The good folks at Scouting the Sally have a write-up (read here) on BlueClaws pitcher Julio Rodriguez.

Julio Rodriguez was one of the two best pitchers I saw in the Sally this season. I wish I had seen him pitch more than 3 innings so I could compare him better to the other top pitching prospect I saw, Braves prospect Arodys Vizcaino. I am very surprised, even after his electric second half, an extremely positive write up by Kevin Goldstein, and a good winter ball start for Carolina in Puerto Rico, that Rodriguez isn’t viewed as a top prospect among Phillies fans. In most systems, this guy is a top 15 prospect, even cracking the top 10 in a few organizations. I don’t know the Phillies system like I know the Mets and Braves systems since I’m a Mets fan.  Being transplanted in the south, I have the opportunity to catch several Braves minor league games every season on various levels.

Why isn’t the Phillies bloggersphere isn’t jumping all over this kid yet? Rodriguez is young, projectable, and has a couple of pitches to work from already.  In my mind, he’s top-15 in the Phillies system with definite room to grow.

Good call. We agree. As noted here, I put Rodriguez seventh in the organization in a Reading Eagle survey from late August.

We’ll find out on Monday where he is ranked by Baseball America.

We are. As you can see from the photo below, some of the 78 sprinklers that run through FirstEnergy Park have been turned on and are rolling along as we start to water the new grass.

Some of the sprinklers are getting new heads. Some aren’t. But most of them will be on at some point. Simply, the new grass needs some water.

All the grass should be installed at some point today. After that, they’ll do some work on the warning track and infield dirt to grade it exactly with the new grass. They might need to wait for the ground to thaw out for that process to begin, however.

But either way, the field is green and it’s being watered. So that means baseball season is coming soon (120 days to be exact).

UPDATE (3:10): As you can see below, all the grass has been laid down.

Jesus Sanchez (pictured), a BlueClaw in 2008 and 2009, and Yohan Flande were released by the Phillies yesterday, freeing up room on their 40-man roster in case they want to sign a free agent or select somebody in the Rule 5 Draft which is tomorrow at the Winter Meetings in Orlando.

The Phillies recently added five to their 40-man roster (Matt Rizzotti, Justin De Fratus, Freddy Galvis, Harold Garcia, Cesar Hernandez) to protect them from the Rule-5 Draft.

Sanchez, who was a reserve catcher with Lakewood in 2008, with Joel Naughton and later Travis d’Arnaud, was converted to a pitcher in 2009 and went 10-6, 3.44 with Lakewood. This year, he had a 2.99 ERA with Clearwater.

Flande, who skipped Lakewood in 2009 after starring in the GCL in 2008, played in the Futures Game last year but struggled this year with Reading. He went 10-8, 4.38 but struck out just 84 in 158 innings.

The Phillies could sign both back to minor league contracts.

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Two of the best organizations in baseball are going to be loaded for bear in the 2011 draft.

The Phillies, after losing Jayson Werth to the Nationals, will receive the top compensatory pick in the supplemental first round, plus Washington’s second round pick (their first, #6, is protected, as are the top 15). So the Phillies will pick 30-34 and then roughly 50-55.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, will have two compensatory picks for losing Victor Martinez to the Tigers and then two more for Adrian Beltre, who, now that they have added Adrian Gonzalez, will not be re-signed.

These two teams typically spend money in the draft and it’s no coincidence they typically have good farm systems (and farm systems that can be pierced to go get good players via trade).

We would like to welcome 2010 BlueClaws pitcher Jarred Cosart to the Twitter world. Follow him here.

He’s added about 225 followers in about an hour and a half (as of 1 pm) and already has 18 Tweets, many answering questions from fans.

While we’re at it, also give a follow to Eric Pettis, who finished 2010 with the BlueClaws and could be a part of the team in 2011.

A BlueClaws championship hat, a BlueClaws championship shirt, and four vouchers to a 2011 BlueClaws game*. That’s the all new BlueClaws Champions Pack, a perfect holiday present. The package, an $82 value, is available for just $49.

Click here to order online.

* The vouchers can be exchanged at any time for reserve seats to any 2011 BlueClaws game, from Opening Day through the finale.

We’ll roll a few more gift ideas through as we move through December.

With apologies to the great Johnny Mathis.

They started to lay down the grass today at FirstEnergy Park. Ultimately it will be about 90,000 square feet of grass.

