In 2003, Charlie Manuel was in his first season as special assistant to Phillies then-General Manager Ed Wade. In his role, he went around to see a number of prospects at the different minor league parks and included were a few trips to Lakewood to see Cole Hamels.

After Hamels pitched six shutout innings last night and earned the win as the Phillies moved up two games to one over St. Louis in their best-of-five National League Division Series, Manuel said the following (via the Philadelphia Inquirer):

“He keeps his cool whether some people realize it or not,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “He’s gutty. And he’s been gutty ever since I’ve known him . . . Even when I saw him in Lakewood, I knew he had that. I like him out there in any situation.”

Click here to see a game-by-game of Hamels with the BlueClaws (pdf file).

Assuming that Manuel did not see any of his road starts, he saw one of three starts in Lakewood (Hamels made 13 starts with the BlueClaws in 2003 but only three of them were in New Jersey).

May 24 vs Lake County (W): 6.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 12 K
June 8 vs Hagerstown (W): 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 K
July 15 vs Delmarva (W): 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K

The July 15th game was indeed exactly what it looks like, six perfect innings against Delmarva in what turned out to be his final home start (he was promoted to Clearwater two weeks later). He came out of that game early due to pitch count.

Victor Menocal came in and gave up a hit to the leadoff man in the 7th inning, Delmarva’s Gera Alvarez, who was a coach this year with West Virginia. Alvarez scored the only Shorebirds run in a 5-1 BlueClaws win.

In three starts in Lakewood, Hamels went 3-0, threw 19.1 shutout innings, gave up five hits and three walks and struck out 36 hitters.

This is what Ryan Howard said (via the article linked above) about Hamels yesterday:

“Cool, calm, had that San Diego attitude, that air going,” Howard was saying at his locker after yesterday’s 3-2 gut check gave the Phillies a 2-1 Division Series lead. “He was a movie star. Hugo Boss.”

A few quick BlueClaws-related items from maybe the best three hour period in the history of the regular season:

Congrats to Justin De Fratus on getting his first Major League win.

Sort-of on point, the Phillies won their franchise record 102nd game on the day that Charlie Manuel became the franchise’s all-time wins record by a manager with 646. He had this gem of a line:

“I remember when we lost 10,000 games and some people acted like I was there for all 10,000,” Manuel said. “Now that I’m the winningest manager, I might let someone else brag, but I’ll definitely smile and take credit for it.”

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We’ve referenced this article before but think about this: Former BlueClaw Michael Bourn, now with the Braves, and Carl Crawford, now with the Red Sox, experienced the two worst collapses in the history of baseball, with their games finishing about 45 minutes apart last night.

The two are great friends, having played Little League baseball together in Houston. Now they go home and will have something to commiserate about until February.

Per Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 2006 BlueClaws pitcher Mike Zagurski has been traded to Arizona for a player-to-be-named later.

Zagurski was with the BlueClaws in 2006 and made his MLB debut on May 25, 2007, becoming the fastest player to go From the Shore to the Show.

We bobbled him the next year as part of the Made the Phillies series, and the picture is of Zagurski with the bobblehead doll the night it was given away (July 29th, 2008).

Why now? As Gelb explains:

The 28-year-old had no options remaining, which meant the Phillies would have to keep him on the roster coming out of spring training in 2012 or cut him loose.

Good luck to Mike.

By the way, since Zagurski was acquired after September 1st, he is not eligible for the Diamondbacks post-season roster. So no, he can’t face the Phillies in the playoffs. The Phillies know all about this, with Sparky Lyle in 1980 a prominent example of the rule.

Justin De Fratus became the 39th former BlueClaw to appear in a big league game when he threw a shutout inning last night in a 5-0 Phillies loss to St. Louis.

De Fratus, the first member of the 2009 championship BlueClaws to make his big league debut, went 5-6 with a 3.19 ERA with Lakewood that year and was a member of the mid-season South Atlantic League All-Star team.

This year, De Fratus started with Reading and went 4-0, 2.10 and was promoted to Lehigh Valley, where he was 2-3, 3.73. He was officially added to the Phillies on Friday night after Lehigh Valley’s season came to an end in the Governors Cup Finals.

He had 21 saves and a 1.94 ERA between Clearwater and Reading in 2010 and played in the prestigious Arizona Fall League. De Fratus was originally an 11th round pick in 2007 from Ventura College (CA).

In addition to becoming the 39th former BlueClaw to play in a Major League game, he is the third to debut this year, following Mike Stutes (2008), who debuted with the Phillies in April and Michael Taylor (2010), who debuted with the Athletics on September 2nd.

