   With persistent symptoms that began prior to spring training it was ultimately discovered, after the 2020 season was shut down due to the Coronavirus pandemic, that the 22-year-old had developed an autoimmune disease.   As symptoms that included dry mouth and frequent trips to the bathroom worsened, Burch's situation left his doctor puzzled.  And even the physician that conducted his team physical examination at the outset of spring training jokingly referenced diabetes, but did not take the possibility seriously.    The physical impacts subsided somewhat during spring training, as being more active and adhering to the team diet helped alleviate what he ...