Game Day - July 7 vs Palm Beach

TONIGHT'S GAME VS THE PALM BEACH CARDINALS HAS BEEN POSTPONED AND WILL BE MADE UP AS PART OF A DOUBLEHEADER THAT WILL BEGIN AT 5:00 PM TOMORROW, JULY 8.

Two Sent to Reading (AA)

Sorry about the time between the last update and now. As you know if you were at the game, Thursday night was a crazy (but amazingly awesome) night. Many thanks to the 9,090 of you who came out to Bright House Field. Congratulations, you were part of a record crowd!

Speaking of Thursday, P Edgar Garcia was promoted to Reading during the day. He joined Tyson Brummett, Sam Walls, and Brett Harker. He made his AA debut on Sunday, picking up a loss. He gave up five hits in his six innings of work while allowing two runs. He struck out four.

Garcia will be joined by INF Clay Harris. Harris, who hit his eighth homer of the season over the weekend at Dunedin, has been on fire recently. raising his batting average from a season low of .263 on June 17 to .351 through Saturday night.

Honors Pile Up for Harris

Thresher INF Clay Harris, already named last week's FSL Player of the Week, was announced as the Phillies Minor League Player of the Week for the same period. Here is the official announcment from the Phillies...

**Player: 1B Clay Harris, Clearwater. Batted .545 for 7 games (12-22) with 4 HR, 12 RBI. He had his first multi-home run game on Saturday, hitting 3 and driving in 6 in 11-3 romp at the St. Lucie Mets. In his 4th at-bat, he was hit by a pitch, setting off a bench-clearing incident. In his 5th at-bat, he was again hit without any other incidents. Last 10 games: .581, 4 HR, 16 RBI. For the season: .350 in 39 games, 7 HR, 31 RBI. The 25-year-old right-handed hitter was a 9th-round selection in 2005 out of LSU.

First Round Choice Signs

From the Phillies...

"Shortstop Anthony Hewitt, the Phillies’ first-round selection last month, has agreed to terms and will report to Clearwater, Fla., later this week, Director of Scouting Marti Wolever announced today.

Hewitt, 19, received a bonus of $1,380,000 plus eight semesters under a college scholarship program.

The Phillies have signed 27 of the 53 players they selected, including the first five."

Clay Harris - FSL POTW

The Florida State League announced Threshers infielder Clay Harris as its Player of the Week for the period June 23-29, 2008.

During the period, the Slidel, La. native produced 12 hits in 22 at-bats for a .545 average. Four of Harris’ hits were home runs, including three in consecutive at-bats on June 29 against St. Lucie. Harris drove in 12 RBI during the week.
A Louisiana State University product, Harris was taken in the 9th round of the 2005 draft by the Philadelphia Phillies. For the season he his hitting .350 with a team-leading seven home runs, and his 31 RBI place him fourth on the team.

2008 Futures Game - Update

Antonio Bastardo was also named to the World team, but due to injury he will not actually play.

Other players previously announced as taking part in the game are catcher Lou Marson, infielder Jason Donald, and outfielder Greg Golson who will play for the U.S. team and right-handed pitcher Carlos Carrasco who will play on the World team.

All are former Threshers.

Tempers Flare at St. Lucie

Clay Harris homered in his first three at-bats Saturday night, and the St. Lucie Mets apparently didn't like it. After driving in five runs on three long balls, Harris was plunked by Casey Hoorelbeke in the seventh inning. Threshers starter Edgar Garcia responded by hitting the first batter he faced in the bottom half of the inning, earning him an ejection to go along with his eighth win of the season. Hoorelbeke seemingly didn't care that the bases were loaded when Harris batted in the eighth inning, hitting him with another pitch to allow Harris to pick up his sixth RBI of the evening. Hoorelbeke was ejected. The bean balls didn't stop there, however, as St. Lucie's German Marte was tossed in the 9th for hitting Tuffy Gosewisch.

