News & Notes: 40-man Additions, Developmental Coaches

Jon Pettibone took great strides in 2012

On Tuesday, several additions to the 40-man roster were announced by the Phillies, as outfielder Zach Collier as well as pitchers Trevor May, Jonathan Pettibone, and Ethan Martin were all added.

Collier, was a supplementary round draft choice by the Phillies in 2008. The lefty hitting California native performed extremely well in the recently wrapped up Arizona Fall League. To read my interview with Zach from last weekend, which includes more info on the 22-year-old, click here.

May, a righty hurler, had an up-and-down 2012 after entering the regular season ranked by many outlets as the Phillies’ top prospect. May posted a 10-13 overall record along with a 4.87 ERA and a 9.09 K/9 mark with Double-A Reading this year. The 23-year-old was a 4th round draft pick in 2008.

Pettibone had a strong 2012 campaign following a troubling start that saw him post a 1-3 record and a 4.78 ERA in his first six outings. In the 13 starts which followed that difficult stretch, Pettibone tallied an 8-4 record with a 2.74 ERA. The 22-year-old was then promoted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley in July, where he went 4-1 with a 2.55 ERA in seven starts for the IronPigs, down the stretch. Pettibone was a 3rd round draft selection in 2008.

Martin was acquired from the Dodgers in the Shane Victorino deal this past July. The 23-year-old was excellent for Double-A Reading for their Eastern League playoff push, posting a 5-0 record with a 3.18 ERA and a .206 batting average against in seven starts.

Additionally, minor league coaching assignments were announced for the upcoming 2013 season.

Triple-A Lehigh Valley will have Dave Brundage as its manager, as was previously unveiled by the organization. Sal Rende will be the IronPigs’ hitting coach for the third straight season and Ray Burris, who previously coached in the Detroit system, will be the pitching coach.

Double-A Reading will have Dusty Wathan as the skipper for the second straight year, while frank Cacciatore returns as hitting coach and Dave Lundquist, will serve as pitching coach after four seasons with Clearwater..

Class A Advanced Clearwater will again be managed by former big leaguer Chris Truby, while John Mizerock, who has big league coaching experience with the Royals, will serve as hitting coach and Bob Milacki will be the club’s pitching coach.

At Class A Lakewood, former Phillies All-Star second baseman Mickey Morandini will return as the manager, while Greg Legg will be back as the hitting coach. Former big league reliever Aaron Fultz has been promoted to Lakewood’s pitching coach after spending his first season as a pro coach with the short-season Williamsport Crosscutters.

The manager at short-season A level Williamsport is yet to be announced. The club's previous manager Andy Tracy has replaced Steve Henderson, who was promoted to the big league coaching staff, as the organization's roving minor league hitting instructor. Les Lancaster and Lino Connell, who were with Lakewood in 2012, will round out the Crosscutters' coaching staff.

The staff of the Gulf Coast League Phillies will be made up of Roly deArmas as manager, Steve Schrenk as pitching coach, along with Ramon Henderson and Rafael DeLima rounding out the group. This upcoming season will mark deArmas' tenth year as skipper of the GCL Phils.

In other news, former Phillies prospects Jarred Cosart and Jonathan Villar have been added to the 40-man roster by the Astros. The righty hurler Cosart was sent to Houston in the Hunter Pence trade, while Villar, a shortstop, was part of the package that got Roy Oswalt in return.

________________________________________________

You can follow PhoulBallz on Twitter by clicking HERE.

You can also connect with PhoulBallz on Facebook by clicking HERE.

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog