Obscure Phillies
by jonk on Jun 30, 2009 12:19 PM EDT
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This will be a group project. Post your links to obscure Phillies, ones you remember or don't. Reading WholeCamel's link about Doug Glanvile, I was wondering when the Phils started off 0-14 getting pounded by the Braves and Marlins. I noticed he was referring to the Cubs and looked to see when the Cubs played the Phils. There I saw a name I don't ever recall seeing before.
Edgar Ramos:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ramosed01.shtml?redir
He pitched in four games for the Phillies.
"December 9, 1996: Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Houston Astros in the 1996 rule 5 draft.
June 6, 1997: Returned (earlier draft pick) by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Houston Astros. "
Anyone else remember him?
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Braulio Castillo
Mr. Castillo played in 28 games in both 1991 and 1992. Those years will be ripe with obscure Phillies.
Braulio Castillo
Braulio Robinson Medrano Castillo
born Braulio Robinson Medrano Castillo
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
Height: 6’ 0", Weight: 160 lb.
Born: May 13, 1968 in Elias Pina, D.R.
Signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1985.
(All Transactions)
Debut: August 18, 1991
Final Game: October 4, 1992
Transactions
October 10, 1985: Signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent.
July 31, 1991: Traded by the Los Angeles Dodgers with Mike Hartley to the Philadelphia Phillies for Roger McDowell.
November 17, 1992: Drafted by the Colorado Rockies from the Philadelphia Phillies as the 70th pick in the 1992 expansion draft.
May 20, 1993: Traded by the Colorado Rockies to the Houston Astros for Mark Grant.
The transaction information used here was obtained free of charge
from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Last transaction is September 30, 2008.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/castibr01.shtml
Travis Lee? Bruce Chen? Robert Person?
by CoburnsCuddleBuddy on Jun 30, 2009 7:09 PM EDT reply actions
I draw my line for obscurity somewhere around the 10 game/appearance mark.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
Robert Person
Obscure? I think not. Any PITCHER that hits a grany, 3 run bomb and a ball with homerun distance that just hooked foul with the bases loaded does not live in a world of obscurity.
by philiafan14364 on Jul 3, 2009 9:25 PM EDT up reply actions
all in the same game, sorry, that was a fairly important fact that I neglected to mention, woops
by philiafan14364 on Jul 3, 2009 9:27 PM EDT up reply actions
The Right Person
I remember some pretty solid outings plus that amazing day at the plate. Thanks for the memories.
by phillyinportland on Jul 4, 2009 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Heck – I think Manny Trillo gets forgotten more than he should
Don't frack with me or you'll get a punch in the kidneys...you've been warned
by jemagee on Jun 30, 2009 8:28 PM EDT reply actions
I know David Cohen remembers him too, and he was in the Good Phight era… but how about that Aquilino Lopez?
August 2, 2005: Selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Colorado Rockies.
March 28, 2006: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the San Diego Padres for Matt Thayer (minors) and Trey Johnston (minors).
September 2, 2003: Purchased by the Philadelphia Phillies from the Milwaukee Brewers.
Appeared in six games in September, and was released in the offseason.
I actually remember him fairly well for some reason. Probably because he was pitching in some high leverage games.
For Who? My teammates.
For What? To Win.
How Much? Where do I sign?
Ryan Nye
Holy crap, never even heard of this guy.
Appeared in five games in 1997-8. I really didn’t follow the Phillies so much during college (1996-2000), those were some pretty good seasons to have to miss.
June 3, 1991: Drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 43rd round of the 1991 amateur draft, but did not sign.
June 1, 1992: Drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 22nd round of the 1992 amateur draft, but did not sign.
June 2, 1994: Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2nd round of the 1994 amateur draft. Player signed June 13, 1994.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
I think Nye was one of those guys whom we ridiculously overhyped as a prospect: “he’s gonna be like a Maddux—not great stuff, but off-the-charts competitiveness and mound smarts!”
Man were we dumb.
PJ Forbes
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/forbep.01.shtml
November 2, 1999: Signed as a Free Agent with the Philadelphia Phillies.
October 18, 2000: Granted Free Agency.
November 15, 2000: Signed as a Free Agent with the Philadelphia Phillies.
October 15, 2001: Granted Free Agency.
He got his only BRI in a 8-3 loss to the Marlins.
P. Forbes A. Alfonseca Groundout: 3B-2B/Forceout at 2B; Anderson Scores/unER
He got a start on Oct 7th in this ridiculously awesome lineup…
B Hunter
P Forbes
B Abreu
P Burrell
K Jordan
T Pratt
J Estrada
R Wolf
Phils won 4-1. In that game, Randoy Wolf went 8.2 innings, giving way to Jose Mesa who walked his first batter to load the bases and then getting the final out. I am sweating now just thinking about it.
For Who? My teammates.
For What? To Win.
How Much? Where do I sign?
A few obscure ones...
Amalio Carreno. 3 games, 3.1 IP, 16.20 ERA.
Tim Mauser. 11 games, 27 IP over two seasons. Traded to San Diego for Roger Mason.
Steve Scarsone. Played a whole 7 games before being traded to Baltimore for Juan Bell.
