2008 Minor League Workout Groups Announced

3. Williamsport, 4. Lakewood, 5. Clearwater, 6. Reading, 7. Lehigh Valley, Other Stuff, Spring Training 2008

Several people have emailed me or messaged me asking about the 2008 workout group assignments. 

I was finally able to get my hands on them today. 

Most of you are aware that these groups by no means indicate what the actual AAA, AA, and other rosters will actually look like in the end.  This is just where the guys are working out now.  There are still going to be many guys sent down from the big league ST roster to take spots away, a lot of players will be cut, and many free agents will be signed to minor league spots after other teams cut players.

That being said … here is a link to the Current Workout Groups in PDF version (sorry, but I didn’t feel like re-typing them from scratch) and for those who also wanted this the 2008 Minor League Spring Training Games Schedule. Continue reading 2008 Minor League Workout Groups Announced →

Odds and ends

Spring Training 2008

Two articles for you today. First, this article talks about Savery’s much better performance in his second outing and how he’s handling himself so far. He seems like he has a good head on his shoulders (which was evident in the Q/A he did for the blog a few months ago) and understands he has work to do, but he knows where he wants to get to, which is good. Also, an article talking about the Phillies presence in Australia. It offers up an in depth look at the Phillies efforts in Australia, and highlights guys like Travis Blackley and Brad Harman, while also indicating Harman’s signing bonus at a mere $10,000. We all know the Phillies began investing in Australia because it was cheaper than the Latin American market, but guys like Harman are starting to give hope that it wasn’t just a cheap route, but also a productive route.

Based on my early impressions, I think Blackley has a good chance to make the team, either as a long man or the #5 starter. If the Phillies don’t think they can keep him out of spring training, I wouldn’t be shocked to see a deal brokered with San Fran.

edit, Blackley was with the Giants last year, not Seattle. Good catch

Monday Wrapup

Spring Training 2008

Yesterday the Phillies beat the Pirates 3-1, with Joe Savery leading the charge.

Savery: 2.0 IP — 2 BB — 1 K
Outman: 3.0 IP — 3 H — 2 BB – 2 K
Bisenius: 1.0 IP, — 2 H

Jason Jaramillo’s struggles at the plate continued, albeit in only 1 AB, and someone actually retired Greg Golson

Jaramillo: 0/1
Golson: 0/1

I have video of Saturday and Sunday’s games, I’m going to dice it up and will eventually post it on the respective players profile pages.

Carrasco wants 5th SP spot

Spring Training 2008

Please, Pat and Charlie, if you are reading this, DO NOT DO THIS. This article talks about Carrasco’s hot start this spring, and his desire to remain with the big club. Putting him in the rotation would be a mistake, unless the team plans to leave him there, for better or worse, and we know they are not in a position to do that. I wouldn’t mind Carrasco competing for a middle reliever spot, not mopup duty, where he can get regular work and be broken into the majors in that fashion, but I don’t think Manuel would trust him, much like he didn’t trust Castro when we got him and had to keep him on the roster. Carrasco needs to either be starting every 5th day in Reading or Allentown, or pitching 2-3 times a week out of the major league pen. Please don’t yo yo him around when he’s not ready for the rotation in the bigs.

Weekend wrapup

Spring Training 2008

Just a quick rundown of the performance of our prospects in the last 3 games

Friday, 5-4 win over Pittsburgh

Jaramillo, 0/2
Happ, 2.0 IP — 1 BB — 1 K
Bisenius, 2.0 IP – 1 BB

Saturday, 9-3 loss to the Yankees

Golson, 1/1 — 1 HR
Harman, 0/1
Jaramillo, 0/2

Sunday, 7-7 tie vs the Yankees

Jaramillo, 0/1
Golson, 1/1 — 1 SB
Carrasco: 3.0 IP — 3 H — 3 K
Holdzkom: 1.0 IP — 2 H — 1 uER — 1 K

Greg Golson is on FIRE.