Certainly an eventful night on the other coast as the Threshers improved to 3-6 for the second half.

2008 Futures Game

The Phillies organization will be well-represented at the 2008 Futures Game, placing four players on the roster. All are former Threshers.

Catcher Lou Marson, infielder Jason Donald, and outfielder Greg Golson will play for the U.S. team, while right-handed pitcher Carlos Carrasco will play on the World team.

The 2008 Futures Game will be played as part of the All-Star festivities at Yankee Stadium in New York next month.

Let's Play Two

It's that time of the year, huh?

Tonight's game at St. Lucie was postponed due to rain. The two teams will attempt to play a doubleheader tomorrow with the first game starting at 5:00 PM.

And who says it's too early to scoreboard watch? Dunedin lost tonight 8-4 to Jupiter, so the Threshers didn't fall back any further tonight. In fact, all of the West Divisions that were able to play tonight lost (Sarasota 6-1 to Vero, Fort Myers 3-1 to Brevard). Hopefully the good guys can put together a nice stretch here pretty soon and quickly get back into the thick of things.

Phillies Minor League Players of the Week

From Larry Shenk:

**Pitcher: RHP Justin De Fratus, Williamsport. 0-0 for 1st start in short-season ball, 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, tagged for an unearned run in the 5th inning. Threw 61 fast balls, 17 sliders and 17 changes. The 20-year-old was an 11th-round selection a year ago out of Ventura (CA) College. Broke in pro ball last summer at Gulf Coast League, 2-3, for 8 starts.

**Player: SS Jason Donald, Reading. In 8 games, batted .400 with 12 hits (2 doubles, 2 homers), 6 RBI and 8 runs scored. Hitting .378 in June, 4 homers, 13 RBI. For the season, .304-8-36. The 23-year-old was selected in the 3rd round in 2006 out of the University of Arizona.

6/26 Roster Moves

A whole slew of moves to tell you about today. Firstly, Kris Benson concluded his rehab stint with the Threshers and was moved to Lehigh Valley (AAA).

Brett Harker, with his sparkling 1.43 ERA, was promoted to Reading (AA).

Alex Concepcion was promoted from Williamsport to Clearwater.

Carlos Monasterios was activated from the DL.

Finally, Orlando Guevara was added from Reading.

Game Day - Threshers vs Vero Beach (Noon)

3:00 Update - Threshers 2, Vero Beach 5 (FINAL)

Story on the main site by clicking here.

Original Post

Special noon o'clock (yes, that's right, noon o'clock) start here at Bright House Field today.

It's a toasty 92 under partly cloudy skies with a wind from right to left at 5 MPH.

Lineups:


Vero Beach

Jennings
Baldelli
Suarez
Fields
Royster
Groce
Callender
De La Rosa
Lopez

Tiffany


Threshers

Berry
Leon
Cardenas
Milner
Taylor
Harris
Spencer
Gosewisch
Hernandez

Savery

Game Day: Threshers vs Vero Beach (7:00 PM)

It's Phinley's birthday tonight, so I'll be around the park documenting that with still photos. There might be some updates tonight when I get free moments.

Game Day - Threshers vs Vero Beach Devil Rays (7:00 PM)

9:30 Update - Vero Beach 3, Threshers 7 (FINAL)

Full story now on the main site.


Original Post - 1:10 PM EDT

Greetings Thresher fans! Hopefully this new work week is getting off to a great start for all of you.

Speaking of great starts, I was just checking up on Reading (AA affiliate of the Phillies) and saw that Tyson Brummett had a great start for them last Thursday, his first with the club since being called up earlier this month. He threw 8.2 innings, giving up just six hits and three runs while striking out five. Sam Walls, another former Thresher, picked up the save in the game, throwing the last out of the contest. Walls has picked up three saves in four opportuties.

Just a little word of protocol from here on out. While I will always strive to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible, sometimes other duties around the park will limit my ability to do that (i.e. pulling tarp). However, in the event of a postponement, it should be posted almost immediately after that decision is made. The official site will have that information, as well.