Mickey Weston. 1 game, 3.2 IP, 12.27 ERA. To be fair, he was somewhat obscure everywhere he went – 16 games with Baltimore, 2 with Toronto, 1 with us, and 4 with the Mets in five seasons.
"When you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you is
Believe"
okay, now I'm curious
Going through those late-80s/early-90s seasons, I have absolutely no memory of:
Louie Meadows (1990, 15 games, 14 AB)
Mark Ryal (1989, 29 games, 33 AB)
Jim Adduci (1989, 13 games, 19 AB)
Steve Stanicek (1989, 9 games, 9 AB)
Bob Sebra (1988-89)
Randy O’Neill (1989)
Gordon Dillard (1989)
Jackie Gutierrez (1988)
Shane Turner (1988)
Danny Clay (1988)
Bill Scherrer (1988)
I could keep going, but I won’t. What’s depressing is how many of these guys quit after their brief and ignominious stints with the Phillies. If they couldn’t make it here, they couldn’t make it anywhere…
It’s amazing how desperate we were for a diamond in the rough.
For Who? My teammates.
For What? To Win.
How Much? Where do I sign?
There was a big difference between 1988 and 1989.
Going into 1988, the organization actually thought it was going to be good. 1986 had been very promising (86 wins with a fairly young team), and while 1987 had been disappointing, it also had its high points. Everything just went to hell in a handbasket in 1988. A bunch of players (Schmidt, Lance Parrish, Juan Samuel, Shane Rawley, Don Carman, Bruce Ruffin) all went over a cliff at the same time. The team had given short shrift to player development for years, so it suddenly found itself with virtually no talent at any level of the organization. The guys they picked up mid-1988 were literally just there to serve as warm bodies so they could finish out the string.
1989 was Lee Thomas’ first year and he blew everything up in the offseason. So that year, it was actually their intent to field a team made up entirely of youngsters and dumpster-dive types. I think the best they came up with were Ken Howell and Steve Ontiveros.
Lee Thomas actually did a hell of a job building a competitive team from basically nothing. They were really only “great” in 1993, but how many guys on that roster were fully homegrown? Daulton? Stocker? It was a Frankenroster.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
Lee Thomas
He used to fascinate me. Basically, the guy never made a bad trade. I think there’s one you could argue, when he sent away Darrin Fletcher, a marginally useful catcher, and got nothing in return. But otherwise every single friggin deal was a draw or a clear win.
If he’d had any luck/resources in his first few drafts (he did pull Rolen in ’93, but before then Stocker was about as good as it got), he would be a god in Philadelphia to this day.
Speaking of Thomas’ drafts, while they were clearly bad overall, it’s funny that back in the early 90s, the pick he was most frequently ripped for was when he reached for Lieberthal over Alex Fernandez with the third pick overall. Fernandez’s career got off to a hot start, but because of his injuries, Lieberthal arguably ended up having the better career when all was said and done.
That’s an amazing list. I’ve followed the Phillies pretty closely since the 1960’s, and the only name on that list I would identify as that of a baseball player, much less a Phillies player, is Jackie Gutierrez.
But the obscure names don’t have to be from very long ago. I pulled up the 2006 roster, which is so recent we should remember every name from that season, right? Adam Bernero pitched one game, on June 30th vs. Toronto, 2 IP, 8 R, 3 HRs, ERA of 36.00. Short career with the Phillies. Also pitching that year were Julio Santana (7 games at the start of the season, 8.1 IP, ERA of 7.56 ) and Brian Sanches, whose name I vaguely remember, but I didn’t remember that he was in 18 games in 2006 and apparently was in the bullpen in June and again in August and September. Wow. The rest of the staff names at least I have some memory of, but those three are virtually blanks.
by phillyinportland on Jul 3, 2009 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions
Here’s another one, from later on:
Chuck Ricci (1995)
Another guy from that year’s team I barely remember, or not, is Gene Harris.
from 1996
I’m a bit embarrassed that I don’t remember these guys, as I was actually working in sports journalism by then. Maybe I blocked it out.
Doug Lindsey (1991-1992). Played for Philly for 2 seasons. Grand total of 5 plate appearances in 3 games, with 1 single and 4 strikeouts. I don’t remember him at all, and that was when I was a baseball fanatic.
Dickie Noles (1979-1981, 1990). Not obscure the first time around (pitching 75 games over three seasons), but he came back in 1990 (after retiring in 1988) for 0.1 IP and a 27.00 ERA.
Al Pardo (1988-1989). 3 games, 3 at-bats, 2 strikeouts and no hits. Was the same age as Darren Daulton. Can’t imagine why we released him.
Don McCormack (1980-1981) Lost out to Ozzie Virgil for the catching position. Batted .400 for his career (2-5, 1 strikeout).
Orlando Isales (1980). Total professional career of 3 games in right field. His entire career spanned less than a month (September 11 to October 5).
"When you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you is
Believe"
Obscure Phillies limbo
I was looking at the 2000 roster on Baseball Reference (hello again, Alex Arias, Ken Bottenfield, Dave Coggin, Doug Nickle, Reggie Taylor, and Ed Vosberg), and think you can also go two other ways with this great thread.
Beyond the <10 games trivia night value, I was thinking:
a) how close can you go back in time before you get to the truly obscure?
b) who is most forgettable who had the most playing time?
Please revisit in the hot stove season!
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