Stocking Stuffers

Not much in the way of real baseball news, but there is still a tiny bit of free agent news to catch up on and another significant story concerning a Phillies minor league affiliate worth mentioning. First off, there are 50 new free agents available now that the deadline for teams to offer arbitration has passed. Some of the "name" players now available include SP Ryan Franklin, SP Wade Miller, SP Ramon Ortiz, SP Josh Fogg, RP Chad Bradford, RP Trever Miller, RP Lance Carter, C Jason Phillips, OF Timo Perez, and OF Eric Byrnes. Nobody to get too excited about at first glance although the Phillies could have interest in Franklin and Fogg - based completely on reasons I made up (Franklin is a former Mariner like GM Pat Gillick and it seems the Phillies have always had some kind of interest in Fogg). I would not endorse either move.

The big minor league news is really quite big. The Phillies AAA affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will only be around one more season as the Phils plan to put a new AAA team in the new ballpark being built in Allentown. The Orioles could fill the void in Scranton/WB by moving their AAA team (Ottawa) there in 2007. While it is a shame that the Red Barons will be moving from a town they've been associated with 1989, it is exciting that a new market will get to experience professional baseball in a shiny new stadium for the first time.

OF Endy Chavez is a Met... first Wagner, now Chavez, we can only hope that the Phils can somehow pawn Tomas Perez on Omar Minaya.