Phillies Nation

In a bit of a shocker, lefty reliever Jeremy Horst is headed to the 15-day disabled list with an elbow strain. The corresponding move is the activation of starter John Lannan for tonight’s game against the Washington Nationals.

Analysis: This one came out of left field. On Saturday, I wrote that I anticipated Joe Savery to head back down to Lehigh Valley today. Instead, it is Horst heading to the DL. Horst’s effectiveness has varied this year: for instance from May 8 to May 27, Horst did not allow a run in ten appearances but from May 30 to June 15, Horst’s BAA was .429/.500/.679.

In his last outing, Horst threw 41 pitches in Saturday’s outing, the only time he has topped 40 pitches this year. The high pitch count likely played a big part in his strain.

My wife and I bought our first house and have been doing our best to make it our home for the past two or three weeks. Even as we continue to empty boxes, a distinct pattern has emerged: use the dining room as the central unpacking location, move to appropriate or desired future room, place in semi-organized pile. Following these steps, my wife and I will root through said semi-organized piles and make more little piles: things to keep in this room, things that really belong in other rooms, and things that are due to the trash. It’s almost like the famous George Carlin “stuff” bit but in reverse.

The Phillies have a lot of “stuff” right now in the bullpen and nobody has taken the Mrs. Riccaboni role of “jumping in and throwing anything that isn’t of significant financial or sentimental value”. The Phillies have taken solid steps recently, optioning Raul Valdes and releasing Chad Durbin, but there is still a lot of “stuff” floating around. After the positive output of the bullpen last night and good vibes still flowing, today would be a good day to sort out what the Phillies have going in advance of the return of John Lannan. With Lannan returning Monday, somebody has to go back down to Lehigh Valley. Let’s take a look at the candidates.

The Living Room – The Keepers

The living room is the premiere spot for “stuff”. This is where your guests see your best stuff, the stuff the little superficial/proud/egotistical part of you wants everyone to see. This list, in reference to the Phillies bullpen, is very short: Jonathan Papelbon is the $600 mirror, antique coffee table or whatever other item you can think of that is analogous to “really expensive item that does exactly what it is supposed to do but looks tremendously out of place in a living room full of shoddy stuff”.  Papelbon obviously stays but the Phillies want their best friends, like the Tigers, to be absolutely certain that he is everything he is advertised. He stays in the living room and there is one less person in the bullpen pile of stuff.

Mike Adams, who could not find a consistent landing spot last night in his follow through but managed to pitch effectively, also fits into this category. He’s the really cool piece the Phillies found at the flea market that is still too new to get rid of but they aren’t quite sure why it doesn’t fit.

Continue reading “Stuff”, Or My House as the Phillies Bullpen

Photo: Joe Mahoney

If you were out last night, went to bed early, or simply changed the channel, you missed a good one. Freddy Galvis hit a pair of two run triples to make up for a rare defensive mishap and help erase a 7-2 deficit, leading to a 8-7 Phillies victory. The win pulls them back within one of the Nationals for second place and back to just 6.5 back of the Braves for first.

Pedestrian Kendrick

Kyle Kendrick did not make it through the fifth inning tonight, giving up seven earned via ten hits and two walks, including Carlos Gonzalez’s NL-lead tying 19th homer and a home to Josh Rutledge. Jeremy Horst entered the game in the fifth with a runner on and induced a double play but, down 7-2 by then, the game seemed quite out of hand.

Wake up the bats!

In the top of the sixth, the Phils started to chip away. After a Ryan Howard walk and a Kevin Frandsen single, Galvis hit his first triple. He would score on a Humberto Quintero ground out. In the top of the seventh, Domonic Brown led off the inning with a single and stole second base. Following a John Mayberry walk, Galvis hit his second triple of the night, scoring both Brown and Mayberry. Jimmy Rollins entered the game to pinch hit for Quintero and hit a single into right to put the Phillies ahead for good with the score 8-7.

Fantastic Bullpen

The bullpen went five and 2/3 scoreless, giving up three hits and a walk. Horst pitched 2/3 of an inning, while Michael Stutes picked up the win by pitching a scoreless sixth. Jake Diekman made his 2013 Phillies debut and joined Justin DeFratus and Mike Adams as Phillies pitchers who earned holds tonight. Jonathan Papelbon got his 13th save in 13 tries.

The Phillies send Jonathan Pettibone to the hill tomorrow at 4:10 PM as they look to win the series.

Cliff Lee made headlines today for his comments to Jim Salisbury when asked “You came here to win. How tough is it to be here on a team that’s spinning its wheels around .500 and has a real uphill road?“:

The past year and a half hasn’t gone the way I anticipated, but that’s why you play the games. You never know. I don’t think anyone here is happy with the way we’ve played over that time frame. It’s due to a lot of injuries. There’s some good excuses. But they’re still excuses. We’re the Philadelphia Phillies. We should play better than we have. There’s not a good excuse for it, but we have had a lot of key guys injured, so it is what it is.

Salisbury then joined 97.5 The Fanatic today and said the following, fueling more trade speculation.

