2008 Choice Williamsport Crosscutters #6 Travis d'Arnaud

Mets 5, Phillies 0
Game 132 - Tuesday Night, August 27th in Flushing
Record - 60-72, Tied for 3rd Place, 19 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Mets starting pitcher Jon Niese single-handedly defeated the Phillies in this game, pitching a complete game shutout and delivering a three-run double.

What It Means:   In yesterday's game summary post, I optimistically noted that the Phillies would need to go 22-9 the rest of the way to finish with a winning record.  That slipped to 22-8 with this loss to the Mets.  Maybe instead of keeping track of this, I should just start a countdown to the number of days until pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater in February.

What Went Wrong:   Niese limited the Phillies to three hits, two of which came from Michael Young.  Phillies starting pitcher Kyle Kendrick turned in another Kendrickian performance, walking four and allowing five runs in his six innings of work.  Only one of Kendrick's runs allowed was earned as a result of a costly throwing error from first baseman Kevin Frandsen.

Featured Card:   The Mets traded away Marlon Byrd and starting catcher John Buck to the Pirates on Tuesday, handing the starting catching job to rookie Travis d'Arnaud.  The young catcher made his debut on August 17th, and he's only hitting .125 through his first nine games.

d'Arnaud was drafted by the Phillies in the 37th round of the June 2007 amateur player draft and began his professional career in 2007 with the GCL Phillies.  He was promoted to Rookie A Williamsport in 2008, and was eventually promoted to the Low A Lakewood BlueClaws to finish up the season.  He helped lead the BlueClaws to the 2009 South Atlantic League championship and a few months later was traded to Toronto in the deal that brought Roy Halladay to the Phillies.

Three years later, d'Arnaud was again dealt for an ace as the Blue Jays shipped him to the Mets as part of the R.A. Dickey deal.  I have three d'Arnaud cards in my Phillies collection, and I've previously featured two of those cards here and here.  Presented here is the third, from his time with the Williamsport Crosscutters.

The Newest Toronto Blue Jays (and an Oakland Athletic)

2007 Bowman Prospects #BP111 Kyle Drabek

2007 Bowman Draft Picks #BDPP14 Travis d'Arnaud

2007 Bowman Draft Picks #BDPP37 Michael Taylor

The Phillies Room bids farewell to three more prospects, dealt yesterday to acquire Roy Halladay from the Toronto Blue Jays.

Kyle Drabek was the Phillies 1st round selection in the June 2006 draft. The son of former pitcher Doug Drabek, Kyle split 2009 between Class A Clearwater and AA Reading, going 12-3 with a 3.19 ERA. Recovering from a July 2007 Tommy John surgery, Kyle pitched in just 8 games in 2008 but by all accounts made a full and impressive recovery with his 2009 performance.

We were there for Michael Taylor's AAA debut in July and we witnessed his first AAA home run. The Blue Jays have spun Taylor off to the Athletics, where he should compete for the A's starting left fielder job out of Spring Training. A Stanford graduate, Taylor possesses both power and speed and he's been compared to Jermaine Dye.

I featured catcher Travis d'Arnaud in a post back in September, celebrating the Lakewood BlueClaws' advance to the Sally Championship Series. Known more for his defense than his offense, d'Arnaud was ranked ahead of Lou Marson in terms of catching depth in some scouting reports last year. Marson, of course, was part of the package that netted now Seattle Mariner Cliff Lee from the Indians in July.

Best of luck to all three and I'll be paying a little closer attention this year to the Blue Jays, A's and Mariners.

2009 Multi-Ad Lakewood BlueClaws #9 Travis d'Arnaud

The big club is off today, but the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws begin play in the South Atlantic League Championship Series tonight. They'll face off in the best-of-five series against the Greenville Drive, the Red Sox' Class A affiliate. Phils' reliever Clay Condrey, currently on a rehab assignment, gets the start in the opener for the BlueClaws.

Top prospect Travis d'Arnaud was the team's primary catcher this year, hitting .255 (.303 in the second half) with 13 home runs and 71 RBI. Entering the 2009 season, Travis was ranked by Baseball America as the Phils' 7th best prospect in their system.

One of these years, we're going to make the roadtrip to First Energy Park in Lakewood either in addition to or in lieu of our annual trip to Lehigh Valley to catch an IronPigs game.

Best of luck to the BlueClaws!

UPDATE - Apparently Clay Condrey wasn't starting tonight for the BlueClaws, but he did pitch an inning in relief.