Nothing to see here....

Move on.

Quick. What do the following have in common?

Blue Jays win back to back World Series.

Americans land on the moon.

Kennedy assassinated.

Ottawa Lynx playing baseball in Ottawa.

The correct answer: None of it is "news". It's become a rite of spring in Ottawa - as surely as pot holes in March, you knew we would be confronted with yet another "story" of this ilk. Mr. Kondro tells us precious little that we didn't already know; the only thing I wasn't aware of was the court date. Apart from that, it's the same story, recycled year after year with just a "tweak" here and there. That Kyle continues to put up with it is a testament to the man's patience - I'm quite certain I'd not have done the same.

Fortunately, my $100 is still safe. Until then, keep at it fellas - one of these days the Lynx will give you the headline you've been looking for.

We're not alone

A while back, I wondered out loud what the press would do if it didn't have Ottawa as it's "whipping boy" in the IL. What I'm discovering is that while Ottawa consistently gets the short end of the stick, there exists a general bias against minor league baseball among the media.

"In the end, though, that’s all there is to Durham, N.C. When there is no college basketball being played, it is just another minor league tank town. The Durham Bulls. Oh. Lovely... And I’d rather be watching Red Sox-Yankees on a steamy August night than Bulls-Mud Hens."

Steve Buckley, The Boston Herald

MLNSportszone responds:

"As to his contention that he'd rather be watching the Red Sox take on the Yanks in August, I can go with that: August is about the time that either of those clubs really start playing... You're going to see some pretty slow games in April, May and June though, before Buckley and the boys start ballyhooing pennant fever.

Meanwhile in the minors it is balls-out baseball from opening day until the 40 man roster opens up at the major league level. In a world with far fewer millionaire players, the game gets played at 110% most days because there is no MLB pay-day on the fat-cat superstar teams unless you get there by stepping over a lot of other guys trying to get there. That makes minor league baseball exciting and dynamic the whole season long." (emphasis added)

The Durham Bulls people refuse to turn the other cheek - in a classic "throw down", they've invited Buckley to participate in the "Complete Durham Bulls experience". (I wonder if that includes a stint as Delmon Young's bat boy? Probably not.) For his part, Buckley doesn't seem content to have insulted the people of Durham once. More proof of the adage that you should "quit when you're still only slightly behind" can be found in his acceptance of their invitation. His parting shot:

“That any media outlet in North Carolina would even touch this thing only hammers home the original point: With Duke having gone up in flames in the first round of the NCAA tourney, there really isn’t anything going on in Durham these days.”

Winter must be cold

And long. But still... Spring is in the air now. Just today I got mud all over my sneakers while walking home from work. I sniffed the wet earth and remembered what the end of winter smells like. Remember that? Remember last spring? A very good stink. When it warms up outside in March it gets me to thinking about all the activity that will be taking place at the yard in April. Over there at the baseball stadium where it smells not only like dirt and wet grass but of french fries and popcorn too. Oh boy. Such good news.

And less than three weeks away.

I have been diligently following the line scores in the paper. I am trying to follow the team while they are away down south in Spring Training. I enjoy the statistics. And I can hardly wait to watch my Lynx again. Baseball gets the old heart a thumpin'. Please enjoy the following quotations that might just get your heart a thumpin' again too, eh? This is a good thing. A fun thing.

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. - Rogers Hornsby

That's the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball. - Bill Veeck

Don't tell me about the world. Not today. It's springtime and they're knocking a baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball. - Pete Hamill

With those who don't give a damn about baseball, I can only sympathize. I do not resent them. I am even willing to concede that many of them are physically clean, good to their mothers and in favor of world peace. But while the game is on, I can't think of anything to say to them. - Art Hill

Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that. - Nomar Garciaparra

And one of my favourites,

Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too. - Greg, age 8

Again, it is less than three weeks until we meet at the baseball park. I am crazy with anticipation. I cannot wait to see you all there. Wow!

This can't hurt

CBS Sportsline has come out with their first set of "Power Rankings" for 2007. Philadelphia holds down the 5th spot in the rankings, with Toronto in #6.

"This is paying the top of the NL East a lot of respect, but Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and the emerging Cole Hamels will combine to put a serious threat into the Mets."

"If Roy Halladay (forearm) and A.J. Burnett (elbow) stay healthy, the AL East could become one serious three-horse race. That has been too big of an "if.""

I think that Toronto playing well should help things out here in Ottawa, primarily due to the increased media exposure that will be given to baseball; a rising tide lifts all boats. Interestingly, we've got an interleague match-up with the Phillies to look forward to in May (18-20) when the Jays visit CBP. Unfortunately, the Chiefs (formerly "Sky Chiefs") don't roll into Ottawa until the long weekend in August (!). I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that historically, Syracuse has been the best "draw" for Ottawa - would it have killed the schedule maker to have given us an OD matchup with the Chiefs? For our part, we might get a jump on the season and commit to our first "roadie" - Ottawa plays in Syracuse, April 14-16 with a double header on the Sunday.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Where has the time gone?

The last out in a spring game in Clearwater is now history. At one point, this day seemed so far in the distance.

Reporting time for the players was 11 a.m., rather than the normal 9:30 routine they’ve been following for the last six weeks.

Some players will be boarding a 9:15 bus tomorrow morning for the last Florida game in Bradenton. The team will fly out of Sarasota tomorrow evening and play the Red Sox on Friday and Saturday in the traditional On-Deck Series at Citizens Bank Park.

Some players will not be on the charter as they are remaining in Clearwater to rehab their injuries.

Some players left the Bright House Networks Field clubhouse today, no longer Phillies.

Some players on tomorrow’s charter will return to the minors after this weekend.

So, the end has come to another spring training in Clearwater, the final one for me in this PR capacity. As a rookie in 1964, I was able to put on about 25 pounds thanks to expense accounts and endless restaurant dinners and deserts. I’m proud to say, I haven’t shed one pound since.

Six weeks or 43 springs. Where has the time gone?

(The Baron's Corner)

WTH!

Is going on?

Karim Garcia - gone.
Jim Ed Warden - gone.

What does this mean? I think we can forget about seeing Michael Bourn in Ottawa - at least in the near term. Rats. The same is probably true for Zack Segovia. Fortunately, it would appear that the Garcia move should leave enough space for Chris Coste.

More later.

Clearer.....

This, according to the Phillies MLB.com website:

Bench shaping up: With Chris Coste's strained right hamstring hurting and Greg Dobbs hitting, the two available bench spots appear clear as well.

Dobbs and Karim Garcia are in, joining Jayson Werth and Abraham Nunez. If Carlos Ruiz's shoulder allows, he's in too, making up a five-man bench, six if Bourn sticks for the season's first week.

Should Ruiz not be able to play, the Phillies could opt for catcher Jason Jaramillo as the backup, leaving Bourn in the Minors.

And the pitching situation?

The plan takes a different turn if Garcia doesn't feel right Wednesday, and the Phillies are preparing Zack Segovia for a start just in case. Regardless, the Phillies remain encouraged Garcia will make his first turn in the rotation.

"He's feeling better, which is good," Dubee said.

Phuture Phillies opinion?

So, are these the right decisions? First, I think keeping Condrey over Segovia might be a mistake (edit: if Freddy Garcia is ready to go, the Phillies.com piece contends that they'll keep Condrey and Warden). However, if Condrey is going to just be a mop-up guy, then I guess it’s understandable. Segovia is still young and still has some promise, Condrey is your typical AAAA pitcher who is easily replaceable. Warden, because he’s a Rule 5 guy, is a bit of a different case. He’s had some rough outings and some solid outings this spring. Again, my hope is that the Phillies work out a trade with Cleveland where they get to keep Warden and option him to the minors so he can get comfortable before being thrust into the majors. The Phillies should contend for the division from Day 1, they can’t afford to use a 24 man roster and just hide Warden for the season like they did with Fabio Castro last year. As for the outfield, I’d prefer they kept Bourn over Garcia, mainly because I don’t think Garcia is going to sustain any type of success in the majors over the course of the season. Then again, if Aaron Rowand is traded, which has been a rumor basically since the winter meetings, then Bourn will almost assuredly get a spot in the OF. Dobbs has performed well this spring and has almost been the 2007 version of Chris Coste. Hopefully the Phillies can catch lightning in a bottle for the second year in a row.

But I'm not the only one

With "the fever". According to Larry Shenk at The Baron's Corner, everybody's itching to get this thing going:

With another road game today, things were pretty quiet again at Bright House Networks Field.

Tomorrow, the team’s equipment truck will be packed for the trip north to Citizens Bank Park. Players and staff may send personal belongings. Some baseball equipment, boxes of office-related items, medical supplies and even a few sets of golf clubs will be on the truck.

Some of the players will ship their cars north on auto transport vehicles.

This morning, more players were sent to Carpenter Field (see the story on this website). Three were told they would make the trip north for Friday’s and Saturday’s games against the Boston Red Sox at Citizens Bank Park. Catcher Jason Jaramillo is back with the big club as Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste are still nursing injuries.

Four other minor leaguers will also be on the charter flight on Thursday evening for the Friday-Saturday games.

On the minor league front, the Reading, Clearwater and Lakewood clubs will be finished with spring training this weekend. The Ottawa Lynx (AAA International League) will be here through Monday.

Another year of spring training in sparkling Clearwater is rounding third base.

I've got the fever

I've figured it out - what's causing this funk that I'm in. I was listening to TGOR this morning (that's "Three Guys on the Radio" for the uninitiated) during the segment with TSN hockey analyst, (and genuinely nice guy) Pierre McGuire. The discussion had turned to players and how they lose focus this time of year; every one just wants the playoffs to get started. And that's pretty much how I feel - I'm tired of posting about future possibilities and events passed. I'm not burned out - I just want to get going with new material, about new games, new stats, new stories.

I was also out at the park to pick up my tickets today. I caught a glimpse of the field - almost all of the snow was gone (I'm sure by the end of tomorrow it should be finished). For those of you not in Ottawa, it turned into a nice, sunny, warm (60ish Farenheit) afternoon. The music was playing over the PA system and I assumed the grounds crew were hard at work. It really isn't far off now.

I found (HT: Balls, Sticks, & Stuff) a little bit of Youtube footage of Jim Ed Warden, a Rule V draft pick-up who were unlikely to see here in Ottawa, and some of Chris Coste, who I hope we don't see in Ottawa for reasons I blogged ad nauseum.





You've just got to bear with me until this weekend. 20 days until OD!

My work is cut out for me

I see that the roster on the Lynx website has undergone some revision - I've got profiles to do on Eude Brito, Danny Sandoval, Jesus Merchan.... maybe I'll just wait until the roster is finalized this weekend.

Stay tuned, I should have something meaningful up later today.

Getting clearer. UPDATED

Hmmm...

"Monday is cut day in Clearwater and seven more Phillies hopefuls have been sent to Minor League camp.

Outfielder Ron Calloway, infielder Brent Abernathy and righthander Joe Bisenius were informed that they would not make the Opening Day roster, but will accompany the club to Philadelphia for the weekend On-Deck Series against the Red Sox. Pitchers Eude Brito and Fabio Castro were optioned to Minor League camp; third baseman Brennan King and catcher Dusty Wathan, both non-roster invitees, were re-assigned to Minor League camp." (full story is here)

What does this mean for us here in Ottawa? For starters (no pun intended), J.A. Happ's hopes are still alive, and if Carlos Ruiz's shoulder and Chris Coste's hamstring don't improve, Jason Jaramillo's going to stick around in Philly for a while too. For some real analysis, we have to steal, er... cut and paste from Phuture Phillies:

So, let’s take a look at how this latest purge affects the bullpen. If we do a tally, we have 8 starting position players, 5 starting pitchers, that’s 13 spots. The norm is a 5 man bench, so we’re up to 18 spots, which means a 7 man bullpen. Here are the “locks”

CL - Gordon (RH)
RP - Madson (RH)
RP - Geary (RH)
RP - Smith (LH)
RP - [Lieber] (RH)
RP -
RP -

So, theoretically, there are 3 open spots. However, you have to assume, barring a trade, that Lieber will occupy one of those spots, unless Garcia’s injury is more serious that believed to be at this point. So, for now if we assume Lieber will open in the bullpen (or traded for a reliever), we have two openings. Here are the potential fillers in those spots

Segovia: 10 IP, 2.70 ERA
Condrey: 10.2 IP, 4.22 ERA
Warden: 6.1 IP, 5.69 ERA
Alfonseca: 6.1 IP, 5.69 ERA
Happ: 16.1 IP, 6.06 ERA

You almost have to assume that Alfonseca is going to get a spot, simply because he’s dripping with veteranacity, even though he isn’t a very good pitcher. On merit, Segovia probably deserves the last spot, but with Warden being a Rule 5 guy, he’s probably going to end up sticking unless he implodes in the final week and Segovia dazzles. Keep an eye on today’s game, as Segovia is starting against the Yankees.

