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Phillies prospect Jesse Biddle settling in with the IronPigs

Germantown Friends product is 2-0 since moving up to the Phillies' Triple A affiliate.

Jesse Biddle is 2-0 with the IronPigs.
Jesse Biddle is 2-0 with the IronPigs.Read more(Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)

MOOSIC, Pa. - In middle school, Phillies pitching prospect Jesse Biddle was at a crossroads.

Already 6-4 by the time he finished eighth grade, Biddle knew he had a bright future in sports, but he wasn't sure whether that future included a baseball field or a basketball court.

"I really thought I was going to be 7 feet tall," Biddle said. "When I was in eighth grade, I was just like towering over everybody on the basketball court, and I was like, 'Man . . . I like basketball, I don't like it as much as baseball, but if I'm going to be 7 feet tall, I better learn how to post up or something.' "

Biddle, a Mount Airy native, made the varsity basketball team as a freshman at Germantown Friends School, but he quickly learned great height doesn't always equal great success on the court.

"I was playing against some guys on other teams and they were just so much faster than me, and I was just, like, I really don't think this is going to work out," Biddle said. "So I just decided to focus on baseball.

"And I remember the captain of the basketball team, when I told everybody I was going to quit, I remember him saying, 'It's not like you're going to go pro or anything.' "

It appears as if Biddle got the last laugh.

Selected 27th overall by the Phillies in the 2010 baseball draft, the 23-year-old lefthander is in his sixth year in the Phillies' organization, currently pitching for the Triple A Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

He is 2-0, with a 4.05 ERA in four starts with the Iron Pigs since joining the team early this month.

The 6-5, 225-pound lefty provides a daunting presence on the mound, but his focus, or lack thereof, occasionally gets him into trouble.

Biddle allowed one hit and one earned run in five innings against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday, but he threw only 49 strikes on 97 pitches, earning a no-decision in a 5-3 loss.

"I just need to throw more strikes, man," Biddle said. "I can get guys out when I throw the ball over the plate, and when I don't throw the ball over the plate, I stop getting guys out.

"It's just consistency; that's been the word that's haunted me my whole career, and the thing I work the hardest on. It's one of those things where you try to force it and it doesn't happen, so you got to just relax and let the game come to you."

Biddle originally committed to play college baseball at the University of Oregon and said he almost left Germantown Friends at the beginning of his senior year, to get his GED and pitch at the PAC-12 school.

"I was one phone call away from doing that," Biddle said of leaving high school early. "But my family and I decided that graduating high school with my class would give me a chance to get drafted in the spot where I wanted to get drafted, and things just worked out that way."

A lifelong Phillies fan who grew up idolizing former All-Star Randy Wolf, Biddle still has trouble expressing how it felt to be drafted by his hometown team.

"It was just a moment that I built up a lot in my head," Biddle said. "I always wanted to get drafted by the Phillies, and the closer and closer I got to it, the less certain I became that it was going to happen, and I really didn't know until [commissioner] Bud Selig called my name on TV."

Biddle has played for five minor league teams, including the Williamsport Crosscutters, Lakewood BlueClaws, Clearwater Threshers and Reading Fightin Phils.

In 128 career appearances, Biddle is 40-41, with a 3.66 ERA.

To help him keep his composure on the mound, Biddle said he often looks at the words written on his red and blue wristbands. The one on his left wrist reads, "EXPLORE YOUR WORLD," while the one on his right reads, "TRY LOVE FIRST."

The bands were a gift from second-graders taught by his older brother Sam at Young Scholars Frederick Douglass Charter School in North Philadelphia, which Biddle visits once a year.

"He changes lives every single day," Biddle said of his brother. "I'm going to go to school whenever baseball is done, and that's honestly something that I would really love to do."