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.

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.

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.

2010 BlueClaws pitcher Josh Zeid was one of a handful of players to go from A-ball to the Arizona Fall League, where he went 3-0 with a 3.86 ERA in four starts and threw a shutout inning in the Rising Stars Game.

Having reached his innings limit, Zeid has finished his time in Arizona and we spoke to him Monday afternoon while he was driving on I-10 in New Mexico on a 30-hour drive to Clearwater.

How was the competition compared to what you had been facing? It’s like facing an all-star team every game out. If you have an off-day at all, even an off-pitch, they’re going to hit it a long way. I saw some pretty long home runs, but it was a lot of fun.

How was the experience for you having come from a level where you were one of the older guys to one where you were one of the younger and more inexperienced players? They let me know every day that I was younger or had less experience, not negatively, but they said that it was a great honor to be invited from Lo-A…I was the same age as some of the guys who had played in Double-A, which was a little sad, but you have to trick yourself into believing you can get these guys out. If you can, you can be successful at any level.

What was the Rising Stars experience like? The day I found out they were shutting me down for the year, I found out I made Rising Stars and that would be my last outing. I had a pretty good year, but I was Lo-A, senior sign. Most of the other guys that were on the team were older, or higher picks, so it meant a lot. It was cool, national television, that’s always a little scary. But it was a lot of fun. I faced the guy who hit the game winning home run, which kind of stunk, there was a cash prize for the winning team, $500. We were pretty down. We had bases loaded in the top of the 9th, but they got out of it. And they won in the bottom of the 9th.

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As I type this (1:30pm, Tuesday), voting is underway on MiLB.com for their Team of the Year MiLBY Award, the BlueClaws rank 3rd behind Great Lakes and Augusta in the Team of the Year voting among Lo-A teams.

Great Lakes had a nice year. They won 90 games, most in the minors. But they were knocked out in the second round (of three) in the Midwest League playoffs. Augusta had a nice year too. But they didn’t even make the SAL playoffs.

Vote for the BlueClaws (early and often) to support the team that:

• Became the first since 1994 to win back-to-back SAL titles
• Became the first to ever win the first-half, second-half, and SAL title in the same year
• Had the lowest team ERA (3.04) of any of the 120 full-season MiLB teams
• Had 14 walk-off wins
• Had six of the top 20 prospects in the league per Baseball America
• Put four (most in league) on the SAL All-Star team
• Put six (most in league) in the SAL All-Star Game

And of course, because you love them. Go BlueClaws! That is all.

Missed this the other day, but caught it on Phuture Phillies…From Todd Zolecki on MLB.com:

The Phillies are exploring ways to get top prospect Jonathan Singleton on the field. Singleton, a 19-year-old first baseman, is playing left field in the Florida Instructional League because Ryan Howard has blocked his path to the big leagues at first base. “We introduced it to him about midseason,” Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “Obviously, with Ryan signed to a long-term deal, we wanted to see if he had the aptitude and the athleticism to do it. He took to it pretty well. He’s doing fine. I think he’s just getting acclimated to it.” The Phils tried Howard in the outfield during Spring Training 2005, but pulled the plug relatively quickly. Could Singleton be different? “Much later time for Ryan,” Amaro said. “Singleton is 19. Ryan, by that time, he was ingrained at first base. He has a different body type than Ryan. He’s a little bit smaller guy. Not as big. Not as large as Ryan.”

Also worth nothing:

Amaro said right-handers Jesse Biddle and Jared Cosart are throwing well in the FIL. Cosart missed time this season with an elbow injury, but Amaro said he is throwing 98 mph again.

We say: On Singleton, makes perfect sense. If it works, great, if not, so be it. But why not try? As Amaro says, with Singleton being just 19, it’s a little different than when Howard tried it at 23 (because of Jim Thome). Singleton certainly projects to have enough power to play a corner outfield spot…On Cosart, great sign. He said he felt 100% when he was here during the playoffs.