Groundskeeper Ryan Radcliffe relays that it’s about the same amount of grass that is used on greens at a golf course.

Each roll of grass (see below) is 4′ wide x 61′ long (or 244 square feet, which means that there will be about 370 rolls used throughout the process.

Obviously, there is a jagged area of several rolls of grass in front of home plate. After they lay down the grass, they’ll go back in with a larger “exact-o” knife and trim it up.

Click here for some photos from today.

The people who are doing this grass installation, Tuckahoe Turf Farms, recently installed sod at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and Browns Stadium in Cleveland. The football teams do this a couple of times per year.

For more posts on the new playing surface, utilize the category feature (FirstEnergy Park) on the right.

Former Phillies GM Pat Gillick was elected to the Hall of Fame today by the veterans committee and will be inducted in July.

Here is an article from MLB.com about Gillick’s election, and here is another from Tyler Kepner of the NY Times (written before the election).

Gillick pitched for five seasons in the Orioles’ system before finding work with the Houston Colt .45s, who became the Astros. One of his first discoveries was Cesar Cedeno, a future All-Star from the Dominican Republic who signed for $2,500 with Gillick and another scout, Epy Guerrero, just five minutes before a St. Louis Cardinals scout arrived at the door.

That scout was Chase Riddle, and Gillick called him a friend, mentioning that he had signed Steve Carlton out of a community college in Miami. The nod to his rival was fitting, part of the code of a job that is equal parts cutthroat and collegial.

Another thing which I find fascinating, from Kepner’s Twitter page:

Gillick said when he started, he thought teams should be 70/30 talent/character. As he went on, he realized it’s 60/40 character/talent.

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Gillick became GM of the Phillies in 2006 and they went to the playoffs in 2007 and followed by winning the World Series in 2008.

Our good friend Ben Hill over at MiLB.com sat down with BlueClaws CF Jiwan James for a 10 Questions feature, which you can read by clicking here. Here are three of our favorites:

MiLB.com: Baseball is a sport known for its unique names, and yours sounds pretty great coming from the stadium PA system. Is there a story behind it?

James: There’s not much of a story behind it. My first name is actually Nathaniel, but I didn’t like that so I went by my middle name instead. Once [NBA icon] LeBron [James] came along, that helped out a little bit. And even before that there was that movie, “Juwanna Man.” That helped too.

MiLB.com: What songs did you use for your at-bat music?

James: I had three different songs. The first I can’t remember, but the second was Miley Cyrus. It started as a joke, with the [opposing] Hagerstown guys all laughing at me, but it was kind of fun. The last song I used was “No Quitters” by Lil Wayne. Oh, I do remember the first one. It was “All of the Above,” by Maino.

MiLB.com: How did you learn how to switch-hit?

James: When I was 6 or 7 years old, I was playing backyard baseball with my older brother and his friends. They were five years older than me, playing with a regular baseball bat and a tennis ball, and in order to get each other out, they would throw the ball at each other.

Eventually they decided to let me play, with me using a big orange plastic bat and plastic ball. Until then I had always hit right-handed, but my cousin batted in front of me and hit lefty. Me being me, very competitive, I thought ‘Well, I can do that too.’ So I turned around and hit lefty, and hit a home run my first time up. I was a left-handed hitter from then on, and it became my dominant side. The only time I would hit right-handed was to show off, just to prove I could do it.

Part two of our talk with Matt Rizzotti focuses on the Phillies organization, a notable first baseman ahead of him, another who he grew up watching, and a Hall of Famer that will be his manager in 2011.

Click here for part one.

In this organization, you obviously have Ryan Howard up there ahead of you. Did you ever wish you were with one of the other 29 clubs?
No, I’ve never thought about that. It’s not like I go out there and say I’m trying to compete with a big league MVP. Its’ not a safe way to go about your career. Truthfully, I can honestly say I don’t think about it. It might be easier if he wasn’t there, but it could be a lot worse. But I don’t think about it.

You grew up a Yankee fan (in Floral Park, NY). Who was your favorite player?
Don Mattingly. I actually got to meet him in the Fall League. Michael Taylor introduced me. It was cool. He’s an awesome guy. He signed a bunch of stuff for me. I was at Don Mattingly Day in 1997 and brought my Don Mattingly Day program to get signed. He was surprised I was there, but I remembered everything. They gave him a pick-up truck. They gave him and his son jerseys. They gave him an arcade game.

