2015 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #13 Cesar Jimenez

Marlins 9, Phillies 7
Game 121 - Thursday Night, August 20th in Miami
Record - 47-74, 5th Place, 17 1/2 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies attempted a comeback, but Jerome Williams' horrendous start was too much to overcome and the Marlins won, 9-7.

What It Means:  Williams now earns an ERA of 6.10.  I have to imagine there are prospects in Triple-A who could take his spot in the rotation in September.

What Happened:  Williams allowed 8 runs on 8 hits in 1 2/3 innings pitched.  Cesar Jimenez came in for the next 2 1/3 innings and shut the Marlins down.

Featured Card:  Following the game, Jimenez was designated for assignment to make room on the roster for Friday night's starting pitcher, Jered Eickhoff.  On Friday afternoon, Jimenez was claimed off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers and he'll join their bullpen.  He becomes the ninth member of the 2015 Phillies squad now no longer with the organization.  His sole Phillies baseball card can be found within the first team issued photo card set from the beginning of this season.

Departed During Season

• Grady Sizemore (6/1/15) - Released and signed with the Tampa Bay Rays organization on 6/15/15.
• Phillippe Aumont (6/24/15) - Designated for assignment and elected free agency.  Signed with the Toronto Blue Jays organization on 7/24/15.
• Jonathan Papelbon (7/28/15) - Traded with cash considerations to the Washington Nationals for Nick Pivetta.
• Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman (7/31/15) - Traded with cash considerations to the Texas Rangers for Matt Harrison, Nick Williams, Jorge Alfaro, Jake Thompson, Jerad Eickhoff and Alec Asher.
• Ben Revere (7/31/15) - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jimmy Cordero and Alberto Tirado.
• Chase Utley (8/19/15) - Traded with cash considerations to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Darnell Sweeney and John Richy.
• Cesar Jimenez (8/21/15) - Claimed off waivers by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Arrived During Season

• Kevin Correia (6/8/15) - Signed as a free agent formerly with the San Francisco Giants organization.
• Dalier Hinojosa (7/15/15) - Selected off waivers from the Boston Red Sox.
• Jerad Eickhoff (7/31/15) - Acquired with Matt Harrison, Nick Williams, Jorge Alfaro, Jake Thompson and Alec Asher from the Texas Rangers for Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman and cash considerations.
• Darnell Sweeney (8/19/15) - Acquired with John Richy from the Los Angeles Dodgers for Chase Utley and cash considerations.

2015 Chachi #19 Cesar Jimenez

#56

Cesar Enrique Jimenez

Relief Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'0"  Weight:  215

Born:  November 12, 1984, Cumana, Venezuela

Home:  Cumana, Venezuela

Signed:  Signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent, July 2, 2001

Teams:  Seattle Mariners 2006, 2008, 2011; Phillies 2013-

Acquired:  Signed as a minor league free agent formerly with the Seattle Mariners organization, December 5, 2012

2007 Topps #638

2013 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #10

2013 Chachi #56

2015 Phillies Team Issue #56

4 Jimenez Baseball Cards in My Collection per Zistle
First Card:  2013 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #10
First Phillies Card:  2015 Phillies Team Issue #56
First Phillies Topps Base Card:  N/A
First Phillies Team Issued Card:  2015 Phillies Team Issue #56
Latest Card:  2015 Phillies Team Issue #56

First Topps Base Card:  2007 Topps #638
First Chachi Base Card:  2013 Chachi #56

Notice anything odd about Jimenez's first Topps card?

Jimenez Games I've Attended per Hardball Passport

Cards and game statistics through 5/2/15.

2015 Topps Phillies #PHP-4 Darin Ruf

Nationals 4, Phillies 3 (10 Innings)

Game 6 - Sunday Afternoon, April 12th in Philadelphia

Record - 3-3, Tied for 2nd Place, 2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  A late comeback bid fell short as the Phillies dropped the series finale to the Nationals, 4-3 in ten innings.

What It Means:  The Phils are back to .500 and they'll head to New York to open a three-game series with the Mets this afternoon.

What Happened:  Sean O'Sullivan got the ball for the Phillies and he pitched a decent game against Max Scherzer and the Nationals.  O'Sullivan pitched six innings, allowing just two runs on five hits.  He also scored the Phillies first run when he came around to score in the fifth after drawing a lead-off walk from Scherzer.