2010 BlueClaws pitcher Josh Zeid is blogging for MLB.com down at the Arizona Fall League, and he’s posted his first entry (quite good, we would expect nothing less). Loved this part.

That’s what I’m looking forward to in Arizona: Meeting a bunch of new guys, great athletes, and potential Major League All-Stars. And mainly have fun like it was 1997.

Like I was back in New Haven, CT, playing for the Andy Papero Little League on a Tuesday night. Where the only bit of constructive criticism during my coach’s mound visit was: “Hurry up now, my macaroni’s getting cold!” He would then smile, and jog off the field.

Follow along with Josh’s blog here.

Here is the list of Phillies headed to the Arizona Fall League to play for the Mesa Solar Sox. Play opens on the 12th. (BlueClaws manager Mark Parent will be the hitting coach for Mesa)

We’ll have daily updates as the league gets going.

Jim Sheridan over at Bleacher Report caught up with Jiwan James for a Q&A as he works down in Florida at the Instructional League:

JS: Has your speed and conditioning changed since you became an everyday player?

JJ: Yes, having Domonic Brown and my buddy from home Esix Snead, who helped me get through the first two months of the season when I was struggling helps out a lot. I think I’ve gotten faster since the switch. As a position player you always want to come back faster the next season than you were before, so the offseason training comes to play there. My conditioning has changed. I went from running 15-20 minutes a day to sprints and agility stuff.

Read the whole Q&A here.

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Esix Snead, who is from Williston, Florida like Jiwan, stole 509 bases in nine Minor League seasons after playing at the University of Central Florida.

No surprise, since the BlueClaws won the South Atlantic League Championship, but six BlueClaws were ranked among the top 20 prospects in the South Atlantic League by Baseball America, who surveyed the league’s managers and scouts.

1. Jonathan Singleton: Singleton, who was named the best prospect in the SAL as part of the league’s annual awards, topped the list. Playing the year as an 18-year old (he turned 19 on September 18th, the day the BlueClaws clinched the title), he hit .290 with 14 home runs and 77 RBIs. He entered the year as the organization’s 18th ranked prospect, might enter next year as the organization’s top prospect.

4. Brody Colvin: Colvin, who turned 20 on August 14th, went 6-8, 3.39 with Lakewood, but had a 2.00 ERA from May 14th on through the rest of the season. He finished 8th in the league in ERA and gave up one earned run in 10 playoff innings. He was a 7th round pick from Lafayette, Louisiana in 2009 who signed with the Phillies on the August 15th deadline. He entered the year as the 12th ranked prospect in the organization.

7. Jarred Cosart: Cosart, who turned 20 in May, pitched for Lakewood in the first half, where he went 7-3, 3.79. He hurt his shoulder on June 26th and missed the rest of the season, but still pitched well enough to make the list. He struck out 77 hitters in his 71 innings and is now pitching in the Instructional League in Clearwater. He entered the year as the 8th ranked prospect in the organization. Cosart was a 38th round pick in 2008 from League City, Texas.

8. Jonathan Villar: Villar, another whose stock moved up immensely this year, was a key part of the July 29th trade that netted the Phillies Roy Oswalt. Before he left (and he was sent to the Hi-A California League), he hit .272 with 38 stolen bases (and was 4th in the league before the trade).  He entered the season in the top 20 in the Phillies system and figures to be among the top ten in the Houston system.

11. Trevor May: May was the SAL Postseason Pitcher of the Year, where he gave up one run in 11.2 innings pitched (and one ER in 22.2 innings in four postseason starts as a BlueClaw). He opened the season with Clearwater (5-5, 5.01) and was sent to Lakewood on the 4th of July, where was 7-3, 2.91. On July 27th in Delmarva, May struck out 14 Shorebirds to tie a BlueClaws single-game franchise record.

