At some point today, I’m not exactly sure of the time (I’d bet you could google it) a group of 2013 IronPigs became free agents.
RHP: Justin Friend, Mike MacDougal
LHP: Bobby Bramhall, Tom Cochran, Mauricio Robles, Greg Smith
C: John Suomi
2B: Matt Tolbert
3B: Josh Fields
SS: Miguel Abreu, Andres Blanco
OF: Derrick Mitchell
While Blanco spent just about the entire season on the Disabled list, I’m sure Coca Cola Park would love to revive the “Let’s go, Blan-co!” cheer and some favorites in there that we would like to return.
I read recently that Phillies catcher Ruiz was not offered a guaranteed contract and will enter Free agency this off-season. This might be an indication that the Phillies are either unwilling to pay Ruiz a lot or that they have confidence in Kratz and/or the other catching prospects. Never know who they would try to pick up in case Ruiz leaves.
Out of all of these Pigs I hope to see Friend, Fields, Mitchell and Smith return for the 2014 season.
With that said, I leave you with the most current episode of the Vast Valley of Sports Roller Derby Action…
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
I agree Dan another year with D-Mitch, Justin and Let’s go Blanco would be great. Would like to see Greg as well and Cody!
And Josh!! Definitely! After last year and while I still have a fondness for Richie T – it’s Fields forever for me! (fan wise silly)
Steve Susdorf said he had another year on his contract so he ‘should’ be back so we’ll have one of the good ones hopefully!
The reason the Phillies declined to make a qualifying offer to Carlos Ruiz is because he isn’t worth the $14.1 million they would have been obligated to pay him if he accepted the qualifying offer. I’m sure the Phillies will at least try to negotiate a new deal with him for less money. Chooch has made a total of $14,630,000 in his 7 year major league career and it would be way too much to pay him $14.1 million in 2014. He turns 35 in January.
Yeah, it’s (past) time for the Phillies to be a little more cautious with their money (see also: Howard, Ryan). I read on Twitter that the Rockies were interested in Chooch. I heard they were offering to put his initials on their hats! 😉 (I stole that joke).
Over the next two months, we should start to see some signings–both MLB and MiLB–which will impact the Phillies as well as the IronPigs rosters. Stay tuned!