Darin Ruf's pinch-hit home run in the seventh temporary tied up the ballgame, but Jake Diekman and Justin De Fratus couldn't keep the Nationals off the board in the 10th.

2013 Choice Lehigh Valley
IronPigs Update #11

Featured Cards:  Ruf broke an 0 for 11 slump to start the 2015 season with his solo home run.  He's featured in the Topps Phillies retail set, and this is probably a good preview of what his Series Two Topps card will look like.

Transaction:  Phillies selected the contract of O'Sullivan from the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and designated Cesar Jimenez for assignment.  Of note to only a few of us, O'Sullivan has switched from the #61 he's worn thus far with the Phillies to #47.

Jimenez pitched in 2/3 of an inning for the Phillies on opening day and he's appeared in 36 games overall with the club since 2013.  If he makes it through waivers, he'll most likely end up back with the IronPigs.

2015 Phillies Team Issue

Number of Cards:  43
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  Keeping with a theme that's been used for the past two seasons, the card fronts feature full color photos with a bottom border containing the player's name, number and position.  The blue design used on the bottom of the cards features a baseball with a Phillies P in it and is the same design featured on the cover of the 2015 Phillies Media Guide.  The horizontal card backs feature biographical information and complete career statistics.

How Distributed:  Sets are available for sale at Citizens Bank Park for $5 and I purchased my set on opening day, April 6th.

Complete Standard Checklist:  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.

2 - Ben Revere 3 - Jeff Francoeur 4 - Andres Blanco 5 - Steve Henderson CO 6 - Ryan Howard 7 - Maikel Franco 8 - Juan Samuel CO 9 - Domonic Brown 10 - Larry Bowa CO 12 - John Mizerock CO 13 - Freddy Galvis 16 - Cesar Hernandez 18 - Darin Ruf 22 - Bob McClure CO 23 - Ryne Sandberg MG 24 - Grady Sizemore 25 - Cody Asche 26 - Chase Utley 29 - Cameron Rupp 30 - Justin De Fratus 31 - Jerome Williams 33 - Cliff Lee

34 - Aaron Harang 35 - Cole Hamels 37 - Odubel Herrera 38 - Chad Billingsley 41 - Charlie Manuel MG (Alumni) 43 - Mario Hollands 45 - Pete Mackanin CO 46 - Jeanmar Gomez 51 - Carlos Ruiz 52 - Andy Oliver 53 - Ken Giles 54 - Rod Nichols CO 55 - David Buchanan 56 - Cesar Jimenez 57 - Luis Garcia 58 - Jonathan Papelbon 59 - Kevin Slowey 63 - Jake Diekman 75 - Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez Phillie Phanatic Phillies Broadcasters

One and Done (3):  Jimenez, Oliver, Slowey
First Appearances (11):  Billingsley, Blanco, Francoeur, Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Harang, Herrera, Rupp, Sizemore, Williams
Returning Players (18):  Asche, Brown, Buchanan, De Fratus, Diekman, Franco, Galvis, Giles, Hamels, Hernandez, Hollands, Howard, Lee, Papelbon, Revere, Ruf, Ruiz, Utley

The number of One and Done cards could grow, but for now I've listed only Oliver and Slowey here as neither of these pitchers are still with the organization.  The following players make their Phillies baseball card debut with this set, and any of these players are potential candidates for eventual One and Done club membership - Billingsley, Blanco, Francoeur, Gomez, Harang, Herrera and Jimenez. (UPDATE - I've added Jimenez to this list as well.)

The First Appearance designation is for players who have never before appeared within a Phillies team issued set.  These players may have already appeared on other Phillies baseball cards.

Manager (1):  Sandberg
Coaches (7):  Bowa, Henderson, Mackanin, McClure, Mizerock, Nichols, Samuel
Phillie Phanatic (1)
Broadcasters (1):  Newcomer Ben Davis takes over for Jamie Moyer this year, and he joins Tom McCarthy, Larry Andersen, Scott Franzke, Jim Jackson, Matt Stairs, Mike Schmidt and Gregg Murphy on this card.
Other Cards (1):  Manuel (Alumni Card)

I'm counting the Charlie Manuel Alumni card as part of this regular set although the card uses the standard Alumni set design as opposed to the design of the rest of the 2015 team issued cards.  The Manuel card contains a 2011 copyright date on the back.

