Monthly Archives: December 2008

Affiliate managers/coaches for 2009

02. Org Reports

Lauber has the info on his blog.

Lehigh Valley (Class AAA): manager- Dave Huppert; pitching coach- Rod Nichols; coach- Greg Gross.

Reading (Class AA): manager- Steve Roadcap; pitching coach- Steve Schrenk; coach- Frank Cacciatore.

Clearwater (Class A): manager- Ernie Whitt; pitching coach- Dave Lundquist; coaches- Ramon Henderson, Kevin Jordan.

Lakewood (Class A): manager- Dusty Wathan; pitching coach- Bob Milacki; coach- Greg Legg.

Williamsport (short-season): manager- Chris Truby; pitching coach- Tom Filer; coach- Eric Valent.

Gulf Coast (rookie): manager- Roly deArmas; pitching coaches- Aris Tirado, Carlos Arroyo; coach- Luis Melendez.

Coordinators: field- Mike Compton; pitching- Gorman Heimueller; hitting- Sal Rende; outfield- Jerry Martin; bunting/baserunning- P.J. Forbes; infield- Doug Mansolino.

Giving Carrasco a full season with Nichols should prove beneficial to his development.

Reader Top 30; #10

2009 Reader Top 30

I hope everyone got all of the trade/free agent signings talk out of their system, so lets get back to discussing prospects. Joe Savery took home the #9 spot, edging out Zach Collier and Jason Knapp. I’ll have more on Savery sometime later this week. For now though, we’ll round out the top 10 in the voting, which should be a close call. One reminder. If you choose to write in a vote, please type in your choice before hitting the submit vote button, and after you vote, please be kind enough to share who you voted for in the comments, since other readers can’t see the “other” write-ins. More below the fold…

Continue reading Reader Top 30; #10 →

Phillies non-tender Scott Mathieson

Transactions

Here you go.

Already signed a minor league deal. That works.

Phillies to concede the 2009 draft

2009 Draft

Hyperbole! With the signing of Raul Ibanez, the Phillies forfeit their first round pick in 2009. Because they did not offer arbitration to any of their free agents, they won’t receive any compensation picks. So the Phillies will not pick in Round 1, there will be a decently sized compensation round between the first and second round, and then the Phillies will pick near the end of round 2, likely to be somewhere in the 60’s. Of course if they sign another Type A free agent they won’t pick till the 3rd round. Last year’s draft was great, as I’ve detailed a number of times. This year, they are going to have to go well over slot a number of times to make up for the lack of picks. We’ll see if they do. No using getting upset over it right now, nothing we can do about it.

Reader Top 30; #9

2009 Reader Top 30

Travis D’Arnaud took the number 8 spot in impressive fashion, receiving 161 of the 239 votes cast, a healthy margin for sure. Things are about to get real interesting now, as no player really stood out as a close 2nd place. I mentioned it before, a number of times, if you choose to vote for a player not listed by using the “OTHER” choice, you still need to type in your selection before you actually submit your vote. Anyway, full results below the fold…

Continue reading Reader Top 30; #9 →

Phillies take Robert Mosebach in Rule 5 Draft

Rule 5 Draft

Head over to mlb.com and you can watch the Rule 5 draft for free. According to the Phillies scribes, they don’t expect the Phillies to take anyone. The Phillies will pick 21st due to 40 man rosters loaded to capacity ahead of them. I’ll post the picks made, including anyone the Phillies take, or any Phillies prospects that get taken.

[Update 1] Phillies take Robert Mosebach, RHP from the Angels. Here are his numbers. I’ll look for more later, he’s a starter with awful peripherals, but is still young. He also served up 56% groundballs in 2008, so that’s something.

[Update 2] Phillies take 2B Kyle Haines from the Giants and Javis Dias from the Padres in the AAA phase. The Phillies also lost John Suomi to Kansas City, Brett Harker and Ronald Hill to the Marlins in the minor league phase.

[Update 3] Scott Lauber says the Phillies liked the reports they got on him in Arizona and plan to use him as a reliever in the spring.

Check below for the results…

Continue reading Phillies take Robert Mosebach in Rule 5 Draft →

Five questions with Thoughts of RS

* Interviews

I exchanged emails with Shawn, who writes the blog “Musings about Sports and other important items”, which covers the Pirates and other sports related matters. You can check out my answers to his questions here, and I’ll share his answers to my questions below the fold…

Continue reading Five questions with Thoughts of RS →

Phillies trade Jason Jaramillo

Transactions

A catcher for catcher swap, Jason Jaramillo is gone, Ronny Paulino is in. Gotta say, this is a win for the Phillies. Pirates fans looking for info on Jaramillo should start here and here.

A note on Paulino. For his big league career, he’s thrown out 73 baserunners and allowed 165 SB. Defensive stats for catchers are really kind of hard to judge, but 31% CS is respectable. For comparison’s sake, Ruiz has 49 CS and 133 SB allowed, or 27%.

Update #2: If you have season tix at Lehigh Valley, you’ll get a full season of Lou Marson in 2009. I expect lots of pictures submitted. Thanks.

Rule 5 Draft is tommorrow

Rule 5 Draft

The Rule 5 draft commences tomorrow as the capper to the Winter Meetings, and if history is an indication, the Phillies will likely be a part of the festivities. Baseball America has its take on the names generating the most interest here, as well as a list of all available guys here. The Phillies will be near the end of the line, so unless they trade up, the best talents will probably be off the board, but there are a few intriguing names that might be there. Before I look at the individual names, we have to address the state of the roster to determine the likelihood of a player sticking…

Continue reading Rule 5 Draft is tommorrow →

Jim Callis chat hits today

ESPN/BA/BP Mentions

I meant to post this, but I was distracted with the Rule 5 writeup and a few other things. Thanks to “Pat Burrell” for posting it and reminding me

Zac (Philadelphia): How do you grade out the Phillies farm system? It seems like it is rapidly improving with the likes of Carrasco, Marson, Donald, D’Arnaud, Drabek, Taylor, Brown, and Happ? Am I dreaming, or is the Phillies farm legit for the first time in years? Thanks.

SportsNation Jim Callis: It is improving, not yet overwhelming.

Zac (Philadelphia): Lightning Round! In five years, D’Arnaud or Marson?

SportsNation Jim Callis: Marson.

Kyle(Philadelphia): Drabek or Savery?

SportsNation Jim Callis: Drabek