2008 R-Phils Spring Training Guide

Spring Preview Schedule Pitchers Catchers  Infielders  Outfielders  Schedule/Results Important Dates Game Schedule   Game Results/Highlights   Related RTV Videos Mike Arbuckle on the role farm system Steve Noworyta talks about potential R-Phils Arbuckle and Noworyta on new hitting coach, Frank Cacciatore Related R-Phils Podcasts Baseball America's Chris Kline* talks about Phillies prospects (1/16/08) Manager PJ Forbes (12/12/07) Hitting coach Frank Cacciatore (2/13/08) Pitching coach Tom Filer (2/19/08) Field Staff Bios PJ Forbes - manager Tom Filer - pitching coach Frank Cacciatore - hitting coach Chris Mudd - athletic trainer *Kline has since accepted a job to be a regional scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Reading, PA – It'd be really swell if the dateline read Clearwater, FL but it doesn't so we're going to try to give you an idea of who might be wearing those new uniforms on Opening Day, or at some point during the 2008 season, from right here in Baseballtown.  

We'll break down our preview into four segments, pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders.  The schedule is to the left.  

First the disclaimer.  This a Web page you're looking at and not a piece of slate.  What we're trying to say is that the words you read here are not chiseled in stone.  A lot can change.  Some of the players we'll mention will be here.  Some won't.  A lot can happen between now and April.  Player's performances, injuries, trades and the gulf coast breeze can have an impact on who the 24 players that arrive in Baseballtown this April will be.  For example: someone we thought would be coming to Reading might not because they had a great spring and earned a job at a higher level.  Maybe someone we thought was headed to Clearwater had a good March and was rewarded with a shot at Reading.  It can work the other way too.  Stay tuned.

We're going to discuss over 50 players in our 2008 pre-season preview.  Before we do, we'd like to fully disclose the results of our 2007 preview. 

In 2007 a lot of jobs were up for grabs and we brought up the names of 64 players that had contracts with the Phillies when spring training began.  Of those 64, 35 played for the R-Phils.  That's 54.7%.  That may not sound like a real strong showing but a .547 winning % would have been 4th best in the EL last year and qualified for the playoffs so we'll take it. 

Of the 64 players previewed, 8 of 10 starting pitchers played here, 9 of 17 relievers, 2 of 8 catchers, 8 of 16 infielders and 8 of 13 outfielders. In our defense, in the case of some of those 64, we predicted they'd be at higher or lower levels but left the door open.  

We should also point out that there were seven players in spring training last year that played in Reading but got no mention in our preview.  So, we didn't neglect too many.  (Sorry, kind of got blindsided by that Chris Coste coming here.)  There was one player acquired in spring training after our preview ran, Joe Thurston, that played here for about a week before going to Triple-A.  There were another nine players that were picked up throughout the 2007 season via trades or free agency that weren't Phillies this time of year and pretty much impossible to predict.  

There are no Major League rehab assignments counted in the figures above.

This information was posted on February 18, 2008