Manuel on Benson: June Return Best Bet
Posted by Tim Malcolm, Thu, March 13, 2008 07:57 PM | Comments: 6
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Kris Benson made a Minor League start today, throwing 57 pitches and 27 strikes (not a good ratio at all, but he’s getting back into the groove). He gave up six hits and struck out four, and was consistently between 85 and 88 miles per hour. David Murphy of the Daily News wrote about Benson, his start and his return. He said Benson wants to join the team by Opening Day and start throwing to Big League hitters this week — during the Grapefruit League.
Charlie Manuel doesn’t like that.
“I don’t know about May. I definitely think it can happen before June.â€
Murphy outlines a possible scenario for Benson. He would pitch to Minor League hitters Tuesday, giving him a chance at a Grapefruit League start of 75 pitches March 23. Benson said he thinks four good starts of 90+ pitches will have him ready to make the jump back to the Majors for good. That timetable has Benson in Philadelphia by late-April or early-May, a little before Manuel’s wishful thoughts.
Benson’s climb back to normal pitching activity has been a quick one so far, so on one hand, you don’t want to rush him and risk further problems. On the other hand, the Phils are still searching for an answer at the back end of the rotation. As of today, Chad Durbin, Travis Blackley and Francisco Rosario remain the major candidates, with the possibility of Adam Eaton returning sooner in the mirror. Sure, the sooner Benson can return — and with good stuff — the better, but you don’t want to end up with a snowball that just falls apart upon touch.
Posts: 0 dan
As much as I hate it, Charlie’s right on this one. It’s much better to have Benson healthy down the stretch than rush him back. You know with our luck that if we rushed him he’d get hurt again. That’s just something we, as Phils fans, have to deal with. We don’t want just any Kris Benson, we want a healthy Kris Benson.
Posted: 09:38 PM on March 13, 2008
Posts: 0 NateB
I don’t want Benson to do anything that would compromise his health, but even a recovering Benson who only throws 75-90 pitches can produce a better 5 innings of work than a healthy Eaton (who never gets 75 pitches in anyway because he’s out by the third inning).
Posted: 01:44 AM on March 14, 2008
Posts: 0 Mike
Anyone notice this kid Casey Smith is having a “Costeian” spring training? Hitting something like 470 w/ a couple HRs.
Posted: 09:30 AM on March 14, 2008
Posts: 0 Troy Kline
You know, I’m as much an Adam Eaton hater as the next guy but we are a bunch of people who eat, drink and sleep the “what have you done for me lately” mantra.
Everyone hates Eaton because of the way he started the season,
1st start: 4 INN | 7 ER
and the way he finished the season (in his last 8 starts he only made to the 6th inning in one of them and none of them would be considerd “Quality Starts”).
BUT, if you look at the starts he made in April, May, June and July he actually was a solid contributor to the success of the team during that time.
His real problem, throughout the season, was that when he was bad he was really bad. Here is the composite line of 14 solid starts that Eaton made from April through July:
6.1 INN | 5.6 Hits | 2.6 ER | 2.4 BB | 4.1 Ks
That’s a 3.69 ERA and a 1.267 WHIP
I’d take that from my 5th starter every time.
Like I said above, though, there were some bad starts mixed in there too. During that same stretch he had 7 bad starts that sum up like this:
4.1 INN | 8 Hits | 6 ER | 2.7 BB | 2.7 Ks
That’s a 12.43 ERA and a 2.434 WHIP
Then there was those final 8 starts. Those sum up like this:
4.7 INN | 6.8 Hits | 4.3 ER | 2.1 BB | 2.6 Ks
That’s a 8.14 ERA and a 1.888 WHIP
The difference between those and the ones in the heart of the season was that they were consistently bad for pretty much 8 straight starts while the really awful starts were mixed in with some fairly decent starts.
With all that said I’d still rather have almost anyone else then Eaton in the rotation, I just wanted to point out that even though we all agree he sucks, he did contribute 14 very solid starts in 2007 when the team needed them.
Posted: 09:42 AM on March 14, 2008
Posts: 0 Benjamin Franklin
That presentation took longer to read then the declaration, but moving on….. After Hamels and MYres the phillies pitching staff stinks.
Posted: 10:53 AM on March 14, 2008
Posts: 0 Sean P.
Charlie Manual is so smooth with his words.. did anyone notice his quote?
“I don’t know about May. I definitely think it can happen before June.â€
Maybe Manual doesn’t realize May comes before June? lol
Posted: 11:54 AM on March 14, 2008