Monthly Archives: November 2010

Winter League Update

9. Winter Leagues

A Thanksgiving hiatus for those of us here at Phuture Phillies but we are back at it with updates from the WInter Leagues.

Domonic Brown has gotten off to a slow start in the Dominican, hitting .053 in his first 19 AB’s with 2 RBI’s and 6 strikeouts.  This is his first consistent game action since July.

Freddy Galvis is still below the Mendoza line in the Venezulan League, at .188/.291/.229 with 48 AB’s under his belt. The 21 year old SS is making contact with just 5 strikeouts in his 54 plate appearances.

Harold Garcia has taken it up a notch and stands at .294/.368/.324 with 3 RBI’s in 21 games in the Venezuelan League.

Cesar Hernandez, newly added to the 40 man roster is hitting .320/.393/.320 in his first 9 games in Venezuela.

Antonio Bastardo continues his early domination in the Dominican, not allowing an earned run or hot in his first 5 appearances, while striking out 6.

Yohan FLande has made 4 starts in the DOminican and is 1-1 with 4.91 ERA in 18.1 innings of work.  He has allowed 22 hits, and walked 5 for a high WHIP of 1.47.

Julio Rodriguez has made 6 starts and is 2-1 with an impressive 3.10 ERA in 29 innings.  Opponents are hitting .250 against him and he has struck out 18.

Scheduling updates

Scheduling

Hi everyone. I wanted to give a quick update as to my thought process going forward. The Rule 5 draft is December 9th, and my plan is to start the Reader Top 30 the next day. We’ll do one per day or so during the week. Factor in Christmas and stuff, and we’ll finish sometime in the middle of January. After we finish the Reader Top 30, I’ll unveil my top 30, in detail, and thanks to a suggestion in the comments, I’ll go one spot at a time. With each writeup, I’ll also include a poll question about the prospect, which should hopefully fuel more discussion. In the meantime, I plan on writing a few pieces, and I need to start collecting the data to plug into my spreadsheets to calculate the SONAR scores for 2010. So, look for more articles from me in the coming weeks/months, as well as the start of the Reader Top 30 and then a new approach to my Top 30. As always, thanks for reading!

40 man roster decisions; Spring Training Invites

Spring Training 2011

The Phils have added Justin DeFratus, Freddy Galvis, Harold Garcia, Cesar Hernandez, and Matt Rizzotti to the 40 man roster, thus protecting them from potential exposure in the Rule 5 draft.

Notably left off: Joe Savery, D’Arby Myers and Chris Kissock.

Continue reading 40 man roster decisions; Spring Training Invites →

Arizona Fall League Final Report

8. Arizona Fall League

The Mesa Solar Sox Fall season came to its conclusion yesterday with a  3-1 loss, dropping them to 13-17 on the Fall League season. A look at Phils prospects who played this week:

Matt Rizzotti was 1-9 this week with 4 walks, 5 strikeouts, an RBI and an error. Rizzotti finished the Fall league season with 63 AB’s and hitting .333/500/.365 with 0HR and 12 RBI.  He struck out 15 times, walked 22 times and hit .409 with RISP.  The downside was his 3 errors at first base and the fact that he only had 2 extra base hits (no homers) during his time in Arizona. Continue reading Arizona Fall League Final Report →

Morandini Named Williamsport Manager

3. Williamsport

The off-season news keeps on coming in what has been a busy week,  with former Phillie second baseman Mickey Morandini set to become the coach of the Low A Short Season Williamsport Crosscutters, according to Jim Peters of the Northwest Indiana Times.  Morandini had been the head baseball coach at Valpariso High School in Indiana, where he lives with his family. Morandini commented to Peters that “part of the reason I didn’t do it earlier was that I wanted to see my children grow up and coach them…I have done that almost the last 8 years.  The Phillies contacted me almost every year since I retired. I told them that eventually I wanted to get back in it. I am not getting any younger, so I figured this was a good time to do it.

Morandini who is a Pennsylvania native, is now 44 and has been out of professional baseball (other than spending some time instructing at Phils Spring Training) since retiring in 2000 after spending 11 seasons in the major leagues.   A thank you goes out to Mandy Housenick of the Allentown Morning Call for sending this information our way.

Phils Sign Jeff Larish

Transactions

The Phillies have signed 1B/3B Jeff Larish to a minor league deal, with 3B at Lehigh Valley his likely landing spot.  Larish, 28, was a 5th round selection of the Tigers in the 2005 draft. After spending 5 years in the Tigers organization, Larish was claimed off of waivers late last season by Oakland.  He has 245 major league at bats, including 67 last year with a .224/.308/.380 line to go along with 8 HR and 32 RBI.

Last year in AAA, Larish hit .284/.377/.533 with 20 HR and 74 RBI.  Larish should be an upgrade over Cody Ransom, both offensively and defensively in Lehigh Valley.

Bump, Bozied, Thompson Re-Sign with Phils

Transactions

According to Jeff Schuler of The Morning Call, Pitcher Nate Bump, 1B/OF Tagg Bozied and OF Rich Thompson have re-signed with the Phils organization for the 2011 season.  Bump is expected to rejoin the rotation in Lehigh Valley in 2011 after a very good first half of 2010.  Bump struggled with his health in the seasons second half, but should be 100% healthy entering 2011.  Bump, 34, is a local guy from Towanda, PA who has 113 major league appearances to his credit in the Marlins organization.  In 2010 Bump went 8-4 with a 3.35 ERA in 20 starts and was named to the International League All Star Team.

Rich Thompson, a personal favorite of mine because of how he plays, returns to the Lehigh Valley outfield for a 4th season after resigning this week.  Last season Thompson hit .284/.339/.382 with 5 HR and 45 RBI’s in 476 AB’s.  Thompson, 31,  was very impressive on the base paths stealing 41 bases in 45 attempts. 

Bozied, 31, returns after having a phenomenal 2010 at the plate in Reading, hitting .315/.402/.631 in 355 AB’s with 27 HR and 92 RBI’s.

Topic of the day: First to the majors in 2011

Daily Discussion

Today’s topic is this. Which Phillies prospect that currently has zero days of MLB service time will be the first to reach the major leagues in 2011? Vote for your choice, then explain why you think that below. If you vote “OTHER”, make sure you put your choice in the comments section.

Ryne Sandberg Named Lehigh Valley Manager

7. Lehigh Valley

The Phillies have hired Hall of Fame Second Baseman Ryne Sandberg as the Manager of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, their AAA affiliate.  Sandberg who decided not to return to the Cubs organization after losing out on the Cubs job managed AAA Iowa City to a 82-62 record last season and was named Manager of the Year in the Pacific Coast League.  Continue reading Ryne Sandberg Named Lehigh Valley Manager →

Winter League Update

9. Winter Leagues

The Arizona Fall League season comes to a close next week with the last games being played on Thursday, before the Championship Game next Saturday.  Look for the final report on the Fall League next weekend.

Matt Rizzotti played 1B on Thursday and Saturday and went a combined 2-4, with a run scored, an rbi, 5 walks, a strikeout and made his second error. Strange line for a cleanup hitter: .370/.521/.407 in 54 AB’s with 0HR 11 RBI and 2 extra base hits.  He has walked 18 times and struck out just 10.  Continue reading Winter League Update →