Early result from the aforementioned Yankees game: 7-7 tie. No word yet on how Zack Segovia fared.

*** UPDATE ***


(Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee tells Zach Segovia he's being taken out of the Yankees game after he gave up five runs, as catcher Rod Barajas (left) and first baseman Ryan Howard listen to the news. )

The word is in, and its not really good: 4 2/3 innings, 5 runs (4 of them earned) on 3 hits, 2 BB, 2 Ks, 1 HR.

You gotta believe

A series of small lumps on the skull appeared last summer – while not worried, the doctor scheduled a biopsy. The results came back as inconclusive. When another lump appeared, a second biopsy was performed and this time the result was conclusive: Cancer. Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. For those unfamiliar with it, the “non-Hodgkins” iteration of the disease is the “bad” one. There is no cure.

Next came a series of appointments at the cancer clinic. At this point, there was no treatment recommended, but they did run a cat scan. They expected to find more cancerous nodes throughout the lymphatic system. They didn’t. Nonplussed, they indicated that generally, when they look hard enough, they will find evidence of the disease. A month later, a second cat scan. Nothing. The diagnosis remained unchanged – if we look hard enough, we’ll find it, they said. Two weeks ago, a bone marrow test. Nothing.

Please take the advice which follows in the spirit in which it is intended; I have failed spectacularly at each, so I say this without hubris, conceit or pretense:

Never quit on a friend.
Never quit on your family.
Never, ever quit on yourself.

By the grace of God, it appears that my Dad just kicked cancer’s ASS.

Sal Rende

It's nice to see/read that Ottawa hitting coach, Sal Rende (on the left in the photo), is helping out the big club down in ST. According to OF, Shawn Garrett, he also knows how to keep a good thing to himself:

While it was a good shot, it wasn't quite Ryan Howard-esque. Players were still talking about the second of Howard's two homers on Friday, one that ended up in the swamp outside of Bright House Networks Field.

"I don't have that one in my bat," Garrett said. "When he hit those the other day, I went up to (Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre hitting coach) Sal Rende and asked, 'Can you teach me how to do that?' He said, 'I don't know if we can do that.' I got nothing on Howard." (March 2006)

I wasn't able to find a whole lot about Mr. Rende, although there was a well documented dustup with the infamous Carl Everett a few years ago. A very limited biography can be found here.

An eye on the competition

And at least one former Lynx player.

From MLN's "The Raw Feed", Eddy Garabito has been re-assigned to the Indianapolis Indians by Pittsburgh.

The entire run-down of happenings in the IL is here.

Someone call Oliver Stone

When is an injury not really an injury?

Clearly, the writing was on the wall for Coste, a player whose greatest value was his ability to hit well and serve as the third string catcher. These also happened to be skills that both Dobbs and Werth have in ample supply. Thus, when both Coste and Manager Charlie Manuel emerged from a closed door one-on-one session mum on what had taken place, it didn't take a rocket scientist to suspect that Coste's sudden "sore hamstring" was as much a way for the team to buy time as it was for the beleaguered player to stay on the major league roster while things got sorted out.

In fact, it might have been genuine public relations genius on the part of the Phillie brain trust had they been able to announce a move to the disabled list for the suddenly "hobbling" Coste. Not only would it have bought the Phils time to determine whether to trade him, play him or wait for another player to get injured, but it would have allowed the team to continue rewarding a loyal and trusting servant with a major league salary for a job well done.

Still, these are the Philadelphia Phillies we are discussing here, and for this franchise, nothing is ever quite as it first appears. The news on Chris Coste had not yet been digested by an unsuspecting audience when starting catcher Carlos Ruiz came up with a sore shoulder, potentially setting into play a scenario the team could never have imagined...


You can read the whole article here. There's more speculation/rumor that Texas might be interested in Coste's services - but for Ruiz's injury, it would seem that Coste's chances of staying in the Philadelphia organization are becoming less likely. He's just too good not to be playing in the majors - if he can't make the starting 25, I suspect some other team will make the Phillies an offer they can't refuse.

File under: "Did 'ya know?"

Quick: What's the connection between Sportsnet broadcaster, Ian Mendes and Lenny the Lynx?

Answer: Click here.

I'm lost....

Seriously, I feel a bit as if I've lost my way. Having finished the player profiles, I've not been really sure what to blog about - my apologies, but ever since the profiles, my posts have, well, pretty much sucked. Ironically, I think the quality of "my stuff" was better way back in September/October when information was much more scarce - of course, back then I was able to rely on experiences and photos from the 2006 season. Jump forward to February/March and there's so much stuff I don't really know where to begin. My preference has been to keep my focus on the Lynx, but it feels as if I'm getting sucked into the Phillies universe. To put it narrowly: I've lost the plot.

I fully expect to be de-programmed in two weeks - two weeks!, when the Lynx begin their season in the tropics that are upstate New York, Rochester. At that point, my focus will be forced back to our team. Until then, expect a "herky-jerky", hit and miss (add your own cliche) blog ride.

Sorry.

Don't blink

Or you may miss Joe Bisenius here in Ottawa (if he starts here). Sorry about the late blogging today, but contrary to what you might believe, I don't do this for a living.

PhuturePhillies predicts that there's a 60-40 chance Joe will make the team out of ST - just a prediction, but considering the knowledgeable source, it's probably worth paying some attention to.

At present, the Phillies have 4 spots open on the 40 man, so this doesn’t seem like a factor. Also included in that number are Warden, who may be removed and sent back to Cleveland. Segovia is already on the 40 man roster, so he has one less obstacle to overcome, but there is plenty of room there, so it shouldn’t be a means to keep Bisenius in the minors.

So, I suppose it all comes down to the last week of spring training. If I had to handicap it right now, I’d say there’s a 60% chance of him breaking camp with the team. The other 40% involves them keeping Warden, at least for now, Castro making the bullpen despite his poor spring, or a trade bringing in a reliever from another organization. However, with Alfonseca’s performance so far, I doubt it’s very long before Bisenius makes his way to Philly.

The entire post is here.

There's also a bit of an update on the health of Freddy Garcia and Carlos Ruiz from the Inky.

Neither Amaro nor manager Charlie Manuel would say how Garcia's injury would affect the rotation once the season gets under way April 2 against Atlanta at Citizens Bank Park. However, it wouldn't come as a shock if Garcia, who has an 11.42 earned run average in 8 2/3 innings this spring, started the season on the disabled list.

"As far as I know, [the rotation] will not change at this stage of the game," Amaro said. "That's one of the beauties of having six starters. If we were to have a problem, or one of them were to go down, we obviously have an alternative to rely on."

In addition to pondering Garcia's health issues, the Phillies also are concerned with the status of catcher Carlos Ruiz, who was scratched from Wednesday's game due to right shoulder soreness. Ruiz, too, is expected to take the next few days off, and along with Garcia will see team Dr. Michael Ciccotti tomorrow when Ciccotti arrives in Clearwater.

"We're just taking some conservative approaches," Amaro said. "There is no sense in rushing guys back right now. We want to make sure they're ready and healthy once April rolls around."

Tick. Tick. Tick

Season tickets are ready for pick up. (Thanks Nina!)

That didn't take long - UPDATE

It seems that sometime over the last 48 hrs. or so, Charlie Manuel made up his mind and moved Jon Lieber to the bullpen. Or not.

All of a sudden, things aren't looking so hot for the parent club - SP Freddy Garcia left a game on Tuesday (Tuesday?) with tightness in his right bicep. Carlos Ruiz is being bothered by a shoulder problem, and his probable replacement and blog favorite, Chris Coste is also dealing with nagging injury. Beerleaguer offers his "upbeat" assessment:

So let's celebrate the majesty of Phillies Spring Training 2007:
-- The guy they expected to anchor the rotation is hurt.
-- Most of their catchers are hurt.
-- The bullpen may be even worse than expected. The Phillies have done nothing to improve it.
-- Tom Gordon looks toasted.
-- The magic has run out on Dominican League sensations Antonio Alfonseca and Fabio Castro.
-- Batters have buttered Matt Smith, the team's top left-handed reliever.
-- Cole Hamels has been rough. Minor concern, among these others.
-- The window to make trades is closing, not that the Phils have any leverage left.
-- Garcia, if inoperable, continues the trend of Pat Gillick trading for diddly-poo.
-- Ryan Howard is dissatisfied with his swing.
-- Ryan Howard may be dissatisfied with his contract.
-- Jon Lieber is dissatisfied with his situation.
-- Burrell is not showing improvement. One beat writer said the team is concerned.
-- Jimmy Rollins provides bulletin board material for the rest of the division by calling the Phillies the team to beat -- in January.


Ouch.

More importantly, I predict that my predictions are going to take a major beating.

Or not.

*** UPDATE ***

Beerleaguer readers have posted 25 comments so far this a.m. in response to the post noted above. Some go on at some length about why no one should panic yet, why the Garcia deal was good/bad, it's early, etc.. My favorite so far:

"Kill me."

MIA

Does anyone know where (or if) Keith Reed and Brandon Marsters are playing?

A mere mortal at ST

I don't know if anyone actually follows these links, but this story out of the Milwaukee ST camp is both funny and revealing. It's written by a 25 year old fan ("non-roster invitee"), Neil Janowitz, and he's obviously got a good sense of humor and gift for writing. A quick sample of both:

Those three outs came and went, giving way to my first at-bat in the major leagues. In a prime example of using a hydrogen bomb to kill a squirrel, manager Ned Yost turned to me and said, "I'm gonna show you real major league pitching." And to the mound walked Derrick Turnbow and his 100 mph fastball... As I dug in at the plate, my name was announced over the loudspeaker: "Now batting, No. 99, leftfielder Neil Jan-O-Witz." And just then, I glanced up to find Turnbow staring me down and beginning his motion. Witnesses claim he threw the ball. I say he teleported it. Either way, I never saw it, only heard the snap of the catcher's mitt and "Strike!" Not wanting to strike out looking, but not entirely sure I could get the bat around in time even if I had started swinging from the on-deck circle, I threw my BP lessons (square up, let your wrists do the work, keep your foot down) out the window and tossed two awkward hacks at the next two pitches. Both were perfect fastballs. Followed by perfect whiffs. [Emphasis mine]

Teleported. Classic.

Zack Segovia update

If I get the chance, I'll have to ask Zack if that's a short form for Zachary. We often refer to "the boy" (my mother-in-law's term for my son), as Zak or Zakky (Jack, Jackeroo, Zakky-boy, etc.) but his real name is Zechariah. It's amazing how badly people can butcher the spelling and pronunciation - the worst we ever heard was from one of his teachers who pronounced it "Zuh-cherry-uh". He looked over at me, and exhaled as he closed his eyes and shook his head - I think he was seven at the time. Doris and I both really like the name; she because it was in the title of a book she read in the 6th grade, me because it was the name of a favorite Old Testament prophet. Clearly, between the two of us, I'm stranger than my wife.

