The rosters for the prestigious Arizona Fall League were announced today and feature several BlueClaws (including two current ‘Claws). All will represent the Mesa Solar Sox.

• Manager Mark Parent: Parent, the BlueClaws first year manager, will serve as the hitting coach for Mesa. Parent spent 13 years in the Major Leagues before retiring after two seasons with the Phillies (1997-1998). He managed Seattle’s California League affiliate in 2000 and led Chico in the independent Chico Outlaws in the Golden League from 2005-2007.
• RHP Josh Zeid: A current BlueClaw, Zeid is 7-4, 2.99 in a season split between the starting rotation and bullpen. He is the only current BlueClaws player headed to Arizona. Last year, 2009 BlueClaws SS Troy Hanzawa and OF Steve Susdorf played in the AFL. He was a 10th round pick in 2009 (Tulane).
• RHP Tyson Brummett: He made six starts (3-0, 1.99) with the BlueClaws in 2008 and is currently 1-2, 5.01 with Double-A Reading. He was a 7th round pick in 2007 (UCLA).
• RHP Justin De Fratus: He spent the 2009 season with Lakewood, going 5-6, 3.19. He opened the season with Clearwater and as their closer went 2-0, 1.79 with 15 saves. He is now 1-0, 2.28 in 19 games with Reading. De Fratus was an 11th round pick in 2007 (Ventura College).
• RHP Chris Kissock: He spent 2008 with Lakewood, going 4-6, 4.37 and this year went 6-3, 2.17 and is now 1-0, 3.27 in nine games with Reading. He was a 9th round pick in 2007 (Lewis/Clark State).
• RHP BJ Rosenberg: Rosenberg had 19 saves and a 0.87 ERA with Lakewood last year, including a 28.2 inning scoreless streak. This year he has bounced between the GCL Phillies, Clearwater and Reading and has a 5.24 ERA between the three stops. He was a 13th round pick in 2008 (Louisville).
• C Tim Kennelly: Kennelly spent part of 2006 and 2007 with Lakewood but played prominently with the BlueClaws in 2008 (.275-1-27)…This year, he is batting .277-4-57 with Clearwater. He was signed as an amateur free agent from Australia in 2003.
• 1B Matt Rizzotti: A 2008 BlueClaw when he hit .268-10-49, Rizzotti has skyrocketed up the system this year, hitting .344-19-76 between Clearwater, Reading and Lehigh Valley. He was a 6th round pick in 2008 out of Manhattan College.

Here is the full release from MLB on the league, which enters its 19th season and features seven players from all 30 organizations split among six teams.

Every year Mike Drago of the Reading Eagle surveys media around the farm system and ranks the prospects in the organization from 1-20. He released his survey results yesterday, and as expected the list had a distinct BlueClaws feel to it.

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Ernie Whitt is the Phillies Minor League Catching Coordinator and he’s here in Hagerstown to work with the BlueClaws catchers as we wind down the regular season. We sat down with Ernie for a few minutes earlier today.

I enjoy it. I did it for about seven year s with the Blue Jays and I enjoy working with the kids. It’s nice to see the kids progress so it’s been a lot of fun.

Unique watching just one guy on the field rather than 25 moving parts? Managing is totally different. I enjoyed managing. I sit up in the stands and I’m still managing in my head. But I did that in my playing career too. It’s part of learning the game and I did enjoy that. But I enjoy this.

What’s the toughest part for a young catcher to grasp? Knowing how to call a ballgame. You have 13 different personalities and you have to get them through a tough situation. It’s easy to call a game when a pitcher has all of his pitches. Then it doesn’t matter what you put down. But when a pitcher is struggling, you have to get them through five or six innings so you don’t tax your bullpen. That to me is the sign of a good catcher.

Valle’s progress? He’s done a great job and turned the corner. He’s doing everything behind the plate that you want him to do. He just needs experience. He’s handled the staff well. He has a positive outlook that he doesn’t want to lose. You have to have that to be a successful catcher. You’re going to get banged up but you have to want to play and be a part of a championship team.

