Jonathan Singleton

Francisco Liriano may not be signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates after all. Liriano's agreed-to contract with the Pirates is in jeopardy after the pitcher injured his right arm around Christmas, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. According to the report, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington didn't disclose how Liriano - a lefthanded pitcher - got hurt or whether the injury would prevent him from being ready for the start of spring training on Feb. 12. Ex-Phillie farmhand Jonathan Singleton suspended 50 games Former Phillies minor-leaguer Jonathan Singleton, now with the Houston Astros organization, was suspended 50 games Wednesday after a second violation for a drug of abuse.

For an off day, the Phillies were pretty busy: * Scouting director Marti Wolever continued to work on signing shortstop Roman Quinn, the second-round draft pick out of Port St. Joseph (Fla.) High School who is reported to have game-changing speed, before last night's midnight deadline. That came after the Phillies came to terms with power-hitting outfielder Larry Greene late Sunday night. Greene, the team's first pick, was a sandwich selection, 39th overall. The Phillies also officially announced the signing of 31-year-old righthander Dave Bush to a minor league contract.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn - Camden's Sam Narron is pitching like an ace. The 28-year-old lefthander threw his second straight shutout Sunday, yielding seven hits in a 9-0 road win over the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic League. All told, he has thrown 20 consecutive shutout innings. Narron was bolstered by 16 hits, including a home run by leftfielder Jason Botts to lead off the third. Botts had three hits and scored three runs. Camden third baseman Brian Burgamy had four hits on the afternoon.

Camden's Sam Narron is pitching like an ace. The 28-year-old lefthander threw his second straight shutout Sunday, yielding seven hits in a 9-0 road win over the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic League. All told, he has thrown 20 consecutive shutout innings. Narron was bolstered by 16 hits, including a home run by leftfielder Jason Botts to lead off the third. Botts had three hits and scored three runs. Camden third baseman Brian Burgamy had four hits on the afternoon.

ALLENTOWN - Brian Gordon gave up two runs in five innings and drove in the winning run as the Lehigh Valley IronPigs beat the Gwinnett Braves, 4-3, in the Internatinal League on Saturday.   Reading 4, Richmond 3 READING - Freddy Galvis tripled and homered to lead the Phillies to the Eastern League win. Trenton 4, Portland 3 TRENTON - Bradley Suttle's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth gave the Thunder the Eastern League win. Clearwater 11, Charlotte 1 CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jonathan Singleton was 3 for 5 with a homer and drove in four runs to lead the Threshers past the Stone Crabs in the Florida State League.

As part of the deal that sent righthanded pitcher Roy Oswalt and cash consideration to the Phillies on Thursday, the team surrendered J.A. Happ and two minor-league prospects. The Astros acquired outfielder Anthony Gose and shortstop Jonathan Villar, and then in turn dealt Gose to Toronto in exchange for first-base prospect Brent Wallace. Gose, 19, was a second-round draft pick of the Phillies in 2008. This season he hit .263 for single-A Clearwater, where he registered four home runs, 20 RBIs, and 36 stolen bases.

SAN FRANCISCO ? The two biggest Phillies-related story lines to come out of the recently completed Florida Instructional League: Hot prospect Jonathan Singleton's move from first base to leftfield and former first-round draft pick Joe Savery's move from pitcher to first. Singleton is making the transition to outfield partly because he is blocked at first base with Ryan Howard manning that position in the majors for years to come. Singleton, a lefthanded bat, exploded onto the radar this season as an 18-year-old at Class A Lakewood, where he hit .290 with an .872 OPS, 14 home runs and 77 RBI in 104 games.

On the same day the Phillies signed an 18-year-old outfielder they think can be a star big-league player, they lost a 19-year-old outfielder with that same potential. The player they signed was Larry Greene, the 39th overall pick in the compensatory round of this year's draft. With a midnight deadline looming Monday, the Phillies agreed to a $1 million signing bonus with Greene, according to Baseball America. The player the Phillies lost was single-A Lakewood outfielder Domingo Santana, who was assigned to the Houston Astros to complete the trade-deadline deal that placed rightfielder Hunter Pence in the middle of manager Charlie Manuel's lineup.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jonathan Singleton leaned over the railing on the visitors dugout at Bright House Field and stared. The Phillies were taking batting practice in the stadium where Singleton began his promising 2011 season as a Clearwater Thresher. "Hey, J!" John Mayberry Jr. yelled as he ran past. "How you doing?" Singleton said. By September, Singleton had turned 20, and he was a member of the Houston Astros organization. The former Phillies top prospect, traded for Hunter Pence last July, is enjoying life in an organization emphasizing youth.