19. Sebastian Valle: Valle had a very good year and still was just the sixth BlueClaw ranked, a testament to the strength of the team. The 20 year old hit the game winning home run in the 5th inning of game four of the South Atlantic League Championship Series. On the year, he led the team with 16 home runs (in one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in the league).

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Loved this quote from Greensboro manager Andy Haines:

I could watch them play every day. They had so much talent, but what I liked was the way they played so hard. (Manager) Mark (Parent) did an outstanding job with that team. Their players had talent, but you could see them getting better and better every time we faced them.

MiLB.com hands out Player of the Week awards all year and BlueClaws RHP Trevor May was named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week for the postseason.

Trevor May, who struck out 182 over 135 regular season innings this year, kicked off the BlueClaws’ championship run by whiffing 13 and walking one over 6 2/3 shutout innings against the Hickory Crawdads. May earned the win in that game, but his next time out he wasn’t as fortunate. In Game 1 of the Finals against Greenville, May gave up a run over five innings and got stuck with a loss. He still managed to pile up eight strikeouts in that outing.

In four postseason starts over two years for the BlueClaws, May gave up one run in 22 2/3 innings pitched. Not too shabby.

Jessica Quiroli, over at the excellent baseball blog High Heels on the Field, has done a Q&A with BlueClaws OF Brian Gump, who began the year with Clearwater, came back to Lakewood in une, broke his arm on July 4th, rehabbed hard to play again this year, and won a title with the GCL Phillies, and then re-joined the BlueClaws for the playoffs, where he was the starting RF on another title team:

This year certainly threw a lot of curveballs at me. I really feel like all the level jumping allowed me to experience being in just about every role there is in professional baseball player, from being a bench/role player in High A, to being an every day starter bottom of the lineup guy in low A, to being a run producing middle to top of the lineup guy in the GCL while I was rehabbing, to being on the DL while I was injured. Although, this was definitely not the ideal year that I had in mind, the experience that it offered me is incredibly valuable. I really feel like I have a more complete perspective on minor league baseball as a result of being sandwiched between the lower and upper levels of minor league ball and seeing many of my teammates move up to AA and hear about their experiences. It certainly hasn’t been all fun for me this year, but I think it has provided me with countless essential individual experiences and a wholistic experience that will serve me well as my career moves ahead.

Click here to read the full article. It’s well worth it.

This from BlueClaws TV:

Thought this was pretty cool…Jiwan James said by the time he got back in the locker room after the clincher on Saturday, he had already received a congratulatory text message from Anthony Gose.

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Last year, the last out of the championship clincher was a pop-up to second base, caught by Harold Garcia. Before the party started, Garcia hid the ball in his glove to make sure he didn’t lose it.

This year, like in 2006 when Matt Thayer did it, Leandro Castro, caught up in the excitement, threw the ball into the air and who knows who has it now.

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BlueClaws players are gone, either headed to Florida for the Instructional League or home. Josh Zeid gets a week at home before going to Florida to tune up for the Arizona Fall League, which opens in two weeks. We’ll have plenty up AFL updates again this year.

“Like I said at the beginning, I really wasn’t looking forward to it (managing) until I saw the kids,” said  Lakewood manager Mark Parent.  “Then to see them do this is unbelievable,” Parent said.

“Mark Parent did a tremendous job keeping this all together throughout the year,” said Director of Minor Leagues Steve Noworyta.

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“Ruben (Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro) brought me in to work with these young prospects, get them started,” Parent said. “That’s what I did.”

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Lakewood is the first team since 1993-1994 (Savannah, then a Cardinals affiliate) to win back-to-back SAL titles.

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As Eric Krupa, SAL President, noted in a post-game ceremony on the field, the BlueClaws are also the first team since the league switched playoff formats in 2000 to win both halves and then take the SAL title. Three previous teams had won both halves, including Greg Legg’s 2000 Piedmont Boll Weevils (then a Phillies affiliate).

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Here is the game story.

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Here is the story in the Asbury Park Press.