Pitchers and Catchers reported today, so lets look at who is in camp. Some players are only for depth or experience and will end up in minor league camp shortly. Others are in positional battles that will go down to the last day of camp. We will have much more as camp gets fully underway, for now here are some guys who spent a lot of time in the minors in 2013 and are no locks to make the roster.
40 Man Roster:
RHP – Phillippe Aumont
RHP – Luis Garcia
RHP – Ethan Martin
RHP – Michael Stutes
RHP – B.J. Rosenberg
LHP – Joe Savery
C – Tommy Joseph
C – Cameron Rupp
2B/CF – Cesar Hernandez
OF – Aaron Altherr
OF – Zach Collier
OF – Tyson Gillies
OF – Kelly Dugan
Non-Roster Invites (Prospects):
LHP – Jesse Biddle
RHP – Ken Giles
LHP – Mario Hollands
RHP – David Buchanan
C – Sebastian Valle
1B/3B – Maikel Franco
OF – Leandro Castro
Likely IronPigs:
RHP – Shawn Camp
LHP – Cesar Jimenez
RHP – Jeff Manship
RHP – Sean O’Sullivan
C – Lou Marson
SS – Reid Brignac
SS – Ronny Cedeno
OF – Tony Gwynn Jr
OF – Clete Thomas
Phuture Phillies 
Of the “Likely Iron Pigs” Gwynn is the only guy I could see sticking under reasonable circumstances, though my “reasonable” includes cutting Mayberry by the 1/6 deadline, (that date in mid-March where you only have to pay 1/6 of his salary), and my “reasonable” also includes Bobby Abreu getting injured or just being bad. Which is reasonable, I think.
I can’t see them shipping Freddy back to AAA, which means, to me, that Cedeno and Brignac only have a shot if there is an injury in the middle infield. With their ages/injury histories, I guess Utley or Rollins being injured is probably as “reasonable” as Abreu, though to a lesser extent, in my mind.
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I see only a very limited scenario where Ronny Cedeno makes it to the IronPigs. He’s got a March 26 opt-out I believe–he’ll be on the Phillies for injury or gone the way of Yuni Bettancourt.
With all the ‘pen arms around, Shawn Camp might need to have a good camp just to make it to the IronPigs. We’ll see what he has left in the tank.
Ryne Sandberg has already said that he likes Freddy Galvis’ positional flexibility. As much as I’d like to see him play every day here in Allentown, he’s likely to continue his “super utility” role. Andres Blanco a possibility to back up Brignac at AAA.
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I could see Marson with the Phillies at some point if he shows he is healthy. Age 27 year might mean he can put up a 700+ OPS with decent defense. Not sure Nieves is capable of that any more, especially outside of the thin air parks in CO and AZ which helped his power.
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Cesar, Martin and Rosenberg are the only guys on this list with even a shot to make the team. Plenty of these guys will be released and not even assigned to LHV.
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By my count, the 40 man roster is currently full, which would mean that one of the guys on this list will have to make way for Burnett. Just quickly glancing, I would say it probably comes down to Savery vs. Garcia in that competition. (FYI, your Luis Garcia link goes to the B Ref page of another Luis Garcia, I had to google to remind myself of the existence of ex-hairdresser Luis Garcia.) Unless they decide to send the Rule 5 guy back sight-unseen.
So barring an injury, and assuming they don’t end up keeping Munson, there’s room for one of these nonroster guys. Two if they cut Savery, but somehow I doubt they’re going to cut one of their two lefthanded bullpen guys with options. (I think Horst also fits that category, right, although he’s not on the list? I can’t recall his options situation.)
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Couldn’t they put Hamels on IR to delay matters for the 40 decision?
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He would have to go on the 60-day DL in order to free up a spot on the 40-man. And I really hope it doesn’t come to that! I’m sure the team won’t do something like that unless he needs surgery or has to be shut down for half the season or something, and based on the (admittedly untrustworthy) signals out of camp there’s no talk of such radical measures yet.
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it might be time for Gillies to get to steppin
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That could be your way, way deep undercard battle of the spring: Collier vs. Gillies for one 40 man roster spot. Presumably Altherr will be playing CF most of the time in Reading, so I’m not sure there’s room for a backup AAA CF on the 40-man.
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I still dont get the Nieves guaranteed ML signing. Marson is a more capable backup and younger at this point. I think Marson will outplay Nieves this spring but Nieves already has a guaranteed roster spot because of the major league deal.
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I think Seb Valle is someone to watch and may do well coming off a very good Carribean Finals with a hot bat for the champs Mexico.
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I agree. He is a good defensive catcher who may have learned his lesson after his release and resigning. Will he be the catcher at Reading? What a series he had!
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With a new pitching coach, I am curious to see how Aumont does. Maybe Dubee was messing him up and a whole offseason to clear his head will do him good. Out of all the minor league guys, he i the only one with “closer” stuff but needs to get his head on straight and show some command. Interesting camp for him. I haven’t given up yet.
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Some would say martin has the potential for closer stuff as well. Especially when he can go out there firing for an inning or 1.2, instead of 6.
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the thing is Martin can throw 4 pitches… its going to be really hard to give up on that arm as a starter for probably another season
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Well…maybe somebody will be able to teach Aumont how to throw strikes and good ones at that. It would also be useful if he learned to become a stand-up guy instead of one whose whining only makes it more difficult for him to make progress.
His ‘tude is a reflection of his inability to hold himself responsible for his lousy pitching. He may be impressed with his own “stuff”…which doesn’t mean a damn thing unless you can and do harness it to produce good results.
Martin also needs to learn and hit good strike zones…but there seems to be no failing to take responsibility for his shortcomings and he seems amenable to working correct or improve it. That’s why, up to now, I favor and expect more success from Martin than Aumont….unless the work ethic and attitude does a 180.
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Hold on! Phils sign Burnett to a one year deal!
Now, a better than average pitching staff!!
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Two BIG thumbs up for the great redesign of the site. It may load a bit slower but still great job: ‘specially like the column links that are live already along the top! Quick question – during the season will game scores be linked to the appropriate affiliate link on the right-hand side or is there another plan?
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During the season Brad will continue to post the scores each day and the box score recap link under the feature box on the right will link to all of the recaps
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From another angle, I think the Phils will look at Hollands, Buchanan, and Biddle to see who is the first to be called up when they run into rotation needs because of injury or other problems. Of positions players Castro, Gillies and Collier will be evaluated for their ability to play in the majors this year. They have an idea about the others from experience, but this would be debut time for those above.
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