Phils' top prospect Painter talks changeups with franchise icon

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki¡¯s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Cole Hamels approached Andrew Painter just after he finished his bullpen session on Tuesday at Carpenter Complex.

Hamels might be the only person in Phillies camp who truly knows what Painter might be experiencing as the organization¡¯s top prospect. The Phillies selected Hamels with the 17th overall pick in the 2002 MLB Draft. He struck out Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Tony Clark in his Grapefruit League debut in 2004. He struck out Ken Griffey Jr. in the first inning of his Phillies debut in 2006. He helped the Phillies win the 2008 World Series, earning the World Series and NLCS MVP Awards.

Hamels held a baseball in his hand. For the next several minutes, the two huddled together on the mound. Hamels showed Painter his changeup grip, which helped him make four All-Star teams and finish top 10 in Cy Young voting four times.

He showed Painter how the ball moved off his fingers and how it rotated.

Painter, who is MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 8 prospect in baseball, listened and watched.

He asked questions.

¡°He had a good changeup,¡± Painter said the next day. ¡°I wanted to pick his brain about that. Grip, different arm slots, stuff like that. The guy knows a lot. It¡¯s a pretty standard grip. I just wanted to see where he was on the seams and stuff like that. It¡¯s been something I¡¯ve been messing around with. I had a little bit of success in the [Arizona] Fall League, but I don¡¯t like the profile of the pitch.

¡°Just trying to mess with some things. See what I like, what I don¡¯t like. Try to use this time while I¡¯m building up to figure that out.¡±

Hamels spent the first week of camp as a guest instructor. He will be back next month. He has enjoyed passing along the things he learned during his 15-year career, including his magnificent changeup.

¡°It¡¯s just talking pitch philosophy and what you do,¡± Hamels said. ¡°Basically, it's how long you stick with something as you're trying to figure out a new pitch. How you learned it. How long did you mess around with it before you started to search for something else. And so that was kind of it. I was asking why and how he went to that certain grip and what he's trying to do with it, and then how long he plans to stick with it. If it works, great. Just in how to tinker with something and the when and where.

¡°He¡¯s very receptive. He knows that he's going to be known for a high-powered fastball. It¡¯s just what he can learn down here to practice before he gets up there. And just understanding the weapons in his arsenal and then how to actually execute it.¡±

Painter said he might mess with Hamels¡¯ grip in catch play. He will try others, too.

¡°Stretch it out, 90 feet, see what the movement is like,¡± Painter said.

Hamels walked away from his conversation impressed with Painter, who could join the Phillies¡¯ rotation this summer.

¡°He wants to be good,¡± Hamels said. ¡°You can definitely tell that he wants to be good. He just needs to get the experience. He understands that. I like how he goes about his business. He's not trying to go outside of himself to prove to everybody. Sometimes when you get labels and the expectations, you want to show people why they gave it to you all the time. And I think he's going through a very good process in staying within himself to take care of his work.

¡°In any beginning, you want to let people know who you are. And I think I had that with my first big league camp in `04. But once I established that, then it was go about what I need to do to be great and how I can maintain that. And you stay subtle. I think he let everybody know who he was early and now it's, ¡®All right, this is long term.¡¯ It doesn¡¯t need to just be a hot shot right at the very beginning and let it fade out. He wants to do it for a long time.¡±