With just 16 days until pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater, the Phillies continue to fill their holes on the minor league rosters with players who are minor league veterans and most who have had a cup of coffee at the major league level. Lehigh Valley should be welcoming back 33 year old Left handed starter Brian Mazone for his third season in Allentown. Mazone was probably the IronPigs steadiest starter in 2008, going 9-12 with a 4.10 ERA in his 164.2 IP. After a brief stint in the Dodgers organization at the beginning of last season he rejoined the IronPigs mid season and was 2-6 with a 3.50 ERA in his 11 starts late in the year. Mazone brings experience and a consistent left handed arm to join lefty Joe Savery in the Lehigh Valley rotation. Continue reading Signings, Next Round
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Reader Top 30; runoff for #21/22
The voting for #21 was separated by only 1 vote, and as I mentioned, I want to speed up this process a bit because spring training is closing in and we still have stuff to cover here, including my top 30, figuring out assignments for 2010 and a bunch of other stuff. So we’ll do a run-off for #21 between Jon Pettibone and Yohan Flande. The loser becomes #22, and then we add 2 new names for #23. Check below for the poll
Reader Top 30; #21
Joe Savery edges out the voting for #20 by a very slim margin, just ahead of both Yohan Flande and Jon Pettibone. Another runoff could have been in order, but I’m just going to go with Savery here since he’s leading, and then the vote can go on as scheduled for #21. The voting between Flande and Pettibone should be interesting, and Leandro Castro was close behind. Kelly Dugan and Julio Rodriguez each got a write-in vote that I saw, Dugan gets the edge because he was the first name listed. So check below for the next round.
Reader Top 30; #20
We’re going to move things along a bit more quickly now that we’re getting closer to spring training, so we’ll do one poll a day. Mike Stutes edges out the pack for #19. I just very briefly scanned the comments, and Drew Carpenter was the only write in vote I saw, so I’ll add him to this round. Check below for more
Four Phillies scouting reports from BA
This content is free to view, so I’ll link it here. BA profiles Aaron Altherr, Harold Garcia, Troy Hanzawa and Anthony Hewitt on their “32nd player team” which is a list of guys who just missed the cut for the annual Top 30’s, and then missed the cut for #31, which they also include if you buy their book directly from BA. Altherr is the most interesting guy on the list, and a guy I’m interested to see in 2010, though I suspect he’s going to go through plenty of growing pains.
Phils Sign Bocock to Minor League Deal
The Phils signed 24 year old SS Brian Bocock, out of the Giants organization to a minor league deal today. Bocock spent last season primarily with Class A Advanced San Jose and hit .241/.303/.339 in 430 AB’s with 3 HR and 48 RBI. He was originally a 9th round pick of the Giants in the 2006 draft and saw some time in the majors in 2008 with the injury depleted Giants. He hit .143 in his 77major league at bats. Bocock provides depth at best for the Phils affiliates as they have lost Miguel Cairo, Jason Donald, JJ Furmaniak and Brad Harmon, among others from the ranks of the middle infield.
Reader Top 30; #18
Freddy Galvis is the winner of the run-off for #16, so he takes that spot, with Brian Rosenberg taking #17 by default. We’ll move on to #18 today. Kyrell Hudson and Joe Savery both got write in support, so I’ll add both of them to the voting for #18. Sorry for the delay on the writeup for the next installment of SONAR position by position breakdowns, I’ve been short on time, but I hope to have it done in the next day or two. Check below for more…
Reader Top 30; run-off vote
The voting for #16 is tied and has been within one vote or so for most of the day that I’ve seen, so we’re going to do a run-off vote between Freddy Galvis and Brian Rosenberg. The winner will be #16, the runner up will be #17, and then we’ll move on to #18.
So, vote below. I’ll leave this open for 24 hours.
Reader Top 30; #16
Moving along. Jiwan James took the #15 spot, edging out a few other candidates. With him slotted in at #15, I thought it would be interesting to look at the breakdown of the top 15 according to you
C [1] – Valle (7th)
1B [1] – Singleton (13th)
2B, 3B, SS [0]
CF [3] – Gillies (4th), Gose (5th), James (15th)
RF [2] – Brown (1st), Santana (6th)
LF [0]
RHP [7] – May (2nd), Aumont (3rd), Ramirez (8th), Cosart (9th), Mathieson (10th), Colvin (12th), De Fratus (14tH)
LHP [1] – Bastardo (11th)
So that’s 7 position players and 8 pitchers so far. Lets move on to #16
Signing Time
The minor league signings keep coming with the Phils inking 3B Brandon Pinckney and P Jordan Meaker to minor league deals. Pinckney,28, can play all over the diamond, but played primarily 3B last season for Norfolk, the AAA affiliate of the Orioles. He hit .291/.309/.358 with a homer and 21 RBI’s in 267 AAA at bats last season. Meaker, 24, is a big (6’6, 220) righty, who played college ball at Dallas Baptist University. He was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 20th round of the 2008 draft. Last season in Low A Ball, Meaker was 4-1 with a 5.67 ERA in 29 games (3 starts). He walked 37 and struck out 40 in his 60 innings of work, with a WHIP of 1.76
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