Variations/Rarities:  Only time will tell if any variations or rarities spring up using this card set's design.

Trivia:  The Phillies did a nice job in terms of player selection for this set.  Of the team's opening day 25-man roster, only reliever Dustin McGowan is omitted from the set which is totally understandable given that McGowan didn't officially join the organization until the day before the season opener.

Shaking Off the Cobwebs

2014 Choice Lehigh Valley
IronPigs #15

With spring training games starting in a little under a week, I need to get myself back in the habit of regular posting.  The crapping out of my old iMac coupled with a busy few weeks at work have foiled my ability to deliver on any of my Coming Attractions.  I also haven't enjoyed reading the tales of woe coming out of Clearwater.  While the veteran players/trade bait all continue to say the right things, it's been hard for me to get too excited about this upcoming Phillies season.  Still, it will be nice to settle into the rhythm of a nightly baseball game in warmer weather.

Before the exhibition games start, I wanted to have one last look on the non-roster players currently in camp.  18 of the 58 players in Clearwater are non-roster invitees.  The 18th and final player added to this list was Cesar Jimenez, who was designated for assignment to make room for Chad Billingsley, but then resigned to a minor league deal and invited to spring training.

Player (position) - 2014 Organization - Last Major Baseball Card Appearance
1.  Andres Blanco (inf) - Phillies - 2007 Topps #659 (Royals)
2.  Brian Bogusevic (of) - Marlins - 2014 Topps #524 (Marlins)
3.  Russ Canzler (inf) - Yankees/Phillies - N/A
4.  Chase d'Arnaud (inf) - Pirates - 2012 Topps Heritage #323 (Pirates)
5.  Jeff Francoeur (of) - Padres - 2014 Topps Update #US-167 (Padres)
6.  John Hester (c) - Angels - 2010 Upper Deck #31 (Diamondbacks)
7.  Darin Mastroianni (of) - Twins/Blue Jays - 2013 Topps #528 (Twins)
8.  Xavier Paul (of) - Orioles/Diamondbacks - 2013 Topps Update #US-194 (Reds)
9.  Paul Clemens (rhp) - Astros - 2013 Panini Prizm #213 (Astros)
10.  Rene Garcia (c) - Astros - 2009 Bowman Prospects #BP81 (Astros)
11.  Koyie Hill (c) - Phillies - 2011 Topps Update #US13 (Cubs)
12.  Chris Nelson (inf) - Reds/Padres - 2014 Topps #101 (Angels)
13.  Cord Phelps (inf) - Orioles - N/A
14.  Chris McGuiness (1b) - Pirates - 2010 Topps Pro Debut #411 (Rangers)
15.  Sean O'Sullivan (rhp) - Phillies - 2011 Topps Update #US89 (Royals)
16.  Kevin Slowey (rhp) - Marlins - 2012 Topps Update #US94 (Indians)
17.  Jeanmar Gomez (rhp) - Pirates - 2013 Topps Update #US92 (Pirates)
18.  Cesar Jimenez (lhp) - Phillies - 2009 Upper Deck #857 (Mariners)

Memory Lane

2013 Non-Roster Invitees
2014 Non-Roster Invitees

2014 Chachi #47 Cesar Jimenez

#56

Cesar Enrique Jimenez

Relief Pitcher

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  208

Born:  November 12, 1984, Cumana, Venezuela

Home:  Cumana, Venezuela

Signed:  Signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent, July 2, 2001

Teams:  Seattle Mariners 2006, 2008, 2011; Phillies 2013-

Acquired:  Signed as a minor league free agent formerly with the Seattle Mariners organization, December 5, 2012

Phillies Cards in My Collection:

No Phillies cards yet for Jimenez, but I have three cards of him in my collection featuring him with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

First Chachi Card:  2013 Chachi #56

2013 Chachi #56 Cesar Jimenez

#56

Cesar Enrique Jimenez

Relief Pitcher

Bats: Left  Throws: Left  Height: 5'11"  Weight: 220

Born: November 12, 1984, Cumana, Venezuela

Home: Cumana, Venezuela

Signed: Signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent, July 2, 2001

Teams: Seattle Mariners 2006, 2008, 2011; Phillies 2013

Acquired: Signed as a minor league free agent formerly with the Seattle Mariners organization, December 5, 2012

Contract Status: Pre-arbitration eligible