Here is the full Shore to the Show list.

LAKEWOOD, NJ – Congratulations to former BlueClaws RHP Trevor May (09-10) and SS Freddy Galvis (08), named winners of the annual Paul Owens Award for the best pitcher and player, respectively, in the Phillies minor league system for 2011.

May, a 4th round pick in 2008 from Kelso, Washington, went 4-1, 2.56 with Lakewood in 2009 and after starting 2010 with Clearwater, he returned to the BlueClaws and went 7-3, 2.91.

May also helped the BlueClaws win South Atlantic League Championships in each of his two seasons with Lakewood, allowing just one earned run over 22.2 playoff innings covering four starts.

This year with Clearwater, went 10-8 with a 3.63 ERA in 27 games. He struck out 208 batters in 151.1 innings (12.37 SO/9.0 IP), third-most in all of minor league baseball, and held opposing hitters to a .221 average. May is the first Phillies minor leaguer with at least 180 strikeouts in a single season since Mark Davis had 185 for Reading in 1980.

He entered the year as the 4th ranked prospect in the system per Baseball America.

Galvis, a 21 year old from Punto Fijo, Venezuela and considered an outstanding defensive shortstop, was the South Atlantic League post-season All-Star shortstop with Lakewood in 2008. He hit .238 with 3 HRs and 42 RBIs with the BlueClaws that year.

This year, he hit a combined .278 with 28 doubles, five triples, eight home runs, 43 RBI, 23 stolen bases and 78 runs in 137 games between double-A Reading and triple-A Lehigh Valley this season. The switch-hitter was selected as an Eastern League midseason All-Star before being promoted to Lehigh Valley on August 2, where he batted .321 in his first 29 games for the IronPigs en route to being named Phillies Minor League Player of the Month for August.

“We’re very happy with the seasons that both Freddy and Trevor had,” said Phillies assistant general manager Benny Looper. “At only 21 years old, Freddy rose to the challenge of triple-A ball and improved his batting average. His defense was right where we expected it to be and his instincts on a baseball field are tremendous for a player of his age. Trevor’s strikeout totals in the Florida State League were very indicative of his progression in our minor league system. Both young men have very bright futures.”

Instituted in 1986, the award is named for the late Paul Owens, who spent 48 years in the Phillies organization as a scout, farm director, general manager, manager and senior advisor.

The Phillies contributed to this story

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Phillies RHP Joe Blanton, who has been out since May 14th, will make a rehab appearance for the BlueClaws tonight in Hagerstown, his first rehab outing this year.

Blanton, you may remember, threw two 1-2-3 innings on April 20th for the BlueClaws last year. This is the seventh time a Phillies player has rehabbed this year with Lakewood and the BlueClaws are 6-0 in those games (1-0 with JC Romero, 2-0 with Shane Victorino and 3-0 with Brad Lidge)…Lakewood is 21-10 all-time with a Phillies rehab player, and this is believed to be the first time a Phillies player has rehabbed on the road.

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Lakewood scored 10 runs last night in a 10-1 win over Hagerstown. In the process, they scored the same amount of runs they scored in a five game series against Hickory over the weekend (1-4). They did it without cleanup hitter Jim Murphy, who was placed on the disabled list earlier in the day.

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Winner Winner…With last night’s win, the BlueClaws have clinched a winning record for the 11th half in the last 12…They had a winning record for 10 straight halves snapped in the first half this year, when they went 33-35…The BlueClaws have had a winning record in each of the last five seasons and will extend that to six with one win in their final four games.

Getting a Chance…With Jim Murphy sidelined (hand), Jeff Lanning made his first career start at first base (he played one game at third base with Beloit-Twins, Midwest League in 2009) and went 3-5 with his fifth home run of the season on Thursday night…Entering this series, Murphy had played first base in all but four BlueClaws games this year.

Carlos Crushing…Since starting 2-15 with the BlueClaws, Carlos Alonso is 45-128 (.351) and is 7-13 in his last four games…Since July 20th, he is batting .352 with an OPS of .952…In that stretch, he has walked 25 times and struck out just 11, while driving in 21 runs…Alonso was a 35th round pick last year from the University of Delaware.

Lendy Castillo will pitch for Lakewood after Blanton. Here are today’s game notes.