Preparation for the offensive players that you will face throughout the course of a series? It’s learning how to read the swings. How hitters approach the plate. Do they extend their hands or like the ball in? That comes secondary after knowing your pitcher. If you know what your pitcher is capable of doing, you still want to go with your pitcher’s strength. If my pitcher is a sinker-baller, I still want to keep the ball down even if the hitter is a good low-ball hitter. If I ask my pitcher to do something he is uncomfortable doing, we’re really asking for problems. It’s a lot to learn. A lot goes into it, more than people realize. Plus there in-game adjustments the hitters make that you have to adjust to as a catcher.

Throwing guys out…how much is the pitcher and how much is the catcher? It doesn’t matter how strong of an arm you have, if the pitcher doesn’t do his job of holding guys on and adjusting his times, you’re not going to have any success throwing out the baserunner. We’ve had guys this year throwing 1.8 down to second, which is unheard-of. But the guy is safe. The pitcher is close to 2 seconds going to home and you just have to learn how to speed that up?

Who’s caught your eye around the system? Sebastain. He’s number one. Tuffy Gosewisch up in Reading has done a nice job. He won the defensive catcher of the year again and hopefully he’ll be in Triple-A next year.

How hard is it for these guys to manage the stuff on the field and then at the same time go through everyhting they need to do to be sucecssfull hitters? That’s hard too. You separate the too. Sometimes young catchers will take their offense on the field, and you just can’t have that. What you do offensively is great and a bonus. But what you do on the field is more important for me.

Matt Rizzotti began the year by hitting in Clearwater. He continued the year hitting with Reading. And now he is hitting in Lehigh Valley. Three levels, about 10 or 12 states, and a lot hits.

He went .358-1-10 with Clearwater and was promoted to Reading on May 13th (when Jonathan Singleton joined the BlueClaws and Darin Ruf went to Clearwater). He then hit .362-16-61 with Reading before a promotion to Lehigh, where he has hit .300 in his first nine games.

Rizzotti is featured in today’s Philadelphia Daily News here.

Rizzotti was signing autographs for kids after a morning game at Class A Clearwater. His line was long, because he was the big new thing in the Phillies’ system, having just smoked through the first month in high-A ball, insulted that the Phillies sent him back there this year- to sign autographs in the midafternoon sun.

“What the hell you doing?” asked Lundquist, the Threshers’ pitching coach.

Rizzotti smelled a rat, because, simply, he was doing what he was supposed to be doing - putting on the good face of the organization.

“We’re waiting for you inside,” Lundquist said.

Great, Rizzotti thought; what’d I do now?

Dusty Wathan, the Threshers’ manager, was sitting behind his desk when Rizzotti walked in. He rolled a baseball across the desk toward Rizzotti.

“Promise me something,” he said to Rizzotti.

“What?” Rizzotti asked as he caught the ball.

“Promise me that’s your last hit in A ball.”

Several BlueClaws were honored by the league’s managers in a Baseball America survey for the league’s Best Tools.

Most Exciting Prospect: Jonathan Singleton
Best Defensive 1B: Jonathan Singleton
Best Fastball: Jarred Cosart
Best Outfield Arm: Lendro Castro
Best Infield Arm: Jonathan Villar

Elsewhere…

Domonic Brown won Best Batting Prospect and Most Exciting Player in the Eastern League, while Tuffy Gosewisch was named Best Defensive Catcher…Former BlueClaws pitcher Kyle Drabek was named Best Pitching Prospect and Best Breaking Pitch (he’s with AA New Hampshire)…In the Florida State League, Anthony Gose, since traded to Toronto, was named Most Exciting Prospect, Fastest Baserunner and Best Defensive Outfielder, all three of which he received last year while with the BlueClaws.

Here are the results from last year.

Bob Brookover in the Philadelphia Inquirer today takes a look at the farm system now that the two top OF prospects are gone (Domonic Brown in the big leagues and Anthony Gose has been traded) while the top SS prospect (Jonathan Villar) has also been traded.

Click here to read the article, and a snippet.

A hamstring injury has limited Gillies to 26 games this season, but LaMar said he is about to return to the playing field, and he’ll make up for lost time in the off-season by playing in the Florida Instructional League and the Arizona Fall League.