Game Day - Threshers vs Vero Beach Devil Rays (4:00 PM)

8:03 Update

Clearwater 0 Vero Beach 2 (Final)

4:30 PM Update

The tarp is currently on the field, and we are in a rain delay.

Original Post

It's a bright and sunny, beautiful day at Bright House Field... or is it? We just got done taking the tarp off for the second time today (the staff came in at 10:00 AM this morning to take it off from yesterday, only to have to put it back on about 50 minutes later when a somewhat unexpected downpour hit the area. Hopefully we're done for the day, and we start at 4:00 PM.

The Vero Beach Devil Rays are in town, but they are without David Price and JT Hall who were promoted to Montgomery (AA) last night.

No changes for the Threshers today.

If anything changes with the weather, we'll let you know.

Game Day - Threshers vs Dunedin Blue Jays (6:30 PM)

6:05 PM Update

TONIGHT'S GAME HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO A LATER DATE.

4:40 PM Update

We're getting tons of phone calls into the ticket office here... as of right now, we are still scheduled for first pitch to happen at 6:30 PM. Check here and threshersbaseball.com for the latest updates.

3:15 PM Update

We just put the tarp out on the field which to me is actually a good sign. The field could have been played on at this point, so we're just taking the precaution in the event of additional rain.

There is more rain out in the Gulf, so again, we'll just have to see.


Orginal Post

It's a wet one here at Bright House Field today, but we're still anticipating the game being played at 6:30 PM.

In roster news, Jay Miller was sent to Lakewood today and Herman Demmink was placed on the DL.

Benson Feels Good After Rehab Start with Threshers

From Philly.com...

Benson armed with optimism after Clearwater start

Phinley's 2nd Birthday

Tuesday, June 24 is Phinley's birthday, and it's sure to be a night full of fun at Bright House Field! Phinley has invited a lot of his closest friends to come celebrate with him, and many of them have already called to tell the friendly shark that they're coming!

The RSVP List

Thunderbug (Lightning)
D-Jay (Jays)
RalliGator and Mr, Red (Reds)
Blue (Yankees)
Sluggernaught (Rays)
SideKick (Tiger Schulmmans Karate)
Buddy the Recycling Dolphin (City of Clearwater)
Inflatable Raymond (Rays)
Roi The Koi (Nice Green and Beautiful)


P.S. If anyone has any idea what "Sluggernaught" is, please let me know!

Game Day - Threshers vs Dunedin Blue Jays (7:05 PM)

Big night here at Bright House Field as the second half of the season gets underway. Tons of roster moves were made today, as seen in the post below this one.

Probably won't have updates as frequent and in-depth of the other night as I have to excersise my photography skills some during the game, and Catch 47 is here broadcasting the game tonight, as well.

Roster Additions - 6/19

Kris Benson, Ben Pfinsgraff, Drew Naylor, Herman Demmink, and Michael Taylor were all added to the Clearwater roster today.


RHP Pfinsgraff, RHP Naylor, INF Demmink, and OF Taylor were promoted to the Threshers today from Lakewood (A).

Pfinsgraf, a reliever, had a 3.41 ERA and picked up two saves in five opportunities for the BlueClaws and picked up 37 strikeouts in 37 innings. A Clemson product, Demmink was batting .231 at Lakewood.

Taylor’s impressive .361 batting average and 90 hits were leading the South Atlantic League, and he ranked fifth in RBI with 50. For the season he had drawn 31 walks to also lead the SAL in on-base percentage at .441. Taylor, a fifth-round pick of the Phillies in 2007, was recently named the SAL Player of the Month for May by the Topps Company and Minor League Baseball.

Naylor, a native of Australia, leads the SAL in strikeouts with 97 and also has two complete games while compiling a 5-3 record and a 2.99 ERA. He joined Taylor at the SAL All-Star Game and was named the Most Outstanding Pitcher.