The National High School Baseball Coaches Association has released their 2007 All-American Team(s).
Travis D'Arnaud, the Phillies second selection in the first round of the 2007 draft was named to the second team while second round pick, Travis Mattair, was named to the third team.
Both played for the GCL Phillies after signing this summer.
Jake Blalock has signed with the Phillies as a minor league free agent and is re-joining the Clearwater Threshers roster.
He spent the 2005 season with the Threshers, batting .279 with 11 home runs and 65 RBIs. He was the focus of one of the two cover shots on the Threshers game program in 2006.
Jake was originally a fifth round pick of the Phillies in 2002. He was working his way up the organizational ladder from the GCL Phillies, to Batavia, and finally Lakewood before arriving in Clearwater in 2005. He saw some action for the major league club in Spring Training and was traded just prior to the beginning of the 2006 season. He was part of the deal with the Texas Rangers that brought David Dellucci to the Phillies. He was assigned to Frisco (Double-A) and stayed there for the whole 2006 season.
This season, Jake has split the season between Bakersfield (Single-A), Frisco (Double-A), and Wichita (Double-A).
His brother is major-leaguer Hank Blalock.
Matt Thayer returned to the Clearwater Threshers lineup yesterday after missing over a month with an injury.
Thayer last saw action with the Threshers on May 21 in St. Lucie.
He played both DH and LF yesterday in the win against the Miracle, getting one hit in his four at-bats.
Thayer rehabbed with the GCL Phillies on July 3 and 4. He hit .333 and scored four runs in Gulf Coast League action.
It's been a few days since our last roster update.
Here are the recent transactions:
June 23
Nic Jackson placed on the DL.
June 25
Arlon Quiroz sent to the GCL Phillies.
June 26
Javon Moran sent to Reading.
Cory Willey promoted to Reading.
Alex Concepcion promoted from Lakewood.
Shaun Boyd signed as a minor league free agent.
John Suomi acquired in a trade with Washington.
Some background on our new players:
Alex Concepcion - Concepcion is a 6'1" 180lb right-handed pitcher from the Dominican Republic. He signed with the Phillies in 2003 and spent his first two professional seasons in the Dominican Summer League with Guanuma. He played for the GCL Phillies in Clearwater in 2005 and with Batavia in 2006. Prior to his promotion, he spent the 2007 season coming out of the bullpen for Lakewood. He was 3-1 with a 3.83 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 40 innings.
Shaun Boyd - Boyd is a 5'10" 175lb outfielder from Las Vegas. A former first round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals, Boyd spent seven years in their minor league system starting with Johnson City (Rookie) in 2000 to Memphis (Triple-A) in 2006. The Cardinals released him after the 2006 season. Prior to his signing with the Phillies, he had been playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the indepedent Atlantic League. He leaves the Bluefish with a .345 batting average and an active 11-game hitting streak.
John Suomi - Suomi is a 5'11" 199lb catcher from Toronto. He played his college ball in Canada at Caribou University-College in British Columbia. He was drafted by the A's in the 22nd round of the 2000 draft. By 2004, he had risen as high high as Modesto (Single-A) where he was a California League All-Star. His career came to crashing halt when he suffered a major knee injury during a play at the plate during the playoffs. The injury caused him to miss the entire 2005 season. By 2006 he was back in Single-A in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Prior to the trade between Philadelphia and Washington, he had been splitting the season between Harrisburg (Double-A) and Columbus (Triple-A).
Have some time to recap some of our recent transactions. Reader SF Fan in FL noted one of them (Moran) in a comment from another post.
June 22
PJ Antoniato added from Lakewood.
Jesus Sanchez sent back to GCL Phillies.
Arlon Quiroz added from the GCL Phillies.
June 23
Javon Moran added from GCL Phillies rehab assignment.
Some background on our new players:
PJ Antoniato - Antoniato is a 5'9" 1865lb third baseman from Levittown, NY. He turns 24 one week from today. He split time playing college ball with Briarcliffe College and St. John's University. The Phillies selected him in the 15th round of the 2005 draft. Antoniato should look familiar to Threshers fans, as he did play 16 games for Clearwater in 2006.
Arlon Quiroz - Quiroz is a 6'0" 170lb outfielder from Venezuela. He signed with the Phillies as a free agent before the 2005 season. This is his first professional season outside the Venezuelan Summer League.
