Thanks to Jonathan Mayo of MiLB.com (blog here, Twitter here) for taking some time to answer a few questions for BlueClaws Blog about the recent MiLB.com top 50 prospects, which featured several former BlueClaws (14 Domonic Brown, 17 Kyle Drabek, 35 Michael Taylor).
Without further adieu…
Q: First, what was the basic criteria in selecting prospects? How much was age a factor?
A: I poll as many scouts as possible, asking them to give me their individual top 30 lists anonymously. I dump them all into a big spreadsheet and I use an AP poll type format to come up with the rankings. For example, if a scout put Jason Heyward atop his list, he’d get 30 points. Strasburg in 2nd would get 29 points, and on down. The cumulative points is how I rank the players. I’ll break ties and tweak things a little here and there, but I let the scouts’ opinions dictate how things end up for the most part. My only criteria is that a player should still have rookie status entering the season. The rest–age, ceiling, closeness to the big leagues, etc–I leave up to each scout.
Sometimes expectations can rise and you can move up prospect rankings by doing, well, nothing. And that’s what happened to Trevor May this off-season.
A 4th-round pick in 2008 from Kelso, Washington, May joined the BlueClaws in June, and lasted a total of 6.2 innings in his first two starts. But from there he was lights out, going 4-1, 2.25 over the second half. He gave up three runs in his last 36 innings, including 11 shutout in the playoffs.
Then, with the trade of Kyle Drabek (in the Halladay deal), the expectation level and status of May have now gone up. He is now the premier starting pitching prospect in the organization.
Todd Zolecki of MLB.com caught up with May (read here) last week:
“There are a certain level of expectations,” May said recently. “You get bumped up [after Drabek left the organization]. Even though I haven’t pitched in the offseason, more is expected of me. It’s kind of exciting to me, because as a person I personally like to set high goals and expectations for myself. Having other people joining in on those expectations gives you more determination to get it done. I knew Kyle. He was a great guy, but it’s exciting to be held in high regards in the organization. I hope to fulfill those expectations.”
You can read our Q&A with May here (part one and part two). May heads down February 30th, and has been running a lot this offseason in preparation for the Florida heat he’ll experience this summer.
I’ll be there February 30th to get acclimated to the heat. People think, “Oh well it’s hot,” but you have to be in great shape to go eight innings in Florida. In June it’s literally 95 in degrees and humidity…I know from being there in the GCL and instructs. I ran in the offseason to get into better shape than I was going into last year.
Now that football season is over, next up: baseball.
Remember, Phillies pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater to open Spring Training on February 17th, just over a week away.
BlueClaws team photographer Dave Schofield heads down soon as well, and Dave will be providing us with several blog entries per week beginning in early March, as he always does.
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Congrats to the Saints. This is an old video but here’s Who Dat performed by Williams Riley (you may remember them from Thunderfest)
Normally we do Sunday Links and Coffee, links from around the baseball world for you to enjoy during breakfast. Today, enjoy them with breakfast and delay shoveling (which is what I’m doing as I put this together).
Interesting article by Nick Cafardo in the Boston Globe about why Josh Beckett is unlikely to receive a contract extension anytime soon from the Red Sox. Also, didn’t realize that if John Lackey has Tommy John surgery during his five-year contract with Boston, his salary drops to the league minimum.
At a party the other night, a Twins fan I’ve known for 15 years came up to me and said “Greg, we have the best top four in baseball.” Minnesota signed Orlando Hudson on Friday.
We’ll be hearing more about this soon, but Tim Lincecum of the Giants gets ready for what could be the biggest baseball arbitration case in the program’s history.
Nice look from a CBSSports.com blogger at 25 highest paid players in baseball and if their salaries are justified (Ryan Howard is in there, the only Phillie).
We had this on Twitter yesterday and in our newsletter on Wednesday but neglected to put it up here.
BlueClaws players and coaches will receive their championship rings from last year’s SAL victory on March 19th before the Phillies spring training game against Baltimore.
Like in 2007 (honoring the 2006 champs), there will be a ceremony at about 6:30 before the 7:05 game. This is on a Friday night.
The ring you see here is a 2006 ring. I have not seen the 2009 ring yet, but we’ll be sure to get it up here soon.
It’s been over six weeks since the Roy Halladay/Cliff Lee trade(s) in which the Phillies swapped one Cy Young winner for prospects and different prospects for another Cy Young winner.