Every year the fine folks at the Reading Eagle do a Phillies farm system minor league prospect survey, taking votes from media around the organization. This is what the group come up with:

1. Trevor May, RHP Clearwater, 21
2. Sebastian Valle, C Clearwater, 21
3. Jesse Biddle, LHP Lakewood, 19
4. Freddy Galvis, SS Lehigh Valley, 21
5. Phillippe Aumont, RHP Lehigh Valley, 21
6. Brody Colvin, RHP Clearwater, 21
7. Justin DeFratus, RHP Lehigh Valley, 23
8. Julio Rodriguez, RHP Clearwater, 20
9. Michael Schwimer, RHP Philadelphia, 25
10. Jiwan James, OF Clearwater, 22
11. Jonathan Pettibone, RHP Clearwater, 21
12. Austin Hyatt, RHP Reading, 25
13. Aaron Altherr, OF Williamsport, 20
14. Joe Savery, LHP Lehigh Valley, 25
15. Harold Garcia, 2B Reading, 24
16. Dave Buchanan, RHP Clearwater, 22
17. Carlos Rivero, 3B Reading, 23
18. Cesar Hernandez, 2B Clearwater, 21
19. Lisalberto Bonilla, RHP Lakewood, 21
20. Zach Collier, OF Lakewood, 20

That’s a pretty good list (the number on the right is their age). A few notes:

• Jesse Biddle is the only one on the list who is in his teens. When Baseball America does their poll in a few months, it won’t be that way, but people were hesitant to vote on people they haven’t seen play yet, or are unproven at the lower levels, which makes sense.
• Everyone on the list except for Aumont, Savery and Rivero have played for the BlueClaws.
• No surprise at all Trevor May is number one. He’s had a tremendous season with Clearwater (3.45 ERA, .215 opponents BA and a whopping 197 Ks in just 143 innings pitched, wow).
• Sebastian Valle got off to a blazing start, hitting .357 to the all-star break, and though he’s only at .227 in the second half, a catcher that has power and is improving defensively is a major asset.
• Vance Worley, Mike Stutes, and Domonic Brown were not eligible for obvious reasons.
• Great run for Jonathan Pettibone this year with a 3.00 ERA to move up.
• Good to see people taking notice of BlueClaws RHP Lisalberto Bonilla, who has been excellent (and is slated to pitch game one of the double-header tomorrow.

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Nice article on Trevor May in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

“I believe this year as opposed to last year I made a lot of improvement mechanical-wise in being able to repeat things and also staying on a solid routine,” May said. “You have to find a work ethic that works for you. I also felt like this year I was able to make strides in dealing with adversity.

“I was really able to settle down when I got in trouble. I think you can see that by the fact that I have pitched more innings in 25 starts this year than I did in 27 last year.”

As much as he hated being demoted to Lakewood a year ago, May learned a lot from his second stint near the Jersey Shore.

“It was kind of a wake-up call,” May said. “I learned that I needed to throw more strikes and I needed to stay in the bottom half of the strike zone. You can get by with some things in the lower levels that you can’t get by with the higher you go.”

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And another great one by Matt Gelb in the Inquirer on Vance Worley:

Six years ago – before Vance was Vanimal, before he wrote angry messages to himself inside his hat, before he transformed from middling non-prospect to one of the best rookie starters in Phillies history – he was an unassuming freshman with a buzz cut. He asked Chris Aquino, then a junior catcher for Long Beach State University, if he would catch a bullpen session before the school year even started.

Aquino had never before been asked to do that. When they were done Worley said, “Thank you.” But Aquino was disturbed.

That should cover it for now. Hopefully we’ll have more later.

“Every time you got into your balance point and you separated,” he said to Worley, “you gave me this big smile right before you delivered the ball.”

The BlueClaws presented coach Greg Legg with framed jersey on Friday night before the game, recognizing his 30 years in the Phillies organization.

From left: BlueClaws GM Geoff Brown, Anthony Hewitt, Jim Murphy, Zach Collier, and Legg.

That’s a BlueClaws patch sewn onto the right (your left) sleeve of the jersey and the plaque says

Presented to Greg Legg in honor of 30 years of loyal service to the Philadelphia Phillies and Lakewood BlueClaws, August 26th, 2011

We also put together a video with clips and comments from current and former players and coaches as well as executives from around the Phillies organization. We’ll try to get that up here at some point soon too.

Obviously a little late to the party on this one, sorry about that. But yesterday the Astros selected Domingo Santana as the player to be named later in the deal that originally sent Hunter Pence to the Phillies for Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid (three 2010 BlueClaws) from July 29th.

Santana will report to Lexington in the Sally League – though the BlueClaws and Legends to not play this year, so no reunion.

From MLB.com:

President of baseball operations Tal Smith, Major League scout Paul Ricciarini and special assignment scout Matt Galante each had a chance to watch Santana play recently.