For his part, Zack is keeping an online diary of his time in ST for the Reading Phillies website. Here's a little from a recent e-mail Q+A session:

Troy G., Denver, PA: Zack, What were your expectations for yourself (your career) going into this years spring training? And did you meet your goals/expectations?

ZS: Yes. My goal this year was to compete and prove to everyone that I can pitch at this level and that I belong here. My goal was to be consistent, like I said above, and control the things I can control and be in the mix and to make it tough for them to send me down by just going about my business and getting people out when I get the chance.

Yesterday in the Inky, Todd Zolecki reported on the speculation that Zack might make the squad:

"Phillies righthander Zack Segovia, who went a combined 16-6 last season with single-A Clearwater and double-A Reading, might have put his foot in the bullpen door in last night's 2-0 loss to the New York Yankees at Legends Field. He allowed five hits and a run and walked none in five innings against a lineup that featured every Yankees starter except Alex Rodriguez.

"It's a good feeling," said Segovia, who also struck out two. "I really felt confident. I didn't feel overwhelmed like I had in the past."

The Phillies are uncomfortable with their bullpen, with indications that they will be unable to pull off a trade before the April 2 season opener.

"We need somebody to pitch in the bullpen who can throw strikes and get people out," Manuel said.

Manuel said Segovia "can fill that role, if that's what we want to do. But he's young and inexperienced. We've talked about him being a bullpen candidate, but like I said, he's inexperienced.""

More trouble for my so-called "predictions".

More on ST and "the roster"

The Lynx website is out in front of all the action, faster than I can run it down from my own "sources", so you're best to head over there for the most up to date scores.

My roster predictions are going to take a beating - at least as far as the bullpen and starting pitching is concerned. The loss of Justin Germano creates a bit of a problem; I lose one SP, but there may also be a chain reaction as other players move up/down or out to accomodate the change. It does seem, however, that the Phillies aren't going to "rush" anyone, and according to the Inky, they're looking at moving either Adam Eaton or Jon Lieber to the pen (both are starters). Money quote:

But there are 13 days before the season opener. A trade could still happen.
If not . . .

"Sooner or later we'll going to have to tell him," Manuel said of the mystery reliever.

Either way, Lieber said he would like to remain with the Phillies.

"Hell, yeah," he said. "But like I said, I can't control that. It's up to the man upstairs."

Which one?

"I don't know," he said. "You've got me."


So the Phillies are down to 40 men. From my roster prediction, I've lost Justin Germano and have completely backtracked on Garcia. On the brighter side, a couple of roster spots I'd "predicted" came a step closer - Danny Sandoval (IF) and Randall Simon (1B) were optioned (Danny) and reassigned (Randall) to the minors. By my count, seven pitchers have now been optioned or reassigned to the minor leagues, including blog predictions Brian Mazone, Anderson Garcia, Jim Crowell, John Ennis and Jeff Farnsworth.

Perspective.

Every once in a while, I have to return to the blog's "first principles": I'm not an expert on baseball, much less the workings of MLB and MiLB. Point of fact, it doesn't really matter much to me who plays here, I'm just looking forward to some time at the park this spring and summer. And I think that's true of most minor league teams - did Norfolk, SWB and Columbus fans desert their respective teams because of affiliation changes? Nope. We're here to enjoy the show.

Which isn't to say it doesn't interest me to find out that Justin Germano won't be here - I just don't get all bent out of shape over it. At the risk of sounding cavalier, the success of the parent club doesn't really interest me. I have the luxury of leaving the debate about Pat Gillick's decision to people who care about such things. That's not what this blog is about - I'm just not qualified (nor concerned enough) to discuss baseball at that level.

Count me as one who's just happy to go along for the ride.

Please.

I'm beggin' ya.

First pitch of 2007

Visitors to the Lynx website will note that they're looking for nominees for a person who deserves to throw out the first pitch. You've got to do it in 50 words or less. I only need four:

Class.
Integrity.
Honor.
Perseverance.

Nominee: Lynx front office.

Second nominee: Mr. Ray Pecor. Same criteria.

More on those predictions - UPDATED

I'm not going to change them at this point, but just a couple of thoughts. I'm clearly not an expert on baseball, let alone the rules governing player movement. Having said that, since making my prediction that Dobbs would get the nod over Garcia, I've learned that Garcia could ask to be released rather than accepting a move to Ottawa. Would that factor into Philadelphia's thinking? I'm going to say "yes". I still think Michael Bourn is headed for Ottawa to start the season, despite the glowing headlines.

The other aspect of the predictions I should qualify is about movement; I'm not an expert on the CBA nor the Phillies philosophy on player/team salary. It's likely not a safe assumption that a player who loses out on a 25 man roster spot, e.g. Dobbs, will automatically be assigned to, or could be assigned to Ottawa. It's probably more likely that some will be traded rather than stashed in Ottawa; you just can't keep them all.

Unless you can. Take these predictions for what they're worth (as opposed to the bank or to Proline).

*** UPDATE ***

Just found this article on scout.com - very timely (and not "subscriber only"). One of several money quotes:

Given the present roster, the choice will probably come to down to either of two young righties, Justin Germano or Jim Ed Warden. Still, the decision will be a difficult one because the unchosen righty will in all probability be lost forever. Germano is a hurler out of options and it seems highly unlikely that the Phils could ever sneak him through waivers without another team claiming him for their own. In fact, Germano has the kind of arm that some teams would so desire that they might immediately place him in their starting rotation.

And then there's this:

In fact, there are reports, as yet unconfirmed but quite telling, that the Phils might just have Happ, Segovia and Bisenius open the minor league campaign in Reading as opposed to Ottawa so they can more closely be monitored in case a need should develop for another talented arm. Watch for this closely as it may well indicate the Phillie organizational thinking in ways they may never choose to verbalize out loud.

That, to me, makes little sense. "They can more closely be monitored" by whom? No disrespect here, but is Reading's coaching staff more qualified than Ottawa's? Are Philadelphia's pitching coaches going to spend time in Reading? Bah... what do I know. Reading's at home most of April....

*** UPDATE II ***

Justin Germano's gone.

Ryan Fleming

"I hold in my hand the last envelope." Man, I miss Johnny. Quick wit, devastatingly funny, and he wore his heart on his sleeve. They just don't make television hosts like that anymore....

On to the task at hand, the final player profile (for now). Ryan Fleming was picked up by the Phillies from Texas in 2004. Ryan was originally drafted by Toronto in the 18th round of the '98 Draft and played as high as AAA in the Blue Jays organization. From there, he played one season at AA for Texas before signing a minor league deal with the Philadelphia. In six minor league seasons, Fleming has hit .279 with 26 homeruns. (Thank-you, Scout.com)

I was also able to find this brief post from Mike Drago's blog in the Reading Eagle in May '05, but very little else.

Jim Rushford

And then there were two. Jim Rushford and Ryan Fleming are the last two profiles to get through before the blog moves on to other tasks. I've mentioned previously that I prefer to read and post the story behind the stats whenever one's available - for the most part, I think I was able to accomplish that. Fortunately, there's a good story behind Jim's stats. It's an older story (from 2001), but the fact that Jim's still around baseball speaks volumes about the man.

""I completely, 100% thought I was done with baseball," he said. "I was 24 and figured my window of opportunity had shut and that was it. It's not that I didn't want to play any more, but that it didn't make sense to try any more."

It was a hard adjustment.

"I tried with all my heart for an entire year to forget I had ever even played baseball," he said. "I didn't pick up a ball or a bat, didn't watch a game on TV."

He worked odd jobs as a mover ("That was the worst job of all," he said), a bouncer at a local music club called Croce's (owned by the wife of the late legend Jim Croce), and, of course, a pizza deliveryman to SDSU students for Milo's.

The lifelong Cubs fan returned to baseball when Sammy Sosa battled it out with Mark McGwire for the home run title in 1998.

"I couldn't help but watch that," he said, "and enough time had passed that I figured I could play for fun in the Sunday morning adult leagues."

One thing led to another, and he joined a semipro team in San Diego that summer. His plan was to finish getting his teaching credentials and certification and then play semipro ball again the next summer.

One night he and Danielle were watching WGN, and the station did a segment on a new team in a higher-level independent league, the Northern League. It was going to be based in Schaumburg, Ill., less than 20 minutes from his boyhood home.

"When I saw that, something came over me and I just knew I had to try out for the club," he said. "Before I could even start to suggest it to Danielle, she already had all the tryout info off of the Internet for me."

It was a perfect fit. The Flyers' manager was former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle. Rushford showed up unannounced at the open tryouts and made one cut after another until he finally found himself at spring training and then in the team's Opening Day lineup in right field.

Things were going well until he ran into a wall tracking a fly ball, separating his shoulder and fracturing some ribs. That was pretty much it for his 1999 season, and then he was dealt to the Duluth-Superior club at the beginning of 2000. He was surprised by the trade, and a bit disappointed to be leaving the Chicago area, but he ended up thrilled.

"Chicago is very cold and Duluth makes Chicago look like a tropical resort," he said, "but it turned out to be a great place, a great team, a great city with great fans."

Looking at his stats alone, I'm wondering if I haven't sold him a little short with respect to my roster prediction. Judging by his character and determination, I'm certain that we'll see him in Ottawa before too long.

Fearless predictions

For what it's worth, here are my predictions for the Lynx OD lineup.

If we look at the big league club, we can safely assume one thing: they'll carry 12 pitchers. I don't think Charlie Manuel is seriously considering going with 11. This means, of course, that we've got 13 hitters to identify and then subtract as possibilities for Ottawa. The first eleven are pretty safe bets:

1. Ryan Howard
2. Chase Utley
3. Jimmy Rollins
4. Pat Burrell
5. Shane Victorino
6. Jayson Werth
7. Aaron Rowand
8. Wes Helms
9. Carlos Ruiz
10. Rod Barajas
11. Abraham Nunez
12. Chris Coste
13. Greg Dobbs

The last two spots are a real dogfight between Coste, Dobbs and Garcia. Coste proved himself last year, but both Garcia and Dobbs are left handed bats. Manuel seems to favor Coste though, knowing he can start him in a number of spots (catcher, third, OF), so I'm going to give one of the spots to him. Dobbs beats Garcia on stats, and strictly on that basis I'm going to give him the last spot.

This means I'm moving Bourn, Roberson, Garcia and Randall Simon down to Ottawa.

Infield:

C Jason Jaramillo
1B Randall Simon
SS Danny Sandoval
2B Carlos Leon
3B Brennan King

Outfield:

OF Pedro Swann
OF Michael Bourn
OF Chris Roberson

Most of the infield and outfield spots have been taken by default; there's just not enough room for these players on the Phillies 25 man roster. Jaramillo is an up and coming catcher and by all accounts he's ready for AAA ball. No one is going to take Ryan Howard's spot at 1B which leaves Randall Simon competing with the likes of Coste, Garcia, Dobbs et. al. for a spot on the bench in Philly - he just doesn't have the numbers to take one away. Sandoval's spring hasn't been great and that leaves him on the outside looking in. Much has been written about the Roberson move, and it seems highly unlikely that he won't report to the minor league camp, even if his ego's taken a major bruising. King, Swann, Bourn (and Roberson) will bide their time in Ottawa, waiting for a combination of injuries or trades to see them move up (or perhaps, away from Philadelphia).

Bench:

C Tim Gradoville
IF Joey Hammond
IF Gary Burnham
OF Karim Garcia
OF Ron Calloway

Did I mention that Philadelphia was deep? Look at the experience on this prospective "bench" - this will be Hammond's 10th season, Burnham's 11th, Garcia's 14th and Ron Calloway's 10th. A total of 45 seasons worth of experience, not to mention a combined 1799 RBI and .281 average for the four men. Both Beattie and Hammond were invited to Spring Training as non-roster invites, but I'm giving the nod to Joey Hammond because of his versatility. Beattie hit .269 last year to Hammond's .267 and they're both 29 years old. Tim Gradoville? I'm taking a bit of a flyer here - hopefully the Phils will value his defensive ability with the hopes that he can find his bat in Ottawa. If they want more experience, which they may given Jaramillo's age, look for Dusty Wathan to fill in.


