Phillies Nation

Why Cairo still occupies a roster spot is an incredible mystery. He should be sent down or released immediately.

Charlie is a “players” manager and owes it to Park to get at least another start or two after the way he pitched in Spring Training.

Let’s not get too crazy into Park though. It took them 20 starts to shut down Eaton last year.

The whole lefty situation is on the organization. They gambled on not spending $2 mil on a LHP free agent. So far, it hasn’t caught them as Romero’s suspension only has 28 games left and they are 1/2 game behind the collapsing Marlins.

We also need a righthanded bat off the bench. Bruntlett, Cairo or the backup catcher aren’t getting it done.

Every team has holes; these holes are very manageable.

I wouldn’t be so quick to want to pull the plug on Blanton. He like Myers, has the ability to be much better. Park on the other hand?

Hey Tim, I wouldn’t be too quick to call on Majewski I saw him in LHV Saturday and Sunday and he looked like a Mut through and through. Saturday the Pigs had an 11-7 lead going into the 9th when he was called on to close the game, he gave up 4 runs in the inning. Then sunday he was trotted out there again in the 9th to preserve a 1 run lead and blew that. So 2 blown saves in 2 days either he’s starting to get shaky in the role or he’s being overused. Either way right now wouldn’t be the time to call on him to do some heavy lifting for the Phils.

I was a big supporter of Park in the early going… a vocal critic of the fans on here that weren’t willing to see beyond his bad injury-plagued years… but I will admit that he has proven me wrong. He rightfully won the starting job. Unfortunately, that might have been his only motivation… Whatever the case, he has not been effective and it looks like he has lost his mojo. His last outing was atrocious… walks, HR’s… I don’t think you can hang on much longer.

Carrasco’s ERA is over 4.00 in Lehigh Valley. Doesn’t exactly look ready, yet.

I concur here, Tim. Why is Miguel Cairo even on this roster? Maybe later in the season you can promote Ozuna, Mayberry or Donald to plug a hole from injury be a september bench call up or something like that. But Cairo is just taking up space. Right now, because the starting pitching is NOT coming around, they need an extra relief pitcher in that bullpen to ease the load – and fast. Theyve been poking aroung the trade market for a bat and relief pitching but its too early to make a trade yet – give it another 6 weeks before you think about a serious trade. But you need to be in the heat of the battle for the division at that time so you must solve this problem from within first.

So the main problems I see are as follows (not in any particular order)

1 – Yes, Cairo needs to be removed and replaced with a relief pitcher – namely Koplove or tyler walker or whoever is pitching the best relief work in AAA for the time being. That will buy time for the starters to recover.

2 – Chan Ho Park sucks as a starting pitcher – I wouldnt even give him another chance. I would immediately replace him in the rotation with JA Happ and slot him as a 6th ot 7th inning reliever which this team desperately needs to help ease the load on the middle relievers already.

3 – The starting pitching is totally inadequate at the back of the rotation. Park has already been mentioned. But Joe Blanton has only had two good starts and the rest were bad. Jamie Moyer has only had two good starts and the rest were average, below average, or bad. Im sorry, 4 runs in 6 innings is something youd be happy to get out of a FIFTH starter, not a third starter. Stop acting like this is a third starter. He was last year, he isnt anymore. He is a BACK END starter given teh way he has been performing. Blanton has been worse, Park has been worse. hamels is coming around and Myers has been fairly consistent and has sorta come around. But basically – three of our 5 starters have been average or below average or bad. Thats just not acceptable. Period. Carrasco is waiting to be called up – hes basically ready. Happ will be in the rotation by next week. Any other problems will have to be addressed via trade (hopefully not, but it doesnt look good)

4 – Jimmy Rollins has to shut his mouth and focus on playing well – period.

5 – Chris Coste sucks – why is he on this team? hes totally ineffective at the plate or even as a backup catcher. Promote Lou Marson immediately. Hes ready to at the very least share equal time with Carlos Ruiz – and no thats not a stretch at all in any way whatsoever.

And I just saw that about Carrasco – yeah thats a problem. He needs to be dominating the minors when you call him up. Right now hes looking like trade deadline trade bait because after looking at his numbers just now – Im a little disappointed. hes gotta get it right. His stuff is so good too. Now you start to get into the realm when an organization starts to debate whether or not hes a starter….mi mistake there. I just ASSUMED he was doing well.

I’d give Park one more start just for the sake of it and because the season is long. If the game is against the Mets’ Santana, then well…why not just give him a shot and see how he deals with that? He could either surprise everyone (highly doubt that will happen) or blow up. We will need Happ for the long run (both in this season and beyond).

