No manager or coach in the Phillies minor league organization can equal the experience or longevity of current GCL Phillies East manager Roly De Armas. Roly played in the Phillies organization from 1973 to 1977 but also took the field in 1993 as a fill in for 3 games while coaching with the Clearwater Phillies ( he pitched twice and also played 1B & Catcher ). As a player Roly appeared in 314 games, 292 in the field ... 148 - 1B, 29 - 2B, 16 - 3B, 97 - C and 2 as a Pitcher.
In 1978 he became the pitching coach for the Peninsula Pilots, the Phillies affiliate in the Carolina League. He tutored four future big leaguers on that staff. The following season Roly became the manager of the Helena Phillies in the Pioneer League, he managed there for three seasons before moving to Bend, Oregon as manager in 1982 of the Bend Phillies in the Northwest League.
In 1983 Roly took over the reigns of the Spartanburg Spinners in the South Atlantic League. After a one year stint at the helm of the GCL Phillies in 1984 he returned to Spartanburg as manger for two more seasons. In 1987 he managed the Clearwater Phillies before taking over the helm of the Martinsville Phillies in 1988 where he stayed thru the 1992 season as skipper.
He was a coach for the 1993 Clearwater Phillies Florida State League championship team. In 1994 Roly joined the Chicago White Sox organization as the major league bullpen catcher and was named as the MLB bullpen coach for the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
In 1997 he managed the White Sox GCL team before moving to the Arizona Diamondbacks organization in 1998 and becoming the manager of the South Bend affiliate in the Midwest League. Roly managed the D-Backs AZL team in 1999.
He joined the Toronto Blue Jays major league staff as bullpen coach in 2000. In 2001 Roly came back home to the Phillies where he’s been since ... he skippered the 2001 GCL Phillies, the 2002 & 2003 Clearwater Phillies and the 2004 GCL Phillies before serving as Minor League Catching Coordinator for the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
In 2007 Roly returned to the helm of the GCL Phillies and has managed in the league since ... also in 2008 he served as a bullpen coach to finish the season with the World Champion big league Phillies - his GCL team was league champions that season as well and he was also a coach for Team USA in the Olympics - quite a year!
Roly has been a coach for Team USA club ten different times and has participated in that accord in the Pan Am and Olympic Games as well as the World Baseball Confederation.
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To date 141 players have reached the major leagues who tutored under Roly’s guidance. Here’s a list of players by year ( excluding rehab assignments ) that eventually became big leaguers ( those shown in bold had played a previous season for Roly ) :
1978 - Peninsula - Pitching Coach - 4 Pitchers - Marty Bystrom, Bob Walk, Cliff Speck and Jerry Reed
1979 - Helena - Manager - 2 - Pitchers Jay Baller & Roy Smith
1980 - Helena - Manager - 5 - Position players Darren Daulton, Ken Dowell and Pitchers Rocky Childress, Marty Decker & Tony Ghelfi
1981 - Helena - Manager - 4 - Position player Jim Olander & Pitchers Johny Abrego, Charlie Hudson & Jose Segura
1982 - Bend - Manager - 5 - Pitchers Mike Maddux & Jose Segura and position players Keith Hughes, Chris James & Craig Jelks
1983 - Spartanburg - Manager - 9 - Pitchers Mike Maddux, Lance McCullers & Jean Segura & position players Keith Hughes, Ken Jackson, Chris James, Greg Jelks, Johny Paredes & Wilfredo Tejada
1984 - GCL - Manager - 3 - Pitchers Jeff Gray, Bob Scanlan & Pete Smith
1985 - Spartanburg - Manager - 3 - Pitchers Bob Scanlan, Tom Newell & Julio Machado
1986 - Spartanburg - Manager - 3 - Pitchers Julio Machado & Scott Service & position player Rick Parker