Pitching:

SP J.A. Happ
SP Brian Mazone
SP Fabio Castro
SP Zach Segovia
SP Justin Germano
RP Joe Bisenius
RP Yoel Hernandez (injured)
RP Anderson Garcia
RP Nick Evangelista
RP Jim Crowell
RP John Ennis
RP Jeff Farnsworth

The pitching prospects find themselves in the same boat with the IF/OF players: crowded out at the Phillies MLB level. There was some talk that they might move Happ all the way up, but he was hit pretty hard today, and a move to the show was always considered a stretch. Brian Mazone was in the first round of ST cuts, but I think he's done enough to prove himself at Reading. Betting with my heart? Maybe. Castro's one of those guys who is likely on the bubble between AA Reading and Ottawa, but fortune favors the brave (or was it "the Lord hates a coward"?) - so I'll throw Fabio into the Ottawa rotation. Segovia's a guy who appears ready for AAA after a strong 2006 in AA, but there's been some rumbling in the blogosphere that the Phillies may try to bury him in Reading in April to avoid the "cold of Ottawa". Don't get me started. Germano is, admittedly, someone I haven't taken a good look at, and he may be another "flyer" - particularly if the Phils convert him to a reliever. Which is a nice segue to Joe Bisenius. There may be a problem in the bullpen - more specifically, a problem with closer Tom Gordon's elbow. This may drastically alter, and therefore destroy, my prospective Lynx pitching roster. Will they go out and make an acquisition if Gordon isn't ready - or will guys like Bisenius be brought up a little earlier than planned? As of today, I've got Joe here in Ottawa. Unfortunately for Yoel Hernandez, injury cut his ST short, but I've optimistically pencilled him in. Anderson Garcia fell victim to the first round of cuts - was he someone the Phillies took a flyer on as PhuturePhillies opined? Given his velocity, if he can find his stuff here in Ottawa, he should get another shot. Nick Evangelista was being groomed as a closer; it's unrealistic to expect a double jump to Philadelphia, but will the Gordon situation get him a longer look here in Ottawa? I'm betting yes, even though he started last year in Clearwater. Jim Crowell is a known commodity to the Phillies having pitched in the organization (most recently SWB) and for the Phillies at the big league level (2004). Farnsworth and Ennis have experience at the minor league level (Ennis pitched a few games in MLB), but these are two picks I have the least confidence in. They may not survive if guys like Jim Ed Warden get pushed out of Philadelphia and accept their Ottawa assignments.

This whole "prediction" post was a project undertaken for Neate Sager's blog - you can find it in its revised form over there.

2-0!

A good start to the ST games!

On the mound, P Brian Mazone stole the show with four innings of 2-hit, one-run ball and striking out seven. RF Greg Jacobs led the hitting attack going 2-for-5 with a 2-run HR, 5 RBI and two runs scored. Also tallying two hits, including a double was CF Chris Roberson. Joining them in the hit column were DH Pedro Swann, SS Jesus Merchan, C Tim Gradoville, 1B Gary Burnham and DH Jason Jaramillo with one each. Yes, there were two DH's. Welcome spring ball in the Minors.

(HT: Reading Phillies website)

37 down,

Three profiles left to go. In fact, it's actually two. I've blogged previously about Pedro Swann, here.

The line on Pedro this spring? According to ESPN, as of today, he's 0-1, and has appeared in only 1 game.

Victor Hall

There wasn't a whole lot posted on the net about Victor, beyond his stats. I was able to find this press release from last summer.

The Golden Baseball League and Reno Silver Sox announced today that they have sold Reno Silver Sox CF Victor Hall’s contract to the New York Yankees.

Hall was batting .362 for the Sox in the leadoff position, with three triples, three homeruns, and a league leading fifteen stolen bases (seven more than the next closest player) through sixteen games.

Hall, 25, has played all over the minor leagues, reaching as high as AAA with the Tucson (AZ) Sidewinders, an affiliated team of the Arizona Diamondbacks, in 2004. Hall signed with the Sox on February 28, 2006.

“I am excited for Victor. I knew when we signed him that we wouldn’t be here for very long,” said Silver Sox manager Les Lancaster.

Hall will be suiting up for the Tampa (FL) Yankees, the New York Yankees high A affiliated team and is expected to quickly be promoted.

Victor was acquired by the Phillies in the AAA phase of the Rule 5 Draft when the Yankees left him exposed - "Hall hit .321 and stole 35 bases in 65 games at Class-A Tampa last season."

Game ON!!!!!

Strange that I've got to go to Reading's website for this but Ottawa WINS GAME 1 OF ST!!!!!

"On the mound Chris Key and Tally Haines each threw two innings of two-hit scoreless ball. Bubba Nelson also contributed two innings giving up one run on two hits with two strikeouts. With the bats, Tim Moss led the way going 2-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI. Jim Rushford joined the attack with two hits and a run scored. CF Ryan Fleming was 1-for-2 on the day with a triple and an RBI and RF Chris Roberson, SS Jesus Merchan, 1B Gary Burnham and 3B Joey Hammond each chipped in with a hit apiece."

Light blogging today

I should have my predictions for the Lynx starting lineup posted either later today or tomorrow. I'll try to finish up the last few profiles and then I've got some major catching up to do on ST.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

3 o'clock this morning. My daughter sits bolt upright in bed and babbles something unintelligible. I flip on the light.

"What, honey?" She looks at me, her eyes as big as saucers.

"Are we going to baseball tonight?"

Ron Calloway

Most people I know say that hockey players are the most down to earth of all professional athletes. I respectfully disagree - I've met my share of professional hockey players, and they're certainly a nice enough bunch of guys, but baseball players are more accessible, and from my experience very fan friendly - I've blogged my thoughts about Brandon Marsters and Eddy Rodriguez previously. I'm happy to report that when I was looking for information on the next player to be reviewed, Ron Calloway, everything I found said that he was all "class". By now, most of you are aware that this will be Ron's second go around with the Lynx. He played 128 games here in 2002, hitting a healthy .264 with an OBP of .275 and slugging for .427 - pretty decent numbers. He ended last season in Pawtucket and he didn't go unnoticed by the local media:

Ask Calloway about the trade deadline, and his place in the schemes and machinations of the Red Sox front office, and you get a heartfelt answer: laughter.

“Shouldn’t you be asking Dustin Pedroia that?” he said, laughter still on his lips...

But surely, the deadline must have given Calloway pause to reflect on…on…something?

“It never even crossed my mind,” he insists. “Sure, it’s an interesting time for baseball, but I’m giving you an honest answer: it never crossed my mind.”

Why was there no activity with him? He’s still got plenty of upside at 29. He’s a positive presence in the PawSox clubhouse. He consistently gives thoughtful answers to reporters’ questions. And did we mention that he’s batting .307?

There’s definitely a need for Calloway out there. But here he stays -- and the rest of the league’s loss is the PawSox’s gain. Calloway is an asset to the Sox, as long as they have him. Here’s hoping they do the right thing and trade him in the offseason to a team that can use him in the bigs.

Here's the link to the article.

Unfortunately, Boston missed the playoffs, and he wasn't called up when the rosters expanded in September. I'd love to see him in a Lynx uniform, but I'm afraid that would be selfish, wishful type thinking. Instead, I'll remain hopeful that he'll get to see some time in Philadelphia, even though that outfield looks awfully crowded right now. If he can't find a spot in Philly, I'd be more than happy to welcome him to Ottawa while he waits for a spot to open up.

Final thought - with all these players that have been classed as AAAA (i.e. a little too good for AAA, but not quite MLB) the odds are that at least one will have an FP Santangelo sort of breakout season in the bigs. There's a bunch of guys I'll be rooting for and Ron Calloway is one.

Lou Collier

Today's busy enough that I'm not going to get the chance to edit some of the stuff I've found on Lou Collier - so I've gone ahead and posted two articles in their entirety.

Just a quick note about the "labels" that are popping up on the posts - most are self-explanatory (e.g. RHP is short form for Right Handed Pitcher) and I've added them to make sorting through the near 300 posts a little easier. For instance if you want to find posts about OF, you just need to find the label and click on it.

My apologies for the "sermon" yesterday - in hindsight, I slammed the door on Mr. Deitch pretty hard, perhaps not entirely warranted. My problem is that I've got a very thin skin when it comes to the Lynx and what I perceive to be biased reporting - a big old chip on my shoulder. Having said that, I'm still careful to try not to read too much into things and see things that aren't there. So far, no one has emailed or commented about any disagreement. (The label ABM? It stands for "Angry Blogger Man" - hopefully there won't be too many more).

Getting back to Lou Collier - Scout.com leads off:

Lou Collier has never really gotten a chance to be an everyday player for any length of time. His is a story of perseverance. Collier’s story is also one of a player running out of time to get his real shot at being a major league player. At age 31, Collier’s prime may have passed, but he still believes there’s a place for him on a major league roster.

Lou Collier was never a blue-chip prospect. He has had to scratch and claw for all he has achieved through his baseball career. Drafted by the Pirates in the 31st round of the 1992 draft out of tiny Triton College, Collier had a lot to learn. He learned quickly, though. The Pirates moved Collier through the minors at a quick pace and thought more and more of him as he showed what he could do in the minor league ranks. After hitting .330 at AAA Calgary in 1997, Pittsburgh brought their prospect to the majors for a look.

The early days of Collier’s major league career didn’t go well. Collier had just 37 at bats in his first shot with Pittsburgh and hit just .135 in ’97. Since then, the story has been much the same; Start the year in the minors, put up huge numbers and wait either for an injury or the September roster expansions and then come back to the majors. That history, along with the fact that Collier is a career .239 hitter in the majors has branded the 31 year old as a “quad-A” type player. A guy who has enough talent to make him look like an all-star at AAA, but a weak link as a major league player.

In his first season with the Phillies organization, Collier followed the script. Hitting .238 in spring training, the Phillies sent Collier to AAA Scranton, the sixth different AAA city of his career. From day one, Collier became a major part of the Red Barons’ offense and finished the season hitting .326 in the International League. Again, the script continued when Pat Burrell went on the DL and the Phillies purchased Collier’s contract.

“You know that injuries are going to happen and I don’t wish them on anybody, but my job is to be ready to help if someone goes down,” said Collier. When he arrived in Philadelphia, Jason Michaels had been inserted as Burrell’s replacement and Collier was riding the bench. Collier saw a few at bats here and there and Burrell surprisingly returned from his wrist injury that initially was thought to have ended his season. Now, Collier was pushed further down the bench and to make things worse, injured his foot, causing him to miss some opportunities.

While he’s with the Phillies on a one-year deal, Collier wouldn’t rule out coming back next season. “I’ve enjoyed myself this season. I had a good year, so that helps make it fun and the Phillies have been pretty good to me. I would consider coming back,” admits Collier. Still, as he does almost every winter, Collier will likely go in search of a better opportunity with a true shot at making a major league roster. “I think I could help a club. Actually, I still believe that I could be a decent everyday player. I’m not saying I would be an all-star or anything, but I think I would be okay.”

The Phillies would likely want to have Collier back, but there wouldn’t be any guarantees about playing in the majors. In fact, it’s more likely that they’ll officially release him to take him off the 40 man roster at the end of the season, clearing a spot for another player that they may need to protect in the Rule Five Draft. Still, the option of coming back on another one-year, minor league contract with an invitation to spring training might be extended to Collier.

“Lou is one of those guys that a AAA manager – or any manager for that matter – loves to have around,” said Scranton manager Marc Bombard. “He plays hard and you never have to worry about him. He’s good in the clubhouse and young players can learn a lot from him.”