“All three of them were very consistent with regard to how highly they graded Santana, and it was consistent to our previous reports on him that we had gotten through regular pro coverage,” Wade said. “He’s got plus raw power and a great body, he’s a great athlete and a plus arm. He’s a tick above-average runner.”

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Players who have been traded as BlueClaws: Santana this year in Pence trade, Jonathan Villar in 2010 as part of Roy Oswalt trade, Jason Knapp in 09 as part of a deal for Cliff Lee, Andy Barb in 06 as part of a deal for Jamie Moyer, Michael Dubee in 07 for Tad Iguchi, Javon Moran and Joe Wilson in 04 for Cory Lidle.

BlueClaws hitting coach Greg Legg received the John Vukovich Award from the Phillies in honor of his 30 years of service to the organization. The award was presented at Citizens Bank Park prior to Saturday night’s game against the Nationals.

Legg, who has been Lakewood’s hitting coach since 2008, was the team’s first manager in their inaugural season of 2001.

Originally drafted by the Phillies in the 22nd round in the 1982 draft, Legg made his Major League debut in 1986 and played in the organization through 1994 and has been a coach or manager in the organization ever since.

He managed Batavia in 1997, Martinsville in 1998, Batavia again in 1999 and Piedmont in 2000 before joining the BlueClaws in 2001.

The 2001 BlueClaws included current Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz and four pitchers (Taylor Buchholz, Robinson Tejeda, Eude Brito and Yoel Hernandez) that would at one point reach the big leagues.

Legg also managed in Reading (2002-2004) and Clearwater (2005-2006) before leading Williamsport in 2007 and returning to Lakewood as the hitting coach in 2008.

He helped the BlueClaws to the South Atlantic League title in 2009 and again in 2010, his first two championships at any level.

The ceremony was part of Phillies Alumni Weekend in which over 45 Phillies alums returned to Citizens Bank Park.

John Kruk was inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame on Friday.

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(Miles Kennedy photo, Phillies)

It’s Alumni Weekend at Citizens Bank Park and Saturday night’s ceremony will include BlueClaws hitting coach Greg Legg.

Here is the full rundown on Alumni Weekend, headed up by the great Larry Shenk each year.

Before the game on Saturday:

• Presentation of the John Vukovich Award to Greg Legg, Lakewood BlueClaws coach. Vince Vukovich, son of the late Phillies player and coach John Vukovich, will present the award.

The Vukovich Award is presented to a member of the organization’s instructional staff who embodies the characteristics of a man who wore a Phillies uniform for 30 years–loyalty, dedication, competitiveness, knowledge and an endless work ethic.

Congratulations to Greg Legg and we’ll have photos and more after the ceremony.

With LHP Austin Wright scheduled to make his BlueClaws debut tonight, and Ryan Duke having picked up his fourth save of the year on Sunday, we thought it would be instructive to take a look at some current year draftees and how they have helped the BlueClaws. By current year of course we mean they pitched with the BlueClaws the year they were drafted.

2007: RHP Brian Schlitter (17th round, College of Charleston)
- Went 0-1, 3.80 in 16 games with Lakewood that year and he ended up getting traded to the Cubs for Scott Eyre at the 2008 trading deadline
- He ended up making the big leagues in 2010 with Chicago, claimed by the Yankees and the Phillies on waivers and awarded back to the Cubs. He hasn’t pitched this year

2008: RHP Vance Worley (3rd round, Long Beach State)
- Went 3-2, 2.66 with Lakewood in 2008 as the team made a playoff run that fell just short
- Made his Phillies debut last year and this year is 7-1, 2.33 with the Phillies

2008: RHP Mike Stutes (11th round, Oregon State)
- Went 5-1, 1.48 in seven starts with Lakewood in 2008 forming a late-season 1-2 punch with Worley
- Both he and Worley made their 2009 debuts with Reading becoming the first players in 10 years to start their first full-seasons with Reading
- This year he made his Phillies debut and is 5-1, 3.18

2009: LHP Matt Way (5th round, Washington State)
- Went 4-1, 3.11 with Lakewood in 2009 plus started Game One in both the SAL Northern Division Championship Series and the SAL Championship Series
- Split last year between Lakewood & Clearwater
- Has missed all of 2011 with an injury

2010: RHP Eric Pettis (35th round, UC-Irvine)
- Joined Lakewood for the post-season after pitching to a 1.37 ERA with Williamsport
- This year, he opened with Lakewood and is now with Clearwater, where he has a 3.10 ERA and 3 saves in 25 games

2011: RHP Ryan Duke (25th round, Oklahoma)
- Threw seven shutout innings for Williamsport and has four saves in seven games with Lakewood, having allowed two runs in 7.1 innings pitched.

