We would like to welcome Larry Greene to the Phillies organization. Greene, an OF from Nashville, Georgia (the other Nashville), was taken in the supplemental portion of the first round (39th overall) last night. He has been compared to 2010 BlueClaws first baseman Jonathan Singleton.

“He’s a man amongst young men,” Phillies director of scouting Marti Wolever said of Greene. “He is really strong and powerful. He’s just a really good athlete. He might have a little bit more power [than Singleton]. He’s built like him. His stroke is comparable. The bat speed is comparable.”

Here is a good write-up from Ed Barkowitz in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Greene had the chance to play football at Alabama but is focusing on baseball. We look forward to seeing him in a BlueClaws uniform!

Barkowitz spent five minutes with Reading RHP JC Ramirez. These are always great to read. Ramirez’s dream dinner guests are his mom, Barack Obama, and Jorge Posada.

While the MLB Draft doesn’t have the panache of the NFL Draft or the NBA Draft, it serves the same purpose: to bring the next wave of players into the game.

There are people far more qualified than us to offer predictions and analysis, but we do want to point out one thing:

• While most of these players drafted by the Phillies will not join the BlueClaws for a year or two, remember that in recent years, a few current year draftees usually make it onto the BlueClaws roster.

2007 Draft
RHP Brian Schlitter (16th round pick, College of Charleston): Went 0-1, 3.80 with three saves with Lakewood. He’s now with the Cubs organization for the second time (traded for Scott Eyre in 2008), then the Phillies claimed him off waivers this year, and then the Cubs got him off waivers a few weeks later.

2008 Draft
RHP Vance Worley (3rd round pick, Long Beach State): Went 3-2, 2.66 in 11 starts after opening his career with Williamsport. He’s been and forth with Lehigh Valley and the Phillies this year.

RHP Mike Stutes (11th round pick, Oregon State): Went 5-1, 1.48 in seven starts after opening his career with Williamsport. He is currently in the Phillies bullpen.

2009 Draft
LHP Matt Way (5th round pick, Washington State): Went 4-1, 3.11 in six starts and 1-0 in two playoff starts (Lakewood won both playoff games he started en route to a South Atlantic League title). Lakewood won the first half title without him but might not have earned a ring without the help of a player who had not yet made his pro debut when the BlueClaws locked up a playoff spot.

2010 Draft
RHP Eric Pettis (35th round pick, UC-Irvine): Dominated at Williamsport and after they were eliminated, he was added to the BlueClaws roster for the playoffs, where he appeared in three games. He was promoted to Clearwater from Lakewood this year on May 3rd.

What do all of these guys have in common? They’re all college pitchers. So if the Phillies draft any this week, make a special note. We could see them with the BlueClaws before the summer is out.

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.

With the MLB Draft coming up next week (Monday through Wednesday), we though it would be interesting to catch u

p with some members of the BlueClaws, many of whom were drafted just last year and have them share their draft experiences.

2B Jeremy Barnes
Barnes was, where else, on the baseball field, doing a baseball camp with his high school coach in Texas. When he was selected, in the 11th round, of course his phone blew up with calls and texts, including from Paul Mainieri, who recruited him to Notre Dame, but was then the head coach at LSU.

“I had no clue about the Phillies,” said Barnes. “I thought I’d be going to the Diamondbacks in the late teens or early 20s.” Arizona had selected his Notre Dame teammate AJ Pollock with the 17th overall pick.

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With day one now in the books, the draft moves to its second and busiest day where rounds four to 30 will be taken. The draft, now a three day event, will finish on June 11th with the final 20 rounds being selected.

- Beginning with pick #137, the Phillies will draft every 30 picks until pick #1547. In the baseball draft a team can take as many or as little picks as they choose.

Draft Notes:

- The first two picks did not come until 75 and 106…The Arizona Diamondbacks selected seven times before the Phillies did once.

- Both top choices were high school outfielders.

- With the 167th choice, the Phillies selected Matthew Way, out of Washington State, former teammate of first baseman Jim Murphy.

- Through ten picks, the Phillies have selected six high schoolers and four college seniors. As the draft goes on, the number of high schoolers will decrease because they will become less signable.

- The draft is an awesome event where 1,500 or so dreams will come true…updates throughout the day. Picks for the Phillies will be updated at the completion of the afternoon.

- Players from both Northwoods University (Jon Velasquez) and Lakewood High School (Travis d’Arnaud) were selected amongst others.

- In the 10th round Zachary Von Rosenberg was selected out of Zachary High School…pretty funny.

Updated 2:45…more to come.

- Former BlueClaw Josh Outman’s brother goes #850 overall

- Pat Light, of CBA, goes #852 to Minnesota…Light’s CBA played at FirstEnergy Park on May 29th.

- Nine of first 15 picks are high schoolers…only one of next 13 are…Total of 10 high schoolers.

- Pitcher Michael Monster goes #749 to Cincinnati…Awesome name, he spooks hitters.