Scott Eyre: Silent Assassin With Romero Out
Posted by Tim Malcolm, Tue, June 02, 2009 01:05 PM | Comments: 20
Analysis, Posts
Very quietly – like last night – Scott Eyre has been a rock-solid reliever for the Phillies this season, continuing his stunning success of last year’s stretch run.
Eyre pitched a scoreless inning last night, continuing an impressive streak; Eyre hasn’t allowed an earned run since April 27 against Washington. More impressive? That was the only stained outing of his season. He hasn’t given up an earned run in 21 of 22 appearances, and has only given up a run in two of the 22.
Brad Lidge sang the lefty’s praises to Scott Lauber recently:
“Scotty’s been great all year. He’s been tremendous for us. He’s filled in that role and it’s really helped us.”
Eyre’s great play comes at an interesting time; JC Romero returns to the team tomorrow, likely pushing Eyre back toward the middle innings because Ryan Madson and Lidge seem definite to hold their roles. But one wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Eyre – 10 of the 14 outings since that bad game against Washington have been in spots with the game tied or with a lead of one, two or three; he has been almost exclusively a seventh- or eighth-inning reliever; best of all, one would be surprised to find that righties have not hit him (1-for-13). The downside of that is he has control issues against righties (they take his slider much more prominently than lefties, who can’t pick it up).
The bottom line is Eyre has been almost untouchable this season, and with Romero returning, the Phillies now have an incredible bounty of late-inning-quality arms with which they can work.
Posts: 0 From Section 113
So I guess Taschner is the odd man out? Or no matter what happens tonight with Bastardo, do the Phills option him back to AAA when JC comes back?
Quite interesting.
Posted: 01:36 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 NJ
The response to the JC suspension’s worked out nothing short of perfectly. Eyre has been everything we could have hoped for in the primary lefty role and Taschner did exactly what he was brought in to do, pitch enough innings early to keep the guys around him healthy and he did that.
I can’t think of a better oiled bullpen in the game right now, all of the names started off here with major question-marks but boy things fell into place and has stuck.
Posted: 01:41 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Griffin
Eyre was great. Is Escalona still with the team? I think he is since Mayberry was sent down to bring Ol Dirty up. So will Escalona or Taschner be sent down?
Posted: 01:49 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 1650 Tim Malcolm
Escalona came up when Myers went to the DL. He’s still with the team. Taschner does have an option remaining, so it’s anyone’s guess.
Posted: 01:52 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Don M
Lets give Clay Condrey some props too.. him and Madson have been probably better than expected all year
Posted: 01:58 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Don M
Phillies have the third best record in all of baseball right now..
Dodgers 35-18, .660 Win %
Rangers 30-20, .600 Win %
Phillies 29-20, .592 Win %
Yankees AND Brewers 30-21, .588 Win %
Beating up on bad teams helps.. but so does beating the Cardinals, Yankees, etc..
Lets keep it going Phils!!!
Posted: 02:02 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Dbens
Lidge – closer
Madson/Romero – Setup
Eyre – Loogy
Condrey/Durbin/Park – Long Relief
Taschner – Trash time
I love this Bullpen. With the resurgence of Lidge, the return of Romero, this Bullpen looks fanfreakintastic.
I think Park, Condrey, and Durbin will alternate throughout the season in long relief to keep eachother fresh. Durbin has been shaky, but Condrey is rock-solid, and Park has the stuff to be a great long-reliever. I think Manuel is right when he says that Park’s pitches will play up much better over 2-3 innings then 5-6. My prediction is that he will be another setup option by the end of the season.
To have only one guy in your BP that is for trashner time is awesome. I would trust anybody else in that pen with a lead (except for Durbin, who has looked brutal lately).
Posted: 02:08 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Richie
Good Point Don, these guys have really been playing incredible, I would still take our pen over just about anyone else’s in baseball, maybe Boston’s but thats it. K-rod has been lights out but Putz has been more than hittable 1-4.
Posted: 02:20 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Don M
Romero has better numbers against Lefty hitters than Eyre.. and until his arm strength is back , I would expect Romero to be the LOOGY… with Eyre coming in to longer situations, maybe to try his hand at L-R-L batting orders,
Whereas Romero would really just try to get the tough Lefty and then in would come Condrey or Madson, etc
Posted: 02:29 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 NJ
The Mets have an average pen at best. K-Rod is a door shutter but Putz has his health issues and is being misused and once you get past Feliciano you have nothing and it’s not like their relievers have been funnelled through to the rotation.
The thing Boston have the Phils have is a pen with everyone in their best role doing with work as good as anyone. You have a full crew of back-end guys or treat your middle relief as a sink or swim for passable major leaguers and that’s not a good pen.
Mad Dogs the set-up man, Romero will probably go back to his role a late innings situational guy and Eyre will go back to his role as a middle innings lefty.
Posted: 02:46 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 RashGordon
“The thing Boston have the Phils have is a pen with everyone in their best role doing with work as good as anyone. You have a full crew of back-end guys or treat your middle relief as a sink or swim for passable major leaguers and that’s not a good pen.”
I’ve read this over and over again and I still can’t make any sense of it. Quite possibly the worst paragraph in the history of the English language!
Posted: 03:02 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Dave
I’d point out that even Taschner hasn’t been terrible (ERA under 4), at least for what we knew we were getting. The only reliever I’ve been disappointed with this season (aside from Lidge of course) is Durbin.
Posted: 03:06 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 NJ
sorry bad grammar, re-phrase:
What Boston have in their pen that the Phils also have is depth with the relievers in their best roles. If a pen is too heavy with back-end relievers or the middle relief is treated as a slop bucket for borderline major leaguer to pitch into a job or be returned to the minors, then you end up with a bad pen because a pitcher is only as good as the role he is in. Better?
Posted: 03:08 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Richie Allen
I like our chances right now….
But I wonder if we’ll go for a big name pitcher by the July trading deadline if Bastardo/Carrasco/Kendrick option gives us even average type pitching?
Interesting..
Posted: 03:26 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Manny
10 holds, 2.84 ERA
Silent assassin!!
Posted: 03:47 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 mikemike
I really though putz and green would be a great additon to the mets. K-Rod will get some help if wagner comes back, and to the mets credit they are hanging in with there team hurt.
Posted: 04:12 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 From Section 113
With Taschner out of options a trade would seem a forgone conclussion. Cubs and Brewers could use another lefty.
The thing is teams could sit and wait to see if we release him and then just pick him up. So there might be a wait and see attitude there.
Posted: 04:14 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Ryan S
I thought Taschner had options left.
Posted: 04:28 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Brett
Taschner has one option left.
Posted: 04:34 PM on June 2, 2009
Posts: 0 Chuck P
I actually like Eyre… a few weeks ago, I got to walk across the field with my son for little league day and we walked right past all of the bullpen guys as they were heading for the dugout. Scott Eyre smiled and said hi to us as we were walking past… I thought that was a nice enough gesture. It doesn’t take much to win me over.
Our pen is about as solid as it gets… those guys might be the biggest reason that we hung a banner in 2008.
Posted: 04:47 PM on June 2, 2009