Unfortunately for Collier, he really does have the reputation as being one of those AAAA players. Organizations like to have him around because he can help them at the AAA level, but he is really only a major leaguer out of necessity, not out of the belief that he will add too much to your ball club. He’s also one of those guys that would be interesting to see get a shot at legitimate playing time. He can play anywhere in the outfield and can also play at first base and third base. While flexibility is on his side, age and reputation aren’t. For that reason, Collier will likely continue to follow the script that has been written for him, just waiting for a shot at a bigger part with a major league club.

From his days in Pawtucket:

Pawtucket, R.I. -- Lou Collier has played a lot of baseball in a lot of cities. He's made his share of friends and admirers in just about every one of them.

One member of the unofficial "Lou Collier Fan Club" took it upon himself to give the 30-year old Pawtucket Red Sox outfielder a little pep talk from the nearly empty Lynx Stadium stands, during a recent game in Ottawa, which was Collier's address last year.

"Hey Lou! Just hit the *&%#**# ball, already," bellowed one pair of leather lungs.

At that precise moment, Collier did exactly as he was told, turning on a Mike Drumright fastball and sending it clean out of the park and onto Coventry Road, just missing a group of passing cars.

"I couldn't help but hear him," said Collier. " It was all in fun. All part of the game."


Collier takes one deep

Collier knows a lot about the game. He plays it hard. He plays it well.

Well enough to spend the last 11 years playing professional baseball, but unfortunately, not well enough to earn more than a few cups of coffee in the majors with Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Montreal.

Nonetheless, the Chicago native is fresh off his best April start ever.

He is hitting for average, which is typical for him, and with big time power, which is not.

"I just try to do my job, man. I get the opportunity and try to hit the ball where 'they ain't'. I'm being blessed for that to be happening to me."

There's a lot of "ain't" whenever Collier leaves the batter's box.

Collier wound up the opening month of the season hitting a torrid .389, third in the International League.

Even more impressive was his April run production. His 24 RBI was tops in the IL, and his five homers put him with the league leaders.

Never a big home run threat, Collier is just one homer shy of last year's total with the Lynx.

PawSox manager Buddy Bailey, who routinely pencils Collier's name in the fifth spot, admits he's a bit surprised by Collier's explosiveness at the plate.

"I wouldn't have thought he'd have had five (homers) right now," he said." It's a beautiful thing, and hopefully it keeps happening. He's in one of those slots, now. He's been on the ball good. He's adding a lot of RBIs for us. He's getting pitches in zones he can handle and he hasn't been missing."

Collier is on pace to put up career high bests in home runs (14 in 2001 with Indianapolis) and RBI (52 last year with Ottawa).

While he stands just 5-10 and weighs 191 lbs, one glance at him out of uniform in the Pawtucket clubhouse reveals a chiseled physique that would put a Greek statue to shame.

The guy is cut.

"He may not be the biggest guy in the league," said Pawtucket's Freddy Sanchez, "but I'll tell you, he's one of the strongest. The guy is absolutely rock solid. He crushes the ball."

For his part, Collier says there's no secret to his success, just a little patience and a lot of diligence.

"I'm just hitting the ball hard, and it's going out of the park," he said.

"I'm not doing anything different. I'm just getting pitches to hit, and I'm hitting them hard."

While Collier won't admit to making any changes, there have been a few teensy alterations, at least according to Pawtucket hitting coach U.L. Washington.

"We've been working on him hitting the high pitch," said Washington, "which is what they like to throw him. He's starting to make adjustments on that. The main thing is that he goes the other way, and when he sees a pitch to hit, he does something with it."

One would think that the revitalized Collier would like to shed a few years, maybe hoodwink a few major league scouts into thinking that he's a young prospect instead of a late bloomer.

Washington, for one, thinks that Collier could help a few big league teams. He should know, having spent 11 years in "the Show" himself.

"He's the kind of guy that a club up there could really use," Washington said. "(Lou's) helped us out here a lot, and we'd hate to see him go."

For his part, Collier is focused only on the task at hand, which is to help drive Pawtucket into the playoffs.

"I think there are going to be a lot of positive things happen for this team, this year," he said. "I feel real good about the group of guys that we have. When everybody is clicking, we're going to be tough to beat."

The famous four words - UPDATED

I'm sorry. I really am. I consider myself a Christian, but when I read stuff like this, my immediate, visceral reaction (if the kids aren't around) is along these lines:

"Oh, please **** ***!"

Puh-freaking-lease.

For those who don't feel like following the link the headline for the article is "Phils’ Triple-A minor leaguers faced with spending 2007 season in Ottawa" - do you catch the whiff of bias there? Thankfully, this "piece" didn't originate out of Ottawa - it's written by someone (Dennis Deitch) south of the border. The thrust of the article is, of course, the weather - which I discussed at some length here and here. The piece lost all credibility for me when the athletes he quoted largely defeated his premise that players hate coming here because of the cold. He cites Michael Bourn, who finds additional motivation in cold avoidance - "When I think how cold it can be there," said outfielder Michael Bourn, who is likely to start the season in Ottawa, "it’s more motivation to win a job (in the majors)."

Memo to the author: Michael's never been here in April. Or May. Or June. Or July. And last August, when he was here, was warm. Sure, Bourn may have anecdotal reports from guys in the locker room, but that's not quite as compelling, is it?

Deitch then destroys the headline writer completely by making the mistake of talking to guys who have actually played here. Lou Collier and Ron Calloway play a little defense for us:

"The conditions can be pretty tough. But once the weather breaks, it’s a beautiful city. It’s a real city, so it’s always good to be able to actually do things after the game. You don’t go out too often during the season, but sometimes you need an outlet and that’s when being in a bigger city is a good thing."

Calloway not only enjoys the city, but he thinks Ottawa’s reputation as a frigid city in the early spring is a little overstated.

"It’s just like Buffalo and Syracuse," said Calloway, who signed a minor-league deal with the Phillies after spending all of last season at Pawtucket, Boston’s Triple-A affiliate. "It’s very cold at first, but it’s cold everywhere else, too.

"It was a great city. I’m from San Jose, so I always prefer playing in a larger city. The people there are very friendly and it’s a safe city, day and night." [Emphasis added]

God love you both.

I think this is probably more representative of how most of the players feel - despite a cold start, Ottawa as a city, is in the big leagues; when the game is over, there's stuff to do. Quoting yourself probably breaks all rules of journalism, but then, I'm not a journalist. In November 2006, I rhetorically asked:

"You'll see this type of comment a lot. Too much for my liking, because it strikes me as a comment born out of ignorance of our city. Yes, it's cold in April. But colder than Buffalo? Colder than Rochester, or Syracuse, or Toledo? Are people less friendly here? Is the city more dangerous? Less clean? Is there nothing to do in this area that has close to a million people"?

I thought about rehashing my review of the similarities in the weather in the IL, but for the most part I expect I'm preaching to the choir on that one. So my question then is: Couldn't the headline just have reasonably read "Phils’ Triple-A minor leaguers faced with spending 2007 season in big, safe city", or "AAA Ottawa, Buffalo, Syracuse - one and the same"?

Finally, has any organization in the IL ever faced such an uphill battle with the media? If it isn't the Ottawa contingent, just itching to put the final period on the story, it's journalists in other corners of the IL beating up on the city and therefore (by association), the franchise. I'll be honest - my immediate reaction to this article (after swearing) was to expose the failings of other host cities in the IL. Forget the weather - let's compare crime rates. Let's dig up dirt from players who've badmouthed other cities - or is Ottawa the only one? The problem with this approach of course, is that a) it's immature, and b) it does nothing but bring minor league baseball down. It's disappointing, to say the least, that people see the constant pressure and criticism of Ottawa in isolation, while failing to recognize the damage it does to the league as a whole; it dilutes the value of MiLB. I believe that's why gentlemen like Lou Collier and Ron Calloway - men who've spent a lot of time in the minors, defend Ottawa: they understand that dragging Ottawa down does NOTHING to build up baseball.

I wonder where these people would turn their attention if Ottawa, the current "whipping boy" wasn't around.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming....

*** UPDATE ***

It appears that the AP agrees with me - well, at least on the headline. They picked up the story, but it's now titled "Phillies TripleA players will head to Ottawa". (Hat tip: PhuturePhillies. Thanks for the link and the plug.)

Branden Florence

Hmmmm. Branden's bounced around between low A and AA ball for his six minor league seasons, with a career average of .311. In 130 games in Clearwater last season, he hit .327, and appears to have been called up to play 1 game in Reading where he went 0 for 4. His numbers are certainly impressive, but I would think it's highly unlikely that they will double or triple jump him from low A all the way to Ottawa.

Having said that, his year in Clearwater was pretty impressive - he capped it off by setting a Threshers record for hits in a season.

"The previous high of 154 was set by Rusty McNamara in 1998. Florence broke the record with a two-out double in the first inning of Monday's game versus the Fort Myers Miracle. He added another double in the seventh inning.

For the season Florence has collected 48 multiple hit games including 17 games with three or more hits. He drilled a season high four hits on August 14 in St Lucie.

Branden currently leads the FSL in hits, is second with 84 RBI and third with a .329 batting average.

Florence was signed by the Phillies in January 2006 as a minor league free agent. Last season he hit .325 in 78 games with the Frederick Keys in the Carolina League. He is a career .305 hitter in five minor league seasons (399 games)".

Tick. Tick. Tick.

The Dairy Queen is OPEN.

Karim Garcia

Keeping ahead of the game, this may actually turn in to the first of what I had hoped would be many "blog intensive" weekends. Having begun this profile journey, I'm determined to get through all 40 players listed on the Lynx roster, although I was tempted to shorten it to the players I thought might actually break camp and head north to Ottawa. So we've come to Karim Garcia - an internet "content-rich" player. Fortunately, we have to look no further than the Lynx website for his history:

"His most impressive season to date was in 2001, when Garcia took the International League by storm as a member of the Buffalo Bisons. Garcia hit 31 HR and 85 RBI en route to being named an International League All-Star. He was also a Pacific Coast League All-Star in 1995-the year he led the PCL in runs batted in.

Garcia has spent the last two seasons playing for the Orix Buffaloes in Japan Professional Baseball's Pacific League, hitting a combined .281 with 34 HR.

Scout.com picks up the story:

"Easily the most recognizable name in the group is outfielder Karim Garcia, a 31 year old former Los Angeles Dodger phenom, who has performed for various parts of 10 big league seasons to this point. Blessed with five-tool talent early on, Garcia has largely been a disappointment at the major league level, except for one amazing stretch of games in 2002 while performing for the Cleveland Indians. While toiling that season with the Indians, Garcia went on a hitting tear that lasted 51 games and saw him hit an amazing 16 home runs and knock in 52 runs while hitting a cool .299 with a slugging percentage of .584.

Yet, like a passing comet in the night, Garcia's brightness quickly dimmed and after a decent year with the Yankees in 2003 [a .305 average in 52 games] and a poor season in 2004 with the Mets and Red Sox, Karim Garcia chose to resurrect his career in Japan. Although the reviews were mixed, it does appear that his performance was enough to catch the eye of Phillie scouts who saw him perform. Perhaps it was the .307 batting average in 2005 but more likely it was the 6 home runs in 2 consecutive games that convinced them that he was worthy of a look see. By all accounts, his winter skills in Mexico were honed to the point that Gillick & Company decided to offer him a minor league contract and an invite to spring training."

By all accounts, Karim is pressing - and is being pressed, to make the Phillies 25 man roster. Karim and Greg Dobbs, another recent acquisition, are putting real pressure on blog-favorite Chris Coste for one of the final OF/IF spots remaining on Philadelphia's roster. ST promises to be a real dogfight for these three, although Dobbs while focussed, has not lost his perspective:

There are plenty of scenarios in which Dobbs can make the team, including the Phillies choosing to take 11 pitchers north or he could outlast several competitors along the lines of Garcia or Chris Coste.

"I root for every guy," Dobbs said. "I have enough to focus on with my game, between the lines, to get myself ready to play hard and be productive. And that's what the other guys have to do, too. In this game, you want to see your teammates do good. You just do, no matter if you're competing with them or not."

