ALL THE characteristics are there, aren't they? The frame, the demeanor, the fastball that flares up when the adrenaline flows. It's easy to imagine an eighth or ninth inning with Vince Velasquez on the mound. It just isn't easy for him to get there in his current role.
Friday marks one year to the day that Velasquez struck out 16 of the 30 batters he faced in a three-hit shutout in his Citizens Bank Park debut. The performance was enough to make you question some of the scouting reports that had him pegged as a future late-innings reliever when the Phillies acquired him from the Astros in the Ken Giles trade.