Eighth in a series. The Morning Call will look at what the last 20 years have been like for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and their ballpark, and what could be ahead.<\/p>\n
When things went south for the IronPigs in 2017, Rhys Hoskins was at his locker. Every time to represent, to explain, to offer up no excuses.<\/p>\n
Things never went south for Hoskins in 2017. He slashed .284\/.385\/.581 with 24 doubles, four triples, 29 home runs, 91 RBIs, 78 runs and 64 walks compared to only 75 strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Hoskins was the International League MVP, leading the IL in slugging percentage, on-base percentage and OPS. He did all that in 115 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe only had one season with the IronPigs,\u201d PhillyBaseballInsider.com\u2019s Chuck Hixson said, \u201cbut it was one of the best seasons a player has ever had with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
By mid-August, Hoskins was doing similar things in Philadelphia. He hit 18 home runs, walked 37 times and drove in 48 during his 50-game stint that year with the Phillies.<\/p>\n
His 2017 season arguably the best by an IronPigs position player.<\/p>\n
For that, he is the fifth player who should be among those considered when the IronPigs, who are celebrating in 2027 their 20th year of existence, announce a wall of fame similar to what the Phillies have at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
Darick Hall, Rich Thompson, Andy Tracy and Pedro Beato were previously featured as others who had stellar performances while calling Coca-Cola Park home.<\/p>\n
Hoskins\u2019 leadership role continued when he went to Philadelphia. He was the spokesperson there through the 2022 season, his last in the organization, when things went well or didn\u2019t. He was always\u00a0 at his locker during media availability before or after games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe carried over what he had done the previous season in Reading.\u201d Service Electric broadcaster Steve Degler said. \u201cThe stretch he had just before he was called up to Philadelphia is one of the most impressive in IronPigs history.\u00a0 And on top of all that, he is just a classy person.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were several other memorable individual seasons at Coca-Cola Park.<\/p>\n
Joey Meneses, who never got a call-up to the Phillies, followed up Hoskins\u2019 season with a stellar one in 2018. The outfielder\/first baseman slashed .311\/.360\/.510 with 27 doubles, a triple, 23 home runs, 75 runs and 82 RBIs to earn IL MVP honors. He led the league that season in home runs, RBIs, hits, total bases and slugging percentage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe basically came out of nowhere to be the best player in the league in 2018,\u201d Degler said. \u201cHe delivered so many important hits on the way to the division title, and he nearly won the Triple Crown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weston Wilson, who also was a stellar defender, had a standout 2023 season. He slashed .259\/.363\/.515 with 19 doubles, three triples, 31 home runs, 32 stolen bases, 75 walks, 86 RBIs and 90 runs in 125 games. He is the franchise\u2019s only 30-30 player (home runs and stolen bases).<\/p>\n
The utility player hit a home run in his first major league at-bat that season for the Phillies, then spent parts of the next two seasons with the IronPigs and Phils. He\u2019s currently in the majors with the Mariners.<\/p>\n
Wilson\u2019s home runs in 2023 are the most in a single season by an IronPig. So, too, are his 90 runs scored. He\u2019s fourth in single-season RBIs, walks and stolen bases.<\/p>\n
Justin Crawford had a memorable Triple-A year in 2025, thanks to a single-season record .334 batting average along with 88 runs, 79 walks and 46 stolen bases, all second in IronPigs annals, plus 147 hits \u2014 which is third. His average and run total were tops in the IL last year. He scored a run in a franchise-record 14 games in a row and has the mark for highest on-base percentage (.411).<\/p>\n
Left-handed pitcher Cole Irvin led the IL in wins (14), winning percentage (.778), ERA (2.57) and WHIP (1.05) during a stellar 2018 season. He won a franchise-mark seven starts in a row. His 131 strikeouts that year are second to J.A. Happ\u2019s 146.<\/p>\n
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley IronPigs panelists<\/p>\n
The following panel made their picks for those most worthy of IronPigs wall of fame status as the franchise prepares for its 20th anniversary in 2027 (listed alphabetically):<\/p>\n
Cory Chryst, game cast operator since 2008<\/p>\n
Steve Degler, Service Electric broadcaster since 2009<\/p>\n
Doug Heater, Service Electric broadcaster since 2010<\/p>\n
Chuck Hixson, PhillyBaseballInsider.com since 2008<\/p>\n
Tom Housenick, Morning Call beat writer since 2015<\/p>\n
Kurt Landes, IronPigs president\/GM since 2006<\/p>\n
Dick (Shooter) Shute, official scorer since 2011<\/p>\n
Mike Zambelli, Service Electric broadcaster since 2008<\/p>\n
Top 10 IronPigs as voted on by the panel (listed alphabetically)<\/p>\n
Pedro Beato<\/p>\n
Justin Crawford<\/p>\n
Darick Hall<\/p>\n
Rhys Hoskins<\/p>\n
Scott Mathieson<\/p>\n
Joey Meneses<\/p>\n
Brandon Moss<\/p>\n
Rich Thompson<\/p>\n
Andy Tracy<\/p>\n
Weston Wilson<\/p>\n
Next-best 10 (alphabetically)<\/p>\n
David Buchanan<\/p>\n
Drew Carpenter<\/p>\n
Mike Cervenak<\/p>\n
Tom Eshelman<\/p>\n
Cole Irvin<\/p>\n
Scott Kingery<\/p>\n
Cam Perkins<\/p>\n
Darin Ruf<\/p>\n
Jake Thompson<\/p>\n
Mitch Walding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighth in a series. The Morning Call will look at what the last 20 years have been like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,433,1423,28,1425,726,10918],"class_list":["post-243510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-mlb","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}