September Callups and the 40 Man Roster

It is now August 28 the Phillies bullpen ailing more than ever under the strain of a rotation of bright eyed rookies and corpses, and September 1 can’t come soon enough.  We already know based on hints that the September call ups are going to be underwhelming, but take some solace that Jerad Eickhoff, Aaron Altherr, … Read more

Weekend Preview – 5/8/15

Best Matchup Sunday – Lehigh Valley – Severino Gonzalez vs Matt Wisler Not the greatest weekend for matchups again, but Sunday will be Severino’s first start since making two major league appearances.  Opposing him will be Matt Wisler who was a near consensus Top 100 prospect and the headliner in the deal that sent Craig … Read more

Phillies Make Surprising but Possibly Brilliant Roster Moves

It was announced on Saturday that the Phillies were demoting David Buchanan to AAA and calling up LHP Elvis Araujo.  My initial reaction was of outrage that Severino Gonzalez would remain up on the major league roster despite showing in his last start that he was not major league ready.  However, the Phillies might actually … Read more

Welcome to the Majors: Severino Gonzalez

With Sean O’Sullivan going down to injury and Dustin McGowan not being a major league starting pitcher, the Phillies have made their first reach down for a pitching prospect going with #30 prospect RHP Severino Gonzalez.  Gonzalez made a start during spring training, but otherwise he only has three AAA starts under his belt. How … Read more

In Person Prospect Watch – Lehigh Valley 4/11/15

As I will do 20+ times this season, I had the opportunity to see my hometown IronPigs first hand last night. While the roster is filled with mostly veteran talent, there were a few prospects to keep an eye on. So, in between Walking Tacos and a box of Rivets, here’s are my impressions: Severino … Read more

2015 IronPigs Preview/Guide

The goal of this series to give a quick one stop look at each affiliate with a guide to the overall feel of each team as well as a quick look at all players, not just the prospects on the team.  These rosters will be changing throughout the year so keep up to date on … Read more

2015 Top 50 Phillies Prospects: 21-30

The Top 30 seems to be the standard for long prospect lists, and so it becomes the standard of comparison across multiple lists.  Given that we started at 50 we can see the transition into the Top 30 is fairly gradual, but as we start to really climb up the list we see real quality … Read more

Phillies SP Depth Still Half a Season Away

Yesterday the Phillies signed Jerome Williams, which was a great signing, but still made us all very sad.  Williams just underlines how thin starting pitching is across baseball as a whole, and just how important it is to develop starting pitching depth as an organization.  In a healthy organization this spot is filled internally by a league minimum salaried 22 year old, but that is not where the Phillies are right now.  Right now the Phillies need innings from their starting rotation, and on the open market those innings aren’t cheap.  But that era is starting to end, the Phillies have pitching depth on the way, the problem is that Spring Training is just too early for them.  That means the Phillies have to fill the gap in the mean time until that depth is there.

When we think about the Phillies starting pitching depth going forward we can think of it in three categories.  In the first you have guys you expect to count on in the rotation going forward.  They may not be front of the rotation arms, but you expect them to be part of the future going forward.  Then you have your rotation filler, the Phillies had a surprise in this category last year when David Buchanan stepped into the rotation from AAA.  The problem with these pitchers is that you are waiting for them to turn back into pumpkins.  Some will continue to build and improve, others just don’t have the stuff to compete in the majors.  Lastly you have your fliers, players that you cannot reasonably expect anything from, but could be impactful if things work out.  The biggest reason pitchers are fliers is injuries, it is just hard to count on players coming back healthy and with their stuff intact.

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2014 Reading Fightin Phils Recap: Interview with Mike Ventola

Before we jump into talking about players why don’t you introduce yourself and what you do?

My name is Michael Ventola and I am the play-by-play radio voice of the Reading Fightin Phils.  I broadcast all 142 games home and away for the Fightin Phils.

You covered the Fightins from start to finish, can you sum up their season as a whole?

I can easily use one word to describe the season:  Challenge.  The Fightin Phils roster suffered over a 100 moves throughout the entire season and only finished with a handful of players that began with the team on opening day.  The team though continued to play hard each and every game.

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