Phuture Phillies

Much like the big-league club, this year’s Reading Phillies are off to a so-so start. At 4-4, they’re in the middle of the pack in the Eastern League Southern Division. They started off hot, taking three of four from the Altoona Curve to open the season, but have cooled down and lost their last three straight games.

By now, I’m sure most of you have heard about OF Greg Golson hitting the tar out of the ball. After 8 games, Golson’s batting a tidy .323 with three doubles, a triple, and seven steals, all while tying for the team lead in runs scored with five. It looks as if his winter spent with Charlie Manuel has helped Golson up his game. However, before we sing his praises and worship him as the savior of the Phils minor-league chain, it’s important to note that his OBP is only .344, while his K-BB ratio is 8-1 on the young season. Golson’s going to have to get on base more often before he can really display one of his most impressive tools — his speed. His season is certainly one to keep an eye on as he looks to possibly earn a call-up during September.

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After taking game one from the Mantees at their own home park, the Threshers looked to take another win on Sunday night and return to Clearwater on Monday needing just one more win for the FSL Championship. The Manatees on the other hand looked to stay alive in their final home game of the year. Read the rest of this entry »

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Though it wasn’t his prettiest game of the year the bullpen picked him up and helped get Andrew Carpenter his record tying 15th win of the year. Andrew joins Ezequiel Astacio of the 2003 Clearwater Phillies as the only Clearwater pitcher to have ever earned 15 wins in a season. Andrew currently has a record of 15-6 and is 8-2 since the all-star break with an ERA of 2.22 over that stretch.

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The Clearwater Threshers have continued to experience success this season, and we’ve gotten to see some solid talent in the Clearwater lineup for the first time in what seems like forever. The team is currently in third place in their division 3.5 games behind the Tampa Yankees with 28 games remaining on the team’s schedule for 2007.

Since my last Clearwater update center fielder Greg Golson has been promoted to Reading along with left handed pitcher Josh Outman. Meanwhile Alex Concepcion, Andrew Cruse and Ben Pfinsgraff have been added to the Threshers rotation from Lakewood.

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The Clearwater Threshers earned their best first-half record in their short four-year history going 39-31.  The team had six players selected to the FSL All-Star game:  pitchers Carlos Carasco, Andrew Carpenter, Pat Overholt, OF/DH Jeremy Slayden, and catcher Lou Marson were elected by the managers in the league and Greg Golson was selected by the commisioners office to attend the game. 

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Showing any doubters why he deserved his selection to the Florida State League All-Star team Carlos Carrasco came out on Wednesday night and threw the first nine inning complete game for the Threshers this year. Carrasco was about as good as a pitcher could be, giving up just three hits in the game, walking none, and striking out seven in the effort.

The Threshers won the game 6-0 and moved back into second place in their division. However the playoff format in the F.S.L. pits the winner of the first half of the season against the winner of the second half, and the first-half race in coming to a close. The team remains three games behind the Sarasota Reds with just seven games left in the first half of the year. The final three games will be against those Reds, so if the team can pick up one game on the Reds in the next three games and go into that final series of the half less than three games out they’ve got a terrific shot at making the playoffs in the first-half of the year.

In other Threshers news Jason Donald has been solid in his seven games since joining the Threshers from Lakewood. He is hitting .269 with a HR, 2 triples, and a double among his hits.

This past week was not a good one for the Clearwater Threshers. On May 14th the team was just one game out of first place and the pitching staff owned the lowest overall ERA in the entire Florida State League. After the next seven games where the team lost all but one, including two games where they gave up 13 runs and 16 runs back-to-back to the first-place Sarasota Reds they are now five games behind the Reds, and the team’s ERA has fallen to sixth in the league.

The week began on an ominous note with the Threshers losing in 10 innings to the last place Ft. Myers Miracle (Twins). Going into the tenth inning tied at 1-1 the Threshers picked up two runs to take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the inning. Brett Harker came in out of the bullpen to close the game since the Threshers ace closer Mike Zagurski had been promoted to Reading two days prior. Though Harker had four saves on the year, the situation seemed alien to him on this night. He walked the first batter, gave up a single, then walked another to load the bases. He then gave up back-to-back singles as the Miracle scored 3 runs to down the Threshers 4-3.

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The latest player profile will cover a guy that a lot of people are talking about, outfielder/DH Jeremy Slayden. The Phillies, especially over the last two seasons or so, have seen their system produce very few position prospects even worth talking about, after graduating all star caliber talent like Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. With Slayden, many feel we may actually have a true hitter on our hands, as opposed to the “quality athletes who can’t play” that the system has produced an abundance of in recent years. But as Kevin Goldstein pointed out in his Q/A for us, most great players are quality athletes, the trick is just teaching them how to play the game and how to become baseball guys. With Slayden, it seems he already knows how to play, but the question is, does he have the tools?

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Jeremy Slayden, currently mashing in the Florida State League, has been a popular topic of discussion of late. I plan on writing a profile on Slayden later this week and giving my thoughts, but before I do, I wanted to get YOUR opinion and see what you think. So, here’s how you can do your part…

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