Keaton Anthony and Aidan Miller have exchanged a lot of texts in the last week or so. That\u2019s what friends do.<\/p>\n
Anthony and Miller are no longer teammates like they have been for much of their young minor league careers, so there is more value in those conversations.<\/p>\n
Anthony, promoted last week to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after leading the Eastern League in doubles (21) and being second in batting average (.330), is leaning on his friendship with Miller, who is in Double-A Reading, until he gets acquainted with his new teammates \u2014 almost all of whom he has not played with previously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was with [IronPigs outfielder Justin] Crawford maybe two weeks last year [in Reading],\u201d Anthony said. \u201cThe most troubling thing [with changing levels in the minor leagues] is getting settled in with the area and the guys. I try to make friends.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The changes] can be nerve wracking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opposing Triple-A pitchers are finding it painfully hard to get Anthony out. He has at least one hit in each of his first six games through Tuesday\u2019s series opener against visiting Rochester and is batting .333. He\u2019s not hit below .320 in any stop of more than six games since the Phillies signed the undrafted free agent in the summer of 2023.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old first baseman was slashing 330\/.380\/.522\/.902 with 23 runs in 49 games with Double-A Reading before his promotion.<\/p>\n
His biggest challenge so far with Lehigh Valley is not being able to talk as much as he\u2019s used to during games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m comfortable with people,\u201d Anthony said, \u201cI\u2019m outgoing. Now, I\u2019ll say 50 words a game. Down there [in Reading], I was talking the whole game, just random stuff. Here, I don\u2019t have anybody I\u2019m really close with who I can just go chat with. I\u2019ll get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, Anthony continues to work at his craft and build relationships with a stellar IronPigs clubhouse full of high-quality human beings. And he\u2019s texting Miller.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to have fun with everybody,\u201d Anthony added. \u201cIt\u2019s getting better and better [here] each day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony has been good since turning pro after three seasons at the University of Iowa during which he had more RBIs (93), runs (97) and combined walks and hit by pitches (77) than strikeouts (62) in 97 career college games.<\/p>\n
He hit .379 in his first nine pro games in the Florida Coast League in 2023, then a combined .322 the following year in stops at low-A Clearwater, high-A Jersey Shore and Reading.<\/p>\n
Anthony owns a .406 on-base percentage in 171 pro games entering Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing from low-A to high-A,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s more competitive. You see more strikes. The game gets faster. Getting up here [to Triple-A], there are not as many hittable strikes. You\u2019re not going to get a mistake [pitch] every at-bat.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s the same game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony has maintained the same routine that has allowed him to evolve from a college hitter with the same approach at the plate to someone who utilizes all the information available to him in his pre-game preparation.<\/p>\n
He admittedly was passive at times and took the same approach to the plate during his time at Iowa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about trusting yourself and your abilities,\u201d the Indiana-born Anthony said. \u201cI take training before the game super serious. You have to be cautious of what you\u2019re doing. And you take that training with you to the game and just go play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just try to have good at-bats, hit the ball hard and not try to do too much. Every at-bat has a different mental cue for me. In college, I didn\u2019t care who I was facing. Now, you have to be more direct with your plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony also has been helpful to other rising stars in the Phillies minor league system, including No. 15 prospect Carson DeMartini, a 2024 fourth-round pick who is now at Reading with Miller.<\/p>\n
DeMartini was at his first spring training feeling a bit overwhelmed. But Anthony was there to provide guidance, knowing he was in a similar situation the year before.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were together at [high performance] camp last November,\u201d DeMartini said. \u201cMy first spring training, there were a lot of moving parts. You don\u2019t get the gist of things until it\u2019s time to leave. [Anthony] was there to make sure I was doing this and doing that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stuff I would not have known if it weren\u2019t for him. I would have missed meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeMartini has not missed much this season. He had a .402 on-base percentage with 18 stolen bases, 30 RBIs and 34 runs in 53 games with Jersey Shore before batting .320 in his first six games with Reading.<\/p>\n
He also was aided during spring training by Otto Kemp, another undrafted free agent, who has ascended quickly to the major leagues after starting this season with the IronPigs.<\/p>\n
Those relationships have helped settle in some of the organization\u2019s top position players.<\/p>\n
Mike Anthony has been that one constant through his son Keaton Anthony\u2019s life, being there whenever the first baseman has needed him.<\/p>\n
Early on as a pre-teen, Mike Anthony delivered the tough-love message while coaching his son. As Keaton Anthony went to college and the pros, his message has always acknowledged the challenges of playing at those levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I\u2019ve gotten older,\u201d Keaton Anthony said, \u201che\u2019s built me into the guy I\u2019ve become. Since college, he\u2019s been super understanding of the game. Our relationship has grown every day. There\u2019s never negative talk. He always makes it a positive note when we end [our conversations]. I learn something every time we talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morning Call senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com<\/p>\n
Originally Published: June 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keaton Anthony and Aidan Miller have exchanged a lot of texts in the last week or so. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,185,4802],"class_list":{"0":"post-113156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114704756786959152","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}