So far in Spring Training, the head to head to head match up, the score reads like this:

Chris Coste: Games: 7, Average: .231, AB: 13, Hits: 3, RBI: 1
Greg Dobbs: Games: 7, Average: .500, AB: 20, Hits: 10, RBI: 8
Karim Garcia: Games: 7, Average: .333, AB: 21, Hits: 7, RBI: 4

One last bit of data that might hurt Chris' bid: Both Garcia and Dobbs are left handed hitters trying to make a team that has relatively few.

Javon Moran

I just might get two profiles in today. The second is for outfielder, Javon Moran whom the Lynx have listed on the 2007 roster. There was a time when the Phillies had a lethal 1-2 minor leauge punch in Javon Moran and Michael Bourn.

With Moran batting leadoff and Bourn hitting second, they have become a catcher’s worst nightmare, to the tune of 21 steals in 21 attempts! Bourn has an astounding 13 steals in 9 games, while Moran has a more pedestrian total of 8 in 9 games. The numbers are almost spellbinding. From a 2004 scout.com article.

That was in 2004. Javon was subsequently dealt to the Cincinatti Reds for pitching help (Corey Lidle) where he didn't progress past the AA level. For his part, Michael Bourn was double jumped by the Phils from low A Batavia to Reading in 2005. The Phillies have now reaquired Javon from the Reds as part of the deal that sent OF Jeff Conine to the Reds. scout.com continues with their story:

With Moran back in the fold, the Phillies again have more speed in the organization and have three outfielders to look to in the near future (Bourn, Moran and Chris Roberson). As often happens, things will probably play out to a point where at least one of them will fall by the wayside or possibly be dealt elsewhere.

Scouting Report: Javon Moran has plenty of speed and uses it well. The problem is that he simply swings at too many pitches and doesn't work the count as much as he should. With some more discipline, his on-base percentage could climb, since he does make decent contact and doesn't strike out too much, especially compared to Bourn. The big difference in the two is that Bourn is much more likely to take a walk than Moran.

Ironically, the right-handed hitting Moran hit right-handed pitching at a far better clip in 2006 than he did left-handers (.341 vs. .279). He also showed signs of choking with runners on base and hit just .192 with runners in scoring position and just .256 with any runners on base while batting a lusty .356 with the bases empty.

Some plate discipline would go a long way to improving Moran's stock and the Phillies will likely stress that in the spring.

Matt Padgett

One thing I'm discovering about the Phillies in general is that they're pretty deep in talent, particularly in the outfield. As a project, I'm working on who I think will be starting here in Ottawa on April 17. It's turning out to be a much tougher task than I thought. As has been noted previously, the Phillies signed a lot of experienced minor league players in the off-season and there just doesn't seem to be enough room for everybody. I expect that many will have to be traded or let go when camps break.

Back to Matt Padgett. From the Reading Phillies site:

HOW OBTAINED: Signed as a minor league free agent May 25, 2006. Originally selected by the Marlins in the fifth round of the 1998 draft.

2005: Played the season with Albuquerque (AAA)...Batted .296 with 136 hits, 28 2B, 3 3B, 17 HR, and 72 RBI...played 120 games in the OF and committed just 5 errors...Finished the season with a .480 slugging %.

2004: Spent the entire season with Albuquerque (AAA)...In 131 games hit .267 with 28 2B, and had a career high 24 HR, and a career- best 93 RBI...Scored 65 runs...Played 116 games in the outfield and committed 2 errors...Had a career-best .515 slugging %.

2003: Played the entire season with Carolina (AA)...Hit .277 in 129 games...Finished 4th in the SOU. in total bases (210), 5th in RBI (76), and 4th in home runs (17)...He helped Carolina with the championship that season with a 80-58 record...Collected 29 RBI and scored 65 runs.

2002: Played the season with Portland (AA)...Had 95 hits and batted .234 for Portland...Had 16 HR, 26 2B, drove in 63 RBI...Collected 43 BB...played 81 games in OF and gathered 4 assists and had 6 errors.

2001: Spent the season with Brevard County (A)...Was 9th in the FSL with a .293 avg, 4th in RBI (81), and 1st in doubles (37)...Helped Brevard County become Co-Champions of the FSL...He added 8 HR, 64 BB, a made a career-best 1 error in 68 appearances in the OF.

2000: Played the entire season with Kane County (A)...In 125 games he batted .233, collected 104 hits, 22 2B, 12 HR, drove in 60 RBI...He was selected to the MID Howe Sportsdata Star of Stars...Played 115 games in the OF and committed just 4 errors and had 4 assists on the season.

1999: Spent the season at Kane County (A)...Hit a career-best .333, had 53 hits, scored 34 runs, 5 HR, 9 2B, 23 RBI...Had career-best 40 SO on the year...Of the 45 games he played, he appeared in the OF for 25 of them and gathered a .970 fielding pct.

1998: Made professional debut with Utica (A)...batted .219 in 71 games...Had 54 hits, scored 31 runs, 9 2B, 1 3B, 4 HR, 39 RBI...Had 4 SB, 22 BB...Played 68 games in the outfield and also made 2 appearances at 3B.

He split his 2006 season between Iowa of the Pacific Coast League and AA Reading, before breaking his arm in Reading, ending his season. Scout.com has more (but from 2004 when he was in the Marlins system):

Matt Padgett
Vital Stats:
Position: OF
DOB: July 22, 1977
Birth Place: Lexington, South Carolina Height: 6'2 Weight: 215 lbs.
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Acquired: Drafted in the 5th Round (162nd overall) in the 1998 amateur draft out of Clemson University

Overview: Matt Padgett was drafted by the Marlins out of Clemson University where he was a two sport star. Matt lettered in both baseball and football, where he was kicker for the Tigers.

Batting: Matt Padgett is somewhat of a novelty in the Florida Marlins system in that he is a left-handed power hitter. The Marlins organization is very dry in left-handed hitters, let alone those who can hit for power. However, despite Padgett’s unique standing in the organization and his tremendous success at each level of the system, Padgett does not have the overwhelming confidence of the Marlins staff. Matt has his supporters but those within the Marlins organization either love him or hate him. The problem of those that do not see him as a serious prospect think that despite his being elected as an All-Star in the Southern League and leading the league in RBIs in 2003, that he still strikes out too much. For them, this is an indicator that his success in the minors will not translate to major league success. At various stages of his progress through the system he has led his respective teams in batting average, homeruns, and RBIs. Some hitters have a lot of success being free swingers who despite their good numbers also strike out a lot. Some scouts like these types of players, some scouts don’t. Unfortunately for Matt Padgett, most in the Marlins organization don’t.

Base running and Speed: Padgett has adequate speed but is not considered a base stealing threat.

Defense: Matt has played both 3B and OF during his tenure in the Marlins organization although he is more settled and comfortable in the OF. In the OF, he is a decent but not outstanding defensive player. He has an average arm and enough speed to cover the necessary ground.

Projection: At every level Padgett has played, he has not only performed very well offensively, but he has also gotten better each year. Matt is a very confident young man whose approach has not been changed by the nay-sayers within the organization. Perhaps he feels, why change what is working. Matt may never have enough supporters within the organization to make it all the way with the Marlins. But he still has his supporters and if he continues to perform he deserves the chance to show if he can do it on the big stage.

Estimated Time of Arrival: Padgett will start this year most likely at Triple A Albuquerque. If he turns in another good year offensively, he may earn an invite to Spring Training in 2005. Perhaps the Marlins should consider Padgett as the left-handed pinch hitter/utility position now occupied by Lenny Harris. Considering Harris is talking about retirement following the 2004 season. If Padgett does not get a shot with the Marlins, don’t be surprised if you see another team somewhere give him the chance the Marlins may never give him.

Mike Spidale

We're into the home stretch here - the last bunch of profiles are on the men listed as outfielders on the Lynx roster. Batter up: Mike Spidale. Mike is one of those players of whom precious little ink or pixels has been spent - translation: I didn't find much.

From scout.com:


Teams can sometimes hide an extra outfielder on their roster and Spidale could conceivably hold down that role. Spidale stole 29 bases at Low-A Lakewood in 2006 and was caught stealing just four times. Spidale spent some time Double-A when he was in the White Sox organization but hasn't been back in his short stint with the Phillies. This is a guy who generally has the word "sparkplug" connected to his name when scouts talk about his style of play. Spidale never seems to get much credit, but always finishes the season with good stats and always does the fundamental things very well. He steals bases, fields his position very well, and has above average plate discipline, helping him to post a .418 OBP in 2006.

Mike split last season between Kansas City of the Northern (Independent) League and Lakewood (in the South Atlantic League). Based on his brief amount of experience above AA, I don't think we'll see Mike here to start the season.

Talley Haines

The final pitcher in the series (for now at least) is Talley Haines. You should know by now that I'm not terribly sophisticated when it comes to baseball. I enjoy watching more than the average person, and I know just a little bit more about the game than your typical Ottawan - but I'm hard pressed to recognize a changeup when I see one, or to detect whether a pitch was a two seamer or four. It's the same with a lot of these stories that I've tried to dig out of the woodwork; the seasoned (read hardcore) baseball fans have probably either heard these stories or read something like them before. I haven't, and I have to tell you, I'm really enjoying reading (and locating) them. In the end, stats are just stats - I try to find out a little bit about the guys behind them.

Here's part of Talley Haines' story:

IT'S HARD TO KNOW WHEN, EXACTLY, Talley Haines's fate was fixed. Baseball lawyers agree that it was probably sometime in 1921, more than fifty years before Haines was born. It was then that it was decided that young men who played baseball for a living could be pinched from a minor league team by a major league team in exchange for a couple of bucks and, for the young man, the promise--the flat-out guarantee--of a job in the big leagues...

Last March (2003), toward the end of the Grapefruit League's spring run, Haines was called over from Tampa Bay's scrub complex to pitch an inning against the Blue Jays. J.P. Ricciardi happened to be in the stands. The first man Haines faced was the slugging first baseman Carlos Delgado. Haines looked in at his first real-life pro, and he felt his stomach turn over. He told himself that it was important not to think, that he was just an instrument to be played. He nodded, mostly to himself, and he threw a sinker outside. Delgado grounded into the second baseman's mitt, one away.

Haines exhaled, struck out Josh Phelps on a change-up, and got Eric Hinske to ground out, too. Three up, three down, which earned him, as far as he knew, nothing more than a ticket back across town. He returned to minor league camp and, for the third consecutive season, to the Durham Bulls. September came and went without a phone call. The leaves began to turn. Haines packed up his things, went home to Jackson, Missouri, and wondered what was next. He never knew that two Blue Jay scouts had been watching him the whole time...

If you care to read the rest, it has the makings of a good mystery novel. Of course, not everyone was happy to see him go.

Talley split 2006 between Reading and SWB - given the Phillies relative depth in the pitching department, I don't think we'll see him here to start the season, but hopefully he'll get his opportunity to shine in Ottawa later on.

Seung Hak Lee

Continuing on with our look at the prospective pitchers, we have arrived at Seung Hak Lee. And this one is a head scratcher - from what I could find, he was released by the Phillies at the end of last season in SWB. Lee, a RHP, pitched in 31 games in 2006, 12 as a starter. Here are his stats. Mike Drago had this to say in his blog in 2005:

Three months ago, 26-year-old Seung-Hak Lee was an afterthought around the Phillies. A former prospect who appeared to be yet another bad signing by the club.

Don't look now but Lee is leading the Eastern League in ERA.

Lee was an All-Star for Reading in 2003, but his career seemed to fizzle last season at Triple-A.

The Phillies sent him back to Reading to start this season, and tucked him away in their bullpen. His career appeared to be over.

Who knew that he would emerge as the hottest pitcher in the league?

Who realized that, even with a loss of velocity -- he wasn't even close to hitting 90 mph tonight when he beat Portland 5-1 -- he would be a better pitcher than he was when he was hitting 93 and 94 on the radar gun a few years back?

