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Cornelius Randolph, image- Jay Floyd On Sunday, the Adelaide Giants of the Australian Baseball League announced that Phillies outfield prospect Cornelius Randolph will be part of their team for the coming season. Supporters of my Patreon site were aware of that news nine days ago.   The 23-year-old Georgia native was the Phils' first round draft selection in 2015.  In his five minor league seasons, Randolph sports a .255 batting average with 31 home runs, 190 RBI and a .719 OPS.   Randolph's 2018 and 2019 seasons were spent playing for Double-A Reading. Randolph will join several other Phils prospects on the Giants roster this coming season, including native Australians Rixon Wingrove and Mitchell Edwards as well as New Zealander Kyle Glogoski .  A list of seven other American Phillies prospects set to be part of the Adelaide roster is available by supporting my work over at Patreon.com/PhoulBallz .   Also available on the Patreon page is a r...

Alec Bohm, image- Jay Floyd News landed on Thursday evening that third baseman Alec Bohm would be moving up from Class A Advanced Clearwater to Double-A Reading. Bohm, the Phillies' first round draft choice last year, opened the season with Class A Lakewood and was promoted to Clearwater after a scorching April in which he batted .367 with three home runs and 11 RBI in 22 games.  In 40 games with the Threshers, the 22-year-old batted .329 with four homers and 27 RBI.  At the rate he is progressing, it won't be long before Bohm is making an impact with the best sportsbooks . A move to make room with Reading saw Austin Listi moving up to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Overall this season, Listi's offensive efforts (.220/.339/.364) aren't great, but he has been hot in June, slashing at a .328/.406/.552 clip in 19 games this month with the Fightins. The 25-year-old righty hitter was a 17th round pick by the Phillies in 2017.  Listi was honored as the Phils' ...

Throughout the off-season months, this site will offer a roundup of how many Phillies prospects and players are performing around the world in fall and winter leagues. Read ahead for the lowdown on various leagues. Trevor Bettencourt, image- Jay Floyd Puerto Rico/Roberto Clemente League- Trevor Bettencourt and Bailey Falter have wrapped up their efforts abroad, returning home to enjoy the holidays.  Both hurlers performed exceptionally for their club, the Indios.  Bettencourt, 24, posted a 1-0 record with a 1.42 ERA while striking out 12 and walking three in 12 2/3 innings over nine relief appearances.  The right-hander was a 25th round pick in 2016.  Falter, a lefty, sported a 2-0 record with a 0.42 ERA in five starts for the Indios.  The 21-year-old was a 5th round draft selection by the Phillies in 2015. Also in PR, 1b/3b Damek Tomscha , 27, is batting .301 with five doubles and three RBI in 23 games.  Tomscha has been batting leadoff...

Zach Green, image- Jay Floyd In the Double-A Eastern League All-Star Game on Wednesday, four Reading players represented the Phillies in the contest played at Trenton's ARM & HAMMER Park.  Catcher Deivi Grullon, who won the EL's All-Star Home Run Derby on Tuesday, first baseman/third baseman Zach Green and outfielder Jan Hernandez were all in the starting lineup.  Grullon and Hernandez each homered while Green went 0-for-2. Relief pitcher Edgar Garcia was charged with three earned runs in 1/3 of an inning. The contest was tied at four runs apiece after nine innings, so to decide the game, each team selected one batter to face off in a hitting challenge.  In a two minute window, the players would accumulate points for balls in play or balls launched as home runs.  Green, representing the Eastern Division was bested by Pirates prospect Will Craig, the Western Division's representative, in the unique tie breaking overtime round.  In the Triple-A All...

Former Phillies first baseman Rico Brogna re-joined the Phils organization this year as a coach with the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils.  During his playing career, Brogna also took the field for the Mets, Red Sox, Braves and Tigers, the team that drafted him in the first round in 1988.  With the Phillies, he posted two 20-homer, 100-RBI seasons.  Now, he's trying to help develop the Phillies stars of the future. Recently, I talked with Brogna about some of his team's players, his time coaching and scouting elsewhere, his favorite teammate from his playing days and plenty more.  Read ahead for that full interview. -Malquin Canelo's been a catalyst through the first several weeks of the season for this lineup.  He's always had a lot of good tools., but in the past maybe he hasn't really stood out compared to other guys on teams he's been on.  Now, though, he's starting to stand out a bit.  What do you think of him? He absolutely is.  I th...

