Stars from April 7
Reading (AA) beat Bowie 6-3 in 10 innings.
Carlos Carrasco gave up just one run on three hits and struck out seven in five innings.
Patrick Overholt (1-0) pitched 2.1 scoreless innings in relief.
Brad Harman, Lou Marson, and Greg Golson all had two hits in the game.
Other Notes
Andrew Carpenter starts for Reading tonight.
Jason Donald reportedly left Monday's game with an injury.
Former Threshers Carlos Carrasco and Greg Golson are doing well so far and are getting noticed.
David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News has a story. Ken Mandel also has a story for MLB.com.
The Allentown Morning Call is getting ready for the start of Lehigh Valley Ironpigs baseball with a look at who might be on their roster as they open up Coca-Cola Park.
In the story, they get a quote (below) from Steve Noworyta that indicates where former Threshers Josh Outman, Carlos Carrasco, Andrew Carpenter, Joe Bisenius, and J.A. Happ will likely start the 2008 season.
"The Outmans, the Carrascos, the Carpenters, those types of player are still going to be in Double-A. This club is more the [Jason] Jaramillos and the [Joe] Biseniuses and the J.A.] Happs, those types of guys sprinkled in with the free agents that we've signed."
The Phillies have announced that they are inviting 19 non-roster players to Spring Training in Clearwater, Florida.
Seven former Threshers are on the list.
They are:
Pitchers: Carlos Carrasco and Josh Outman
Catchers: Tuffy Gosewisch, Tim Gradoville, and Lou Marson
Infielder: Jason Donald
Outfielder: Greg Goslon
Eight more former Threshers are currently on the Phillies 40-man roster indicating that they to will also be at Phillies Spring Training in 2008.
They are: Joe Bisenius, Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ, Kyle Kendrick, Scott Mathieson, Mike Zagurski, Brad Harman, and Chris Roberson.
Chris Kline of Baseball America has named the Phillies Top 10 Prospects for 2007 and many names should look familiar to Threshers' fans.
Former Threshers on the Top 10 list include Carlos Carrasco (1), Josh Outman (4), Dominic Brown (6), Greg Golson (7), Lou Marson (8), and Andrew Carpenter (9).
Included in the story is a 'best-of' list in a variety of categories.
Former Threshers include:
Greg Golson | Best Power Hitter, Fastest Baserunner, Best Athlete, Best Defensive Outfielder, and Best Outfield Arm
Carlos Carrasco | Best Fastball and Best Changeup
Josh Outman | Best Slider
Andrew Carpenter | Best Control
Kline also forecasts the Phillies 2011 lineup and if his projection holds, some former Clearwater folks will be mighty happy. Lou Marson is listed as the catcher, while Dominic Brown is at center field. Former Threshers would make up three-fifths of the starting rotation with Hamels (1), Carrasco (3), and Outman (5).
Cole Hamels was Baseball America's Top Phillies prospect last season.
Baseball America has released their Florida State League Top 20 Prospects List for 2007.
Former Threshers pitchers Carlos Carrasco (# 6) and Josh Outman (# 14) are the lone Phillies representatives on the list.
Two upcoming FIL Games set for tomorrow, October 3 and Thursday, October 4 have been moved away from their regular 1:00pm starts and will now begin at 11:00am at Bright House Networks Field.
Threshers Antonio Bastardo, Jason Donald, and Brad Harman are currently on the FIL roster as well as former Threshers Carlos Carrasco, Welinson Baez, Dominic Brown, and Arlon Quiroz.
The current Poll Question on the Official Site asks, "Who is your 2007 Threshers Starting Pitcher of the Year?"
The three choices are:
(1) Andrew Carpenter
(2) Carlos Carrasco
(3) Josh Outman
Andrew Carpenter - Led the Florida State League in wins with 17.
Carlos Carrasco - His WHIP (Walks-Hits Per Innings Pitched) of 1.02 led Threshers starters.
Josh Outman - Led the FSL with a 2.45 ERA.
Who would you pick? Vote now on the Official Site and talk about your choice in the comments section under this post.
Former Thresher Mike Zagurski has won the Paul Owens Award for best pitcher in the Phillies minor league system in 2007.
Zagurski started the season in Clearwater and made 12 appearances for the Threshers as a reliever. He struck out 30 in 16.1 innings of work holding FSL batters to a .113 average. He gave up just six hits and two earned runs good for a 1.10 ERA. Zagurksi had five saves for the Threshers before his promotion to Reading (Double-A).
He played in just six games for the R-Phils before being brought up to the Major League roster. Over the next few months he spent a majority of his time (25 appearances) with the Phillies, but also spent time (seven appearances) with the Ottawa Lynx (Triple-A). He was on the major league roster when an injury ended his season in late August.