---------

Now? Well, it's hard to say exactly what the Phillies have on their hands. His rapid loss of velocity is no doubt a concern, and will make it more difficult for him to succeed at higher levels.

Then again, he seems to be learning to pitch effectively in this new style and he is, after all, just 26 years old.

At the very least, the Phillies have themselves one pretty effective Double-A pitcher. Certainly they were hoping for more, but at least they've gotten something for their money.

My feeling is that there's little chance we'll see Seung Hak here in Ottawa in 2007.

Travis Minix

I've blogged about Travis here (scroll down a bit), and here. Money quote from the scout.com article:

What does Travis Minix have to do to get a shot at the majors? The 29 year old right-hander has consistently put up good numbers, but doesn't seem to be in the Phillies' plans for 2007.

I, unfortunately, must agree. From all the roster speculation that I've found, none of it includes Travis in the bullpen at any level in the Phillies organization.

Joe Bisenius

I first blogged about Joe Bisenius here - at the time he seemed like a lock to start the season in Ottawa. But with an invite to ST, an appearance in the Arizona Fall League and comments from Pat Gillick (which I noted here) it's starting to look like he might have a legitimate shot at making the big club.

Mike Drago of the Reading Eagle blogged about Joe's time in Reading, and PhuturePhillies offers his assessment:

"Since modifying his delivery, he’s added the extra life on his fastball, and it appears that he has a future as a 7th/8th inning setup kind of guy. That would sure be valuable to the Phillies, who in the past, have been ever so eager to give that role to the likes of Mike Williams, Arthur Rhodes, and Turk Wendell, based purely on reputation. If Bisenius has a strong spring, he’s likely to earn a bullpen spot. If he pitches well in April and May, he could find himself in higher leverage situations come the summer. 2007 will be his age 24 season, so he’s still “of prospect age”, but because his future (at this point) is as a middle reliever, you won’t find him on many prospect lists. That’s just fine, because teams need young guys like Bisenius, even if they aren’t heralded as the next Mariano Rivera or the next Miguel Cabrera. Bullpen parts are essential to winning teams, and the Phillies may have plucked a very useful bullpen part out of the 12th round of the draft.

ETA: With a good spring, he makes the team out of spring training. If he struggles, he will probably start at Ottawa, but should make it to Philly by June if he pitches well."

"Are you readddyyyyy?"

Sorry, that's a semi-obscure reference. Zak came charging downstairs yesterday to tell me that Eddy Garabito had hit a homerun in ST. I was surprised; in the thirty or so games we saw last year, I don't think I saw him hit one out - which isn't meant to sound disrespectful, he's just more of a contact hitter. When I asked at who's expense the homer had come, his reaction told me all I needed to know. The smile dissolved, the twinkle in his eye faded, the shoulders slumped. Came the monotone reply:

"Toronto".

Ryan Cameron

We're just about closing out the pitchers, which is good; even though it's only March 5, I'm running out of time. Ryan spent last season in SWB and saved 19 games - his first season as a true "closer". It's not at all clear where he'll end up in 2007 - Ottawa as a closer, or in the Phillies bullpen. My bet is that it'll be a combination of the two, with his season beginning here in Ottawa. Having said that, the Phillies are getting a look at him in ST as one of the non-roster invitees.

From scout.com:

After working his way through the Rockies and Red Sox organizations, Ryan Cameron has now spent two seasons in the Phillies organization. Both have been a success and he could be a surprise candidate for a job in the bullpen.

In the middle part of his minor league career, Ryan Cameron went through a tough stretch that has ultimately prolonged the amount of time it's going to take him to make it to the majors. It's not that Cameron was horrible, but he just wasn't showing anything that made scouts believe that he had a future as a major league pitcher. Since coming to the Phillies though, he has tweaked his delivery and worked hard to impress the organization, going a combined 12-7 with a 2.80 ERA in one season at Double-A Reading and another at Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre. In 2005, Cameron saved a career-high 19 games for Reading and followed that with 7 more saves for Scranton last summer.

Cameron doesn't have a blazing fastball and some scout wonder if he could be an effective closer at the major league level. Instead, they look at Cameron as more of a filler type pitcher in a major league bullpen. Then again, Geoff Geary was long thought of in the same way and he's pitched very well in pressure situations for the Phillies. While he's not on the 40 man roster, Cameron could get a couple of opportunities to pitch with the big league club this spring as they examine every opportunity to add to their bulllpen.

Acquired: Signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent prior to the 2005 season. Was originally drafted by Colorado in the 11th round of the 1998 Draft and was traded to Boston in March of 2003. Became a minor league free agent after the 2004 season and signed with Florida, but was released in spring training.

Repertoire: Cameron doesn't generally blow hitters away, but will occasionally rear back and put a little extra on his fastball. That's not to say that he doesn't get his share of strikeouts as he's averaged just under a strikeout per inning in the minors. Normally, he's in the high 80s to about 90 miles per hour with the fastball. He has a decent slider and decent curve, but neither are above average pitches. What Cameron does have is good movement on his fastball and the ability to spot his pitches well.

Pitching: The key for Cameron is to keep the ball down in the strike zone. In the minors, he's averaged giving up just one homerun every 11 innings and has had a good walks to strikeouts ratio. Last season, his walk ratio was higher than normal, but he was still able to be effective and get hitters out in key spots. With runners on base, opponents hit just .204 against Cameron last season and with runners in scoring position, hitters managed just a .213 average against Cameron. He's calm in tight spots and seems to live for pressure situations.

Projection: There are plenty of relievers who get away with not having a blazing fastball. Cameron has control and movement and those are two keys to getting hitters out. There is no reason to believe that he couldn't help a major league team out as part of their bullpen ensemble, at least against right-handers, since lefties hit .259 against him last season. Cameron would likely be the kind of pitcher who would come in to get an out or two to get out of an inning and then hand it over to someone else.

Jim Crowell

Sorry for the delayed blogging today, but things just never got off the mark this morning and I'm playing "catch-up". Moving up through the pitching ranks, we find Jim Crowell next on our list of prospects. A little history on his journey through baseball, c/o the baseballcube.com:

Signed - Signed as an undrafted free agent by the Cleveland Indians in 1995 Jun 17,1995 - Signed as undrafted amateur Free Agent by Indians. Jul 31,1997 - Traded by Indians with Scott Winchester, Damian Jackson and Danny Graves to Reds for John Smiley and Jeff Branson. Jul 11,2000 - Released by Reds. Jul 22,2000 - Signed as Free Agent by Cardinals. Oct 12,2000 - Released by Cardinals. Nov 16,2000 - Signed as Free Agent by Cardinals. Mar 30,2001 - Released by Cardinals. Apr 23,2001 - Signed as Free Agent by Padres. Jul 2,2001 - Released by Padres. May 1,2002 - Signed by independent Atlantic City (Atlantic) Aug 18,2002 - Purchased by Phillies from Atlantic City (Atlantic). Oct 4,2004 - Granted Free Agency. Nov 23,2004 - Signed as Free Agent by Marlins. Feb 9,2006 - Signed by Nationals (minor)

Somewhere in there they missed the deal that brought him back to the Phillies; he pitched in SWB last season. Here are his stats. Unfortunately, Jim is a player about whom I could find precious little on the 'net. MiLB reports:

"Crowell has spent four of the past five seasons in the Phillies organization, including 2006, going 2-3 with a 3.67 ERA in 40 appearances -- seven starts -- for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The 32-year-old appeared in four games for the Phillies in 2004 and two games for the Reds in 1997. "

We also know that he's one of the non-roster invitees to ST, so I'll try to update his profile with stats and recaps of his performances. The thing is, there's always a "story" out there - I just haven't found his yet.

Allen Davis - David vs. Goliath

Sorry about the late post today - here's the profile on Allen Davis. Allen started last year in SWB, but struggled early and was sent down to Reading, which allowed Cole Hamels to move up to AAA. As most of you are aware, Hamels made it all the way to the Phillies and is assured of a spot in the starting rotation. You're probably curious about the title of the post, but let's start with some context. From scout.com in late 2005:

"Allen Davis was signed by the Phillies after last season and at 29 years of age, probably isn’t on the Phillies prospect radar, but he has certainly made the case for himself. He spent last season in an independent league and admittedly just wanted to survive the rigors of Double-A this year.

“My goal this season was just to survive. I haven’t pitched well all year, but I got better as the year went on. In independent ball, the 4 or 5 hitters can hurt you but then it’s [with no disrespect to independent players intended] a lot of guys who probably shouldn’t be playing. At this level, there really aren’t any breaks for pitchers. Everybody in the lineup can beat you,” said Davis.

The entire article is here.

The thing that I found curious in reviewing his stats was that there was a big gaping hole in 2003 - he was out of baseball. Here's why:

"He was 2-2 with a 2.89 ERA after eight starts for the Harrisburg (Pa.) Senators in the 2001 season, when disaster struck. With two outs in the ninth inning of his eighth start, Davis felt a pop in his elbow. He got a game-ending ground ball on the next pitch, but “it was the worst pain I ever felt,” said Davis.

“Everything was going great, he’d pitched a great game, here I am thinking we’re heading to Triple A,” remembered Nikki, “and Allen told me he couldn’t even move his arm.”

Facing a major injury is a fear of every athlete, especially a 25-year-old minor league pitcher who can hear the clock ticking. As it turned out, overcoming the injury was only half the battle for the Davis family.

The cash-strapped Montreal organization agreed to pay for an MRI evaluation of his elbow, but team doctors told him it was a relatively minor injury and recommended arthroscopic surgery. Three months after the procedure, Davis knew he had bigger problems, but the Expos medical staff felt otherwise, telling him he’d be fine by spring training. He wasn’t, and although he continued to question the initial diagnosis, the Expos stood their ground.

Davis couldn’t pitch effectively in 2002. But because he was able to pitch at all, the Expos believed they had no liability, and released him. Suddenly, he was an unemployed 26-year-old with a wife.

Allen and Nikki came home to Texas and he took a job at a Home Depot store. His arm still throbbed, there were bills to pay and seemingly no future in baseball.

If you don't read anything else on the 'net today, please read the rest of his story - which, by the way, isn't finished yet.

The only schedule that matters

Date------Opponent--------------------------Location

March 14 Toronto farm teams ------------AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
March 15 Toronto farm teams-------------AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 16 Tampa Bay farm teams---------AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 17 Toronto farm teams-------------AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
March 18 Toronto farm teams-------------AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 19 Tampa Bay farm teams---------AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
March 20 Tampa Bay farm teams--------AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 21 New York Yankees farm teams--AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
March 22 New York Yankees farm teams----AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 23 Toronto farm teams-------------AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
March 24 Toronto farm teams-------------AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 25 Intrasquad games
March 26 New York Yankees farm teams----AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
March 27 New York Yankees farm teams----AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 28 Toronto farm teams-------------AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
March 29 Toronto farm teams-------------AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 30 Tampa Bay farm teams---------AAA/AA away, A home 1 p.m.
March 31 Tampa Bay farm teams----------AAA/AA home, A away 1 p.m.
April 1 Intrasquad games

(Sorry about the crappy appearance - adding items formatted as "tables" is near impossible.)

The 25 best men - is Chris Coste one of them?

Regular readers will know that as far as I'm concerned that question is settled. However, from yesterday's Chester County, Pennsylvania edition of the DailyLocal.com:

Dobbs’ quick start is reminiscent of the way Chris Coste busted out of the gate last spring with big, clutch hits. Ironically, Dobbs’ emergence might put Coste’s status for the opening day roster in serious peril.

In fact, Coste almost concedes that he is going to open the season in Triple-A Ottawa.

“Even with a good spring, it might not matter,” said Coste, who didn’t get so much as a plate appearance while making Thursday’s road trip. “I pay attention. I know who has a chance, and who has less of a chance. It’s tough to see (the Phillies) filling the roster with a third catcher.

“Last year, it was an extra outfielder (David Dellucci, acquired in a trade just before the start of the season) that got me sent down. Knowing that, I could be Canadian (playing for Ottawa).”