“He’s just about ready to play,” LaMar said. “I don’t know where we’re going to activate him, but he’s at least 90 percent and very close. We just want him to keep healthy. He just needs to get the time in.”

LaMar also considers Jiwan James (.280, 27 stolen bases, and 67 runs at single-A Lakewood), Leandro Castro (.263, 7 HRs, and 61 RBIs at Lakewood), Domingo Santana (.258, 4 HRs, and 16 RBIs at single-A Williamsport), and Kyrell Hudson (.205 at Williamsport) prospects. All four are 21 or younger, and Santana just turned 18 Thursday.

“Some of them will pan out, and some of them won’t, but outfield is still one of the strengths of our organization,” LaMar said.

This email just popped into the inbox from Tommy Viola, Reading’s PR maven:

Reading slugger Matt Rizzotti, who is currently the Eastern League leader with an impressive .362 batting average, has been promoted to Lehigh Valley (AAA) today. Rizzotti, 24, was the R-Phils team leader with 16 home runs and 61 RBIs, and also possessed an impressive .451 on-base percentage and .638 slugging percentage, both Eastern League highs.

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Before Wednesday’s game at Greenville, we sat down for a few minutes with Phillies Minor League Pitching Coordinator Gorm Heimueller. Read the full Q&A below:

On Trevor May: He’s looked a lot more under control, expect maybe the 1st inning on Monday. Not that many times can you throw 35 pitches in an inning, not give up a run and nobody hits a fair ball. The most encouraging thing, with the long inning, he regrouped and gave us five more solid innings…A lot of those games he wasn’t taken out because of getting hit, but they were pitch counts. The other day, he threw 35 in the first but ended up with just 94.

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Vance Worley and Tim Kennelly were named Phillies Minor League Pitcher and Player of the Month for July.

The 22-year-old Worley was 3-0 with a 0.93 ERA in four starts last month. He began the month at Reading, was promoted to the majors and optioned to Lehigh Valley. In 29 minor league innings, he allowed 20 hits, three runs and three walks. He struck out 22.

He didn’t allow a run in his last 24.0 innings (AA, MLB, AAA). Worley pitched one scoreless inning (two strikeouts) with the Phillies against the Rockies on July 24.

Last month, Kennelly led all Phillies minor leaguers with a .388 average (40-103), hitting safely in 22 of 29 games. He had six doubles, a triple and two home runs. He drove in 20 runs. He also drew four walks and struck out just eight times.

Kennelly began the month hitting .213. He ended at .278.

The 23-year-old was signed as an amateur free agent out of Australia in 2003 by Jim Fregosi Jr. and Kevin Hooker. His father, Michael, was a member of the Australian PGA for 16 years.

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Jonathan Mayo on MLB.com takes a look at some of the prospects that were traded at the deadline:

4. Anthony Gose, OF, Blue Jays: The toolsy outfielder didn’t have to go far. Even though he went from the Phillies to the Astros to the Blue Jays in one day, he simply moved from Clearwater to Dunedin in the Florida State League and went 4-for-13 with a homer and steal in three games.

5. Jonathan Villar, SS, Astros: Villar is kind of like the infield version of Gose — toolsy, but with a ways to go. The Astros felt that it was time to move him up one rung, so after having spent all year in the Class A South Atlantic League with the Phillies, Villar is now playing in the Class A Advanced California League, where he had a 4-for-4 game in his second game in the organization.

With Shane Victorino having been placed on the disabled list (oblique strain), the Phillies have called up 2008 BlueClaws OF Domonic Brown who will make his big league debut tonight.

Here is Brown’s player page. He was hitting .346-5-21 in 28 games with Lehigh Valley after going .315-15-47 with Reading (65 games) to start the year.

He will be the 35th former BlueClaw to make the big leagues (following Vance Worley on Saturday).

He’s been the top prospect in the system for the last two years and a few weeks ago was named the top prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America.

Brown has also been the subject of speculation in recent weeks regarding Jayson Werth. If Werth had been traded, Brown was going to take his place. As it turned out, all it took was an injury to Shane Victorino.

He will wear number 9, bat sixth and play right.

