Wall to Wall BLUECLAWS!

The Lakewood BlueClaws are one win away from winning the South Atlantic League Championship. Game 3 of the best of 5 series is tonight in Greenville, SC at 7:05pm EST. Games 4 and 5, if necessary, would be played Friday and Saturday at 7:05. Ahead are some key quotes from this week, some links to get you ready and some additional notes on the series. The Greenville Drive is Boston's single A affiliate.

Catcher Travis D'Arnaud, a supplemental 1st round draft selection in 2007, is in the midst of a 24-for-57 stretch. That's a .421 average.

The BlueClaws were 41-25 (.621 winning pct) on the road in 2009.

Tonight's starting pitcher for Lakewood is 2008 4th round draft choice Trevor May. The 19 year old has gone 14 straight starts without a loss.

BlueClaws pitchers have allowed just 5 runs over the first 4 playoff games...all wins.

Greenville's starter is righty Stolmy Pimentel who was 10-7 with a 3.82 ERA in the regular season. Pimentel is 19 years old and was signed as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2007 by Boston.

Lakewood hitting coach Greg Legg on his confidence level going to Greenville: "I'd love to win the first one. I know how tough they are. We've already been there. They're a good ball club and we'll have to play really good to beat them."

Legg on if he'd still consider the season a success if things don't go the BlueClaws' way in SC: "You want to win it all. ...So close, you want to win it for these guys (the players). I think we had a great year no matter what happens, but it's always good to win the last game of the year. That's a good feeling, to win the last game of the year. And in this situation that would be a great feeling."

Lakewood manager Dusty Wathan on if there are any players that were on Lakewood's roster this year that he wishes could be with the team right now to experience this run through the post season: "Oh, yeah- (BJ) Rosenberg. He was lights out for us. He was pretty much the reason we have this opportunity right now. And, I mean, (Steve) Susdorf came in, and when we needed somebody to get us over the hump, he came back from his surgery and put us over the hump and let us win the first half by a few games. I think it would have been a lot tighter race coming down to the last few days if it wasn't for Steve in the middle of the lineup."

Phillies player Greg Dobbs on spending time around, and playing with, the BlueClaws players while they are in the midst of a potential championship run: "It's a lot of fun. They're really playing for something...there's some energy, some excitement. You can tell, from when I walked in this clubhouse, these guys have worked hard and they're very proud of what they've accomplished so far and you want to keep up with that."

BlueClaws.com fills you in on tonight's match up in Greenville.

Tony Graham of the Asbury Park Press has quotes from players and Wathan on not losing focus and more.

---------------------------

Congratulations to Lee F., of S. Burlington VT and Marty T., of Vincentown NJ, for being selected as winners of PhoulBallz.com's Cliph Lee/Roy Who? t-shirts!

Be sure to follow PhoulBallz.com on Twitter HERE!

Phreestyle Battle & Notes

Unrelated to baseball, really...but it's fun and our Phils are off today. This new kid on the hip hop scene, Charles Hamilton , whose single Brooklyn Girl is ripping up radio and video count downs, was at PSU for a performance recently. A freestyle battle ensued, and as you'll see, the Penn State student held his own. Stay tuned for the ending. It's the best part. Here are some random Phillies-in-idle baseball thoughts and notes- Colbert Hamels is slated to make his Grapefruit League debut tomorrow vs. Team Canada. Shane Victorino is going to wear #50 on his jersey for Team USA, a nod to Hawaii Five-O. Brad Lidge is likely to not see game action till next week, after he throws some more bullpen sessions and works out the tightness in his forearm. Albert Pujols is declaring "respect for his country" as reasoning for sitting out of the Cardinals' exhibition this week against Team Dominican Republic. He told reporters, "I don’t want to play against them...

Heroes- Fight of the Century

VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...

Michael Taylor Q&A

Michael Taylor is currently leading the Reading Phillies' offense and is near the top of the Eastern League in most stat categories (3rd in batting avg- .342, 3rd in HR- 14, tied for second in RBI- 55, 2nd in OPS.- .994, tied for 1st in runs scored- 49, tied for 1st in hits...). The 23 year old Taylor is 6 feet 6 inches tall and has quickly grabbed the attention of phans and media alike as a top prospect to watch. I spoke with Mike Taylor over the weekend, and here is that interview. With all the big stats and being among the league leaders in so many categories, do you think you're ready for the next step? It's kind of a difficult question. Do you have anything left to prove here? There's always something to prove. There's stuff to prove every game. I mean that's one thing that's very interesting about this game. It's such a numbers oriented game. You're only as good as your last "whatever statistical category that someone's valuing". ...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog