By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Philadelphia Phillies made a handful of deals at the trade deadline in 2015. The big one was the Cole Hamels trade that sent the now former Phillies ace to Texas in exchange for a variety of prospects. One deal that hasn't really gotten a ton of attention involved Ben Revere going to Toronto for two relief pitching prospects, Jimmy Cordero and Alberto Tirado. While Cordero has shown signs of being a future back of the bullpen piece, Tirado's story has gotten interesting this year.
After coming into the Phillies system as a flame throwing reliever, Tirado has since converted the rotation for the first time since 2014 and is finding success despite still showing some holes in his repertoire. He pitched eight innings in relief for the Blueclaws, allowing nine earned runs, before being moved to the rotation, where he has put together a strong span of outings. Since sporting a 10.13 ERA on June 25, Tirado has lowered it to 3.75.
The 21-year-old native of the Dominican Republic has allowed two runs or fewer in all nine of his starts, but he's made it to the six inning mark just once. The majority of his starts, five out of the nine to be exact, have been five inning workloads with pitch counts anywhere from 80-90. While he has strikeout caliber stuff in his arsenal, Tirado's main problem is walks, which make his pitch counts higher each outing, keeping him from going six or seven innings on a consistent basis. That being said, in his first season as a starter since 2014, this is likely what the Phillies are comfortable with – a role that helps him work on his pitches and fine-tune command issues that plagued him as a reliever. In reality, a lot of starters in the lower minor leagues hover around the five or six inning limit any way, so there's not too much concern there. Overall in nine starts, he's 5-1 with a 2.55 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP, holding opposing hitters to a .214 average since joining the rotation.
Coming in at No. 29 on the MLB Pipeline Phillies top 30 prospects lists, Tirado throws three pitches, with a fastball that can reach the high 90s, a slider that is by far his best pitch along with a changeup that still needs some fine-tuning. Command was his biggest issue in his short stint with the Phillies organization in 2015 and in his career as a whole, striking out 18 batters and walking 16 with Clearwater last season, and it continues to be an aspect of his game that needs to improve if he plans to advance at all. This season, walks are still an issue having given out 37 free passes and struck out 81 hitters between Class 'A' Lakewood and Advanced 'A' Clearwater. In his last 43 innings, he has 22 walks and 64 strikeouts.
At 21 years old, Tirado is right where he needs to be to work on his game. He isn't by any means a lost cause and he could sill turn out to be an effective reliever or even a back-end starter, but with a prospect like him, it seems like patience is the key to finding out what role is more successful for him. His success will depend on his command. He's 18-8 with a 3.42 ERA in 303 minor league innings, spanning 116 games, 41 of which have been as a starter.