This week promising reliever Seranthony Dominguez was promoted to the big league roster, joining the Phillies bullpen just 10 days after earning a promotion to the Triple-A level.  The 23-year-old Dominican dominated the minors this year, posting a 2-2 record with a saves, a 1.62 ERA, a .143 batting average against and an 11.3 K/9 mark in 11 appearances.  Dominguez's bump up should be the first of a series of promotions throughout the Phillies minor league levels, as there are several others ready for greater challenges ahead. Damek Tomscha, image- Jay Floyd At the Double-A level, right-handed hitting corner infielder Damek Tomscha is wrecking the competition throughout the Eastern League.  In 26 games, the 26-year-old sports a .337 batting average, five homers and 17 RBI.  Additionally, the Phillies' 17th round draft selection from 2014 has notched five mult-hit games in his last eight contests. Another power bat from the Reading lineup, corner infielder...

Damek Tomscha, image- Jay Floyd Over the winter, Phillies minor leaguer Damek Tomscha dodged the winter weather of the midwest to tackle new challenges and work on his craft.  In 17 contests with Santurce in Puerto Rico, the 26-year-old righty batter posted a .321 average with a pair of home runs and five RBI. Tomscha, a 17th round selection by the Phillies in 2014, plays first base, third base and left field.  He has tallied a .282/,372/.417 slash line in four pro seasons to date. This week prior to opening the season with Double-A Reading, I talked with Tomscha about his experience playing in the Roberto Clemente League.  Read ahead for that full interview.   -Do you feel like playing in Puerto Rico was a valuable experience for you? Yeah, it was unbelievable.  I had a great time, just getting more AB's, facing those older pitchers.  They were pitching more backwards to me, not as much (velocity), but they had good stuff and they threw any...

Greg Legg, image- Jay Floyd Tuesday was media day in Reading, with players and the club's manager, Greg Legg, meeting with local reporters for the first time in 2018. Legg's track record with the Phillies dates back to 1982 when the team drafted him as an infielder in the 22nd round. With the season opening for Reading on Thursday at home against Erie, Legg spoke about his plans for the roster, impressions of some players and plenty more. Read ahead for that full interview. -Sharing thoughts on the strengths of his five starters, Jake Waguespack, Ranger Suarez, JoJo Romero, Franklyn Kilome and Harold Arauz... Probably, if you were going to sum up all five of them, probably their competitiveness.  They're all good athletes.  Waguespack, watching him grow, has been a lot of fun for me.  The last game he threw was four innings and he pretty much threw all fastballs in an intra-squad game and he just dominated our hitters, with the extension he's getting....

Damek Tomscha, image- Jay Floyd It's been a very productive season for Phillies prospect Damek Tomscha (pronounced like DAME-eck TOM-shay), who has posted a .304 batting average with 11 homers and 52 RBI in 106 combined at two levels with the Class A Advanced Clearwater Threshers and the Double-A Reading Fightins. Tomscha, who was the Phillies' 17th round draft selection in 2014 out of Auburn, has split time on defense, playing third base, first base and taking on left field this year in order to stick in the daily lineup. This weekend I spoke with Damek, a 26-year-old righty batter, about his successful campaign this year, how is compares to last year when he struggles in Clearwater, the depth of the Phils' developmental ranks, a surprising rivalry in minor leagues and plenty more. Read ahead for that full interview. -You've had a solid season overall. Putting up good numbers at two levels and making it to Double-A for the last quarter or third of the sea...

With a 6-1 loss in game two of the South Atlantic League Championship Series, the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws will return home tied at one game apiece for the remainder of the best-of-five title round. Dominican born right-hander Seranthony Dominguez pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowing five runs (three earned) on four hits and a walk while striking out four. The 21-year-old posted a 2.42 ERA as well as a 9.3 K/9 mark in 10 regular season starts for the BlueClaws. Third baseman Damek Tomscha continued his hot streak (.500 average in four postseason games), going 3-for-3 with a double and a home run. The remainder of the BlueClaws lineup was 1-for-27 in the losing effort. For the Rome offense, Carlos Castro and Austin Riley each drove in a pair. Braves hurler Touki Toussaint went eight strong innings to notch the win. Games three and four are slated for Thursday and Friday at FirstEnergy Park with game five on Saturday, if necessary. Each game time is 7:05 PM.

