Phillies Minor League Groups 3/30/09

The latest news from the Philadelphia Phillies minor league camp. There have been many releases since the last post.

View the latest minor league rosters under the fold. (Updated 3:45pm)

Still a lot of changes to come, so don’t get married to these.

More Cuts in the Minors

Well, Spring Training is drawing to a close, and the Threshers season is getting closer by the day. The team’s home opener is next week on April 9th, and rosters are getting close to being finalized.

One unfortunate part of preparing the rosters each season is that we see familiar faces and fan favorites getting cut from the team. A few new names were added to the list of players released this past weekend. The players with ties to the Clearwater Threshers who were cut now includes: Alan Robbins (C), Herman Demmink (UT), John Urick (1B), Ben Pfinsgraff (P) and Andrew Cruse (P). Additionally Clay Harris (1B) retired from baseball. Here at Threshers Nation we wish nothing but the best to these guys in wherever the future may take them.

Andrew Cruse ‘07-’08 – 39 Games	Herman Demmink ‘08 – 7 Games	Clay Harris ‘07-’08 – 147 Games
Ben Pfinsgraff ‘07-’08 – 19 Games	Alan Robbins ‘08 – 57 Games	John Urick ‘07-’08 – 199 Games

2009 Phillies Minor League Workout Groups

UPDATED:  3/24/09

Here is a look at the current workout groups for the Phillies minor league teams.  Keep in mind that there will be MANY changes before the season actually gets underway.  Players are still going to get sent down from the Phillies ST roster to the minors.  That will create a ripple effect of players on this list moving down.  Also (and unfortunately) many of these players will be cut before the season starts and may not end up on any roster despite where they are listed now.  There was a small first round of cuts this week with 11 guys getting their walking papers.

This is updated weekly, so I will try to get the new groups up ASAP again next week.

I’m Practically Famous (Well, Not Really)

A week or so ago I got an email from a mysterious character who simply referred to himself as Eric. He claimed he was a writer from Vanity Fair and that he was going to be in Clearwater to see the “Legends Game” at Brighthouse Field on Sunday and then, the Phillies vs Yankees game on Monday, March 23rd.

After a bit of digging I was able to discover that this Eric character was actually Eric Spitznagel, and that he was indeed a freelance journalist who writes regularly for Vanity Fair, Playboy and a host of other online publications including his own blog entitled Vonnegut’s Asshole.   He has also written quite a few books including Fast Forward: Confessions of a Porn Screenwriter among others.   None of his writing seemed remotely sports or baseball related, but I was flattered that of all people on the planet he could have chosen, he somehow decided to choose me as one of the people he wanted to interview for his story.  I agreed to talk with him, and the rest as they say,  is now history.