Phillies Promote Top Prospect J.P. Crawford to Reading

The Phillies future just got a step closer.

The team promoted top prospect J.P. Crawford from Single-A Clearwater to Double-A Reading.  Thew shortstop was just named the fourth best prosecpt in baseball by ESPN.com baseball insider Keith Law.

During the Stark Report with ESPN.com senior baseball writer Jayson Stark, we discussed what kind of players fans can expect Crawford to be.

"J.P. Crawford is absolutely everything people say about him," Stark said.  "He's certainly going to be a big-time, centerpiece player - there's just no doubt about that.  Scouts who have seen him just rave about that guy. "

Crawford reached base four times in his season debut and has never looked back.  In 20 games for the Threshers, he hit .392 with one homer and eight RBIs.

"Have you seen what he's done since he came off the disabled list?" Starked asked.  "His on-base-percentage is .494, he gets on base, he's got to the plate ninety times and he's been on-base 44 of them - that's crazy. "

Not only is Crawford getting on base, he is keeping people off base.

"He's a tremendous defensive shortstop," Stark added.

Overall, he has the makings of a guy Phillies fans can be excited about and maybe see sooner than later in the rebuilding process.

"He's going to be a tremendous player, there's no doubt about it," Stark stated.  "He and Franco on the left side, they'll be set there for a long time - when he finally gets here which could possibly be sometime at the end of next year."

(Listen to Jayson Stark on the Sports Bash discuss J.P. Crawford, Ruben Amaro's comments and more)