A trio of Phillies affiliates had postseason action on Friday night. Two of those clubs came out victorious with Lakewood winning their first round series and Reading forcing a games four in their opening round match up. However, Lehigh Valley was swept by their division rival. Taveras, image- Jay Floyd In the Class A South Atlantic League, the BlueClaws swept their best-of-three series with a 6-2 win on the road at Hagerstown. Right-hander Jose Taveras went seven innings, allowing two earned runs with four strike outs and no walks while giving up seven hits, to notch the win. Sutter McLoughlin would toss a scoreless ninth for the save. On offense, lead-off man Mark Laird went 4-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base while Wilson Garcia and Damek Tomscha each drove in a pair of runs. Lakewood will face the winner of the Rome vs. Charleston Southern Division Series in a best-of-five series beginning on Monday on the road. Games three, four and five if necessary of the serie...

Damek Tomscha, image- Jay Floyd LAKEWOOD, NJ-- It had been 2181 days since the Lakewood BlueClaws played in the postseason. It was worth the wait as the BlueClaws took a 1-0 lead on Wednesday night in the best-of-three South Atlantic League division series against the Hagerstown Suns (Nationals affiliate) by a score of 6-1 behind excellent relief pitching and clutch hitting. Shortstop Emmanuel Marrero notched the first of his three hits in the 5th inning to tie the game at one run apiece. In the same frame, third baseman Damek Tomscha stroked a two-run ground rule double down the right field line to put the BlueClaws ahead 3-1. "That's exactly what he's done all year," BlueClaws skipper Shawn Williams stated of the righty batting Tomscha. "Seems like he's always up in a big situation and that's what he does- he comes through with a big hit." Those runs would be enough as the Lakewood bullpen was strong. It was righty reliever Grant Dyer ...

Shawn Williams, image- Jay Floyd I recently sat down with Class A Lakewood manager Shawn Williams to discuss his BlueClaws team. Topics ranged from injured players, a returning pitcher, a pitching prospect's improvements, his team's backstops and plenty more. Read ahead for the full interview. -Firstly, I wanted to start out by asking about a pair of guys that have been on the disabled list for a while. Last year's Phillies first round pick Cornelius Randolph (shoulder) and outfielder Zach Coppola (hamstring) have been sidelined for a while. Any update on those guys nearing a return? The only thing I have is that Randolph has started doing some hitting stuff, some tee stuff and I don't know what the time table is for him. I just know he's hitting again, so I probably couldn't even tell you. I know Zach is a lot closer than Cornelius. I think he's almost into games here in the next couple days, probably just getting his legs going, I mean, po...

Damek Tomscha, image- Jay Floyd Corner infielder Damek Tomscha has been a solid performer of late for the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws. Overall this season, the Phillies' 14th round draft choice from 2014 has posted .270 average with four homers and 32 RBI in 77 games. Recently, I spoke with the six-foot-two 200-pound righty batter about his production, transitioning to the minor league from college ball at Auburn and his unique name. Read ahead for that full interview. -You've had some solid success recently, especially after the promotions of some teammates up to Clearwater. What can you tell me about the improved output? I mean, you just definitely have to step up. You're given the opportunity, I just feel like you need to take advantage of it and I was kind of playing here and there at the beginning of the year and then I started hitting the ball a little better and got the opportunity to start playing a little more. So, I just feel like, for the most ...

Newly signed righty hurler Jason Marquis made his Phillies organization debut with the rookie level Gulf Coast League Phils on Saturday. The following tweet features all the details: GCL Phils beat Jays 6-1 on Sat. Jason Marquis threw 5 scoreless with 7 K's, no walks, 5 hits allowed to earn the W. Damek Tomscha - 3-for-3. — Jay Floyd (@PhoulBallz) June 22, 2014 Marquis, who has tallied a 121-114 record and a 4.56 ERA in 368 career big league games in 14 season, was inked by the Phillies earlier this month. Last season, the 35-year-old went 9-5 with a 4.05 ERA for the Padres. Marquis was honored as an All-Star in 2009 with Colorado. The Phillies expect Marquis to continue his warm-up efforts throughout the minors in the coming weeks. The other name mentioned in the above tweet, third baseman Damek Tomscha, is 5-for-7 with a double, a homer and two RBI in two games since debuting as a pro player. The 22-year-old was the Phils' 17th round draft pick out of Auburn ...