Ben Lively has emerged as one of the Phillies most promising prospects.

His 4-1 record combined with a 2.48 ERA makes him one of the top starters in the system this season, but it is also his consistency that makes him attractive to be called up to the Phillies the next time they need a starter.Cincinnati traded Lively to the Phillies for Marlon Byrd before the 2015 season, and since his arrival he has gone 30-13 with a 3.25 ERA in 59 starts in the Phillies minor league system. IronPig manager Dusty Wathan, Lively's manager at Reading, has seen most of those games."Since his arrival (at Reading in 2015), he's matured and really worked hard on a few things - with fastball command being one of them," Wathan said.Last Tuesday against Rochester, the right-hander won his third straight start in impressive fashion. He controlled the Red Wing lineup through 7 1/3 innings, giving up just one run, striking out four and walking just one in 82 pitches."He was outstanding," Wathan said. "He spotted his fastball well, he went down in the zone and up in the zone when he needed to. He did a great job."His strength is pitching ahead in the count with good pitch location. That control kept the Red Wings from getting a bead on him. The only trouble in the game came in the fourth inning with a pair of Rochester hits that placed runners at first and third with no out. Lively got a ground ball double play and quickly ended the threat to cruise to the win."Fastball location was key," Lively said. "The big thing for me was that I was pitching with that two-seam. Once they started to make adjustments on the fastball, I started to mix in more off-speed pitches and it played out good."The key for a pitcher is to bounce back and string together solid starts. With a solid and consistent record that he has shown over the past two seasons, Lively has bouncing back down-pat."I know my body pretty good and I know what I need to do to bounce back," Lively said. "Mentally, I focus on keeping the ball down in the zone. If the ball starts floating up, it gets hit pretty good."Other players like Zach Eflin and Jake Thompson have received the call-up to Philadelphia, leaving Lively out. Righty Tom Eshelman came up from Reading and was added to the rotation, drawing comparisons from their manager."They don't give free passes," Wathan said of Lively and Eshelman, who generally throw first-pitch strikes. "The other team has to earn it to come back."As it stands, the Lehigh Valley fans will still be treated to Lively's consistency."He's got a chance to get up (to the big leagues) this year." Wathan said. "All he has to do is continue what he is doing and show he can do it day-to-day."Crawford StrugglesThe Phillies No. 1 prospect, and 12th in all of baseball according to Baseball America, continues to struggle at the plate. There is movement, albeit just a little, and that is good news.J.P. Crawford started the season with just four hits in his first 52 at-bats for an .077 average.He has slowly returned to form and even put together a streak reaching base in 17 straight games. The streak was snapped Thursday night, although he reached on a fielder's choice and an error and scored two runs."He's on a steady climb up and we hope he keeps that steady climb," Wathan said. "That's the key when you struggle early and you keep watching the scoreboard and you want that average at .270 tomorrow. That's not going to happen."Crawford has taken it in stride and tries not to be too frustrated about his situation at the plate. He credits his teammates for helping him get through it with a positive outlook."No one wants to struggle this bad but I come to the clubhouse every day and we have a great team. Everyone wants to have fun here and they keep my mind off baseball," Crawford said.