I have been heads down writing my Annual Phillies Minor League Notes - there are 38 articles in total, I publish one a day. There have been 18 published thus far - a lot of effort covering about 195 players - for those of ya who are reading them hope you find them interesting. Send a note in the webpage inbox to let me know.
Thought I’d take a break from that (I have 36 written - just two to go🤓) and chat about some other things …
High Performance Camp One :
The Clearwater and Dominican Academy camps started concurrently on October 9th, each will end this week. Per the new minor league CBA teams then enter into a mandated down time till January. Players can work out on their own at other facilities and obviously will but teams are prohibited from organizing and running training events during the down period. The next Clearwater gathering will be High Performance Camp Two on 1/8/24 and will run till 2/9/24.
Off-Season Transactions :
The club has already made two trades (11/6 - acquired RHP Michael Mercado from Rays for RHP Adam Leverett, 11/14 - acquired OF Hendry Mendez and 2B Robert Moore from Brewers for INF Oliver Dunn) and have claimed LHP Josh Fleming off waivers from the Rays. Anyone who claims to know what each acquired player will do in their new environment is purely speculating, I prefer to see them in person this spring to formulate opinion.
There will certainly be more acquisitions both at the major and minor league levels. With minor league hurlers such as Andrew Painter, Alex McFarlane, Alex Garbrick, Erubiel Armenta, Marty Gair and Guissepe Velasquez likely out of action till later into the 2024 season or the beginning of the 2025 season opportunities for others are presented. Whether those are filled by pitchers already on board or to be acquired remains to be seen, probably a bit of both.
On the big league side I believe that the organization has genuine interest in Japanese RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto and will make an aggressive offer if a re-union with RHP Aaron Nola can’t be negotiated. However it could be that the more feasible international acquisition may be LHP Shota Imanaga. Just sayin.
Saturday Jerseys :
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs will wear new Pennsylvania Dutch and Hex-inspired home uniforms during the 2024 season for every Saturday home game at Coca-Cola Park.
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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