Past winners of the Paul Owens Award include former Threshers Carlos Carrasco, Chris Roberson, and Cole Hamels.
The Florida Instructional League Schedule and Roster has been released.
The Blue Jays, Pirates, Yankees, and Devil Rays organizations make up the rest of the Northern Division of the FIL.
Home Games for the FIL Phillies will be played at Bright House Networks Field.
The FIL Phillies have home games on:
Tuesday (9/25)
Thursday (9/27)
Friday (9/28)
Saturday (9/29)
Monday (10/1)
Wednesday (10/3)
Thursday (10/4)
Monday (10/8)
Thursday (10/11)
Saturday (10/13)
Tuesday (10/16)
Monday-Friday games start at 1:00pm, while Saturday games start at 10:00am.
Current Clearwater Threshers on the FIL Phillies roster include: Andrew Carpenter, Jason Donald, and Brad Harman.
Former Clearwater Threshers on the FIL Phillies roster include: Carlos Carrasco, Tuffy Gosewisch, Welinson Baez, Dominic Brown, and Arlon Quiroz.
The Official Site's current poll question asks, "Who was the Threshers first half MVP?"
Through 55 votes, the leader is Carlos Carrasco with nearly 35% of the vote.
Greg Golson, Andrew Carpenter, and Jeremy Slayden are all at a virtual tie at around 17% of the vote. Lou Marson follows with nearly 10% of the vote. Josh Outman has fallen to the back with just over 5% of the vote.
Who did you vote for? Do you think anyone was missing from the list of choices?
If you haven't voted yet. Visit the Official Site now to make your choice!
Chris Girandola had a story about the FSL in today's St. Petersburg Times and information about the Clearwater Threshers took up most of the article.
Jeremy Slayden's HR Derby championship last weekend was the focus of the article, but former Thresher Carlos Carrasco and the rest of our All-Stars were also mentioned.
Check out the whole article here.
Former Threshers pitcher Carlos Carrasco has just been named to the World Team for the 2007 All-Star Futures Game.
The game will be played on Sunday, July 8 during the Major League All-Star Weekend in San Francisco. The game is scheduled for a 4:00pm start and will be shown live on ESPN2.
See the whole World Team roster here.
The first half of the 2007 Clearwater Threshers season is officially in the books.
Record and Attendance
The Threshers finished the first half with a 39-31 (.557) record which was good for third place just four games behind the division-winning Sarasota Reds.
At home the Threshers were 20-14 (.588). The Threshers road record was 19-17 (.528).
The Threshers had 32 openings at Bright House Networks Field and announced a total of 79,525 guests which works out to an average of 2,485 which puts us slightly behind the Daytona Cubs.
Hitting
Greg Golson led the team in games (69), at-bats (292), runs (45), hits (77), doubles (19), total bases (121), and stolen bases (20). These stats also put him near the top of the FSL in the all of those categories.
Jeremy Slayden led the team in home runs (8), RBIs (42), walks (43), and on-base percentage (.398). Those stats also put him near the top of the FSL in all of those categories. He also has the longest hitting streak of any Threshers player this season. He was 20 for 42 for a .476 batting average during a twelve game period between April 28 and May 9. He also hit three home runs during that span. He made it on-base at least once 24 games in a row between April 23 and May 17.
Mike Spidale led the team in triples with four. That puts him in eighth place in the FSL. He also had the best batting average on the team with runners on base (.312) and with runners in scoring position and two outs (.323).
Clay Harris was the best hitter with the bases loaded. He hit .333 and had eight RBIs in those situations.
Lou Marson was the best hitter (.328) with runners in scoring position. Marson also had the fourth-best caught stealing/stolen bases efficiency stats in the FSL (.333).
Matt Thayer was the best hitter at home (.321).
Welinson Baez was the best hitter on the road (.286).
Threshers batters combined to put Clearwater in the top half of the FSL in runs (314), doubles (116), triples (19), RBIs (293), walks (226), and stolen bases (56).
Pitching
Andrew Carpenter led the FSL in wins with seven.
Josh Outman led the team in ERA (2.79), Innings Pitched (80.2), and Strikeouts (78). Those stats put him near the top of the FSL in all of those categories. His opponents batting avereage of .143 led Threshers pitchers when facing a situation with runners in scoring position.
Brett Harker led the team in saves with 11.
Carlos Carrasco led the team in WHIP (1.02). He was the best pitcher on the mound with runners on base on allowing them to hit .195 against him in those situations.
Threshers pitching was in the top half of the FSL in ERA (3.69), hits allowed (555), runs allowed (285), earned runs (250), strikeouts (520), and WHIP (1.31). The Threshers led the league or were tied for the league lead in shutouts (8) and saves (26).
