I’m short on time today, but I wanted to post an open discussion thread on the Lakewood/Clearwater rosters, since we did something similar for Reading and Lehigh Valley a little while back. So, what do we think the starting lineup and pitching staffs will look like?
Also, someone started an NCAA-style tournament of Phillies blogs, and phuturephillies has advanced to the Sweet 16, and it looks like my next matchup is today, so go here and vote if you want to.
Phuture Phillies 
Lakewood could have a rotation of Pettibone, Colvin, Hernandez, Cosart, and Shreve with Valle catching. Their outfield will likely be Castro, Hewitt, James and Dugan. Collier will join in May when he’s healthy. It’ll be Singleton and Ruf sharing first, Barnes on 2B and Villar at SS. 3B? This will be a team with many of our top 30 prospects. Clearwater’s rotation will be May, Way, Sanchez, Hyatt, and ? Correa? Sampson? They’ll have an infield of Hamilton and Rizzoti sharing first with Garcia, Hanzawa and Mattair and an outfield of Myers, Gose and Gump. This team won’t have nearly as many prospects but it will have a few.
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i’m calling a Lakewood championship again.
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I think the Clearwater rotation is pretty set with May, Sanchez, Velasquez and Garcia, at least to start the year. I don’t see either of those last two guys being ready for AA yet. So the question is who is the 5th starter out of Cloyd, DeFratus and Way (I think Sampson is unlikely). It will probably be Cloyd. If that’s the case, then Way starts the year where he ended it, in Lakewood. However, Cloyd might get pushed to the bullpen to let Way in at some point.
As for Lakewood, it’s a big mess of guys to choose from, including Correa, Hernandez, Pettibone, Way, Cosart, Colvin, Shreve, Hyatt, Noles, Lebron, and Zeid (unless any of the last three were released and I missed it). I have to think the first four are guaranteed spots in the rotation, at least to start the season. That makes me think that Cosart might piggyback with Hyatt or Noles, with the other going to the bullpen. That will keep Cosart’s innings down since he had so few last year. In turn, Colvin and Shreve will start in XST (which is probably appropriate based on experience). Who knows what happens with Lebron and Zeid. But I do agree with Murray that we will likely see one of Colvin or Shreve (perhaps both) in Lakewood this year.
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May, Way, Hyatt, and DeFratus all seem to be guarantees for the Clearwater rotation. Not sure who will cover the last spot. Probably either Correa or Garcia depending on whether Garcia is put in Reading.
Colvin, Pettibone, Cosart, Hernandez, Noles would be my guess for the Lakewood rotation.
I am really hoping they put singleton in Lakewood to start the season but that would really push Ruf out of playing time because the DH will be whoever isn’t playing in the OF that day because they are all better prospects than Ruf. Wherever Singleton is put he will be playing everyday as to get him the maximum of ABs. Valle will catch and Villar will play short.
I don’t know why everyone assumes Dugan will be at Lakewood to start and and Hudson won’t. Both are pretty raw and with Lakewood being packed to begin with, keep them back for half a year or so. Hewitt, James, Castro, and Alther seem to be locks. No reason to have 2 more players who won’t see regular time on the field.
The more I look at it the more congested our lower levels appear. Good problem to have but very hard to solve.
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I expect Garcia to start in AA, and Correa in A+
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I expect a lot of movement this year. Seems like an awful lot of interesting pitchers from A+/A. Just looking at the spring training groups 3/4 there’s a lot of possible starters.
Group 3 – Heitor Correa, Justin DeFratus, Austin Hyatt, Trevor May, Jesus Sanchez, Matt Way, Korey Noles, Julian Sampson, & Tyler Cloyd
Group 4 – Brody Colvin, Jared Cosart, Nick Hernandez, Jonathan Pettibone, Julio Rodriguez, Colby Shreve, Spencer Arroyo, Josh Zeid, & Kevin Angelle
Obviously not all of these guys are going be starters, but certainly most of them deserve a look. I can see a lot promotions if guys are pitching well to get other guys into the rotations.
I’ll be interested to see what they do with Colby Shreve & Brody Colvin.
