Minor Leagues

Somerset 102 001 003 - 7 15 0 Camden 010 100 001 - 3 9 1 WP: Oxspring (5-9). LP: Jarrett (1-2). A: 8,132.

All scheduled minor-league baseball games in the region were rained out on Wednesday. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs' International League game against visiting Toledo was postponed. The teams will play a doubleheader at 6:05 p.m. Thursday. The Eastern League game between the Trenton Thunder and the Phillies at Reading was postponed and will be played as part of a doubleheader at 6:05 p.m. on Aug. 3. The Camden Riversharks' Atlantic League game at the Long Island Ducks was postponed.

The minor leagues approved a seven-year contract with the major leagues by a 27-9 vote yesterday. The vote by the National Association of the Professional Baseball Leagues, the minor-league governing body, was exactly the 75 percent minimum required for approval. Major-league owners ratified the Professional Baseball Agreement on Tuesday. "The majors and the minors must work together to ensure the best, and most orderly, system of developing talent for big league play," National Association president Sal Artiaga said in St. Petersburg, Fla. The contract may be reopened after four years.

Jason Belcher blasted a grand slam in the sixth inning to lead the Somerset Patriots to a 13-1 rout of the Camden Riversharks in an Atlantic League game at Campbell's Field on Tuesday. Wayne Lydon had a triple among his two hits and drove in two runs. Former Malvern Prep star Ben Davis took the loss for Camden, giving up seven runs in 32/3 innings. W: Jones. L: Davis. HR: Belcher (3). A: 1 ,515  

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Jonathan Pettibone allowed just one hit in seven innings and Sebastian Valle ripped a two-run homer in the first to lead the Lakewood BlueClaws to a 6-0 win over the Hickory Crawdads and a victory in the first round of the South Atlantic League playoffs. The Claws took the series, two games to one, and will meet the Greenville Drive for the league championship. The date of the first game has not been announced. Pettibone struck out nine in his gem and Luke Wertz allowed only one more hit in two shutout innings in relief.

New York Yankees lefthander Andy Pettitte is scheduled to make a rehab appearance Thursday at Waterfront Park when the Trenton Thunder face the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in Game 2 of the Eastern League divisional playoffs. Righthander Dellin Betances (0-0, 3.37 ERA) will face Fisher Cats righthander Kyle Drabek (14-9, 2.94) in the series opener Wednesday night. Pettitte, 38, has been on the disabled list since July 18 with a groin injury. He is 11-2 with a 2.88 ERA in 18 starts.

A bench-clearing brawl in Game 2 of the South Atlantic League finals Tuesday between Lakewood and Greenville resulted in one-game suspensions for six players. Lakewood leftfielder Leandro Castro and utility player Korby Mintken will sit out Game 3, while pitcher Jorge Rodriguez will miss Game 4. Greenville infielder Michael Almanzar and outfielder Jeremy Hazelbaker will sit out Game 3, while infielder Vladimir Frias misses Game 4. The donnybrook came when Greenville's Derrik Gibson collided with Lakewood catcher Sebastian Valle while trying to score.

Negotiators for baseball's major and minor leagues yesterday appeared to move closer to an agreement that would end their dispute over finances and control. Bill Murray, director of baseball operations for the commissioner's office, and Mike Moore, secretary and chief administrative officer for the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, met for five hours in New York. Both sides said there was progress. "I don't think there are major stumbling blocks there," Murray said.

WASHINGTON - Sports fans love a phenom. They enjoy the buildup and want to see if the player can match the seemingly unbearable hype. That explains so much interest in Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, who is now hitting .261 with no home runs, three RBIs and a .378 on-base percentage in barely a week as a big leaguer. Forget the small sample size of statistics. Harper has been in the public consciousness since appearing on the Sports Illustrated cover at the age of 16. Now just 19, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Harper is a player people can't stop watching.

WHEN IS the time? It wasn't in 2008, when the Phillies gave Raul Ibanez a third year on his contract to ensure that they would land his services. It wasn't in 2009, when they included blue-chip catcher Travis D'Arnaud in a deal for Roy Halladay. It wasn't in 2010, when they parted with a prized centerfield prospect in order to obtain Roy Oswalt. And it certainly wasn't in 2011, when they dealt highly touted first-base prospect Jonathon Singleton in a package for Hunter Pence, then demoted outfield prospect Domonic Brown to the minor leagues to learn a new position.

ALLENTOWN - Bryce Harper is one of the few minor-league players who are major attractions. Despite being in only his second year of professional ball, the Washington Nationals farmhand creates the suspicion that he will be playing at Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field, and other major-league venues before the season is over. The road show for Harper took the 19-year-old this week to Coca-Cola Park, where his triple-A Syracuse Chiefs will conclude a three-game series Friday with the Phillies' affiliate, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

LAKEWOOD BLUECLAWS Level: Class A League: South Atlantic League Location: Lakewood, N.J. Website: lakewoodblueclaws.com Ballpark: FirstEnergy Park Directions from Philadelphia: Take Ben Franklin Bridge, merge onto Route 30 E. Merge onto Route 38 E and follow to Route 73 S. Follow 73 S to N.J. Turnpike. Take turnpike N to I-195 E. Merge onto US-9 S (Exit 28A) toward Lakewood. Turn left onto Hurley Avenue. Turn right onto CR-528/S Clifton Avenue.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - At some point within the next 3 weeks, Charlie Manuel and Ruben Amaro Jr. will call Domonic Brown into an office and inform him that he is headed back to the minor leagues. Like any talented 24-year-old who is told he is not good enough, Brown will be disappointed. You just have to hope he will understand. Which is why these last 3 weeks have played out about as well as the Phillies could have expected. Don't think so? Heading into spring training, there were two worst-case scenarios: Scenario 1: Brown turns into the Grapefruit League's Carl Yastrzemski and makes a serious case for Opening Day roster consideration.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Two 40-somethings will invade Phillies minor-league camp Monday. Jose Contreras is scheduled to pitch in a minor-league game, marking his first game action of the spring. And Jim Thome will play four or five innings at first base for the first time this spring. Contreras is recovering from elbow surgery last September, and Phillies officials believe the 40-year-old Cuban can be ready for opening day. Exactly how ready will be the imperative question. The Phillies have padded his throwing schedule with extra days.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Imagine if Warren Buffet came to you with some stock advice. Or Michael Jordan offered up some tips on the turnaround jumper. Or Hewlett and Packard told you the best way to deal with PC LOAD LETTER (whatever the bleep that means). You'd probably react the same way Vance Worley did when Roy Halladay saw him struggling to throw his changeup and suggested that he change up his grip. "I threw a few of them and said, 'That's a good pitch,' " the young righthander said yesterday.

OFFSEASON? Not for Joe Jordan. Spring training is approaching and he's had to do some cramming. Jordan is the Phillies' new director of player development. He got the job in October after his predecessor, Chuck LaMar, abruptly resigned in September. Since then, offseason life has mostly been traveling and fact-finding. "With a lot of the [players], I'm relying on what I've been told," the affable Jordan said recently. "But I was also familiar with many of them, because they were players that we also scouted.

So far, Brody Colvin's signature moments in the Phillies' minor-league system have been an arrest outside a bar in his native Louisiana and a disappointing second full season that also included a nagging back injury. That's probably not the preferred path to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. On the other hand, he's not traveling in unchartered territory, either. Cole Hamels, the pitcher the Phillies just agreed to pay $15 million next season and hope to sign to a longer-term deal in the near future, had an infamous bar fight in Clearwater, Fla., during his days in the minor leagues.

On the day the Phillies had to make decisions on their arbitration-eligible players, they traded one of their bench mainstays in what continues to be a complete overhaul of Charlie Manuel's reserves. Ben Francisco was shipped to the Toronto Blue Jays for minor-league reliever Frank Gailey. Francisco served as the team's top righthanded pinch-hitter for the last two seasons, but this winter's additions of Ty Wigginton, Jim Thome and Laynce Nix squeezed Francisco out of the picture.