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For the third straight season, the Triple-A affiliate of the Phillies, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, came out on the losing end to the Yankees affiliate, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders. Following a dramatic walk-off win on Friday night in which catcher Nick Rickles got the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 13th inning to force a game 4 in the best-of-five series, the IronPigs were just one out away from pushing the series to the maximum. Closer Pedro Beato was on the mound facing Railriders center fielder Shane Robinson.  Former Phillies prospect Quintin Berry pinch ran at second base.  With Berry in motion, Robinson stroked Beato's pitch up the middle.  Pigs' shortstop Dean Anna fielded the ball, threw to first base too late to make the out.  An aggressive Berry made the most of the moment, darting toward home and scoring to tie the game at 2 runs apiece. The IronPigs failed to mount any offense in the bottom of the 9th. Moving into extra innings f...

Steve Schrenk, image- Jay Floyd This week, I sat down with Double-A Reading pitching coach Steve Schrenk, who spoke about his team pitching staff, including Shane Watson, All-Star Drew Anderson, Victor Arano, Austin Davis and Cole Irvin, who is already enjoying success in the Eastern League one year after making his professional debut. This marks the third interview this week with Phillies' organization developmental pitching coaches.  My interview with Triple-A Lehigh Valley coach Dave Lundquist can be found at this link , while my interview with Class A Lakewood coach Brian Sweeney can be viewed at this link . Read ahead for that latest full interview with "Schrenky"... -I want to ask you about several guys.  First guy that pops in my mind is Shane Watson, who went through a transition, moving from the starting rotation to a relief role.  He's been successful there, outside of one outing maybe.  Can you talk about that switch for him? It's been gr...

Tyler Viza, image- Jay Floyd The Class A Advanced Clearwater Threshers have enjoyed some solid success on the mound in the early going this season. Combined, four members of the team's starting rotation ( Tyler Viza , Elniery Garcia , Thomas Eshelman and Ranfi Casimiro ) have combined for a 6-1 record and a 1.19 ERA through eight starts (two each). Additionally, another of the team's starters, Will Morris , entered action on Monday with a scoreless five inning appearance in his game log. This week I asked the righty Viza about his own success as well as the great efforts by his teammates. Phillies director of player development Joe Jordan and Clearwater third baseman Mitch Walding also offered their thoughts. Read ahead for the exclusive comments. Viza, who was the Phils' 32nd round draft pick in 2013, remarked about his consistent output- My success through the early part of the season started around the all-star break last year. Aaron Fultz and I had a c...

It's another round of updates from around the globe for Phillies playing in off-season leagues. While some players like Roman Quinn are done with their time abroad, other like Jorge Alfaro and Severino Gonzalez are just getting their extra time on the diamond under way. Read ahead for all the details.  Dominican Winter League- Maikel Franco, image- Jay Floyd Maikel Franco is batting .267 with two home runs and four RBI in 11 games thus far with the Gigantes. The 23-year-old tallied a .280 average with 14 homers and 50 RBI this year as a rookie for the Phillies. Joely Rodriguez is 0-2 with a 3.32 ERA and a .194 batting average against in eight games for the Gigantes. The lefty had a 6.12 combined ERA in 32 total outings for Reading and Lehigh Valley this year. Rodriguez was acquired from Pittsburgh last off-season in a swap for Antonio Bastardo . In six games righty Jimmy Cordero has a 2.16 ERA while striking out nine and walking six in 8 1/3 innings for the Leone...

Throughout the off-season, Phillies Nation be bringing you details on Phils players participating in fall and winter leagues from around the globe. Read ahead for a rundown of how various players have performed to date. Venezuelan Winter League- Carlos Tocci, image- Jay Floyd With the Tigres, outfielder Carlos Tocci is currently sidelined with a broken hand after being hit by a pitch. Prior to the injury, Tocci posted a .333 average with a triple, four RBI and two stolen bases in 11 games. The 20-year-old posted a .287/.339/.363 slash line in 127 combined games with Lakewood and Clearwater this year. Outfielder Herlis Rodriguez is batting .196 with five RBI in 25 games for the Tigres. The 21-year-old lefty batter posted a .284 average with 10 home runs and 61 RBI in 120 games for Class A Lakewood this year. In six starts Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez as a 0-4 record with a 4.88 ERA for the Aguilas. In his most recent appearance, MAG allowed seven runs (six earned) in 1 2/3 ...

Shawn Williams, image- Jay Floyd The Class A BlueClaws are 10-3 in their last 13 games and have won 13 of their last 18 contests. Currently, Lakewood sits in 2nd place in the South Atlantic League's Northern Division, two games behind the first place West Virginia Power (Pirates affiliate). Following Lakewood's 4-0 victory over the Power on Wednesday, team manager Shawn Williams spoke with Phillies Nation about a pair of the game's winning pitcher, some of the standout offensive contributors as well as the team's recent success following some roster turnover. I asked Williams about right-handed hurler Ranfi Casimiro , who notched the win with 7 2/3 scoreless innings on three hits, while striking out six and walking two... He was awesome. He threw the ball really well. He's been throwing like that all year, but he put together 7 2/3 (innings) and I'm really impressed with his outing. The slider was really good. His change up is always good, but ...

