Phillies news and rumors 8/18: Breakout prospect Eduardo Tait wallops 440-foot homer

It’s not often you see a 17-year-old with this kind of raw power.

Catcher Eduardo Tait, Phillies Nation’s No. 5 prospect in the organization who’s broken out in his first minor league season and was rewarded with a promotion to Single-A Clearwater in late July, got a hold of one on Saturday. He deposited a hanger 440 feet to right-center field at the Threshers’ BayCare Ballpark against 25-year-old Matt Givin of the Yankees’ Tampa Tarpons.

It was, already, Tait’s fourth homer in 16 games since his July 25 Threshers debut. Across Single-A and Rookie ball this year, Tait is slashing .297/.355/.490 with 10 home runs in 67 games.

Outside of the power department, it’s not like Tait has been on some sort of tear since his promotion. He’s hitting .218 with a .734 OPS for Clearwater. He was 1 for his previous 19 before his latest homer. Two of his other three at bats on Saturday were strikeouts.

But at the lower levels of the minors, and especially for a 17-year-old, stats be damned. The kind of power he displayed on Saturday — and that he has displayed this season — is more than worthy of the head-turning it’s caused.

Must-read Phillies content

• Cristopher Sánchez twirled a gem on Saturday night. Ty Daubert has more on his development, the massive strides he’s taken this season and Rob Thomson’s high praise for the southpaw after the game.
• Ty also has the recap of that game, a win aided too by some small ball.
• Saturday’s cool moments started before the game, when the club renamed a section of Citizens Bank Park after David Montgomery. Ty explains what it was and why they did it.
• The hits from Ty keep coming: This one, on an awesome moment between Carlos Ruiz and Brad Lidge before Friday’s win.
• One more, swear: Phillies pitchers — at least, the ones interviewed — aren’t huge proponents of the theorized six-inning minimum for starting pitchers. Yes, from Ty.

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