Afternoon notes: Phils sign another indy league lefty

Luis Villarreal, a 27-year-old southpaw pitching with the St. Paul Saints of the Northern League, was 3-0 with a 2.52 ERA in four games, fanning 28 in 24 innings. He was previously with Boston and Milwaukee.

Villarreal, a former 20th pick of the Boston Red Sox in the 2002 draft, began the season in the Brewers organization, splitting time between Triple-A Nashville and Double-A Huntsville, going a combined 1-1 with a 5.28 ERA in 14 relief appearances. Between 2004 and 2006, he saw action with five different independent league teams, all as a starter. He would figure to be some sort of organizational packing peanut for the Phils. (Thanks to Billy Mac for the news tip).

Beerleaguer summer break: Beerleaguer will be running on autopilot all next week, starting Monday, June 18 through Sunday, June 24. The last time Beerleaguer went dark for a period of more than 72 hours was January 2006 when I traveled to the Dominican Republic. Starting Monday, I’ll run a series of morning and afternoon open threads for readers to discuss the news of the day and chat during games. You're the boss. I'm confident you won't bring any more than the usual amount of shame upon Beerleaguer. Just kidding.

Overholt promoted to Double-A Reading: Correcting an earlier Reading Eagle report, it will be right-hander Patrick Overholt, not Josh Outman, who will get the call-up from Clearwater and start Saturday's game in Trenton. The 23-year-old right-hander was 4-6 with a 3.84 ERA with the Threshers.

Comments

[RSB]

Hopes are high that Villarreal can succeed, primarily so we can experience the treat of hearing Chris Wheeler painstakingly pronounce his name with the correct Spanish inflection (after practicing for hours with a tape recorder).

If the Phils lose 4 out of the next 6, it's no sin. They'll still be 2 games over. Lately, though, they seem to be bringing their best ball out against the better teams. I'm going to say 3-3. Can't wait for the NY series at the end of the month.

[curt]

The number of these Indy pickups is way past embarrassing. Has anyone checked to see if our minor teams are still actually playing baseball, and not slow pitch softball?

[GM-Carson]

Our minor league system is a crap pile!