Javon Moran - Moran is a 5'11" 175lb outfielder from Valdosta, GA. He played his college ball at Auburn before being selected by the Phillies in the fourth round of the 2003 draft. He was traded to the Reds in 2004 and since then has spent time going betweeen Dayton and Sarasota (Single-A), as well as Chattanooga (Double-A). The Reds sent him back to the Phillies after the 2006 season as part of the Jeff Conine trade. Moran was batting .308 in 42 games with Reading (Double-A) prior to the injury that sent him to Clearwater for a rehab assignment with the GCL club and the Threshers.
There were a few moves made yesterday, June 21, that we started to discuss in one of the comment threads. Here is a little more information.
Ben Pfinsgraff was promoted from Lakewood (more info below)
Welinson Baez was sent to Lakewood.
Kevin Howard was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Still haven't seen any details of the trade. The Dodgers assigned him to the Jacksonville Suns (Double-A).
Jesus Sanchez was added from the GCL Phillies. I haven't seen any transactions for today, but I expect he will be headed back to the Complex very soon.
Some background on Ben Pfinsgraff:
Ben Pfinsgraff - Pfinsgraff is a 6'0" 180lb pitcher from Annapolis, Maryland. He played his college ball at Allegheny College before transferring to the University of Maryland-College Park. He was selected by the Phillies in the 22nd round of the 2006 draft. After signing with the Phillies, he was assigned to Batavia. Near the end of the year he was promoted to Lakewood. He primarily has come out of the bullpen for the BlueClaws this year, and had a 2-1 record with a 2.43 ERA in 33.1 innings before his promotion. He has struck out 38 and only walked six in 2007 which is good for a strikeout to walk ratio of 6.3 to 1.
(A) 36 players currently in the Phillies organization make up the 2006 Philies FIL Roster. Most of the players were members of the GCL Phillies during this past summer and there is also a mix of players from Batavia and Lakewood on the roster. Mike Costanzo (third baseman) and Greg Golson (outfielder) are the only two members of the team that played in Clearwater this past season.
FIL will be a good opportunity to check out some of the future stars of the Clearwater Threshers. Some of the more notable names on the roster, other than Costanzo and Golson, are Carlos Carrasco (pitcher), Kyle Drabek (pitcher), and Welinson Baez (third baseman).
FIL Home games are played at Bright House Networks Field and admission is free.
Just got a list of some of the more recent player moves in and out of Clearwater.
Gary Harris signed with the Phillies as a minor league free agent and was assigned to Clearwater on July 9th.
Alberto Cambero was sent over to the GCL Phillies on July 10th.
Jeff Winchester and outfielder Brian Sellier were both sent back from Reading on July 12th. Winchester was shuttled right back to Reading on the 13th. Joining Winchester on the trip up to Reading was Gary Harris.
Pitcher Jacob Barrack was released.
As promised, here are some updated player moves from the last few days.
Pitcher Luke Lockwood was promoted to Reading on July 1st, and he returned to the Threshers yesterday (July 4).
Before I even got a chance to pass along more information about Jesus Merchan, he was promoted to Reading. Joining Merchan on the trip up north on July 4th was Brian Sellier.
Catcher Orlando Guevara was shuttled up to Scranton on the 4th to take the place of Carlos Ruiz. Ruiz was brought up to the big club after Sal Fasano was placed on the DL. Infielder Alberto Cambero was brought over from the Gulf Coast Phillies to fill the roster spot here. About all I could find on Cambero was that he's 20 years old and he's from Venezuela.
Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal is in Clearwater for a rehab assignment. No word yet on his schedule or whether or not he'll be playing for the GCL Phillies or Clearwater Threshers.
but is he going to get a rehab start with the Threshers?
Todd Zolecki of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports in his article today (via the Times-Leader) that Phillies pitcher Jon Lieber is supposed to be flying to Clearwater tonight to make a rehab start tomorrow with the GCL Phillies. The same article says that he should start for the Threshers on June 27th, which would be over at Legends Field in Tampa.
I have heard that Lieber is going supposed to see action tomorrow night for the GCL Phillies. That game is scheduled for a 7:00pm start and will be taking place at Bright House Networks Field. There is no charge for Gulf Coast League games. No word yet on whether or not he will rehab with the Threshers at a later date.
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