The Phillies have just 2 catchers on their 40 man roster, Carlos Ruiz and Brian Schneider and they will likely be the backstops with the Phillies on opening day. The highest rated catcher in the Phillies farm system is Sebastian Valle and Baseball America has him rated as the Phillies #6 minor league prospect while the John Sickels scouting reports currently have him #7. Valle is only 20 years old and spent the 2010 season as a member of the Lakewood Blue Claws where he hit .255 with 16 HR. He is likely to begin 2011 at Clearwater. Tim Kennelly is a 24 year old from Australia who split time between catcher and the outfield for the Clearwater Threshers in 2010. He hit .274 for the Threshers and was one of the Phillies players in the Arizona Fall League this year where he hit .293. Look for him to move up to Reading.
The guys most likely to see the majority of time behind the plate for the 2011 Lehigh Valley Ironpigs are Erik Kratz, Dane Sardinha and Tuffy Gosewisch. Since the Ironpigs usually carry just 2 catchers, one of these guys will likely be at Reading to start the season or they could be searching for a job with another team
Erik Kratz
DOB 6/15/80, Telford, PA. 6’4″ 255. Bats/Throws: R/R
2010 AAA Allstar Game
Erik was drafted out of Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia in the 29th round of the 2002 major league draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. He played in the Blue Jays minor league system for 7 years before becoming a free agent after the 2008 season. On 1/21/09 he was signed as a free agent by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played for the Indianapolis Indians in 2009 and hit .273 with 11 HR. As a member of the 2009 International League allstar team he hit a double, a 2-run homer and added a walk and was named game MVP in the International League’s 6-5 win over the PCL. Ironpigs pitcher Drew Carpenter was the winning pitcher in that game. In 2010 he again played most of the year for Indianapolis and hit .274 with 9 HR. He was the starting catcher for the International League allstar team again in 2010 and during the July 14th game at Coca-Cola Park he was notified that he was being promoted to the Pirates, replacing former Ironpigs catcher Jason Jaramillo on the big league roster. Erik made his major league debut with the Pirates on July 17th at the age of 30 and went 2-5. However, he was sent back to AAA after playing in just 9 games and hitting .118. He did manage to show off his strong arm by throwing out 4 of 7 would be basestealers (57%) in the majors. On November 6th he became a free agent and on November 12, 2010 he was signed to a minor league contract by the Phillies with an invitation to major league spring training.
Dane Sardinha
DOB 4/8/79, Honolulu, Hawaii. 6’0″ 215. Bats/Throws: R/R
Dane was drafted in the 2nd round out of Pepperdine University by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2000 baseball draft. He spent 6 years in the Reds’ minor league system while playing in just 1 major league game with Cincinnati in 2003 and 1 game in 2005. He became a free agent on 10/2/06 and was signed as a free agent by the Detroit Tigers on 12/15/06. He spent 2007 in AAA with the Toledo Mud Hens and split time between Toledo and Detroit in 2008 and 2009. He was granted free agency following the 2009 season and was signed by the Phillies on 1/6/10. With the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs in 2010 he hit .207 with 5 HR while splitting time with Paul Hoover. He also played in 13 games for the Phillies hitting .205 while adding the first 3 homeruns of his big league career.
James Benjamin (Tuffy) Gosewisch
DOB 8/17/83, Freeport, IL. 5’11” 180. Bats/Throws: R/R
September, '09 with Ironpigs
Tuffy was drafted by the Phillies in the 11th round of the 2005 draft after he finished a solid 4 year career at Arizona State University where he hit .320 (203-634) with 10 HR and 166 RBIs. He was only the second catcher in Arizona State history to start for 3 years. After his senior year he was named one of the 10 semifinalists for the Johnny Bench Catcher of the Year Award. He has slowly progressed through the Phillies farm system spending the 2008 season with Clearwater and most of 2009 with Reading before being promoted to the Ironpigs for the final month of the season. In his 16 AAA games he had 11 hits in 55 at bats (.200). He played the entire 2010 season with the Reading Phillies hitting .241 with 9 HR.
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
Nice breakdown for all the IronPigs fans across the width and breadth of Planet Earth, Decal.
I’d like to see the local boy Kratz stick.
Will Liberty HS and Lehigh Univ alum MATT MCBRIDE be coming to the Park this year?
I would hope McBride is here when the Clippers come to town in July but it’s hard to figure out what’s going on in Cleveland. McBride played mostly LF and 1B last year and the Indians finished the 2010 season with Shelley Duncan as their leftfielder. McBride should begin 2011 with Columbus and if he plays well, who knows. He played on the same Dominican team this winter as Antonio Bastardo, David Herndon and Wilson Valdez.
Lots of great info, Dan. I too would love to see the local boy take our Pigs to the next level.
Joel Naughton was another catcher at Clearwater last year who hit well. I didn’t list him because he was a free agent, however he news today indicates he was 1 of 7 players invited to spring training by the Phillies so he must have re-signed. Another likely candidate for the Reading Phillies roster in 2011.