When you start your pro career with a grand slam, everything else will seem like a disappointment, right?

Happy Wednesday, some random thoughts…

* With the signing of Trevor May, the Phillies draft board is now taking shape. The Phillies took lots of high school kids in the first 10 rounds, and so far, they’ve followed through on a number of those picks. They now have 3 unsigned picks in the first 10 rounds, plus James Weber in the 12th round. My general thoughts on the likelihood of these guys is as follows

Pettibone – 75%
Shreve – 90%
Coy – 0% (he enrolled in classes, he’s gone)
Weber – 40%

Pettibone wasn’t a highly touted guy, but he has everything the Phillies look for in a pitching prospect. I’d imagine he’ll sign, probably close to the deadline, probably for slightly above slot money. I still believe that Shreve was a pre-draft deal, and that it will be announced right near the deadline, probably for mid-late 2nd round money. Coy is gone, it was a decent risk to take, it seems that the Phillies really made an effort, so I won’t fault them. Weber seems less likely, he has a good college commitment, but I’ll hold out hope.

Continue reading Wednesday notes →

I touched base with a few people who would know, if anything was available on him, and this is the best I could get

He’s currently listed as “supended for team violation” — I have no insight as to what the is or means necessarily

So, your guess is as good as mine at this point. Correa was praised for his makeup prior to this season, so it seems odd. Hopefully we’ll be able to find more in the next few weeks.

Today is a big day for the site here. I’ve added a new feature, thanks to a suggestion from a reader. If you check at the top of the site, you’ll see a link for “Top 30 Prospects“, and basically this is an updated version of my Top 30 prospects. Soxprospects.com is basically the gold standard for me, and was my inspiration for starting this site, and this is a feature they use, so I figured I’d use the same general idea. My plan is to update it once every 2 weeks or so until the end of the season. Its basically a gut feeling type update, and at the end of the season I’ll obviously put in more time and thought to my ordering of the Top 30, but I thought it would be fun to kind of think about the Top 30 as we progress. Feel free to share your comments on the rankings, or point out a guy I might have missed, or a guy that shouldn’t be there.

But the real reason that today is a huge day for the site is this;

Starting this site in December 2006, never in my wildest dreams could I imagine this place getting 1 million hits. I just want to thank all of my contributors who help make this site go, and especially all of you readers who send in information, feedback, and very nice comments, as well as posting comments here. This site would be much less informative if it was just me rambling on. So, a big thank you again to all of you, and here’s to hoping for more positive discussion on our way to 2 million hits.

Its good to be back, and we’ll resume normal service covering the ins and outs of the minor leagues again, but for right now, we need to get the vote out for Pat Burrell, who for some reason beyond my grasp, was left off the all star game roster despite sitting near the top of all statistical leaderboards. So, go here, click vote now, and get to work. If you are really dedicated, create multiple email addresses and vote as many times as you can. You can grab free email addresses at hotmail, yahoo, and hundreds of other providers. I’ll add a quick link on the left side of the page near the top as a reminder for the next few days. Vote for PAT!

It appears that the last two men standing in the quest to replace Brett Myers in the Phils rotation are JA Happ and Brian Mazone.  With the injury to Carlos Carrasco and the fact that Chad Durbin pitched out of the bullpen last night, Happ and Mazone are the only legitimate options remaining.  Mazone is scheduled to pitch tonight for Lehigh Valley, while Happ is scheduled to go tomorrow.

In the debut of Brett Myers with the Iron Pigs, he went 5 innings giving up 3 runs on five hits.  He walked 2 and struck out 6, while throwing 100 pitches, 60 for stikes in the 5-3Pigs loss. Box Score

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–A good night for the Phillies minor league system, going 6-1, with most top prospects performing well.

–19 year old first round draft pick Anthony Hewitt signed yesterday for a reported $1.4 million signing bonus.  Reports have him being moved to third base.

In the Gulf Coast League, Anthony Gose was 1-3 with a run and a stolen base, Zach Collier took a collar with an 0-4, and impressive reliever Jordan Ellis pitched another scoreless inning (7.2 IP, 1H, 0ER, 1BB, 7K on the season)in the 4-2 Phils loss.  Box Score

Justin DeFratus pitched well again for Williampsort getting his second win without a loss, and David Schwimmer pitched 4 shutout innings, striking out 6 in relief in the 5-2 win.  Schwimmer, although rocky in his initial outing has struck out 16 in 8 innings.  Box Score

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For the few who haven’t heard, Brett Myers has accepted an assignment to Lehigh Valley (AAA), and apparantly will start Wednesday evening against Scranton.  No annoucement has been made as to who will replace him in the Phils rotation/roster, but the speculation continued to be Happ or Carrasco.

A couple of interesting notes from the GCL Phils game yesterday.  Second Round draft pick Anthony Gose began his minor league career with an 0-2 with a strikeout, while Supplemental First Rounder, Zach Collier, was 1-1 with a double in his debut.  Former Phillie reliever Matt Smith continued his rehab with his first appearance this year and pitched a scoreless inning. 18th round pick, Tyler Cloud, had his second consecutive strong outing going 6 scoreless innings, giving up only 2 hits and striking out 8.

Continue reading Tuesdays Tidbits →

Not a great day for most of the Phils minor league system as: Kris Benson was hit around in his first rehab start at the AAA level.  He was on a pitch count and lasted 4 innings, giving up 4 runs on 5 hits in those 4 innings.  http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2008_06_29_syraaa_lhvaaa_1  While he did hit 93 on one fastball, he hovered mostly around 88-89 mph. He doesn’t look to be the answer for Brett Myers struggles at least at this point.  My vote goes to JA Happ who has pitched extremely well in June.  Gordon to the DL, in the hopes of a healthy September, Myers to the bullpen, and Happ into the rotation.  Could that be worse than what we currently have?  Interesting matchup tonight with Travis Blackley taking on Francisco Liriano.  Yes, that Francisco Liriano. Continue reading Monday Daily Discussion →