While the buzz at the time centered around Halladay, an adding a proven ace (and signing him to a contract extension), recently, the Phillies have taken some heat for making the Cliff Lee portion of the deal.
Ruben Amaro, at the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association banquet on Monday walked up to the podium and said, “First, the Cliff Lee trade was all Charlie [Manuel], who was sitting next to him. Obviously he was kidding, but it was mildly surprising that he even needed to make the joke, considering the elation of December.
Of course, if the weathermen are correct, Charlie and Cole will be buried beneath a lot more snow than two or three inches come this weekend (hopefully they are wrong).
Today: top ten bobblehead dolls. We’ve assembled our favorites in the picture that you see here, and will rank them below:
(year given away)
10. Donald Trump (2006)…as part of Kelly Perdew autograph signing. Perdew was a winner of The Apprentice
9. Mike Schmidt (2003)
8. Finkel (2004)…BlueClaws onfield emcee
7. Leiter Brothers (2005)…Mark and Al, Toms River, shared a bobblehead doll
6. Cole Hamels World Series MVP (2009)…Cole holds the World Series MVP trophy he won the year before, another former BlueClaw success story
5. Charlie Manuel World Series (2009)…How can you not love Charlie Manuel?
4. Gavin Floyd USA Jersey (2004)…a personal favorite
3. Mike Zagurski (2008)…the BlueClaw who had the fastest rise to the big leagues gets this honor, representing the Made the Phillies series
2. Dave Huppert SAL trophy (2007)…Dusty Wathan and the SAL Trophy given out this year (July 22nd)
1. Buster (2001)…the first bobblehead given away
How many of these do you have?
Update: This was sent to us on Twitter. How did Eudie Bruito not make this list? I have that one! Classic.
We post a bunch of prospect rankings here from different sources and sometimes it’s hard to compare all of them in one setting. Baseball Daily Digest to the rescue.
I found this on Twitter through following @scoutingtheSAL. It’s a collection of prospect rankings done by Joe Hamrahi (@jhamrahi), the founder and CFO of BDD.
Click here for a complete (in Excel) database of rankings by team, league, and source. It’s a great reference point for any MiLB fan. Visit Baseball Daily Digest here.
Big night for us (Tuesday night). Our free Kids Club (click here) went over 1,000 members after just 20 days.
Number 1,000: Alexa of Shrewsbury, age seven. Michael, presumably a brother, was number 999.
The gist of the Kids Club is as follows: Membership is free and there are six special Sundays throughout the season. Those days include Kids Club only perks (like picnics, an autograph signing, first pitch on the field, kids club happy hour [free rides in Clawd's Kids Zone], etc). And every member gets a free ticket to every Sunday home game.
Monday night in Cherry Hill, the PSWA held their 106th annual banquet. Among the honorees were the 1960 Eagles, 1985 Villanova basketball team that beat Georgetown to win the National Championship, and Andrew Bailey of Haddon Heights and Wagner College, who was the American League Rookie of the Year.
Great quick fact about Bailey…there was a story in the program regarding the Native Son Award Winner. Bailey, on a flight back to San Francisco from the All-Star Game, was seated behind none other than Willie Mays. When Bailey got enough courage to talk to the Hall of Famer, they had a chat on the flight which ended with Bailey asking for an autograph.
“He said he would sign for me if I signed a ball for him,” said Bailey. “It’s something I’ll never forget.”
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The highlight of the evening, unquestionably, was when the entire crowd got up and, in honor of longtime Phillies broadcaster (and emcee of this event) Harry Kalas, sang his favorite song:
Trevor May, a 4th round pick of the Phillies in 2008, joined the BlueClaws in June of 2009 and went 4-1, 2.56 over 15 starts and gave up just two earned runs in two playoff starts. He was recently ranked 5th in the system by Baseball America, we had a chance to sit down with May recently as he prepares for his third season in the system, likely with Hi-A Clearwater in just a few months. You can read Part One here.
What was it like to pitch in a playoff game: It’s always helpful if you can get that experience in that big game where people are counting on you. I was there four days later and we clinched but I didn’t feel like I did anything. I had one start. There was a little good-natured ribbing, having been there for only four days. Eventually winning, it felt good.
You only gave up three runs in your last 36 innings. Safe to say you had it all working by the end of the season: I don’t know. Even in High School I stopped worrying about confidence. The way we played, we were confident and we knew we were going to win. I kind of had that. We were on a really good team. The bats and defense were good, and if I threw well we had a good chance to win the game. If I had my stuff I knew the other team knew that and I started to work on everything and I didn’t think things would go wrong.