Rough day for the kids

Spring Training 2008

As some of you may have found out, yesterday was not kind to Joe Savery and Josh Outman, both making their first spring training appearances.

Savery: 1.0 IP — 4 H — 5 ER — 1 BB — 2 K
Outman: 1.2 IP — 5 H — 4 ER — 0 BB — 2 K

Also making his debut was Rule 5 pick Lincoln Holdzkom. He also had a tough time throwing strikes, but came away unscathed.

Holdzkom: 1.0 IP — 1 H — 3 BB – 1 K

And finally, Jason Donald got his first taste of spring training. He went 1 for 2 with a run scored, committed an error at SS and also started a double play. Jason Jaramillo went 0 for 1 with a BB

Continue reading Rough day for the kids →

Spring Training games begin

Spring Training 2008

The Phillies started off their Grapefruit League campaign with an 8-1 win over Cincinnati. Carlos Carrasco pitched a perfect 8th inning, which is nice to see. No other real prospect action yesterday, but a good start for Carlos. He’ll probably stay with the club for a few weeks before being re-assigned to the minor league complex. There was also an article written yesterday about Carrasco’s unfortunate circumstances off the field earlier this winter. We’ll hope that everything gets sorted out in that regard.

I’ve also completed the Quintin Berry profile page, so check that out. It’s good to have baseball back.

Upcoming Player Interviews

Other Stuff

For those of you who aren’t already familiar with me from my work last year, my name is Jeff, and I provide the weekly updates on the happenings within the Threshers organiztion for James here at Phuture Phillies. I also run a Threshers site with daily game recaps and player profiles along with player of the game awards, and end-of-the-season awards. Check out the site here. I’ve talked with a few of the players from last year’s FSL Champion Threshers team and set up some upcoming interviews with Andrew Carpenter, Jason Donald, and Lou Marson. Like most of you I am a fan of the game and not a professional journalist, so I’d like to get your input on these upcoming talks to make sure that what I ask and write about are of the most interest to those of you who frequent this site. I want to throw out this opportunity to you all to allow me to be the surrogate for the questions that you would ask if you had the opportunity to talk with these players.

You can use the comments section here or drop me an email and get your input into the upcoming articles.

I hope to have the interviews up within the next week, so let me know soon if you’d like some input.

BA’s Top 100 list

Top Prospect Lists

As Ducky pointed out in another post, BA released its Top 100 today, which is a consensus list of all the main writers at BA. The Phillies had 3 representatives

54: Carlos Carrasco
76: Adrian Cardenas
90: Joe Savery

Not bad, not bad. Boston and Tampa Bay, the two best systems in baseball, each had 7 guys listed. On the other end of the spectrum, the White Sox had zero. Milwaukee, Arizona, San Francisco and San Diego all had 2, while Houston, Toronto, the Mets and Detroit had only 1 guy each. I don’t necessarily agree with BA’s list, but its interesting to ponder.

Heres the plan

Other Stuff

I wanted to just give a brief update and explain whats going to happen over the next month or so. I’m pretty much going to just be doing a post every day recapping the events of the spring training game the day before, highlighting the performances of the prospects involved. If any other news comes up, then we’ll get that in of course, but I’m going to spend the bulk of my time between now and opening day working on player profiles, trying to get as many of them as I can completed. I’m also going to be getting in touch with my correspondents for Lakewood, Clearwater, Reading and Allentown and giving them some details on future plans.

So heres what I need from YOU, the loyal reader. If you come across any biographical tidbits/articles/pictures/videos of our prospects online, and I don’t already have the info posted on that player’s profile, please post it. If I’ve already created a player’s profile page, you can post a link there or you can post it on the new “Info Dump” page at the top of the blog. You can also get there by clicking here.

Thanks again for all of the contributions from all of you, thanks for continuing to come back, and I’m really looking forward to this season, both for the big league club and all of its affiliates.