The active rosters have been announced for the upcoming World Baseball Classic with seven former BlueClaws ready to go.

• Australia: Drew Naylor (RHP, 2006), Joel Naughton (C, 2007-08), Brad Harman (IF, 2005)
• Italy: Jack Santora (IF, 2003)
• Panama: Carlos Ruiz (C, 2001), Avelino Asprilla (IF, 2006)
• Venezuela: Victor Moreno (RHP, 2002)

Other former ‘Claws who were on provisional rosters but not final rosters include LHP RJ Swindle (Canada, 2006), RHP Scott Mitchinson (Australia, 2006-07), RHP Carlos Carrasco (Venezuela, 2006) and OF Mike Spidale (Italy, 2006).

Carrasco is in the mix for the Phillies fifth-starter’s job and pulled his name out a few days ago.  

Ryan Howard (2002) and Cole Hamels (2003) decided not to compete before the provisional rosters were announced. Here is the US roster. Hamels would have either been the lead or second starter along with Jake Peavy. In Howard’s absence, Kevin Youkilis will play first base for the Americans. I assume Derek Jeter will start at short but with Jimmy Rollins there, there will be some discussion, at least in the media and among fans, if not with the staff.

In addition to those mentioned above, the other Phillies listed are JC Romero (who is suspended for the first 50 games of the regular season) will pitch for Puerto Rico and Matt Stairs will play for Canada.

Share This Post!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Around the Farm, General Baseball, Past BlueClaws, Phillies, World Baseball Classic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.