Gregg covered the happenings at Lehigh Valley, so I’ll just add the notes from Lakewood, Clearwater and Reading. Feel free to use this post to discuss anything/everything, and also if you have LHV specifics, you can put them in gregg’s post.
Lakewood won 10-7.
The good;
Jonathan Villar; 2/5 with 2 runs and a SB
Jiwan James; 2/5 with a 2B and 2 RBI
The bad;
Nick Hernandez allows 6 runs, 2 earned, and 2 HR in 6 IP.
Domingo Santana goes 0/5 with 3 K
Check below for more…
Lehigh Valley opened their season Thursday in Syracuse with a back and forth battle between the ‘Pigs and the Chiefs (Nationals affiliate). The 7-8-9 hitters jumped all over Lehigh Valley for 6 RBI’s and the ‘Pigs were unable to hold a late 6-4 lead after they had come back from an early 4-2 deficit. Brian Mazone started for Lehigh Valley and went 5 innings, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits. He walked 2 and did not have a strike out. Mazone left with the ‘Pigs trailing 4-2, however that was quickly turned around with a three run triple by Paul Hoover, who scored himself on a wild pitch giving Lehigh Valley a 6-4 lead. Syracuse bounced right back in the 8th, scoring two runs off lefty Mike Zagurski. A two out RBI single by Rich Thompson scored DeWayne Wise giving Lehigh Valley the 7-6 lead, which was immediately answered by Syracuse in the 9th with a solo homer by Roger Bernadina off of Ehren Wasserman to tie the game. After walking the bases loaded following the homer, Wasserman (0-1) gave up a walk off single to Pete Orr which won the game for SYracuse, 8-7. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Opening Day Report
ESPN is reporting that the Phils have signed 35 year old RHP Nelson Figueroa. Figueroa spent last between the Buffalo Bison in AAA and the Mets, going 3-8 with a 4.09 ERA in 16 games (10 starts) for the Mets. He worked 70.1 innings, walking 24 and striking out 59. (WHIP 1.48). In Buffalo, Figueroa pitched very well for a horrible teeam, going 7-5 with a 2.25 ERA in 17 starts. In 112 innings he walked 24 and struck out 94, and his WHIP stood at 1.02. Figueroa joins a long list of starters circulating around Lehigh Valley and Extended Spring Training who have some major league experience.
Figueroa joins Brandon Duckworth back in the organization from the 2001 Phillies rotation. Where is David Coggin when you need him.
There is an exhibition game scheduled tonight at Coca Cola Park in Allentown with Reading taking on Lehigh Valley. Yohan FLande will be throwing for the RPhils, while Joe Savery gets the ball for the ‘Pigs. Tickets remain for the 6:30 start at just $6 apiece. It’s a nice opportunity for a first look at many of those on the Reading/Lehigh Valley rosters. Look for occasional updates here.
Opening Day starters have been announced by Lehigh Valley (Brian Mazone) as they open against Syracuse on Thursday, Reading (Vance Worley) who open at home against Portland as well as by Lakewood (Nicholas Hernandez) who open Thursday in Asheville.
Tonights lineups in Allentown: For Reading: Gillies (CF), Galvis (SS), Brown (RF), Bozied (DH), Mahar (1B), Pinckney (3B), Dorta (2B), Gosewisch (C), Berry (LF). For Lehigh Valley: Duffy (LF), Valdez (2B), Mayberry (RF), Tracy (1B), Ransom (3B), Wise (CF), Sellers (DH), Hoover (C), Bocock (SS). Continue reading Quick Notes, Exhibition Info
Lakewood and CLearwater announced their roster earlier today. Some significant talent for sure.