It’s difficult to fathom how Coste could be so large an underdog for the roster after hitting .328 with seven homers and 32 RBIs for the Phils last season when he took over a majority of the catching duties during the team’s impressive stretch run.

The 34-year-old believes no one was hurt more by the Phillies’ failure to reach the postseason than him, that starting games in October would have created enough exposure to cement a big league job somewhere.

“It was difficult from a team standpoint not to make the playoffs,” Coste said, “and it was even more so from an individual standpoint. Imagine if we’re in the playoffs, or the World Series, and I’m catching all of those games?

“Individually, I don’t think anyone lost more by not making (the postseason) than me.”

Manuel, publicly a big Coste backer, said that he would consider taking six extra position players and 11 pitchers into the season if he felt it was best for the team.

“We could do that, especially at the start of the season,” Manuel said. “We’re going to take our 25 best men.”

Kane Davis

See what I mean? -8C overcast and snowing yesterday. Today, about +2C, sunny and all that snow is starting to melt. But some things never change - I still suck at cross-country skiing.

Today's profile is of Kane Davis who is, apparently, no relation to our next profiled pitcher, Allen Davis. You can find his stats at the baseball cube. Surprisingly, the Canadian Sportsnet website has a nice profile of him, including:

"For someone with so little major-league experience, he has remarkable poise with runners aboard. He shows no fear against righties, who are growing to fear him. Unfortunately, his poise with runners aboard abandons him when the game is on the line in the late innings. Also, while right-handed hitters may fear him, lefties love him."

Beerleaguer gives a nice chronology of his career -

"Originally a 13th-round pick of the Pirates, Davis has pitched in 96 major league games, most recently with Milwaukee in 2005. The signing was first reported by Jayson Stark of ESPN.com.

The 6-3 right-hander saw most of his action with Colorado in 2001, going 2-4 with a 4.35 ERA in 57 appearances, all in relief. In addition, he’s pitched with Cleveland, Milwaukee and the Mets, most recently with the Brewers in 2005, where he went 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 16 2-3 innings.

Following the season, the Brewers re-signed him to a one-year, $375,000 non-guaranteed deal. However, he never made it past spring training due to shoulder tendinitus and was placed on waivers. He finished the season pitching for Somerset of the independent Atlantic League."

Finally, a bit of video from yesterday's action c/o ESPN (only recommended if you've got broadband.

Floridarizona

We are covered in a fresh blanket of snow but ah... I can smell the grass.

My calendar tells me that it is six and a half weeks until Opening Day here in Ottawa. Oh boy. This time of year, in seasons past, I would find myself scrounging around on-line and in the paper for any tidbit of information regarding what my Lynx were going to offer me once the gates opened. I often had to be a detective, a veritable Sherlock Holmes, scanning sports pages and attempting to decipher clues. I always approach April with a crazy kind of curiosity. What would the starting infield look like? Who are our big hitters? Who would our aces be, and, you know, always a stab in the dark, who is our closer? It used to be a lot of work.

My co-conspirator, the head honcho of this web log, the celebrated Mister K has done all the dirty work this year. The fact that he has posted every single day of the off-season amazes me. I mean, how much baseball is there to talk about in these dark doldrums of winter in Canada? As it turns out, quite a lot actually. The man does his homework. Good on ya, CK. This Ottawa Lynx Blog is a good resource, if I do say so meself...

So... Spring Training has started. I have started listening to and watching some of the games on my computer. I am watching Pirates games and hoping that Eddy Garabito steps up for at least a pinch hit (a tidbit: #64 - he got himself a hit today.... tagged out at a bang bang play at home...) I am keeping an eye out for last seasons boys. I read the Orioles box scores and check out how their invitees are making out. It is tricky to keep track of the team this year, what with the Lynx change in affiliation. I only know our future team via their performances at Scranton Wilkes-Barre last season, and mostly at home games in my park which was what? 6 or 8 contests? I remember names like Chris Coste, Dusty Wathan and Ron Calloway, but as for the rest of the squad, I might be lost. Good thing CK is here to tell us what is up and who is where. I write for this blog but am also a fan of it to boot.

This 2007 season will present me with a new learning curve. Learning names as well as jersey numbers of our players and trying to memorize both. It will take a home-stand or two to make marking it all down in my score book as smooth as it was last April. But that is pretty fun too, I guess. I had an interesting if complicated time of it when we switched from the Expos to the Orioles four seasons ago, asking myself: "Joey Hammond? Who is he? Darnell MacDonald? Steve Lomasney and Bill Pulsipher? I hope they work out. But hey, that Brian Roberts guy looks pretty good..."

I will do a better job of contributing to this web log once the season starts, once I am seated comfortably in section EE trying to juggle my camera, score-book and pop-corn. That is where the real fun begins. I am enjoying reading box-scores in the paper this week. Sports Illustrated has been increasing the inches of their baseball columns. This is good. It has been a long winter. We are happy to find baseball in the press again, early on in Spring Training or not. Sure, we are under fifteen centimeters of snow today but keeping an eye on Florida and Arizona, you get the feeling that the thaw will be along soon, where everything will be good again. Everything will be green again.

Today's line

Just a quick post on a couple of ST results. The Phillies beat the Indians 6-4, with J.A. Happ pitching 2 innings giving up a hit and recording one K. Here's the recap of yesterday's opening loss to the Tigers.

The line on the prospects (c/o PhuturePhillies)

Michael Bourn: 1/2, 1 R
Fabio Castro: 3 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 K
Anderson Garcia: 1 IP, 3 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 1 K
Brian Sanches: 1 IP, 2 ER, 1 K

Gotta go shovel, wax the skis for tomorrow and then take the kids to the 67s game....

John Ennis

This will probably be the "one and only" today, for reasons entirely unrelated to the weather. I've always said that March is the cruelest month of all - one day it's +10C and sunny, the next day -10C with a foot of snow. I gotta get outta here.

Today's profile is of pitching prospect John Ennis. Digging around, I found this (brief) article detailing his first ML start with the Atlanta Braves (coincidentally, his opponents were the Phillies).

Fast-forwarding to 2007, John finds himself as one of Philadelphia's non-roster invitees to Spring Training - more from the Lynx website:

"Ennis has spent the last three seasons in Detroit's minor league system, splitting 2006 between triple-A Toledo and double-A Erie. He went 2-4 with 13 saves and a 2.71 ERA in 46 games. Ennis, 27, spent part of the 2002 season with the Braves (0-0, 4.50) and part of 2004 with the Tigers (0-0, 8.44 ERA)."

You can catch a brief glimpse of him in this myspace video which chronicles Toledo's 2005 season (he's wearing number 49).

2005 Toledo Mud Hens

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First "game" in ST

PhuturePhillies has the recap of last night's games against Florida State University (the game Patrick was practically salivating over). If I had a payroll, I would put this guy on it - he's broken down the stats for all the Phillies prospects. I'll steal and paste:

Kyle Drabek: 2 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K
Alfredo Simon: 2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K
Joe Bisenius: 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K
Jim Ed Warden: 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Michael Bourn: 2 AB, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 RBI, 1 R,

James, I salute you. We are most decidedly, not worthy.

Jeff Farnsworth

Okay, enough fun and games - it's back to business. We're moving up the roster through the pitching staff and the next name we find is Jeff Farnsworth. It's pretty rare that I go to MLB.com for profile information, but here's a good recent piece about Jeff:

Jeff Farnsworth celebrated his 10th season in professional baseball in 2006 by posting one of the best years of his career with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights.
Used exclusively as a reliever for the first time since he appeared in 44 games for the Detroit Tigers in 2002, Farnsworth went 7-3 with 14 saves for the International League South champions.

He kept rolling along while pitching for the Pastora de los Llanos in the Venezuelan Winter League, going 4-2 with seven saves and a 2.51 ERA in 32 1/3 innings.

His solid winter season was highlighted by 15 straight appearances without allowing an earned run from Nov. 9-Dec. 21. That streak came to an end the next day, when he yielded two runs on three hits and a walk to endure a tough loss against the Caribes de Oriente. The 31-year-old righty returned to action on Dec. 27 and fanned one without allowing a run in 1 1/3 innings against the Tiburones de La Guaira.

Of course, he's no longer a White Sox prospect, but let's not nit pick - he was picked up after the story was written.

Phillyburbs.com also has a recent story about his time in Clearwater and the other Farnsworth in the bigs, Kyle - no relation.

"With Farnsworth contemplating retirement, a last-gasp visit to a specialist led to a discovery of severe scar tissue in his pitching elbow, a problem that built up following 1997 Tommy John surgery.

September 2004 surgery fixed this, but Farnsworth pitched in the independent Atlantic League for a second season in 2005, then was set to return last season before being signed by the White Sox out of a tryout camp. With an improved fastball, he spent the season at Triple-A Charlotte, going 7-3 with a 4.71 ERA in 48 games."

James (J.A.) Happ - UPDATED

It turns out, I'm tough to make happy. I cringe when there's little information on a player (e.g. the last post on Landon Jacobsen), and I cringe when there's a ton - J.A. Happ falls into the latter category. There's a lot of information on J.A./James - but no consensus on what his first name is. Does he go by J.A. or James? I'm going to go way out on a limb and guess his nickname is "Happy".

Anyway.

As usual, PhuturePhillies has the best analysis:

Happ turned 24 in October, which means his 2007 will be his age 24 season. Happ was drafted in the 3rd round out of Northwestern University in 2004, and had racked up several accolades as a college pitcher, including being the first Wildcat to be named to the All Big Ten team three years in a row. Upon leaving school, Happ ranked near the top of every category in school history for pitchers.

Happ’s freshman year of college, he was used primarily as a reliever, starting only 3 of 21 games in which he appeared. From 2003-2004, he started 28 games, threw 177 innings, posted a 3.10 ERA, and posted an impressive 200:66 strikeout to walk rate. Still, Happ flew under the radar a bit, having not pitched for a baseball juggernaut and not completely dominated in the Big Ten. The Phillies snatched him up in the 3rd round and assigned him to short season Batavia. He pitched just 32.2 innings, but was strong enough to put up a 2.02 ERA, allowing only 22 hits and striking out 37. The Phillies assigned him to Lakewood to start 2005, and he responded with a 2.36 ERA in 72.1 innings, again giving up fewer hits than innings (55 hits) and again striking out 70 in the 72 innings. Happ saw his control return to collegiate form, and more importantly, gave up only 3 HR. The Phillies game him 1 start in Reading at the end of the year, and he responded with 6 innings, allowing 1 run, striking out 8 and walking 2. To start 2006, the Phillies were a bit cautious, sending Happ to Clearwater. He pitched 80 innings, posting a 2.81 ERA, allowing 63 hits and 19 BB while striking out 77 and allowing a surprising 9 HR. He was promoted to Reading mid season, and his numbers actually improved. He pitched 74.2 innings at Reading, posting a 2.65 ERA, allowing 58 hits, 29 walks, and striking out an impressive 81 hitters, while allowing only 2 home runs. He capped his season by making one start at Scranton, pitching 6 innings, allowing 1 run (a home run) with 4 strikeouts and 1 walk.

You can read the rest over there.

Just promise to come back.
Whoa. That reeked of desperation - like that first girlfriend, pleading: "Call me?". Wait. Come to think of it, that was me too.

Nevermind.

*** UPDATE ***

We have a second player/blogger in camp. It seems that Mr. Happ is blogging his Spring Training camp experience. Hat tip: emailer.

I gotta have more cowbell, baby!

In case you haven't contracted baseball fever yet, this oughta' do it. It's a radio interview from Opening Day, April 6, 2006. Three Guys on the Radio are joined by Kyle Bostwick, who manages to hold his own even though Jim Jerome is chiming in from Edmonton every once in a while - no easy feat. Have a listen, if this doesn't get you in the mood for ball, I don't know what will.

Clearly, I've got the fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell . Sorry, but any excuse to play the SNL video will do...