Phuture Phillies

The Inaugural Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs season kicked off Thursday evening in Scranton with the Pigs getting blanked 4-0 by the Scranton Wilkes Barre Yankees. The lone Pigs hit came on a single in the 7th inning by CF Brandon Watson. Kei Igawa started for the Yankees and was literally unhittable, leaving in the 7th inning with a no-hitter. Lefthander J.A. Happ started for the Iron Pigs and was average at best lasting only four innings, and giving up three runs on five hits. Happ walked one and struck out four. While all Pigs hitters struggled, TJ Bohn had the most difficulty, striking out in each of his three at bats.

[ed. note, I added the "read more" part]

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Alright gang, here are this week’s updated minor league rosters. You can compare this to the week 3 roster and week 2 rosterand week 1 roster that I had posted earlier if you would like.

Quite a few cuts all in around in the minors this week, with one more round left to go this week before minor league rosters are finalized next Monday.

I’ll keep on the lookout for each new officially posted roster and keep them updated here as needed.

I don’t know how much of a limb I am going out on to project this, but I have updated my Clearwater Threshers website with this (click here) as my projected 2008 line up. The projection is based on the latest 2008 ST roster mixed in with a little intuition. I’m guessing I’ll have about 20 of the 25 players correct, with a few free agent signings thrown in at the last minute just to mess things up and maybe a few other moves in the mix.

I hit the Carpenter Complex to check out the first day of minor league games.  It was the Clearwater (Group 3) team and the Lakewood (Group 4) teams against the Orioles.  Nothing of terrific interest to report except that I did pick up the newly updated minor league rosters.  This version has the guys broken out into five groups not four like the previous version that I had posted a while back. Read the rest of this entry »

First and foremost… I’ve always called you Andrew, but I keep seeing you referred to as “Drew” Carpenter around the net.  Which is it…Drew or Andrew?

Andrew

I know from talking with you earlier that you said you’ve been in Clearwater working out since January to try to be in better shape this year than you were last year. What sort of goals have you set for yourself in 2008?  

I think everyone’s goal each year is to get to Philly because I know mine is. Other than that they are to win another championship, to keep my team in every ball game to give them a chance to win, to keep progressing on my changeup and making that better, and now in AA maybe get a couple of hits this year.
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I recently had the opportunity to chat with Jason Donald during Spring Training and ask him a few baseball questions.

Jason, you started 2007 in Lakewood before finishing in Clearwater. What were the biggest differences between low-A and high-A baseball?

I think the biggest difference between high A and Low A was as with any level you move up, the game is a little bit sharper and quicker. Plus, there are some older pitchers with more experience that know how to pitch a little bit more. Better off speed and they can use that effectively when they were behind in the count.
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Several people have emailed me or messaged me asking about the 2008 workout group assignments. 

I was finally able to get my hands on them today. 

Most of you are aware that these groups by no means indicate what the actual AAA, AA, and other rosters will actually look like in the end.  This is just where the guys are working out now.  There are still going to be many guys sent down from the big league ST roster to take spots away, a lot of players will be cut, and many free agents will be signed to minor league spots after other teams cut players.

That being said … here is a link to the Current Workout Groups in PDF version (sorry, but I didn’t feel like re-typing them from scratch) and for those who also wanted this the 2008 Minor League Spring Training Games Schedule. Read the rest of this entry »