To be honest, I was pretty stunned last year at the success of the pitching staff, especially the starters. In the off-season, I really felt they needed to address it, since Hamels is the only sure bet, imo. They didn’t, and now we’re scrambling again, wondering what the heck to do if two or three out of the five fail.

I do feel badly for Park though, he wanted this SO much, and to watch him melt down like that is sad. The more trouble he got into, the more people booed, and you could tell he was getting rattled. When he came up to bat, he just wanted to slink back to the dugout asap, what with the chorus of boos serenading him. I would be a horrible manager, I would probably step out of the dugout and yell at the fans to stop booing and hurting players’ feelings, then I would get booed too!

That’s funny to me I mean it was a fantasy baseball article so I guess Carrasco paid off someone to get last years stats in their. I guess I’m going to have to start following the stats of the minor leaguers more often. I know about Phuture Phillies so I guess I’m going to have to hit that up.

Since Carrasco has been doing so poorly, how have any of the other players that the Phillies signed have been fairing? Rodrigo Lopez, Gustavo Chacin and Kyle Kendrick are all AAA options if we don’t go the Happ option. I tried to go on the iron pigs site but nothing is there.

The Phils have been pretty lucky so far this year. They are getting runs and wins early on which is what is needed from this team. We have the confidence of a champion and that has allowed us to go 12-10 in April.

Tim- I agree with all of your statements. I wouldn’t give up on Park just yet but he cannot keep allowing hitters to light him up. His pitches that are up in the zone are getting hammered. I think he is pressing too much right now. If he isn’t straight by Memorial Day, then it is time to pull the plug.

The bullpen is taxed right now and we need to get JC back soon and get Lidge back to form. I was not encouraged watching him Saturday though. He needs some solid 1-2-3 innings to get him on track.

Ruiz deserves to start not split time with Marson. The staff loves throwing to Chooch. And you hamper Marson’s development if you have him sitting on the bench up here. He needs to develop more and start at LHV. Coste is done and we need a true backup.

This team is still fighting to wire! The rest of the division is strong but not nearly as strong as once thought. The Mets will finish in 4th place this year.

Two teams in the National League carry 13 picthers on their current rosters (according to Yahoo Sports rosters)

Those two teams just so happen to be the two best teams in baseball…

The 18-8 Los Angeles Dodgers.
and
The 17-8 St. Louis Cardinals.

Maybe they’re on to something? Maybe adding that extra bullpen arm and getting rid of the little-needed bat at the end of the bench is a good move?

Don, you need to take into consideration that we have the worst staff in the NL right now… so if there’s one team that needs an extra pitcher, it’s the Phils. Much more important right now than a deep bench.

It puts us in a tough spot though, because you CAN NOT call Mayberry or Donald up to be the 25th man later.. they need to play everyday.

So while an extra pitcher might be great now.. Hamels staying healthy.. Blanton looking better.. and Happ seeing more innings is a much better fix.

Koplove would be the pitcher right now (0.66 ERA vs. Majewski’s 4.20 ERA) I think late last week they were both under a 2.00 in about 11 innings pitched..

Pablo Ozuna is playing everyday.. hitting on .241.. so if we call up a 13th pitcher, and Cairo decides to walk instead of go to AAA.. who is the bench bat when we go back to 12 pitchers? …Or do you just worry about that when the time comes?

The problem is we would make the playoffs is they started right now.. so we’re among the best teams eventhough we have only a handful of guys playing to their potential right now..

We are going into St. Louis to play the cardinals, someone please tell me how that teams ,takes players from other teams and they play great for them. Joe Thurston a career minor leaguer from our system, and about ten others teams is hitting 280 for them, Loshe couldn’t win here or for reds and now is a stud, Ankiel couldn’ throw a strike and now is a real good defensive outfielder with some pop, Schmuker is a former outfielder turn infielder, And pinero who was real good in 2001 -2003 but since has one winning season a 6-4 otherwise terrible now he is pitching like koufax for them, and my favorite a thirty year old career minor league goes to them and just hits homers and makes great catches. How do they do it oh and if I am not wrong there closer is ryan franklin, ryan stinking franklin,

Don: You worry about the bench bat when the time comes? The priority right now is pitching and we need a quick fix. Sure, Happ, Hamels, and Blanton getting it together would be the best deal, but those are three IFs.

