Phillies Trading Frenzy

The Philadelphia Phillies have been the most active trading in this offseason. The Fightin' Phils acquired starting pitcher Javier Vazquez, second basemen Mark Loretta and utility infielder Juan Castro in separate transactions.

Vazquez, who has pitched the last three seasons with Montreal, had won 36 games for the Expos. Loretta was selected by Oakland as the 57th player in the 2000 draft. He appears to be coming into his own and will solidify second base for Philly. Finally, Castro has been a reserve player for both Atlanta and Houston.

To acquire these three players, Philadelphia gave up their first, second, third and sixth round draft picks. Only time will tell if these trades pan out. . . . .

Astros Looking Forward to New Stadium

The Houston Astros Look forward to playing their 2003 season in the Sky Dome. SkyDome fun facts:

The SkyDome JumboTron is a 115-foot-by-33-foot video display board that has 420,000 light bulbs, making it the largest scoreboard in the world.

A 348-room hotel is located in center field. Seventy of those rooms have views of the field.


When the roof is open, the closed end of the stadium causes a downdraft in the outfield that tends to prevent home runs.

Biggio Traded to Twins

HOUSTON (AP) - The Houston Astros cut ties with their long time second baseman, Craig Biggio last night in a trade with Minnesota. Biggio played three season with Houston and hit a dissapointing .246 with 47 homeruns. Houston acquired Minnesota's fourth round draft pick in the trade.

Phils Acquire Freddy Garcia

Philadelphia (AP) - The Phillies have announced that they have sent pitcher Jason Jennings and third basemen Morgan Ensberg to Seattle for pitcher Freedy Garcia.

Jennings was a Phillies sixth round draft pick in 2001; Philadelphia drafted Ensberg as the eighth player selected in last year's draft.

Garcia, who has pitched for Seattle for three seasons, sports a 36-27 career record.

Expos All Set For New Ball Park

(Fans toured the seating areas at Great American Ballpark during this weekend's open house.) Montreal's Cinergy Field is no more - the Expos will be playing in their brand new stadium for the coming 2003 season.

At 217 feet, 9 inches (66 m) wide, the scoreboard is the third largest in Major League Baseball; only the scoreboards at Coor's Field and Comerica Park respectively, are larger.

Chase Utley Available in 2003 Draft

After spending his minor league career as a second baseman, Chase Utley jumped from A-ball to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre in 2002 and spent the year playing third base. He hit 17 home runs in 461 at-bats. However, Utley made 28 errors and posted a .918 fielding percentage in 123 games.

Nevertheless, Utley figures to be a high first round draft pick for some patient manager.

Byrd Out For Season - Traded to Kansas City

What a difference a year makes!.....last season, Yankees' pitcher Paul Byrd finished with a league leading 24 wins. This coming 2003 season, Byrd will be out for the season with "Tommy John" surgery to reconstruct the elbow and replace ligaments.

Consequently, in an effort to pare down to the 18 player roster limit, the Bronx Bombers decided to ship off their former 2001 #1 draft pick to the Royals for a 2003 seventh rounder.

White Sox Move Up To Second Pick

Chicago moved up a slot to the second pick by winning tonite's lottery draft. (The winning number was 5-0-3.) Oakland will move down to the third selection. So the first three picks in the 2003 draft will be: 1. Toronto 2. Chicago 3. Oakland

Blue Jays Secure 1st Pick

Congratulations to the Toronto Blue Jays for winning tonite's lottery and the first pick in the 2003 draft. The winning number was 0-5-8. The lottery for the second pick in the draft will be conducted tomorrow night.

Draft Lottery to be Held on Thursday, Oct 4th & Friday, Oct 5th

We will be conducting our draft lottery on Thursday, October 4th and Friday, October 5th.....


The “Pennsylvania Daily Number NITE” lottery (http://www.palottery.state.pa.us/) on subsequent nights (7PM EST) will be used to decide who gets the #1 and #2 picks in the first round only. If the second pick yields the same result as the first night, then a third night’s lottery drawing will be used. The remaining 10 teams will draft in reverse order of record. So, the team with the poorest record can do no worst than pick third in the first round.



2003 Lottery Drawing Chances:

000 to 249 – Toronto (40-122)

250 to 449 – Oakland (66-96)

450 to 604 – Chicago (69-93)

605 to 724 – Montreal (73-89, outscored Los Angeles 31-27 in tie-breaker)

725 to 814 – Los Angeles (73-89)

815 to 879 – Houston (74-88)

880 to 924 – Florida (75-87, defeated Kansas City 4 games to 2 in tie-breaker)

925 to 954 – Kansas City (75-87)

955 to 974 – Cleveland (79-83, defeated Minnesota 4 games to 2 in tie-breaker)

975 to 986 – Minnesota (79-83)

987 to 994 – St. Louis (82-80)

995 to 999 – Anaheim (84-78)

(Click here for a history of previous lottery numbers selected.)