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Phillies hope winning in the minors translates to winning in the majors

The Phillies' minor-league coaches, instructors, prospects, veterans, and organizational fillers gathered in the spring of 2015 near the back fields of the team's complex in Clearwater, Fla.

The Phillies' minor-league coaches, instructors, prospects, veterans, and organizational fillers gathered in the spring of 2015 near the back fields of the team's complex in Clearwater, Fla.

The annual meeting - which serves as an introduction to minor-league spring training - followed a season in which the Phillies affiliates combined to win just 40 percent of their games. None of the five minor-league teams finished 2014 with a record better than .500. The best team finished 10 games worse than .500.

The losing, Joe Jordan said to the group, was about to end. The Phillies' director of player development told them that the organization was out to grow a winning culture in the minor leagues.

What better way to build a winner at the major-league level than prioritizing victories in the minors? Those results are starting to show and the Phillies now have one of baseball's winningest farm systems.

"The message to the guys was that we're going to do everything we do up to 7 o'clock," Jordan said. "At 7 o'clock, you have one thing to think about as a player. And that's to win the game. I thought at that time, leading up to that, that maybe we hadn't talked enough about that."

The five Phillies affiliates - triple-A Lehigh Valley, double-A Reading, high-A Clearwater, low-A Lakewood, and short-season-A Williamsport - entered Friday with a 336-247 record. The Phillies system has the second-best winning percentage in all of baseball. Maybe the future is bright in Philadelphia.

If the season ended this weekend, three of the five teams would be headed to the postseason. And the ones that are not - Lakewood and Williamsport - are fighting for playoff berths. Even the Gulf Coast League Phillies, the team's rookie-league squad, is in first place. A lot has changed in just two years.

"And it's not like we retooled and we're winning these games with a bunch of free agents," Reading manager Dusty Wathan said. "You can go down the list of guys that are helping to contribute on every team and it's a bunch of guys that either we drafted or got in trades. That's exciting. The other positive is if you look at the average age of every league, we're either at it or below it."

The dismal 2014 season served as Rhys Hoskins' introduction to professional baseball. He was drafted out of college in June and spent the summer on a Williamsport team that finished 10 games worse than .500. That first season was tough to be a part of, Hoskins said.

And then the first thing he heard when he reported to spring training was Jordan's message about winning. The whole camp was energized, the first baseman said. Hoskins experienced the postseason last year with Clearwater and is helping power Reading toward an Eastern League divisional title.

"Everyone talks about a winning culture and I think that's pretty cliche. But they changed the attitude of how everyone in the organization looked at how to win baseball games," Hoskins said. "It started there and we really made tremendous strides from 2014 to last year and last year to this year. Winning is fun. Winning makes everything better."

The big test of the Phillies' success at the minor-league level will come in the next few seasons, when those players rise to the majors.

J.P. Crawford and Nick Williams are leading triple-A Lehigh Valley in its chase for the wild card. How soon could the pair of prospects try to force a one-game playoff at Citizens Bank Park? Hoskins and Dylan Cozens have each hit 30 homers with Reading. Imagine what that power could look like in October. Alberto Tirado struck out 11 batters on Thursday night to keep Lakewood in the division lead. Perhaps he could take the ball one day for a playoff game when South Philadelphia rocks again.

That's the vision the Phillies have. For now, it is just a vision. But every dream has to start somewhere.

"That's hopefully something that carries over, guys getting used to that culture," Jordan said. "That's what I want them to take to the big leagues, the culture, the attitude, the work ethic, and the preparation. If we can get enough guys in our major-league locker room that have that mind-set, then we're going to have enough talent to be successful. So we will be successful."