2010 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs Series 2 #23 Ryan Vogelsong

Here's a brief baseball history of Giants right-handed pitcher Ryan Vogelsong:

June 1998 - Drafted by the Giants in the 5th round of the amateur player draft after pitching at Kutztown University.

September 2, 2000 - Made his Major League debut with the Giants.  Vogelsong would appear in 17 games for the 2000-2001 Giants, going 0-3.

July 31, 2001 - Traded by the Giants to the Pirates as part of the deal that brought Jason Schmidt to San Francisco.  He would spend the next six seasons in the Pirates organization, going 10-19 with a 6.00 ERA at the big league level.

2007 - 2009 - Vogelsong spent three seasons in Japan, pitching with the Hanshin Tigers and the Orix Buffaloes.

January 7, 2010 - Signed as a minor league free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies.

July 15, 2010 - Released by the Philadelphia Phillies after posting a 2-5 record and a 4.91 ERA in 25 games and 7 starts with the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

Since Then - Spent some time in the Los Angeles Angels system before coming back to the Giants in January 2011.  Made the National League All-Star team in 2011 and has gone a combined 27-16 with a 3.05 ERA for the Giants over the past two seasons.  Vogelsong finished fourth in the league in ERA in 2011, earning him a spot on this card.  Both Phillies featured on that card are now sitting at home while Vogelsong pitched brilliantly in Game 6 of the N.L.C.S. last night, forcing a Game 7 showdown between the Giants and the Cardinals.  But I'm not bitter or anything.

2012 Topps Heritage #5 N.L. ERA Leaders

Phillies 7, Braves 7
Spring Training Game 32 - Sunday Afternoon, April 1st in Lake Buena Vista
Record - 12-16-4

One Sentence Summary:  Cliff Lee pitched well in his final game of the spring but the Braves came back late against the J.V. squad to tie up the game.

What It Means:  The Phillies have two more exhibition games scheduled (tonight and tomorrow night against the Pirates at Citizens Bank Park) but this game marked the close of the exhibition season in Florida.  That went kind of fast didn't it?

What Went Right/Wrong:  Lee pitched four innings, allowing a run on five hits.  Minor leaguers Frank Gailey and Ryan Duke coughed up four ninth inning runs to let the Braves tie it up.  The youngsters allowed four walks and were hurt by costly errors from Gailey himself and Freddy Galvis.

The Phillies put a six-spot on the board in the fourth highlighted by an RBI-double from Shane Victorino and RBI-singles from Galvis and Lee.

Featured Card:  This Topps Heritage ERA Leaders card features the five floating heads of some of the top arms in the National League.  Here's hoping that the floating heads in the middle and top right both crack the 20-win mark this season.

We're only a few days away from Opening Day, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about the offense and myriad of injuries the team is facing.  Lee and Roy Halladay, along with rotation-mate Cole Hamels, are on the short list of things I'm not worrying about.  (Hurry up Thursday afternoon.)