Just a few notes today to give you something to think about.

* Josh Outman, after a rough transition to the bullpen, seems to be getting things on track. Over his last 10 games he’s put up this line;

17.0 IP — 1.59 ERA — 12 H — 5 BB — 9 K

I still disagree with the decision to move him to the pen, but at this point, it has to soon be time to bring him up and get his feet wet. If the goal was to have him available for the stretch drive, its better that he gets into games now instead of being thrown into the fire in September.

Continue reading Monday notes →

Due to flipping around, I only caught the first few innings of the game and I missed Golson’s time in the spotlight, so I figured I’d just post the thoughts of others who saw the game. If you find more accounts/summaries of the game, post them in the comments and I’ll add them here. Click below

Continue reading Futures Game notes →

The Futures Game is today at 12:30 Eastern on ESPN2. If you’d like to share your thoughts while the game is happening, do it here. I’ll maybe do a little writeup tomorrow and hit on our players, but feel free to discuss the game here.

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

Continue reading Morning Musings →