Phillies sign 3 to minor league contracts

I know, I know, that headline just MADE you click on this page. When you saw the Phillies had signed three players to minor league deals, you just HAD to click on it, didn't you?

Listen, I've been doing this a while now, and I know how to generate the click-bait.

The three players in question are first baseman Chris McGuiness, and right-handed pitchers Sean O'Sullivan and Kevin Slowey. All three will be invited to Spring Training in Clearwater.

Do you want to know more about these three future contributors? Of course you do.

McGuiness got his first taste of Major League ball last year with the Texas Rangers, where he hit .176/.176/.206 in just 34 plate appearances. He's 25 years old, and last year for Triple-A Indianapolis he hit .264/.358/.412 with 9 HRs and 54 RBIs in 489 PAs.

O'Sullivan pitched three games for the Phillies last year, two of them starts, accumulating 12.2 innings. He gave up nine earned runs in those 12.2 innings. He's 26, and in six seasons in Triple-A across multiple organizations has compiled a 4.38 ERA, striking out 6.0 batters per nine innings and walking 2.7.

Slowey is probably the biggest name out of the three. In 2008, '09 and '10, Slowey won at least 10 games, including a 13-6 record in '10 with a 4.45 ERA. Last year, in 37.1 innings for the Marlins he gave up 22 earned runs with an ERA of 5.30, while striking out 5.8 batters per nine and walking 2.2 per nine innings.

Slowey gives the Phillies another arm to plug in Lehigh Valley, if he makes it out of Spring Training. O'Sullivan will also probably start the season for the Iron Pigs, and McGuiness could be organizational depth at first in the event Ryan Howard is traded or released.

Now back to your regularly scheduled lives.