Before Thursday’s game we sat down with Phillies minor league outfield and baserunning coordinator Steve Henderson, who is in his first year with the organization after spending 15 years with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Check below the fold for the full Q&A:

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Jiwan James went 12-26 last week as part of his franchise-record 24-game hitting streak and was named Phillies Minor League Player of the Week for his efforts. Jonathan Villar and Jonathan Singleton have won the award for Lakewood this year, and pitchers Ebelin Lugo, Nick Hernandez and Matt Way have won on the pitching side.

Players of the Week

**Pitcher: RHP Vance Worley, Reading Phillies.  Was 1-0 for 1 start, 8 scoreless innings on Sunday at Trenton.  He allowed 3 hits, walked 1 and struck out 3 in stretching his scoreless streak to 17 innings and his winning streak to 4 in a row.  In Sunday’s game he retired 17 hitters on 4 pitches or less. At one point, he retired 12 in a row.  98 total pitches, 74 for strikes.  He’s 9-4 on the season after starting 0-2.  The 22-year-old was a third-round selection in June 2008 out of Long Beach State U.; he was signed by Tim Kissner.

**Player: CF Jiwan James, Lakewood BlueClaws.  Hit .462 in 6 games (12-26) with 2 doubles, 1 triple.  Saw a club-record 24-game hitting streak end with an 0-for-3 in the second game Sunday’s doubleheader in Kannapolis. Was hitting .213 when the streak began on May 30. Had just 18 hits in the first 17 games but went 16-28 in the next 7 games.  A 21-year-old switch hitter, James was a 22^nd round selection in 2007 out of Williston (FL) High School. He was signed by Chip Lawrence.  He was a pitcher (0-4) in his first pro season before switching to centerfield last year at Williamsport. He missed all of 2008 with a right biceps injury.

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Congrats to former BlueClaws pitcher Vance Worley (he went 3-2, 2.66 with the 2008 BlueClaws). Worley became the first player this year promoted straight from Reading to the Phillies.

From Reading’s release…

Worley, 22, has enjoyed an impressive season with Reading, posting a 9-4 mark with a 3.20 ERA over 112.2 innings pitched this season. A native of Sacramento, CA, Worley has fanned 83 batters and walked 36, and was named as an All-Star this year for the second-straight season.

Recently, Worley has been masterful on the mound, posting back-to-back impressive starts. On July 9 in Reading, he tossed a complete-game three-hit shutout en-route to a 2-0 victory over Harrisburg. He followed-up that outing with eight shutout innings at Trenton - leading the R-Phils to a 4-0 victory on July 18. The Long Beach State product was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Week on July 12.

His most recent stretch has been his best of the season and his entire month of July has been one for the ages. In three July starts, Worley has gone 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA (23 innings). He has won his last four starts and has won five of his last six games.

He was a 3rd round pick in 2007 out of Long Beach State.

When he makes his debut, he’ll become the 34th former BlueClaw to play in the big leagues (here is the full list). Carlos Monasterios (Dodgers), Jason Donald (Indians) and Brian Schlitter (Cubs) have debuted this year.

Our friends in Clearwater sent up an issue of Threshers Times, the Clearwater gameday program, which featured an interview with 2009 BlueClaws CF Anthony Gose.

What adjustments have you had to make as the season has gone on?
Just relaxing more has been teh biggest thing. Also, begin more prepared mentally and just playing the game and letting things happen instead of making things happen. I just do what I can do and let everything else take its course. Finally, being more selective at the plate and making sure I get a good pitch to hit and have a good at bad.

You could have been drafted as a pitcher. What made you go as an outfielder?
I don’t like pitching. I’ll go out and mess around, throw breaking balls, fastballs and change-ups, but to be on the mound once every five days and not play isn’t for me.

This part was cool:

What was your off-season like?
I did five weeks of deer hunting, a lot of fishing, a few weeks of squirrel hunting, and rabbit hunting.

If I wasn’t playing baseball, I would be a…
Professional hunter on tv.

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The last part made me think of Big Jim Fulton from the classic movie Celtic Pride.

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Here are Gose’s stats for the year. His OPS and walks are up compared to last year, while he has been caught stealing a bit more.