Catcher: Doss, Lafrenz, Valle
Infield: Batts (1B), Ruf (1B), Buschini (2b), Barnes (SS), Villar (SS), Schoenberger (3B)
Outfield: Castro, Hewitt, James, Santana
Pitchers: Colvin, Cosart, Diekman, Ellis, N. Hernandez, Lebron, Massingham, Pettibone, Poe, Way, Wertz, Zeid
DL: Collier (OF) and DeRenne (SS)
Earlier today, Lehigh Valley announced their 2010 roster. Similar to the past two years, the roster includes mostly minor league veterans who may be of short term help to the big club, rather then prospect types, but that certainly could change by years end with the names currently in Reading. Once Joe Blanton is healthy, certainly expect Andrew Carpenter to anchor the Lehigh Valley rotation. As of now the following players make up the roster:
Catcher: Paul Hoover Soon to be 34, Hoover was a 23rd round pick of Tampa in the 1997 draft. He will be starting his second season in Lehigh Valley and hit .253/.329/.339 with 1 HR and 28 RBI in 245 AB’s with the ‘Pigs. Hoover threw out 25% on runners trying to steal on him last year and filled in capably at first base when Andy Tracy missed several games. Hoover has spent small portions of six different seasons in the big leagues and obviously provides some major league depth if Ruiz or Schneider are hurt. Continue reading Lehigh Valley Preview, Roster Announced
Just a bit ago the Reading Phillies roster was announced.
Catchers: Tuffy Gosewisch, Kevin Nelson
Infielders: Tagg Bozied, Ozzie Chavez, Melvin Dorta, Freddy Galvis, Kevin Mahar, Brandon Pinckney
Outfielders: Quintin Berry, Domonic Brown, Tyson Gillies, Mike SPidale
SP: Phillipe Aumont, Mike Cisco, Yohan FLande, Drew Naylor, Vance Worley
RP: Chance Chapman, Sergio Escalona, Sergio Escalona, Matt German, BJ Rosenberg, Michael Schwimer, Jason Stephens, Mike Stutes.
Note: The pitcher breakdown into starter and reliever was done by me. There has been no official announcement that I know of as to what the actual rotation would be, however this is the best guess, based on the roster as of the moment.
Update: An outstanding source (James) has Naylor in the rotation rather then Stutes. Adjustment made.
I wanted to take a few moments to talk about the website here, kind of recap what’s been going on, what I expect to happen going forward, and a bunch of other stuff. The minor league season is almost here, and with that will come an increase in traffic. With that comes more comments, more discussion, and mostly good times had by all. I wanted to briefly discuss some of the nuts and bolts here, as well as put in a request for help, and a bunch of other things. I tend to write best when I’m using bulleted points, and to keep this short and readable, I’ll do just that, so check below for more…
As expected, follwing the Phils game against the Pirates yesterday, Infielders Wilson Valdez and Cody Ransom; Catcher Paul Hoover and OF DeWayne Wise, all were re-assigned to Lehigh Valley. Wise, did have an opt out clause in his contract but he chose he accept his assignment, leading to the re-assignment of Quintin Berry to Reading (AA).
Both 1B Tagg Bozied and INF Melvin Dorta were moved down to Reading from the Lehigh Valley roster.
This is the way it currently looks in Allentown: 1B Andy Tracy, 2B Luis Maza, SS Brian Bocock, SS Wilson Valdez, 3B Cody Ransom, 3B Neil Sellers OF’s: Rich Thompson, Chris Duffy, John Mayberry, DeWayne Wise, Catchers: Paul Hoover and Dane Sardinha. Continue reading Final Cuts/Roster Adjustments
The Phillies announced a number of releases yesterday of players up and down their minor league system, including some familiar names that have been with the organization for some time. The releases are as follows: Catchers Zak Farkas, Jorge Guerra, and John Purdom; Inf Eric Campbell and Yonderman Rodriguez; OF Freddy Guzman; and Pitchers Pat Overholt, Santos Hernandez, Eryk McConnell, Darren Byrd, Jared Simon, Jessie Zuber and Jason Salers. Overholt was the most advanced home grown player of this group, having reached Triple A last year, but his inconsistencies continued taking him out of prospect status. Darren Byrd had been with the organization for five seasons but failed to rise above Clearwater (A). Similarly, Yonderman Rodriguez was released after five years in the organization, after seeing fairly regular time in CLearwater last season.
Phuture Phillies 