1987 - Clearwater - Manager - 8 - Catcher Darren Daulton & OF Rick Parker and Pitchers Brad Brink, Julio Machado, Chuck Malone, Chuck McElroy, Brad Moore & Scott Service
1988 - Martinsville - Manager - 3 - Pitchers Toby Borland, Donnie Elliott & Paul Fletcher
1989 - Martinsville - Manager - 2 - Pitchers Jeff Patterson & Bob Wells
1990 - Martinsville - Manager - 3 - Catchers Mike Lieberthal & Gary Bennett & OF Mike Farmer ( made big leagues as a pitcher )
1991 - Martinsville - Manager - 2 - Catcher Gary Bennett & Pitcher Ricky Bottalico
1992 - Martinsville - Manager - 2 - Pitchers Tony Fiore & Larry Mitchell
1993 - Clearwater - Coach - 10 - Catchers Gary Bennett & Bobby Estalella, Infielders David Doster & Jon Zuber & Pitchers Ron Blazier, Ricky Bottalico, Jose De Jesus, Wayne Gomes, Larry Mitchell & Bob Wells
1997 - GCL White Sox - Manager - 7 - Position Players Jason Dellaero, Brandon Hyde, Josh Paul, Olmedo Saenz & Pitchers Jason Bere, Hansel Izquierdo and Stacy Jones
1998 - South Bend - Manager - 7 - Pitchers Andrew Good & Javier Lopez and Position Players Ron Calloway, JD Closer, Jack Cust, Brian Gordon & Abrahan Nunez
1999 - AZL Diamondbacks - Manager - 3 - Pitchers Jorge De La Rosa, Jose Valverde, Oscar Villarreal
2001 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 3 - Pitchers Alfredo Simon & Ezequiel Astacio & OF Chris Roberson
2002 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 4 - Pitchers Jean Machi, Elizardo Ramirez, Zach Segovia & Scott Mathieson
2003 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 3 - Pitchers Scott Mathieson, Zach Segovia & Kyle Kendrick
2004 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 5 - Pitcher Carlos Carrasco & Catchers Lou Marson, Jason Jaramillo, IF Brad Harman & OF Greg Golson
2005 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 1 - Pitcher Carlos Carrasco
2006 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 6 - IF Adrian Cardenas, OF Domonic Brown & Pitchers Kyle Drabek, Antonio Bastardo, Drew Carpenter & Carlos Monasterios
2007 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 3 - Catcher Travis D’Arnaud & Pitchers Justin De Fratus & Jake Diekman
2008 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 7 - IF Lendy Castillo, OF Anthony Gose & Pitchers Tyler Cloyd, Kyle Drabek, Yohan Flande, Trevor May & Matt Smith
2009 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 10 - Pitcher Jarred Cosart, IF Jonathan Villar, 1B Jon Singleton, OF Domingo Santana, 1B Darin Ruf, IF Cesar Hernandez, IF Freddy Galvis, IF Jason Donald, IF Lendy Castillo & OF Aaron Altherr
2010 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 4 - OF Aaron Altherr, 3B Maikel Franco & Pitchers Jesse Biddle & Lisalverto Bonilla
2011 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 2 - Pitchers Ken Giles & Yacksel Rios
2012 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 8 - Pitchers Yacksel Rios, Jesen Therrien & Drew Anderson & OF Carlos Tocci, Cam Perkins, Dylan Cozens, IF Zach Green & C Willians Astudillo
2013 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 6 - Pitchers Mark Leiter Jr & Jesen Therrien & SS JP Crawford, C Deivy Grullon, C Tommy Joseph & OF Cam Perkins
2014 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 4 - Pitchers Edubray Ramos, Josh Taylor, Seranthony Dominguez & Austin Davis
2015 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 7 - C Jorge Alfaro, 1B Tommy Joseph & Pitchers Seranthony Dominguez, Edgar Garcia, Miguel Gonzalez, Ranger Suarez & Jacob Waguespack
2016 - GCL Phillies - Manager - None to Date
2017 - GCL Phillies - Manager - 1 - OF Adam Haseley
2018 - GCL Phillies - Manager - None to Date
2019 - GCL Phillies - Manager - None to Date
Oops ... forgot to add he was a guest instructor in Dream Week the first year I attended ... even warmed me up once as my catcher was putting on the gear - quite an honor for me!
Happy Day, Happy Baseball
Roly De Armas congratulates Marcus Lee Sang for a GCL HR - Photo by Mark Wylie