IS GETTING ITS DRAFT BOARD READY
Ruben Amaro Jr. has finalized his front office staff.
A baseball source said last night that Amaro will hire Scott Proefrock, Baltimore’s director of baseball administration, as an assistant general manager. An announcement could come today.
Proefrock joins Benny Looper and Chuck Lamar, whom Amaro already has named assistant general managers. Proefrock will assume the role Amaro held under former general managers Ed Wade and Pat Gillick, which was handling negotiations for big-league contracts and the general make up of the big-league roster. Proefrock was the assistant general manager for Tampa Bay from 1998-2005, when Lamar served as Tampa Bay’s GM. He also worked with Lamar with the Atlanta Braves from 1991-95.
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Here's The Inquirer's look at the NL MVP race, which is between Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols. Or should be, anyway.
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Fox Sports reported yesterday that the Phillies have interest in free agent righthander Juan Cruz, who went 4-0 with a 2.61 ERA with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Cruz is 29-31 with a 4.00 ERA in his career, but 10-1 with a 2.88 ERA in the last two seasons with the Diamondbacks.
Cruz, 30, is a Type A free agent, which means the Phillies would have to forfeit a first-round draft pick to sign him, if they sign him before Dec. 1 or the Diamondbacks offer him salary arbitration. I wrote yesterday that there has been speculation about Russ Springer and Doug Brocail, but those names don't make much sense for the Phillies at the moment because they don't want to forfeit their 2009 first-round draft pick for relief pitchers in their 40s. The Phillies might make an exception for Cruz because he is younger and has a power arm. Still, I get the feeling the Phillies aren't going to jump into things right now.
Of course, their willingness to sign any of those pitchers would change if their respective teams don't offer them arbitration.
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The Phillies this week will interview Jim Tracy, Terry Collins and Rich Donnelly for their remaining coaching vacancy. They already have hired Sam Perlozzo to fill one of two jobs: bench coach and third base coach.