Worst case scenario, bring up Ozuna (and his .240 AAA average) when our pitching woes have been taken care of. Not that big of a difference when compared to Cairo right now.

i agree mikemike, but Lohse could win with us his agent just simply screwed him when we offered him a contract to come back, which forced him to sign a 1 yr prove it contract and then signed the exact same deal the Phils were offering the year before. So that aspect was a little off. Their pitching coach (Dave Duncan) is a miracle worker tho he’s turned a lot of pitchers who were nothing special into decent pitchers (Pineiro, Looper, Franklin, Wainwright (to be clear Wainwright was lacking something before he made the rotation in STL), etc.). Also there’s never any expectation in StL because baseball writers always call the Cubs the favorite to win the Cards are always the runners up so what do they have to do but play baseball and prove people wrong. Ludwick and Ankiel have the great opportunity to hit around Pujols who will be pitched around and force the other 2 or 3 hitters around him to hit. They are officially the Jeff Kents of that team in reference to Barry Bonds steroid era atop baseball royalty.

Blanton’s numbers this year are almost Identical to Eaton’s in every category except for HR’s. Blanton has given up 6.. Eaton…2

Bottom line….JB needs to step it up…

considering this is werth’s first full season as an everyday player, i don’t see any reason to believe he wouldn’t necessarily be a .250 hitter. in fact that’s about what i expected from him coming into this season. otherwise i generally agree with this write-up.

After 22 games played and FIVE months of baseball left, fans here have rushed to judgment on Cairo, Coste, Park and even Blanton it seems. On Cairo, one needs to take a different perspective. Cairo is on the roster as all purpose fielder. Any contribution with the bat is a bonus (career .265 BA). Manuel sees him as backup for the inevitable injuries to his regulars during the course of the season. His ability to play all infield positions and outfield makes him an added value to the roster. As for Coste, Manuel already made a statement by keeping him over Marson. And that is experience, knowledge and close fraternity with the pitchers takes priority over Marson, an inexperienced and unproven player. Coste has nothing to prove as a hitter. He has shown offensive skills in the past and it’s a matter of playing time to get one of those hitting streaks he is known for. I have confidence in Blanton and as he continues to have the necessary starts to establish rhythm and command, he will regain the sharpness he needs. Park.. is another story. I sensed his confidence is no longer there. His body language speaks volumes in his last start. He is under the gun with added pressure to make his next start a good one (against the Mets). That’s a lot to ask of him with that kind of pressure. He is struggling and chances are he may eventually go to the bullpen.

I’m more concern with Hamels and seeing him get healthy so the rotation can be stablized without further distractions and hopefully show positive results. After all, as they say, pitching is the name of the game.

Bruce – Cairo isnt an all purpose fielder because he isnt playing in the field. I blinked a few times, so if he has played in the field I missed it. Its not about proving anything as a hitter for guys like Coste or Cairo. Its about doing SOMETHING when youre called upon. They simply have not done that. Christ Coste has hurt this team offensively very very badly in key spots costing them games. His defense has been average at best…

Yeah Bruntlett actually gets some decent playing time for his role..

As bad as Blanton is he went 10-0 last year, he didn’t pitch great, but better than the option, eaton, so if Cardenas becomes a stud it doesn’t matter, we needed someone to help us and through luck or whatever Blanton did not lose a game, so don’t worry how good Cardenas will be he is a second basemen where would you play him , he is a good contact hitting prospect without much range. if he was in our system at twentyone he would have to sit for at least 5 years until Jroll or Chase maybe will be gone. He just was at the wrong place at the wrong time for us.

Christopher, it’s a fair point you made and I understand Geoff’s impatience with Cairo and Coste ” about doing something when..called upon”. But if I may quote Don’s statement earlier in the thread when he correctly mentioned..”Pablo Ozuna is playing everyday.. hitting only .241.. so if we call up a 13th pitcher, and Cairo decides to walk instead of go to AAA.. who is the bench bat when we go back to 12 pitchers? …Or do you just worry about that when the time comes?”

Cairo is the 25th man on the roster and obviously will have very little playing time…UNTIL an injury to one of the regulars at key positions (or those extra inning games). As I said earlier, that would be the likely scenario where Cairo can prove his worth on the team. He is not just a “bench bat” but a capable fielder for any positon in the field. Sure, Bruntlett has the same role, but is likely to be use as pinch hitter and therefore not available for fielding in an unforseen situation of a particular game. That’s where Cairo can fill in.

As for Coste, I think Geoff and few others here are under rating his value to team and the pitchers. Personally, (like the manager) I have more confidence in Coste than Marson. And Marson needs to play everyday to improve his role as catcher. And now he is getting that chance in Lehigh Valley.

Bruntlett is 3 -for- 19 .. (.158 avg.)
Dobbs is 3 -for- 20 .. (.150 avg.)
Cairo is 0 -for- 8 .. (.000 avg.) …… WHY is he the main focus again?

Shouldn’t we be more concerened with our “TOP PINCH HITTERS” hitting a combined .154, then we should about our 25th man going hitless in 8 at-bats over the course of 22 games??