A couple of quick Reading roster notes….Pitcher Josh Fogg was released today. Fogg, 33, did not pitch well in his 2 starts with Reading, going 0-2 with a ERA of 11.32 Additionally, catcher Kevin Nelson was placed on the temporary inactive list. Taking his place as the backup catcher on the Reading roster is Torre Langley, who was called up from Lakewood.
One other note of potential Phillies minor league relevance is that Greg Dobbs has cleared waivers. It is unclear at this time whether he will be accepting his assignment to Lehigh Valley. I would expect he would, as if he refused assignment, he would become a free agent however lose his salary worth over $1,000,000 this year.
Phuture Phillies 
nice phils signed cameron rupp
LikeLike
Dobbs has accepted his assignment to Lehigh Valley.
LikeLike
Hopefully Dobbs can find his hitting stroke and continue to be productive in the future. Kudos to him for accepting the assignment and making the best of things.
I saw Fogg pitch live and even by AA standards, he has nothing left. He registered 83 on the Reading gun (which is slow, but that’s still not good). No point in keeping a veteran around when he can’t go deep in games and contribute.
LikeLike
Phuturephillies
I wanted to bring to your attention errors on the number of options for players listed under the roster section.
Mike Zagurski did not use an option in 2007. Mike Zagruski was added to the 40 and 25-man rosters on May 25, 2007. He was optioned on July 27, 2007 and was recalled on August 15, 2007. As per the collective bargaining agreement, he received credit for major league service time for any day that he spends even part of that day reporting to the major league club. So he receives major league service time credit for both July 27 and Aug 15. That means that he only spent 18 days on optional assignment for 2007. Since he spent less than 20 days on optional assignment — the option for 2007 was rescinded.
Scott Mathieson did not use an option in either 2007 or 2008. You have him listed for using an option in 2008. In 2008, the Phillies optioned Mathieson to the minor league camp on March 9, 2008. However that option was rescinded on March 22, 2008 when he was put on the 15-day disabled list until August 30 when he was added to the 60-day disabled list. An article published in the newspaper at the time explained the situation. For a player optioned during spring training, that option does not take effect until the minor league season begins which is usually 2-3 days after the major league season begins. If a player is hurt during this period he must be added to the Major League disabled list and receives major league service time while he is on the list and consequently he is not on optional assignment. In the Phillies 2010 Media Guide, you will note that Mathieson received 2 full years of credit for major league service time in 2007 and 2008.
Additionally, you do not show the options of players that have more than 5 years of service time. The options remain until the player retires. While it requires the written consent of the player with more than 5 yrs service time it does occur. Bret Myers did this twice in his career 2006 and 2008; Adam Eaton did it in 2008 and Jose Contreras did it in 2009.
The following is a list of the option situation for player recently on the 40-man roster:
PITCHERS
Danys Baez ( 1* — 00, 01 )
Antonio Bastardo ( 2 — 10 ) @
Joe Blanton ( 3* — not yet opt’d )
Andrew Carpenter ( 1 — 09, 10 )
Jose Contreras ( 1* — 03, 09 )
Chad Durbin ( 0 — 00, 01, 02 )
Sergio Escalona ( 1 — 09, 10 )
Yohan Flande ( 2 — 10 )
Roy Halladay ( 1* — 00, 01 )
Cole Hamels ( 3 — not yet opt’d )
J A Happ ( 1 — 07, 08 )
David Herndon ( 3 — not yet opt’d ) #
Kyle Kendrick ( 2 — 09 )
Brad Lidge ( 1* — 01, 02 )
Ryan Madson ( 2* — 03 )
Scott Mathieson ( 1 — 06, 10 )
Jamie Moyer ( 0 — 91, 92, 93 )
Drew Naylor ( 1 — 09, 10 )
J.C. Ramirez ( 2 — 10 )
J C Romero ( 0 — 00, 01, 04 )
Jesus Sanchez ( 2 — 10 )
Mike Zagurski ( 1 — 09, 10 )
CATCHERS
Carlos Ruiz ( 1 — 05, 06 )
Brian Schneider ( 0 — 99, 00, 01 )
Paul Hoover ( 0 — 06, 07, 08 )
Dana Sardinha ( 0 — 04, 05, 06 )
INFIELDERS
Brian Bocock ( 0 — 08, 09, 10 )
Juan Castro ( 0 — 95, 96, 97 )
Greg Dobbs ( 0 — 04, 05, 06 )
Ryan Howard ( 1* — 04, 05 )
Placido Polanco ( 1* — 98, 99 )
Jimmy Rollins ( 2* — 00 )
Chase Utley ( 1* — 03, 04 )
Wilson Valdez ( 0 — 02, 03, 04 )
OUTFIELDERS
Quintin Berry ( 2 — 10 )
Ben Francisco ( 1 — 07, 08 )
Ross Gload ( 0 — 01, 02, 03 )
Raul Ibanez ( 0 — 97, 98, 00 )
John Mayberry ( 1 — 09, 10 )
Shane Victorino ( 3 — not yet opt’d )
Jayson Werth ( 0 — 01, 02, 03 )
( Option years remaining – years player optioned )
* Can be optioned only with player’s written consent since the player has 5 yrs major league service.