All-Stars
Carlos Carrasco, Andrew Carpenter, Patrick Overholt, Lou Marson, and Jeremy Slayden were named to the 2007 FSL West Division All-Star Team. Patrick Overholt did not make the trip due to his promotion to Reading, and Greg Golson was added to the team later as an injury replacement. Slayden won the Home Run Derby.
Award Winners
FSL Pitcher of the Week - Josh Outman
Phillies Minor Leauge Pitcher of the Week - Daniel Brauer, Patrick Overholt, Zac Stott, Carlos Carrasco (twice)
Phillies Minor League Player of the Week- Clay Harris
Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Month - Patrick Overholt (April), Zac Stott (May)
Phillies Minor League Player of the Month - Greg Golson (April)
Fun Facts
The Threshers were undefeated (33-0) when leading after eight innings.
The Threshers were 33-11 when scoring first.
The most runs that the Threshers scored in a game was 11. This happened April 26 at Lakeland and June 14 at Dunedin.
The most hits that the Threshers recorded in a game was 15.
The Threshers best month in the win-loss column was April. Their record was 16-8 (.667).
Threshers batters were hottest in the month of May with a .266 combined batting average.
Threshers pitchers were hottest in the month of April with a combined 2.29 ERA.
Good news keeps rolling for Carlos Carrasco. Not only was he promoted to Reading (Double-A) today, he was also named Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Week for June 11 through June 17.
You might recall that Carrasco was honored with this same award two weeks ago, but it's hard to pass up a guy who had a three hitter in a complete game shutout during his one start of the week. He also had seven strikeouts that night.
Look for a story on the Official Site shortly.
Just looked back into the blog archives and it appears that I haven't updated the transaction list since the end of May.
Here's what's happened since then, sorted by player (alphabetical by last name) rather than date.
Dominic Brown was promoted from Extended Spring on June 13 and then returned on June 15.
Brian Burgamy was added from Reading on June 19.
Carlos Carrasco was promoted to Reading today (June 20).
Jason Donald was promoted from Lakewood on June 4.
Sergio Escalona was added from Extended Spring on June 13 and then returned on June 14.
Orlando Guevara was placed on the DL on June 14.
Brett Harker began serving 3 game suspension on June 12.
Fidel Hernandez was sent to Lakewood on June 8.
Kevin Howard was added from Lakewood on June 18.
Tim Kennelly was added from Extended Spring on June 14. He was returned on June 15, and then sent back to us on June 18.
Hector Made was activated from the suspended list on June 8.
Patrick Overholt was promoted to Reading on June 14.
Carlos Pena was added from Extended Spring on June 14 and then returned on June 15.
Pete Shier was released on June 4.
Michael Spidale was promoted to Reading on June 13.
Matt Thayer was placed on the DL on June 18.
Luis Villarreal signed as a minor league free agent on June 18.
Charlie Weatherby promoted to Ottawa on June 4.
To recap from last update:
Currently on the Threshers roster: Brian Burgamy, Jason Donald, Kevin Howard, Tim Kennelly, Hector Made, and Luis Villarreal.
No longer on the Threshers roster: Carlos Carrasco, Fidel Hernandez, Patrick Overholt, Pete Shier, Mike Spidale, and Charlie Weatherby.
Some background on our new players:
Brian Burgamy - Burgamy is a 5'10" 190lb outfielder from Oklahoma. He played his college ball at Wichita State before being selected by the Padres in the ninth round of the 2002 draft. He came to the Phillies via the Rule 5 Draft in 2005. He will be celebrating his 26th birthday one week from today. He should look familiar to Threshers fans as he did spend most of the 2006 season with us in Clearwater before being called up to Reading to finish the year.
Jason Donald - Donald is a 6'1" 190lb shortstop from California. He was drafted by the Angels in the 20th round of the 2003 draft but decided to go to school instead. He played his college ball at Arizona before being selected by the Phillies in the third round of the 2006 draft. He was batting .310 for Lakewood through 51 games which helped him earn South Atlantic League Player of the Week and Phillies Minor League Player of the Week honors before his promotion. He was an All-Star for Batavia in the New York-Penn League in 2006.
Kevin Howard - Howard is 6'2" 190lb infielder from California. He was drafted by the Padres in the 22nd round of the 1999 draft, but decided to go to school instead. The Reds selected him in the fifth round of the 2002 draft after he played several years for Miami. He was traded to the Yankees prior to the 2006 season. He signed with the Phillies as a minor league free agent in 2007. He has been honored with numerous awards throughout his career in high school, college, and the minors including Baseball America's Freshman of the Year award in 2000. He has also seen time with major league clubs during Spring Training. He was batting .317 for Lakewood prior to the promotion.