Baseball America released its list of top 10 Phillies prospects Monday, and for the second straight year outfielder Domonic Brown was at the top of the list. Brown, 23, finished last season in the big leagues and is expected to compete for the job as the starting rightfielder in spring training in 2011 after the departure of free agent Jayson Werth. He was followed on the list by Jonathan Singleton, who had a breakout season with single-A Lakewood in 2010. Singleton, an eighth-round draft pick in 2009, moved from first base to left field during the Florida Instructional League and likely will play there next season with single-A Clearwater.

Francisco Liriano may not be signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates after all. Liriano's agreed-to contract with the Pirates is in jeopardy after the pitcher injured his right arm around Christmas, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. According to the report, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington didn't disclose how Liriano - a lefthanded pitcher - got hurt or whether the injury would prevent him from being ready for the start of spring training on Feb. 12. Ex-Phillie farmhand Jonathan Singleton suspended 50 games Former Phillies minor-leaguer Jonathan Singleton, now with the Houston Astros organization, was suspended 50 games Wednesday after a second violation for a drug of abuse.

WASHINGTON - Wow, what a 367-day cycle of life that was for the Phillies. When it started on July 29 a year ago, Hunter Pence was coming and Domonic Brown was leaving, and all was right in the Phillies' world. They had the best record in baseball, and all they needed was a righthanded bat in the middle of the order to fill the void that Brown, John Mayberry Jr., and Ben Francisco could not. Pence was the answer, and no price seemed too high to pay for a team with a World Series-or-bust motto.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jonathan Singleton leaned over the railing on the visitors dugout at Bright House Field and stared. The Phillies were taking batting practice in the stadium where Singleton began his promising 2011 season as a Clearwater Thresher. "Hey, J!" John Mayberry Jr. yelled as he ran past. "How you doing?" Singleton said. By September, Singleton had turned 20, and he was a member of the Houston Astros organization. The former Phillies top prospect, traded for Hunter Pence last July, is enjoying life in an organization emphasizing youth.

HOUSTON - Feeling healthy after sports-hernia surgery and encouraged by his team's offseason moves - not the least of which was bringing back Jimmy Rollins - Phillies rightfielder Hunter Pence looks forward to tackling the great expectations that lie ahead in 2012. "The expectations the Phillies have are to win the World Series," Pence said matter-of-factly over the weekend while on a short break from helping instruct some 160 youths at his annual baseball camp in West Houston.

If the Phillies' priority in the coming years is to infuse younger talent at the major-league level, they will do it with Joe Jordan overseeing the development of the farm system. Jordan was hired as director of player development Wednesday after seven years as the Baltimore Orioles' director of amateur scouting. He replaces Chuck LaMar as the top lieutenant in charge of the minor leagues. "He'll treat people right," said Benny Looper, the Phillies' assistant general manager for player personnel.

For an off day, the Phillies were pretty busy: * Scouting director Marti Wolever continued to work on signing shortstop Roman Quinn, the second-round draft pick out of Port St. Joseph (Fla.) High School who is reported to have game-changing speed, before last night's midnight deadline. That came after the Phillies came to terms with power-hitting outfielder Larry Greene late Sunday night. Greene, the team's first pick, was a sandwich selection, 39th overall. The Phillies also officially announced the signing of 31-year-old righthander Dave Bush to a minor league contract.

On the same day the Phillies signed an 18-year-old outfielder they think can be a star big-league player, they lost a 19-year-old outfielder with that same potential. The player they signed was Larry Greene, the 39th overall pick in the compensatory round of this year's draft. With a midnight deadline looming Monday, the Phillies agreed to a $1 million signing bonus with Greene, according to Baseball America. The player the Phillies lost was single-A Lakewood outfielder Domingo Santana, who was assigned to the Houston Astros to complete the trade-deadline deal that placed rightfielder Hunter Pence in the middle of manager Charlie Manuel's lineup.

THE MAGIC formula that has propelled the Phillies from contender to World Series winner to baseball superpower, is 17=5. Seventeen minor league prospects (one still to be named) exchanged as needs arose for five extraordinary All-Star talents. Four are pitchers; one, the most recent acquisition, Hunter Pence, is an outfielder. All-Star Houston closer Brad Lidge for centerfielder Michael Bourn, corner infielder Mike Costanzo and righthanded pitcher Geoff Geary. Cleveland Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee for righthander Carlos Carrasco, catcher Lou Marson, infielder Jason Donald and righty Jason Knapp.

THE AFTERMATH of the non-waiver trade deadline, which passed yesterday at 4 p.m., is an interesting time for a general manager. The previous 2 months have been a non-stop avalanche of tire-kicking and name-swapping and deal-scuttling, all of it subject to a tweet-happy media assemblage thirsty for any bit of information from any possible source. And then there is silence, as the deal-makers and news-breakers start to make sense of the few bits of information that turned out to be real.