Opening Day roster announced

Reading, PA – The Philadelphia Phillies have announced the 24-man roster for their Double-A club in Reading. 

Reading’s roster features seven of the Phillies Top 20 prospects as ranked by Baseball America: #1 Carlos Carrasco, RHP; #4 Josh Outman, LHP; #7 Greg Golson, OF; #8 Lou Marson, C; #9 Drew Carpenter, RHP; #15 Jason Donald, SS; #20 Brad Harman, 2B. Not one of the seven has ever been in Reading for Opening Day. However, Carrasco (6/20/07), Outman (7/26/07) and Golson (7/26/07) were all promoted to Reading from Clearwater mid-season in 2007. 

Fourteen of the active 24 players are new to Reading: Kip Bouknight, Carpenter, Ron Hill, Justin Pope, Will Savage, R.J. Swindle, Shane Youman, Marson, John Suomi, Luke Appert, Donald, Harman, Neil Sellers, and Jeremy Slayden. 

Carpenter, Hill, Savage, Swindle, Marson, Donald, Harman and Slayden will all be making their Double-A debuts. 

Bouknight (Altoona), Pope (Trenton) and Suomi (Harrisburg) all played in the Eastern League in 2007. Youman played in the league in 2006 (Altoona). 

Appert (Midland) and Sellers (Corpus Christi) have Double-A on their resumes as recently as last year. 

In addition to Carrasco, Outman and Golson, returning to Reading from last year’s club are: Fabio Castro, Patrick Overholt, Joey Hammond, Juan Tejeda, Javon Moran, Michael Spidale and Tim Gradoville. Gradoville has a new roll in 2008 – player/coach. He’ll begin the season inactive as a player. Reading’s last player/coach was Larry Andersen in 1995. 

Also returning to Reading is LHP Jason Kershner. Kershner previously pitched for Reading from 1999-2001. His last appearance in an R-Phils uniform came on 8/29/01 at Harrisburg. That was 2,405 days ago. Six whole seasons have passed since his last appearance for the R-Phils. That’s tied for the longest gap between appearances in R-Phils history with Sean Fesh (1998, 2005) and the late John Vukovich (1969, 1976-77). 

Thirteen of the active players on the roster were originally signed or drafted by the Phillies. The roster’s average age on 4/1/08 will be 25.5-years old. Reading’s 4/1/07 roster had an average age of 27.1 years and eight players that were originally signed or drafted by the Phillies. 

P.J. Forbes returns for his third season as the manager. Tom Filer is in his 4th season as the pitching coach. Frank Cacciatore is in his first season as the team’s hitting coach. Also new to the staff are Gradoville, Athletic Trainer Chris Mudd and Athletic Trainer and Conditioning Specialist Justin Zabrosky. 

The R-Phils will be in action on Tuesday, April 1 when they take on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in the Capital BlueCross Exhibition Game to benefit Baseballtown Charities. Game time is 6:35 PM, all seats are just $5 and available at readingphillies.com, FirstEnergy Stadium or by phone 610-375-8469. Reading opens its 42nd regular season at Altoona on Thursday, April 3 at 6:35 PM. The R-Phils home opener is on Friday, April 11 at 7:05 PM. 

This story was posted on March 30, 2008