Going into the season you had a couple power arms in the organization in Drabek and Knapp…now their gone. Does that boost your confidence knowing that you are one of the big time guys now: I had this asked by my family and friends, but it’s two things: one, I don’t want to see them go. I was real good friends with Knapp and I knew Drabek well. There’s no set depth chart. But at the same time it’s good that the Phillies hold me in high enough regard to keep me and it does give you confidence that you’re here when those things go down. It’s nice that some of the other right-handed pitching prospects that I was going to be competing with for big league spots got traded, so yes it does give you a lot of confidence.
Looking forward to getting the Championship Ring: Oh yeah…that’s the best thing about Spring Training!
Minor league pitchers report March 6th, when will you be in Clearwater: I’ll be there February 30th to get acclimated to the heat. People think, “Oh well it’s hot,” but you have to be in great shape to go eight innings in Florida. In June it’s literally 95 in degrees and humidity…I know from being there in the GCL and instructs. I ran in the offseason to get into better shape than I was going into last year.
Great article today in the Philadelphia Inquirer on former BlueClaw Scott Mathieson, who was here with the BlueClaws in2004. Matt Gelb details how Mathieson is trying to make a push back to the big leagues after having two Tommy John surgeries and three elbow operations overall.
“I’m very lucky they’re giving me a chance,” Mathieson said. “They stuck with me after my last surgery and helped me through the rehab. They really put the time and effort in to get me back to where I am.”
(snip)
“Even last year during the season, it was 20 minutes of holding my arm in the hot tub before,” Mathieson said. “And then doing all the stretches. It was just a lot of prep before going out just to throw. That part is hopefully behind me.”
He has spent the off-season working out with Zagurski, who is also rehabbing after Tommy John surgery, and Shawn Fcasni, the Phillies’ minor-league strength and conditioning coordinator.
Mathieson and Zagurski play catch five times a week. To prepare, they each ride a treadmill for 10 minutes. No hot tub. No extra stretches. Just playing catch like old times.
In the accompanying picture to this post, you see two lucky Little Leaguers with Ryan Howard, during his rehab in Lakewood in May of 2007. These Little Leaguers took advantage of the Future BlueClaws program, and others have taken advantage of the ClawStars program, through which teams can play catch on the field before the game. Along those lines,
Any Little League team that books a Future BlueClaws or ClawStars outing through the end of February will receive two free hours in the batting cage.
For more information on these outings, please click here, or call 732-901-7000, option three.
An annual classic, the New Jersey Sportswriters Association banquet was Sunday afternoon, and we’ve taken the best one-liners for you here.
Honorable Mention George O’Gorman (President, NJSW): I was at the press conference announcing the new stadium they were building at the Turnpike and Route 3. It was such a big deal, the next day, all the papers devoted two paragraphs.
Rick Porcello (Detroit Tigers): after stumbling over some words…It’s funny, I don’t get nervous pitching in front of 55,000 people…Also, he said one of the highlights of his year was being charged by Kevin Youkilis.
Bronze Phil Pepe (covered NY sports for 50 years, has written numerous books): It’s great being up here with Rick Porcello. I have ties older than him…also, recalling a discussion with Yogi Berra about Earl Weaver smoking in the dugout, Pepe noted Berra said “He smokes like a fish.”
Silver Terry DeHare (St Anthony’s and Seton Hall star now on Jersey City Board of Ed): on playing with the Clippers…I lost about four games in high school and maybe 10 or 15 in college. In LA, we would lose ten games and then go into a slump.
Gold Al Golden (Temple football coach and Red Bank Catholic grad): We were so bad in my first year there was a petition going around campus to change the name of 7-11 to 1-11…and, recalling a speech with a Booster Club…One guy said his seats last year were awful. I said ‘I wasn’t here, what was the problem.’ He said ‘They were facing the field.’”
Tomorrow is February 1st (believe it or not) and we are just 18 days until pitchers and catchers head to Clearwater. Here’s another set of links to read before you go shovel.
How did the Florida Marlins and Josh Johnson set the stage for potential labor unrest? Jayson Stark answers at ESPN.com. The big-budget teams are clearly going to rebel against continuing to paying out monstrous revenue-sharing dollars without a more concrete guarantee that the teams getting that money will spend those dollars on payroll — not on debt service, ballpark construction fees or the office Christmas party.