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Lakewood
C – Valle
1B- Singleton
2b- J Barnes
3b – Buschini
SS – J Villar
LF – Dugan
CF – Ji James
RF – A Hewitt
DH- Z Collier
SP1- J Cosart
SP2- Pettibone
SP3- C Shreve
SP4- N Hernandez
SP5- J Rodriguez
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Clearwater
C- J Naughton
1B- J Murphy
2B- H Garcia
3B- T Mattair
SS- Hanzawa
LF- D Myers
CF- Gose
RF- L Castro
DH- J Hamilton
SP1- T May
SP2- Correia
SP3- Matt Way
SP4- DeFratus
SP5- J Sanchez
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Seems like a couples players who deserve to start will definitely be pushed to the pen. At the end of the day it’s a good problem, hopefully the right decisions get made. I wonder if some guys who are in competition for a starter spot make it and then don’t perform well if we’ll see changes in-season.
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Oh, also, I gave this site a vote in the bracket. I really think it deserves to win the whole thing because while the other blogs may be very good, some better than others, there are a ton of places you can go for Phillies news. But this is really the only place to go for prospect news, and there would really be a void in coverage of the organization without it.
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PP is the Microsoft of Phillies minor league baseball coverage.
(in a good way)
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I second Mike77’s list for the most part.
Castro to Clearwater may be too much. Gump would make more sense. That may then drop Dugan at some point.
James, Hewitt, Cosart and Shreve due to age and years should get into full season ball. No reason to rush Cosart. Way makes sense at Clearwater as a more seasoned pitcher and probably the leader of the staff. Sanchez and DeFratus need to continue to get innings.
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where do u think ryan gugel wil start the season
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Catchers-
LKW- Sebastien Valle, # Francisco Diaz
CLW- * Joel Naughton, Kyle LaFrenz
IF-
LKW- *Jon Singleton, #Cesar Hernandez, # Jonathon Villar, 3B Adam Buschini, Jeremy Barnes
CLW- Darin Ruf, # Harold Garcia, Troy Hanzawa, Travis Mattair, * Korby Mintken, * Matthew Rizzotti (also OF, DH)
OF-
LKW- # Jiwan James, Anthony Hewitt, Leandro Castro, #Kelly Dugan (DH), *Zach Collier (DL)
CLW- Darby Myers, * Anthony Gose,* Brian Gump, Arlon Quiroz
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Pitchers-
CLW-
ST- Trevor May, Jesus Sanchez, Heitor Correa, Justin DeFrantus, Matt Way
Rel- Luke Wuertz, Chris Kissock, Tyler Cloyd, * Jacob Diekman
SU1- *Kory Noles, SU2- Eryk McConnell, CL- Austin Hyatt
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Pitchers-
LKW-
ST- Jared Cosart, Brody Colvin, Julio Rodriguez, Jon Petitbone, Colby Shreve
Rel- *Kevin Angelle, *Spencer Arroyo, *Nickolas Hernandez, Siulman LeBron
SU1- Joshua Zied, SU2- Ebelin Lugo, CL- Mikael Bolsenbroek
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Lakewood seems to be packed at Starting pitcher. It would seem Cosart, Shreve, Pettibone and Nick Hernandez are sure to be 4 of the 5 starting pitchers. One of Colvin or Julio Rodriguez should be held back in extended Spring training. It would seem to make more sense to hold Colvin back awhile, the way they did with Trevor May.
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If you want to base it on who has been starting in the ST games it should look like this :
Clearwater
C-Naughton
1b-Rizzotti
2b-Garcia
3b-Mattair
ss-Hanzawa
LF-Myers
CF-Gose
RF-Quiroz/Gump
SP-May,Way,Sanchez,Hyatt are the 4 I’ve seen start
RP-the ones I’ve seen a lot of -Wertz,Noles,Bergh, Kissock and Defratus
Lakewood
C-Valle
1b-Singleton
2b-Barnes
3b-Buccini
ss-Villar
lf-Castro
CF-Hewitt
RF-James (also seeing a lot of ABs in the OF are Dugan and Santana-they are going to have to make some tough decisions here)
SP-Cosart, Colvin, Shreve,Pettibone, Hernandez
RP-Lebron, Lugo,Massingham,Poe,Zuber
Also FYI-Edgar Garcia has been pitching for Reading as a RP, when I saw him he was pitching exclusively out of the stretch
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where does jeremy hamilton and mike durant fit into. clearwater?
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where domingo santana is goin to start? lakewood right>?
