Utah Phillies on the farm

BOWIE, Md. — Salt Lake City native Pat Overholt, in just his third full season in professional baseball, spent all of 2008 at the Class AA level in the Philadelphia Phillies farm system in Reading, Pa.

The Brighton High graduate made the transition from starter to reliever last year and entered 2009 with decent success, having allowed less than one hit per inning with nearly one strikeout per frame in 336.2 innings in the minors.

But someone high up in the Philadelphia organization — Overholt thinks it may have been former general manager Pat Gillick — suggested near the end of spring training the right-hander drop his delivery down to more of a three-quarters, sidearm motion.

"For me (the season) has been a lot better than what my numbers show," said Overholt, who began this year as the 26th-best prospect in the Philadelphia system, according to industry leader Baseball America. "I have been learning on the run. It is not so much did I come in and strike everybody out. Did I come in and stick to my game plan? I am just trying to get more movement on the ball and be more effective."

"We hope that change gives him better life on his fastball," Benny Looper, assistant general manager, player personnel for the Phillies, said in a phone interview from Philadelphia.

"It is an adjustment. He continues to improve," Reading manager Steve Roadcap said. "There are going to be ups and downs" with a new delivery.

Overholt, who threw two scoreless innings with five strikeouts here Tuesday, is one of three Utah products on the Reading staff. The others are Salem resident Tyson Brummett (Spanish Fork) and Salt Lake City native Jason Mackintosh (West).

"It is really nice to have guys from your home state," said Mackintosh, standing outside the Reading clubhouse before a recent game against the Bowie Baysox of the Eastern League.

Brummett, whose father was in the Air Force, was born in Mississippi and was drafted by the Phillies in the seventh round in 2007 out of UCLA.

Mackintosh, who began his pro career in the Cleveland system in 2001, was acquired by the Phillies last August. Overholt was drafted out of Santa Clara by the Phillies in 2005.

Overholt said when baseball gets to be a grind, which it does in the minors, the three players will pass time talking about Utah. The conversation may drift to their off-season plans, such as if any of them hope to go skiing.