# Cannot be optioned in 2010 because of Rule 5.
@ Used 2010 option be revoked if he spends less than 20 days in minors in 2010. Currently he has 12 days of optional minor league service time.
LikeLike
did anyone else get called up from lakewood following the all star game
LikeLike
No kudo’s to Dobbs for accepting his assignment to LV. If he refused the assignment, he would have given up his 1.2 million salary. That comes down to a business decsion, a rather smart one. I would have been shocked if he had refused the assignment/money.
LikeLike
Agree that Dobbs accepting the AAA assignment was simply a wise financial decision. Best he was going to do in the FA market was ML minimum for the remainder of the season.
Hopefully with some regular PT he will regain his stroke and give the Phillies something off the bench later this season.
LikeLike
Speaking of roster moves, The Phils will need to call someone up from AAA presumably, since it looks like Chad Durbin just pulled a hamstring pretty bad.
Can they possibly call up Mathison, or does he need to stay down for 10 days?
LikeLike
Matt,
I believe injury negates that 10 day or so rule, so unless I am wrong, he can be recalled.
However, I think I am torn between him and Carpenter. Carpenter can give multiple innings in relief and while Mathieson may have better overall stuff, the pen is pretty worn out. Durbin’s gonna be out probably 6 weeks at least with a hammy problem. Hopefully Madson comes back healthy and fast.
LikeLike
i hope mathieson gets the call but i bet they call up figueroa
LikeLike
I believe Dobbs ,to get the most (short term) future utility for the Phillies (maybe they recall him August 29 ?) should play every game at 3B. I don’t think they’d go with less than 3 Middle Infielders, so that would maybe mean they move either Ransom, Tracy, or Sellers. In a straight move like that, I don’t think it would be either Ransom or Tracy. So if they bounce Sellers , no point in sending him back to AA either. Rather than release him, or some such move as that, I am thinking they can create some competition for Dobbs with a swap of minor leaguers with Pittsburgh.. Pittsburgh has Akinori Iwamura stashed at AAA, soaking them for $4.5 million, or so, so maybe they can trade Sellers and Luis Maza, or , if they prefer, Ransom and Melvin Dorta for Iwamura. Pittsburgh has said they will absorb most of Iwamura’s salary to move him, so likely for the cost of around the major league minimum up to maybe a million, they can gain an alternative to Dobbs for the shortly before September call-up, or another Middle Infield/ Pinch Hitting option after September 1.
LikeLike
Pretty sure Dobbs already has competition with Wilson Valdez/Juan Castro on the ML roster. Don’t see what bringing in Iwamura would accomplish. The guy can’t even keep a bench job with the Pirates!!!
Ransom, Tracy, or Sellers having nothing to do with Dobbs getting playing time. If they run into an issue with too IF’s in AAA, they will just release and/or reassign any one those three, most likely Ransom.
LikeLike
There will come a time when they need a Left-Handed Pinch Hitter to team with Gload for the bench again, be it before or after September 1, and the powers that be said so in the announcement when Dobbs accepted assignment. Valdez and Castro won’t be considered for that role. The bench of Gload , Dobbs, Valdez, Schneider, and Francisco ( which is about what they started the season with except Valdez for Castro) is properly balanced between L and R and covers the positions they may need to substitute for. The bench with Valdez and Castro, though good for now, does not offer that balance in L and R and positional flexibility as Polanco might need a semi-offensive substitute at 3B occasionally. Therefore it seems at some point they will go back to a LH hitter for the bench who can also play 3B (and Dobbs is somewhat adequate there with disaster option capability as SS and 2B. As to the claim that , if things remain the same either Sellers, Ransom , or Tracy would be released, I agree, in fact, I just said so above.
Iwamura did not fail as a bench player with Pittsburgh, he did not hit as a regular, and was only briefly a bench player after the recall of Neil Walker to play 2B and when Pedro Alvarez was recalled to play 3B, Andy LaRoche was bumped to a bench role and Iwamura was bumped down to AAA. Iwamura will have to regain some hitting prowess at AAA, as will Dobbs , but for the record , Iwamura outhit Dobbs in this season around .190 to .154, something like that. Also Iwamura has been a defensively sound regular 2B in the majors and also a regular 3B in MLB and Japan. Therefore if they place both Iwamura and Dobbs at 2B and 3B in AAA, they can see if Dobbs can regain his skills mostly as a pinch hitter from 2008, or if Iwamura can return to good hitting days from Japan and a regular for Tampa Bay through the 2009 season. I think this would be a good move, in fact, it would not surprise me if they made such a move.
LikeLike
The reports on Iwamura are that he never recovered from his knee issues last year and it greatly effected his defense and offense.
There’s nothing there short-term.
LikeLike
NEPA…that’s good stuff on all the option info. I actually update the roster pages so I’ll incorporate some of the stuff you mentioned. Thanks for pointing it out, particularly the detail about Zags and Mathieson.
LikeLike