2011: LHP Austin Wright (8th round, Ole Miss)
- Went 2-1, 3.38 with Williamsport before joining the BlueClaws, where he will debut today.

Here are some stories from the national media, Houston media and Philadelphia media about the trade last night that sent Hunter Pence to the Phillies in exchange for Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart, Josh Zeid and a player to be named later.

Dave Murphy says The Future Is Now.

Matt Gelb’s story in the Inquirer in which he talks about the impact of Domonic Brown, who might be headed back to the minors to play every day:

“We believe Domonic Brown is going to be an outstanding major-league baseball player,” Amaro said. “He’s kind of learning on the job. He’s done a nice job for us here. This is not a knock on Domonic Brown by any stretch of the imagination. We believe and hope he’s going to be a Phillie for a long time.”

SI.com’s Cliff Corcoran says don’t underestimate the importance of having Pence under team control through 2013.

From the Houston Chronicle, comments from Astros GM Ed Wade.

“We kicked a lot of names around and obviously the two you mention (Domonic Brown and Vance Worley) are highly visible prospects with the Phillies, both of them playing at the big league level right now. We had to look at and determine whether now vs. future made the most sense. I’m not going to acknowledge that either of those guys were available. At the end of the day, what we had to do was make sure that the deal that we made had the most sense from the standpoint of contributions at a significant level for a significant period of time, and we felt the package we put together was the correct one for us.

Funny Chronicle blog post about Ed Wade being a secret agent:

Since Ed Wade, the former general manager of the Phillies, came to Houston as the Astros’ general manager, he has made 423 trades with his former organization. (Look it up.)

So there was little surprise that Hunter Pence was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies last night.

The Chronicle is working on a story that Wade might be a secret agent working for the Phillies.

We are not allowed to discuss this openly, and this blog entry will disappear five seconds after you finish reading it.

MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo says the Astros did well for themselves.

We’ll have a bit more tomorrow but here is the full BlueClaws release on the former BlueClaws that helped land Hunter Pence tonight for the Phillies.

Note that in the past two Julys, the Phillies have acquired Roy Oswalt and Hunter Pence from Houston for seven players, four of whom were 2010 BlueClaws: Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid today for Pence and Jonathan Villar was in the deal last year for Roy Oswalt.
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In acquiring Astros OF Hunter Pence on Friday night, three players who helped the 2010 BlueClaws win the South Atlantic League title were traded to the Houston organization: 1B Jonathan Singleton, RHP Jarred Cosart and RHP Josh Zeid.

Singleton led the BlueClaws with 14 home runs in 2010 after joining the team on May 13th. This year, he was batting .284 with 9 home runs playing for Clearwater in the Florida State League. Singleton was an 8th round pick of the Phillies in 2009 from Lakewood, California.

Cosart, a 38th round pick in 2008, went 7-3, 3.79 with Lakewood in 2010 and was selected to the Futures Game, though he could not participate due to injury. He was picked again this year and went 9-8, 3.92 with Clearwater.

Zeid, drafted in the 10th round of the 2009 draft from Tulane, went 8-4, 2.93 with Lakewood last year. He threw eight shutout innings for the BlueClaws in the 2010 South Atlantic League Championship Series.

At the trade deadline in 2010, the Phillies acquired Roy Oswalt for a package that included 2010 BlueClaws SS Jonathan Villar, now playing with Double-A Corpus Christi, making four of the seven players traded to Houston for Oswalt and Pence were teammates on the 2010 BlueClaws.

Entering 2010, Singleton was ranked the 2nd best prospect in the system per Baseball America. Cosart was ranked 4th.

BlueClaws or former BlueClaws have been involved in trades in each of the last three years.

• July 2009: Jason Knapp (2009), Carlos Carrasco (2006), Lou Marson (2006) and Jason Donald (2006) traded to Cleveland for Cliff Lee.
• December 2009: Kyle Drabek (2007), Michael Taylor (2008), and Travis d’Arnaud traded to Toronto for Roy Halladay.
• July 2010: Jonathan Villar (2010), JA Happ (2005) and Anthony Gose (2009) traded to Houston for Roy Oswalt.
• July 2011: Jonathan Singleton (2010), Jarred Cosart (2010), and Josh Zeid (2010) traded to Houston for Hunter Pence.

The BlueClaws return to FirstEnergy Park on August 5th for a four-game series with West Virginia.

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