This year, you’ll probably get to be managed by Ryne Sandberg, a Hall of Famer. What was your reaction when you heard that news?
I thought that was cool. I was on the team in Arizona with the Cubs guys and most of them said good things about him, so that’s pretty cool. It’s not every day you can have a Hall of Fame player be your manager. He was actually on my flight from Arizona to New York, but once I realized it was him, he went on the plane ahead of me. Of course he had first class. I had the jumper seat.

Goal for 2011?
Haven’t thought about a goal. I just know that I don’t want to put the pressure on myself to repeat the year I had. That would be setting the bar really high. I think this year I didn’t over-think anything. If I can keep that, I think I’ll be just fine.

Had a chance to speak earlier today with 2008 BlueClaws 1B Matt Rizzotti, who is back in New York after a whirlwind year which took him from Clearwater to Reading to Lehigh Valley and ultimately ended in the Arizona Fall League. Click here to see his stats from 2010. He was a 6th round pick in 2007 from Manhattan College and spent 2008 with the BlueClaws.

Did you do anything differently in terms of conditioning heading into 2010 than you had in the past?
I got myself a personal trainer that absolutely worked me, every single day. We would go out and do whatever he wanted. Sometimes an hour. Sometimes three-and-a-half hours. We ran the steps at Manhattan a bunch, just brutal.

When they told you that you were going to start 2010 in Clearwater (where you finished 2009), did that give you a motivational push?
It was one of those things where I thought I did enough to get promoted and they thought differently. But that’s ok. The good thing was that it opened up something in me. I dug down deep, found something, and wanted to show them that I was more advanced than Hi-A. It all worked out.

Did you surprise yourself with how well you played as you moved up each level?
It was just one of those things. We were in Trenton over the summer and one of their guys, I believe Marcus Vechionacci gets on 1st base and says “Still dreaming, huh?” I thought that was a good way to put it. I was putting up fairy tale numbers in a way. I just didn’t have that slump. Even two or three bad games in a row.

What was the experience like for you in the Arizona Fall League?
I was kind of nervous. It’s amazing, this game. You can have a great year and go to Arizona and if you don’t do what you did the whole year, everyone thinks that all your good work is negated. I was hoping I could continue it and whatever happened, I’d like to say I did. I didn’t hit any home runs, but I walked a lot.

(more…)

Leandro Castro and Sebastian Valle were the two 2010 BlueClaws noted among Phillies Rising Stars in a new MILB.com article (click here to read).

On Sebastian Valle:

Valle looked special last year at Williamsport and although his average took a hit in the Sally League, his production rose tremendously while seeing at-bats nearly every day for the BlueClaws. The Mexican Pacific League Rookie of the Year hit .255 and led all Phillies backstops — including Carlos Ruiz — with 16 homers and 74 RBIs.

“He had a good year, he improved at all facets of the game,” said Chuck LaMar, assistant general manager and director of player development and scouting. “His receiving, his throwing and his ability to see the whole field and his power is unquestioned. He’s shown that his whole career.”

Valle will need to cut down on his strikeouts and raise his on-base percentage to stay on track — Joel Naughton (.308, 5 HR, 31 RBIs) and Tim Kennelly (.274, 5, 59) also posted strong seasons behind the plate at Clearwater. LaMar said he’s on the radar to reach Philadelphia.

“He improved immensely,” he added. “He’s definitely a Major League prospect for us.”

And on Leandro Castro:

The 2009 All-Star ranked second in the system with 78 runs scored and third with 81 RBIs after a promotion to Lakewood.

“He’s extremely aggresive in all phases of the game — he loves to play,” LaMar said.

Castro’s .257 average was his worst in four seasons and he struck out 91 times, but he reached double figures in homers (10) and steals (22) to go with 27 doubles and nine triples.

“He’ll move up as far as his bat will take him,” LaMar said. “His running and throwing skills are good enough. We’ll keep moving him up and challenging him, and so far he’s responded at each level.”

Others noted in the article and their year with the BlueClaws…

1B: Matt Rizzotti (2008)

2B: Harold Garcia (2009)

SS: Freddy Galvis (2008)

3B: Cody Overbeck (none)

OF: Domonic Brown (2008)

OF: John Mayberry (none)

DH: Tagg Bozied (none)

SP: Austin Hyatt (2009)

RP: Scott Mathieson (2004)

My take: Would have worked Jiwan James into the OF and used Jarred Cosart or Brody Colvin as the starting pitcher. But not a big deal either way.