Phillies Coming North for Futures Series Exhibitions

OF Nick Williams, image- Jay Floyd

With the Grapefruit League season wrapping up, the Phillies are bringing their preseason schedule north this week. Upcoming games will feature a pair of intrasquad contests with the big league roster taking on their organization's top prospects.
The brand new concept falls in line with the celebration of Double-A Reading's 50th season of affiliation with the Phillies. The debut game in the series will take place at Reading's FirstEnergy Stadium on Thursday, March 31st at 6:05 PM with another game between the two teams taking place on Saturday, April 2nd at 1:05 PM.

The roster set to be made up of the most promising rising minor leaguers includes eight of the top nine Phillies prospects, as ranked by Phillies Nation this year.

Futures Team roster:
C- Jorge Alfaro, Andrew Knapp
1B- Tommy Joseph, Brock Stassi, Rhys Hoskins
2B- Scott Kingery, Jesmuel Valentin, Angelo Mora
SS- J.P. Crawford, Malquin Canelo
3B- Mitch Walding
OF- Carlos Tocci, Andrew Pullin, Roman Quinn, Dylan Cozens, Aaron Brown, Nick Williams
P- Victor Arano, Zach Eflin, Ricardo Pinto, Edubray Ramos, Tom Windle, Joely Rodriguez, Miguel Nunez, Mark Appel

The game in Reading will feature an appearance by the Phillie Phanatic and a Futures Series Fathead giveaway for the first 2,000 children 14 & under. Fans interested in purchasing tickets should dial the Reading Fightins box office at 610-370-BALL.

Thursday's contest will mark the first exhibition game in Reading featuring the Phillies in 16 years. That match up drew over 9,307 fans to see the Reading Phillies defeat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-2, on May 8th, 2000.

Comments

Lidge Shaky, T-Mac Honored in Trenton

TRENTON, NJ- Brad Lidge made his second rehab appearance for the Double A Reading Phillies on Thursday night and it didn't go as well as the veteran reliever or the team had hoped. Lidge struggled with his command and turned in a rather poor outing for the club that entered the night in a playoff race, 1 game behind division rival Trenton for the Wild Card spot in the Eastern Division. On the disabled list since spring training with a strained right rotator cuff, Lidge experienced an elbow strain when he was working back from that issue in late May. In his outing against the Yankees affiliate in Trenton, Lidge displayed difficulty with his control as he threw three wild pitches, hit two batters, walked another and gave up a single, all while letting up two earned runs on 28 pitches in 2/3 of an inning. After the disappointing performance, Lidge was composed and focused on some positive aspects, having reached 89 and 90 MPH on scouts' radar guns, according to some reports. ...

Q&A with Tim Gradoville

Tim Gradoville is a career minor league catcher, who once, as a September call up, was up with the big club for the proverbial cup of coffee. Slated to be the Phillies bullpen catcher, at a later date, Gradoville is currently assigned as a special instructor with the Lakewood BlueClaws. I had the opportunity to speak with Tim and here's how that went down... What's the atmosphere with the BlueClaws like so far this season? Well, I think we have a good mix of players. We have some veteran guys, and some young guys too, so it makes for an interesting mix. I think the guys like to have a good time, and they're pretty loose and that translates into winning games. They have a good time. With a young team, you never know what you're gonna get, sometimes, but they seem to gel pretty well together, so that helps to build team unity, helps guys get along. They're having fun, they're enjoying baseball. This game can be a grind sometimes, if you're not having fun. What...

Mike McGuire Living a Dream With Favorite Team

LAKEWOOD, NJ- Every young ballplayer grows up wishing he could play for his favorite team. Mike McGuire has an opportunity to do just that after signing with the Phillies organization in July. McGuire was a 43rd round draft pick taken by the Cleveland Indians in the 2008 amateur draft out of the University of Delaware. Early scouting reports liked McGuire's abilities, despite some arm trouble. He advanced as far as High A Level Kinston last season. While there, he posted an 0-3 record with a 5.46 ERA in 9 games, 8 of which were starts. The Indians weren't happy with McGuire's efforts this spring and released him. McGuire caught on with the Sussex Skyhawks of the independent Can-Am League, where he stayed in shape and pitched against other formerly affiliated minor leaguers. As a starter with the Skyhawks, McGuire went 3-4 with a 5.29 ERA in 8 outings. From there, just as all players in those independent leagues hope for, the 24-year-old McGuire got noticed. The Phillies wer...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog