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Brooky: Catching is a strength the Phillies can use to their advantage

The calendar flips to July on Friday, which means the countdown to baseball's trade deadline has begun. During Ruben Amaro's seven-year reign as Phillies general manager, it was almost always a fascinating time of year.

The calendar flips to July on Friday, which means the countdown to baseball's trade deadline has begun. During Ruben Amaro's seven-year reign as Phillies general manager, it was almost always a fascinating time of year.

One year it was Cliff Lee coming in from Cleveland at the trade deadline, the next it was Roy Oswalt from Houston to fill the vacancy left by the offseason trade that sent Lee to Seattle. At the 2011 deadline, Amaro acquired Hunter Pence in a four-for-one deal that filled the right-field vacancy created by Jayson Werth's free-agent departure to Washington and Domonic Brown's inability to live up to his top-prospect status.

The downward spiral for Amaro and the Phillies started in 2012, but the trade deadline was no less interesting. Pence was sent to the San Francisco Giants, where he has been fitted for two World Series rings. Only Tommy Joseph remains with the Phils from that deal. The same day, Shane Victorino was shipped to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Phillies have nothing to show for it. The dismantling had begun even though Amaro would not admit it.

In fact, the following year Amaro promised closer Jonathan Papelbon that the Phillies were still trying to win even though they failed to make a move at the deadline. It's difficult to decide if Amaro was more delusional for saying it or if Papelbon was more delusional for believing it. Call it a draw. By the time the Phillies were shut out at the trade deadline again in 2014, all hope was lost, but Amaro and Papelbon remained.

To his credit, Amaro did some of his best work on his way out the door.

"Ruben Amaro did a great job with those trades before he was fired," a National League scout from a rival club said this week. "I love Jake Thompson. I love Jerad Eickhoff. I love Jorge Alfaro."

The scout is not as in love with outfielder Nick Williams, who has recently come under scrutiny for a lack of hustle at triple-A Lehigh Valley. That's not what bothers the scout.

"I think with his swing he can be pitched to," the scout said.

All of this brings us back to the 2016 trade deadline, the first in Philadelphia for the tag-team combination of president Andy MacPhail and general manager Matt Klentak.

On the surface, it would seem as if there is little of much impact the new front office hierarchy can do at this trade deadline. The team's best veteran trade chip is pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, who could be the equivalent for some contending team of the Phillies acquiring Joe Blanton from Oakland in 2008. The odds of a difference-making prospect coming back in a deal like that are slim but worth taking for a team in the Phillies' position.

What the Phillies could do at this deadline is trade someone who plays a position of organizational strength for a high-level prospect at a position of organizational weakness. At the moment, one of the greatest strengths of the Phillies' system is at catcher, and a lot of credit for that belongs to big-league starter Cameron Rupp.

Going into Friday's series against the World Series champion Kansas City Royals, Rupp's .786 OPS ranked sixth in baseball among catchers with at least 150 at-bats. His seven home runs were tied for 12th, and his 14 doubles were tied for seventh. The Phillies have expressed concern about his ability to call a game, but that same concern arose during the early stages of Carlos Ruiz's career and throughout Mike Lieberthal's career. Hit enough and teams will live with it. Or, as in Ruiz's case, he simply got very good at that part of the game, too.

"Rupp has surprised me," the National League scout said. "I didn't think he was this level of player. I thought he was a backup catcher, and right now he is an average big-league catcher. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way."

Perhaps Rupp becomes the trade chip just as closer Ken Giles was with the Houston Astros during the first major trade made by the current front office. The Dodgers have an awful catching situation right now and an outfield prospect in Alex Verdugo who might help push guys like Williams, Dylan Cozens and even Tyler Goeddel.

It is risky to trade a catcher because there is such a shortage of good ones.

"It is really, really hard to find," an American League executive said. "It might be the most scarce commodity in baseball. If you look around baseball, I'm not sure there are thirty legitimate starting catchers. A lot of guys should be backup catchers.

"Ideally, it's great to have three. A good one at the big-league level, a backup that you can put in there for a month without losing a whole lot and a third one sitting in triple-A ready to go."

That's not exactly how the top catchers in the Phillies' system line up, but Rupp, Alfaro and triple-A Lehigh Valley's Andrew Knapp are all considered solid catchers. Alfaro, who might have the best throwing arm among all catchers in professional baseball, would rank at the top of the Phillies' catching list with Knapp, a switch-hitter, ranked second among the three in most scouting circles.

"It's a position where guys do get banged up a lot," the American League scout said. "You're always reluctant to move one."

Perhaps, but the Buster Posey rule has made the position a little less dangerous. If the Phillies can get better somewhere else by using their most improved player as trade bait, it is a deal worth considering.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob