Joel Naughton

Joel Matthew Naughton

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 178 lb.

• High School Grace Lutheran College

• Born August 27, 1986 in Melbourne, Victoria Australia

Minors.BR page

Joel Naughton has spent four seasons in the minors through 2008.

Naughton was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in August 2003 out of the Australian Baseball Academy. He was 2 for 10 for the Queensland Rams in the 2005 Claxton Shield at age 18. He then made his pro debut with the GCL Phillies, hitting .275/.313/.341 in 29 games. In the 2006 Claxton Shield, he hit .292/.320/.333 for Queensland and was their starting catcher as they won the title. He struggled that summer, only batting .206/.268/.265 for the Batavia Muckdogs.

In the 2007 Claxton Shield, Joel hit .222/.278/.318 while rotating as a C/DH with Andrew Utting. That summer, he hit .259/.335/.352 as a backup for the Lakewood BlueClaws. His batting line for Queensland in 2008 was .316/.366/.474.

Added to the Australian national team for the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament, Naughton was 0 for 11 with a walk and an error as the primary catcher ahead of Matthew Kent and Utting. Australia failed to advance to the 2008 Olympics with a poor tournament showing.

Naughton was back in Lakewood that summer, hitting .275/.336/.359 as the main backstop for the Blueclaws. In the 2009 World Baseball Classic, he was 0 for 1 as the backup catcher behind Andrew Graham.

Sources

• Flintoff & Dunn Australian Baseball Almanac
• IBAF
• 2008 Phillies Media Guide
• World Baseball Classic