With the retirement of Mike Lieberthal this past weekend, I began to think back on Phillies catchers of years past. Instantly I reminisced of Ozzie Virgil. Ozzie had a kick ass name, but really that was it...oh wait, awesome facial hair too, love that 'stache! He was a 6th round pick on the Phils in the '76 draft and caught for them from 1980-85. To be fair, Virgil did have two solid seasons in '84 and '85 and was the NL All-Star catcher in his last season in Phils pinstripes. Ozzie is also best known for being the essential part of the package that brought future Cy Young closer Steve Bedrosian and versatile outfielder Milt Thompson to the Phils via the Braves in '86.
Crazy, but thats how it goes.Millions of people living as foes.
Maybe it's not to late,
To learn how to love,
And forget how to hate.
Mental wounds not healing.
Lifes a bitter shame.
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train!
~Carson
12 comments:
Ozzie had a couple of really decent offensive numbers for a catcher, I liked him and Bo Diaz a lot.
To be honest, I was very young when Ozzie played, so I can't truly apprciate him, but from what I read he was decent.
Looks like our favorite athlete Paul LoDuca is heading to surgery...such a shame.
Bob Boone. Ozzie Virgil. Bo Diaz. Dutch Daulton - we had a run of good catcher names for a while. I'd like to see Chooch stick around for 8-10 years, either as a starter or backup once Jaramillo comes into form.
Chooch is 29 already, believe it or not. I think he probably has 3-4 years of starting ahead of him (good defense and adequate bat), but who knows is baseball anymore. You can go from starter to unemployed like that (see Luis Gonzalez or Kenny Lofton).
Even Lieberthal provided good catching for a number of his 13 years. (last 2-3 he was banged up and never the same)
The catcher that will likely unseat Ruiz from starter is Marson rather than Jaramillo. He can play the D along with a solid bat with power. Jaramillo provides the solid D with an OK bat, and that will get him a majorleague job maybe even as a starter. Marson will be in AA this year, so start looking for him to appear in Philly sometime next year.
Lou Marson does look like a decent catching prospect, and from what I've read he doesn't do anything fantastic, but he does almost everything well.
Jaramillo is a future backup in my opinion, but every club needs one, so that's not exactly a bad thing.
Both Ozzies rocked.
espn is reporting the phils signed pedro feliz to a two year deal?!?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3219098
Ryan if that's true, I'm going to find a long rope, take a Boy Scouting lesson in knots, and then jumping from my support beam in the middle of my house.
From MLBTR:
Pedro Feliz Signs With Phillies
According to ESPN's Jayson Stark, the Phillies have signed third baseman Pedro Feliz to a two-year deal (pending a physical).
Feliz, 33 in April, has a career line of .252/.288/.433. The average NL third baseman hit .280/.348/.456 in '07, so Feliz is definitely subpar offensively. On the flip side, the Fielding Bible's panel of experts ranked him the best defensive third baseman in baseball for 2007. Sum it up and you have a player worth roughly three wins above replacement, an improvement over what the Phillies had. Kyle Kendrick may be most appreciative of Feliz's defense, as he is the staff's lead groundballer.
Feliz was a Type B free agent, so the Giants get a sandwich pick for their loss.
*Son of a bitch!!!
two years! two freakin years!!!
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