This week I chatted with Class A Lakewood manager Shawn Williams and pitching coach Aaron Fultz about several young players currently in the thick of things with the BlueClaws. Williams, in his first season with Lakewood, spoke about new additions and 2015 Phillies draft picks Scott Kingery and Kyle Martin along with June's Sally League player of the month Herlis Rodriguez . Fultz took time to comment on hurlers Elniery Garcia , Ranfi Casimiro , Alexis Rivero plus more. Read ahead for comments from both coaches. Shawn Williams: -Speaking on 2nd round draft choice Scott Kingery and his impressions of the youngster thus far... He's an exciting player. He's a baseball player. He fits in with the rest of us here and he's an exciting player out there, especially defensively. He's outstanding at second, turning double plays. He can run. He puts together great at bats every game. He's had some tough luck where he's had a lot of hard outs. Jut lo...

Here's another dose of the Phillies minor league hot list as we rundown the organization's top performers of late from the various levels of the developmental system. Class A Lakewood BlueClaws- Ranfi Casimiro, image- Jay Floyd In his last five starts, righty pitcher Ranfi Casimiro has a 2-1 record with a 1.00 ERA. Listed at six-foot-eight and 200 pounds, Casimiro has a 2-3 record with a 2.74 ERA, a .217 batting average against and a 0.94 WHIP in seven starts this year. The Dominican Republic native is 22 years old. Outfielder Herlis Rodriguez has notched three straight muti-hit games and is batting .322 in 15 May games. The 20-year-old Venezuelan has posted a .257 average with two homers, 18 RBI and six steals in 32 overall games this season. Class A Advanced Clearwater Threshers- Righty pitcher Mark Leiter Jr. is 2-0 with a 1.01 ERA in four outings since joining the Threshers' rotation. Overall in 10 games, the 24-year-old has a 3-0 record with a sav...

Aaron Fultz, image- Jay Floyd Former big leaguer Aaron Fultz is in his fourth season coaching in the Phillies' developmental ranks. In his career, the lefty Fultz tallied a 25-15 record with a 4.26 ERA and three saves over eight major league seasons. Now, the 41-year-old is leading the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws' pitching staff toward their dream of reach the top level of the sport. Recently, I chatted with Fultz about various topics related to his young prospects. Read ahead for those interview excerpts. -What are you impressions of your pitching staff in the early going this year? So far, I've been really pleased with the amount of strikes that we've thrown. We haven't walked many guys. There's still some mistakes here and there, but overall very pleased with the way we're going about the game. - Matt Hockenberry 's got a true closer mentality and persona, as he mans the late innings for the BlueClaws.  He's a Temple guy with loc...

On the 75th edition of the PhoulBallz Podcast, Tug and Jay are joined by Phillies and minor league blogger "Baseball Betsy", who shares some stories about being an American parent to some of the Phils' up and coming Latin prospects and gives some updates on the likes of Perci Garner , Adam Morgan , Grenny Cumana and Carlos Alonso . Lefty hurler Hoby Milner takes time to answer Nine Silly-ass Questions. The guys also discuss the Phillies diving into the analytics era at long last, Kelly Dugan 's injury, questionable Twitter etiquette and plenty more. Use the media player below to stream the full episode, or simply download it by clicking HERE . You can also check out previous episodes and subscribe on iTunes . Additionally, thanks to the thousands of you for being part of the growing process as our previous episode featuring an interview with the aforementioned Alonso was our most downloaded episode ever.

In this round of exclusive quotes from the Class A Lakewood locker room, I talked with this year's second round draft pick Matt Imhof about working with a new catcher after joining the BlueClaws recently, his boost in social networking popularity after being selected by the Phillies and plenty more. Also, I spoke with Lakewood manager Greg Legg about the progress of outfielder Dylan Cozens as well as the contributions of "the Andrews", Andrew Pullin and Andrew Knapp . Pitching coach Les Lancaster shared some thoughts on righty hurler Ranfi Casimiro as well. From my interview with Imhof (check out the feature by clicking HERE , if you missed it) the 20-year-old talked about his surge in online followers after he was drafted- I got a lot of text messages. I think I got 400 (new) followers on Twitter in about an hour.  It was awesome. It kind of takes a while to set in. You go to bed and you don't really feel any different and then the next day, you...

The latest semi-weekly rundown of your top performers from the Phillies developmental ranks and those that need to turn some things around includes a few injury notes on some key prospects. Read ahead on the latest from the minors. Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs (25-24 record, 4th place in the International League North division)- Who's hot... Third baseman/first baseman Maikel Franco has tallied a .301/.389/.482 slash line in 21 games this month. The 21-year-old, who is rumored to be a candidate to join the big league roster this week, missed two games over the weekend due to a respiratory illness. Outfielder Steve Susdorf is having quite a month, sporting a .344 average with seven doubles and nine RBI in 22 games. The 28-year-old lefty batter went 1-for-7 in three games with the big league Phillies last season. Who's not... Catcher Cameron Rupp is batting .208 with a home run in seven games since returning from the disabled list following an oblique strai...

This week I spoke with Lakewood manager Greg Legg and team pitching coach Les Lancaster about a some interesting Class A BlueClaws players. Legg, who is in his 33rd year in the Phillies organization, shared his thoughts about a pair of young positional prospects, catcher Deivi Grullon and third baseman Mitch Walding . Lancaster, who pitched in the majors for seven seasons and is coaching his fourth season in the Phils system, shared thoughts on righty starter Ranfi Casimiro and BlueClaws reliever Ulises Joaquin . -Legg speaking about Grullon, an 18-year-old backstop who was ranked as PhilliesNation.com's #24 prospect heading into the season... "He's as young as they get. I don't know if there's anybody younger in the league than him. He's got a lot of energy back there. He's got a strong arm. He's just a young catcher with some tools. And we're hoping, Les and myself and Lino (Connell), that we can get him experience behind the plate...