One of my favorite signs of spring, like the flower on the right, is the massive file of player bios that the Phillies send over. This year: 64 pages in Microsoft Word. Draft information. Statistical information, and so much more.

Some of the good stuff…

• New BlueClaws manager Mark Parent caught 24 innings in a doubleheader on July 24, 1998, at age 36. Two 12 inning games because starter Mike Lieberthal was injured and Parent was the only other catcher on the roster.
• Ernie Whitt, who managed Clearwater in 2009 (Dusty Wathan manages them in 2010), led the 2004 Canadian Olympic team to a 4th place finish (ironically better than their hockey team might do at these Olympics). He also managed them in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics.
• BlueClaws coach Greg Legg begins his 29th straight year in the system after being drafted in 1982. That is truly amazing when you think about it. Even more amazing was that last year’s championship with Lakewood was his first!
• Luis Arzeno, who was a system catcher for six years, and spent part of 2009 with the BlueClaws, is now a coach for the Guanama Phillies in the Dominican Summer League.
• Jeremy Barnes, who played SS for Williamsport last year, is the only player in the system who went to Notre Dame (and would be the first BlueClaw to have played there, unofficially).
• Kelly Dugan, a 2nd round pick last year, went to Notre Dame HS, however.
• While he was just 10-66 with Lakewood in the early part of last year, Leandro Castro ended up leading the Penn League in hits and total bases. Would expect him to be here this year again.
• Siulman Lebron pitched for Williamsport last year. I smell a Lebron Chooses BlueClaws Over Knicks, Cavs press release right around the time of July 1st.
• Last year, the BlueClaws had Tyler Cloyd and Jacob Diekman from the baseball powerhouse state of Nebraska. Could 2010 bring Darin Ruf here? He hit .207 between GCL and Williamsport (176 ABs) after being drafted in the 20th round out of Creighton.

We’ll sift through these bios and start to build some mock BlueClaws rosters. Also, this year’s media guide will be made available on-line, likely around April 1st.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 3:25 pm and is filed under 2009 BlueClaws, 2010 BlueClaws, Around the Farm. 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.