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My speculation (all 4 levels)…
Position players
AAA:
C-Hoover/Suomi/Sardinha (Suomi DHing)
1B-Tracy
2B-Valdez
SS-Chavez
3B-Sellers/Ransom
OF-Wilkerson
OF-Thompson
OF-Mayberry
(AA vets Stavisky, Spidale, Mahar, and even Sellers may go to AA or be released, although they seem to have been hitting this spring. I have no clue what’s going to happen to Tag Bozied, Brian Bocock, Melvin Dorta, Luis Maza, Brandon Pinckney, Chris Duffy, or Freddy Guzman, all AAA vets.)
AA:
C-Gosewisch/Kennelly
1B-Stavisky/Sussdorf
2B-Hernandez
SS-Galvis
3B-Campbell
OF-Brown
OF-Gillies/QBerry
OF-Mitchell
DH-Mahar/Spidale?
A+:
C-Naughton?/LaFrentz?
1B-Murphy/Rizzotti
2B-Garcia
SS-Hanzawa
3B-YRodriguez/Overbeck (Travis Mattair allegedly retired yesterday)
OF-Gose
OF-Myers
OF-Gump (who I would keep in low-A)/MIlner/possibly Spidale or another vet
A-:
C-Valle/random back up (Doss?/Gugel?/Guerra?)
1B-Hamilton/Singleton (hoping…)
2B-Barnes
SS-Villar
3B-Buschini
OF-Castro/Santana(hoping)
OF-Hewitt
OF-James/Collier (injured)
DH-Ruf/?
Guys I really can’t place, who probably won’t be in extended spring:
C-Kevin Nelson, Zach Farkes, John Purdom
IF-Keon DE Renne, Mike Durant, Korby Mintkin, Steven Batts, Edgar Duran, Alan Schoenberger
OF-Alan Quiroz, Michael Dabbs
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The guy I keep seeing placed in Clearwater is Gump. I do not understand it. He did not hit at his previous level and he is a non-prospect. Leandro Castro is more deserving of a jump to Clearwater than Gump. Castro hit better than Gump, and is not as old.
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At what point do they decide which players will be assigned where?
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There will be more cuts tomorrow and by Saturday everything should be done.
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Gump jumping to A+ would be more of him being a sacrificial lamb than him earning it on merit. Plus he’s older and more seasoned as a hitter, if he has any hope in baseball he needs to move up the ladder quickly. Castro would get eaten up in high A like he did in the Sally league early last year. He’s a guy that you need to take it one level at a time.
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Thanks Oldtimer, Its tough sitting here in Oklahoma waiting to see whats going to happen.
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Non prospects get jumped levels all the time to fill holes. Look at the catchers that get moved around. Gump to A+ is not out of line given his age. Quiroz will probably be there repeating as well to help out. The most important thing is for the real prospects to get extended playing time at the proper level. The A- outfield is going to be crowded, though I would not be shocked if James or Castro earned his way to Clearwater by the time Collier gets healthy enough to force his way into the picture.
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Gump will be fine at A(A) . That’s normal progression for a college veteran who did all right. It will be seen in how he does there. There is no reason to move younger players in that kind of a jump.
That most recent AAA roster on here needs some tinkering. I don’t see it like that. Bocock is still a relatively young player capable of developing in AAA, I don’t see a release for him. I say he starts and moves between short and second. Then you get the Valdez and Chavez. I think DeWayne Wise will continue on there, and play in CF or RF, and I hope they keep Berry up there, because there is no need to have a sopping up of playing time in AA. I hope they don’t stockpile those warhorse catchers either. They should start Sardinha there and work in Gosewisch as an alternate. Then they can start Kennelly at AA backed by Zac Farkes. Then they can start to have a semblance of still developing players at C for every level.
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Bocock was brought on specifically as insurance if Rollins goes down…they won’t get rid of him or Wise or Valdez for that reason.
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Someone a few weeks ago brought up that Bocock has options remaining. His value is that he can fill in, but that the Phillies can freely send him down as needed.
Quintin Berry as I’ve said previously probably goes to Reading. I’m all for developing prospects but I’m not game to seeing a player promoted who simply hasn’t earned it. The Phillies buried Berry behind minor league vets and gave him practically no Spring Training time. What does that tell you?
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Tells me that they had already made their decision on what they plan to do with Berry going into the season. If he goes to AAA or AA will be determined by where the available spots are vs. whether or not he has earned a promotion.
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