Why is Johnny Damon still a free agent? Ben Reiter answers on SI.com?
Good news out of Minnesota, where Ron Gardenhire thinks the Twins will reach a deal with star catcher Joe Mauer.
Great article by Paul Hagen on Tyson Gilles, who came over in the Cliff Lee deal. “They didn’t realize I was hearing impaired until I was 4. I was able to fool the guy because I was reading lips at a young age.”
Hagen on Phllipe Aumont, also acquired in the Lee deal. “It’s probably not fair, but in the minds of some fans, whatever Aumont does will be measured against whatever Drabek achieves.”It doesn’t matter to me,” he said yesterday at Citizens Bank Park. “I’m not here to replace Kyle Drabek. I’m going to make my own mark. I want to grow up as Phillippe Aumont, not taking somebody else’s spot.”
Funny headline from the Daily News: Mets sign real life Crash Davis.
Trevor May, a 4th round pick of the Phillies in 2008, joined the BlueClaws in June of 2009 and went 4-1, 2.56 over 15 starts and gave up just two earned runs in two playoff starts. He was recently ranked 5th in the system by Baseball America, we had a chance to sit down with May recently as he prepares for his third season in the system, likely with Hi-A Clearwater in just a few months.
What was the first two months of 2009 like for you, down in Florida with the back injury? It’s tough to be down there. It’s real hot during the summer and spring. A lot of the guys you played with got the call up and started the season early and they don’t have to get up at 8 in the morning. You feel like you weren’t good enough, but finally getting the call up was exciting and relief.
Was it tough transitioning right into a pennant race? It was tough. A first-place team, they want me to be a starter so there’s no easing into it with an inning here or an inning there. They told me to be ready but I didn’t know that much about Lakewood. I knew some of the guys but I hadn’t met a lot of the guys before. So it’s the first time meeting and playing with a bunch of guys. It’s a nervewracking start, stadium, actual fans, but you get used to it.
What would you say is most important to your success? With Bob (Milacki), and it started right at the end of the spring, we were working with Tom Filer (from Williamsport) and Carlos Arroyo (who works with rehabbing players), plus Gorm (Heimueller, minor league pitching coordinator). We worked on arm slot. I dropped my elbow a lot and would throw high, and that’s where a lot of the walks would come from. I tweaked a few things with separation in my leg kick. I always had a curveball and Bob worked with me on that. But by the end, I was throwing my change-up a little more than the curveball. Sometimes I’m effectively wild, and the changeup set that up.
Normally we do Sunday Links and Coffee, links from around the baseball world for you to enjoy during breakfast. Today, enjoy them with breakfast and delay shoveling (which is what I’m doing as I put this together).
We had this on Twitter yesterday and in our newsletter on Wednesday but neglected to put it up here.
Of course, if the weathermen are correct, Charlie and Cole will be buried beneath a lot more snow than two or three inches come this weekend (hopefully they are wrong).
Welcome to our second edition of Countdown 2010, a collection of top ten lists as we lead into the 10th season in BlueClaws history.
We post a bunch of prospect rankings here from different sources and sometimes it’s hard to compare all of them in one setting. Baseball Daily Digest to the rescue.
Big night for us (Tuesday night). Our free Kids Club (
Trevor May, a 4th round pick of the Phillies in 2008, joined the BlueClaws in June of 2009 and went 4-1, 2.56 over 15 starts and gave up just two earned runs in two playoff starts. He was recently ranked 5th in the system by Baseball America, we had a chance to sit down with May recently as he prepares for his third season in the system, likely with Hi-A Clearwater in just a few months. 
In the accompanying picture to this post, you see two lucky Little Leaguers with Ryan Howard, during his rehab in Lakewood in May of 2007. These Little Leaguers took advantage of the Future BlueClaws program, and others have taken advantage of the ClawStars program, through which teams can play catch on the field before the game. Along those lines,
An annual classic, the New Jersey Sportswriters Association banquet was Sunday afternoon, and we’ve taken the best one-liners for you here.
Trevor May, a 4th round pick of the Phillies in 2008, joined the BlueClaws in June of 2009 and went 4-1, 2.56 over 15 starts and gave up just two earned runs in two playoff starts. He was recently ranked 5th in the system by Baseball America, we had a chance to sit down with May recently as he prepares for his third season in the system, likely with Hi-A Clearwater in just a few months.