Tim Kennelly - Kennelly is a 6'0" 180lb catcher from Australia. He was signed as an a free agent by the Phillies near the end of the 2003 season. He started his professional career with the Phillies as part of the GCL Phillies in 2005 and since then has moved his way up through Batavia and Lakewood. He will turn 21 in December.
Hector Made - Made is a 6'1" 155lb infielder from the Dominican. He came to the Phillies in the Sal Fasano trade with the Yankees nearly 11 months ago. He was immediately assigned to the Threshers stayed with us through the rest of the season.
Luis Villarreal - Villarreal is a 6'1" 215lb left-handed pitcher from Texas. He was originally selected out of Northwood University by the Red Sox in the 20th round of the 2002 draft. He was released by the Red Sox just after Spring Training in 2004 after just two seasons in the system. He spent the next three seasons playing Independent ball in the Frontier and Northern Leagues before being signed by the Brewers prior to the 2007 season. He split the season between their Triple-A and Double-A affiliates before being released.
Carlos Carrasco was just named Phillies Minor League Pitcher of the Week for May 28 - June 3. This marks the fourth time this season that a current Thresher has been honored with this award.
He has yet to give up a run to the Dunedin Blue Jays. In two starts against the D-Jays he has given up a total of five hits and struck out nine.
Check the Official Site later for a full release.
The Florida State League has announced the 2007 East and West All-Star Teams.
Five Clearwater Threshers players are on the list for the West Division All-Stars:
Pitchers:
Carlos Carrasco
Andrew Carpenter
Patrick Overholt
Catcher:
Lou Marson
Designated Hitter:
Jeremy Slayden
The 2007 FSL All-Star Game will be on Saturday, June 16 at 7:05pm. This year's All-Star Game will be hosted by the Daytona Cubs at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
Updated at 1:10pm: Check the Official Site for the full release.
The top two teams in the FSL West are set to meet for a three-game series that starts tonight at 7:00pm at Bright House Networks Field. The Sarasota Reds currently lead the Threshers in the standings by one game.
The Threshers and Reds have met up six times already this season, with the Reds leading the series four games to two.
Threshers starters Patrick Overholt and Carlos Carrasco picked up both of the wins. Former closer Michael Zagurski picked up both saves.
Mike Spidale is probably the happiest Threshers' batter to see Sarasota pitching. In his five games against the Reds this season, he's batting .350.
Keep your eye on Jay Bruce of the Reds. He's batting .455 with 4 home runs in six games against Threshers pitching. Threshers batters have struggled against Johnny Cueto and Carlos Fisher. Between the two, they've struck out 19 Threshers. More importantly, the Threshers haven't scored a run against either Cueto or Fisher. There is good news though, Fisher was promoted to Chattanooga (AA) a week or so ago, and he pitched yesterday, so the chances of him taking the mound this weekend at Bright House Networks Field are very slim.
Saturdays are always exciting at Bright House Networks Field, because those are usually our highest attended games of the week. We have post-game fireworks scheduled for every Saturday of the season this year, except August 4th (Bark at the Ballpark II). Saturday game times have moved to 6:30pm this year, with Gates Opening at 5:00pm.
There are several groups on the schedule tonight including a few birthday parties, as well as Plumb Elementary School and Top Notch Pest Control.
I'll update if I hear anything about the lineup or who is scheduled to pitch tonight. I did see that Jon Lieber pitched three and two-thirds innings yesterday in Dunedin. He gave up four hits, but also struck out four. Greg Golson had another good game yesterday. He had two hits, including a double in his five at-bats. Golson also scored another run. Newcomers Clay Harris (1B) and Jeremy Slayden (DH) hit their first home runs as Threshers yesterday as well. Slayden went three for five with three RBIs on the night.
Updated at 1:15pm: Just got word that Carlos Carrasco is the scheduled starter for the Threshers tonight. This will be his first start for the Threshers. Carrasco spent the 2006 season at Lakewood where he was 12-6 with a 2.26 ERA. He struck out 159 batters while only giving up 103 hits and 65 walks.
Updated at 8:00pm: Just heard the HR music. Greg Golson just hit his first of the year.
Updated at 9:50pm: Tonight's ballgame, Launch-A-Ball, and a fantastic fireworks show are now over. It's an early night at Bright House Networks Field as the crowd of 3,380 heads home to get out of the mid-50 degree weather. The Blue Jays come up on top tonight 5-3. The loss drops the Threshers record to 1-2. Chris Coste, who is down here on a rehab assignment, and Jeremy Slayden led the Threshers batters tonight. They both were two for four with a run scored. Carrasco had a solid start tonight. After walking two batters in the first inning, he settled down and only walked one more batter in his five and two-thirds innings of work. He also struck out four and only gave up three hits. He gave up zero runs on the night.
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