Salisbury: If [Cliff Lee] didn’t have a wandering eye he would’ve said, “Yeah, I’m absolutely committed to this team.”

— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) June 14, 2013

The truth is, the Phillies will get some tantalizing offers for Lee and there will come a point in time where they will have to decide if what they’re being offered is fair market value. But as we found out with both of the Cliff Lee trades involving the Phillies before, there really isn’t a blue print for trading a player like Lee.
Continue reading No Blueprint For Trading Pitchers Like Lee

Revere’s legs put the Phillies ahead for good yesterday. Photo Credit: Jesse Johnson

Ben Revere was traded to the Phillies on December 6, 2012 for popular, but injury-bitten starter Vance Worley and former top prospect Trevor May. Revere came to the Phillies fresh off a 2012 where he hit .294/.333/.342 with 40 steals in 49 attempts as a 24-year old player. Revere combined those stats with excellent play in center and right fields for the Twins, stunning crowds with his glove and winning MLB Network’s GIBBY Award.

After an exciting Spring Training where Revere hit .326/.368/.382 with 10 steals in 13 attempts, the Phillies looked like they were getting exactly the player they traded for, except that maybe he was even better, with a year more experience.

You wouldn’t believe that if you read the opinion of fans: here, here, here, here, etc. Some of those comments came in the middle of a four hit game last night, where Revere was almost single-handedly responsible for the game winning run, using his speed to bunt for a base hit, go first to third, and then take home on a ground ball to first base. All of them came during Revere’s recent tear: since May 5, Revere has hit .321/.362/.376 with nine steals in 11 attempts, raising his average by 62 points in that time frame.

The point being: Ben Revere is exactly who he is supposed to be. And he’s a pretty good ball player. It’s time to change the inaccurate narrative surrounding him among Phillies fans.

Continue reading Time To Change the Revere Narrative

According to Michael LoRé, the Phillies have recalled LHP reliever Jake Diekman and, in a corresponding move, have optioned RHP starter Tyler Cloyd to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Diekman will join the team tomorrow night in Denver.

Diekman, 26, has a 5.70 ERA in 30 IP for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs but has pitched well recently, giving up only one hit through his last five appearances, allowing no runs and striking out nine. Cloyd heads back to Lehigh Valley after a short five inning outing against the Twins where he gave up one earned but walked three and gave up six hits.

John Lannan will be activated from the DL Monday to fill Cloyd’s spot in the rotation.

According to Phuture Phils, the Phillies have released five minor league players today. The group is headlined by infielder Tyler Greene, 20, who hit just .147/.270/.267 in 89 PA last year for Lakewood. Greene, an 11th round pick, seen as a fringe prospect who impressed in a brief stint with the Gulf Coast Phillies in 2011. Greene’s bat did not develop past the brief flashes that were shown in 2011.

The Others Released:

Right-handed pitcher Andrew Aizenstadt, 23, is a 6’5 righty who was an undrafted free agent out of Virginia Tech in 2012. He gave up nine earned runs in 9.2 IP in 2013 for Lakewood.

Outfielder Miguel Alvarez, 23, was signed in 2007 as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic and hit .315/.360/.425 in Lakewood last year but struggled mightily once promoted to Clearwater (.178/.198/.188 in 104 PA).

Outfielder Yan Olmo, 22, was signed in 2009 as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic and has struggled at the plate since joining the Phillies organization. Olmo has hit just .233/.302/.296 in 792 career minor league PA.

These housecleaning-type moves are done each year to accommodate the players who will be promoted to accommodate recently drafted players. We will follow the wire closely for more of these moves.

As reported by Chris Branch, the Phillies have optioned Cesar Hernandez to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. While the move drew sighs yesterday on the Twitter-sphere, the move will allow Hernandez, who turned just 23 in May, to play every day in Lehigh Valley. There has been no corresponding move announced.

Analysis: Hernandez’s initial promotion came when Michael Young was placed on the bereavement list and he wasn’t expected to stay up past Young’s return. While with the Phils, Hernandez hit .250/.250/.286 in 28 PA. Hernandez is a .291/.349/.387 career minor league hitter and is 129 of 180 (71%) in career MiLB stolen base attempts. Hernandez definitely has Major-League talent and will be back up, but this is the right move if they didn’t have a spot for Hernandez to play every day.

The puzzling part of this is who will the Phillies call up to replace Hernandez? Michael Martinez, Darin Ruf, and Zach Collier are the only active 40-man roster position players not currently on the 25-man roster. Collier, 22, is hitting just .198 in Double-A Reading while Ruf, 26, is hitting .261/.337/.405 with just 5 HR. Martinez, 30, is the safest bet, having hit .436/.463/.692 in his last 15 games with the IronPigs.

The big Phillies news this morning was that Carlos Zambrano will be headed to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to pitch against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders on Thursday night. Zambrano has pitched well against Minor League opponents (16.1 IP, 10 H, 1 ER, 12 K, 7 BB per Matt Provence) and reiterated his readiness to pitch for the Phillies after his weekend start with the Fightins. “I’m here to pitch with them and I’m here to be one of the pieces along with the other 24 guys on the roster . . . be one little piece and help the team,” Zambrano said.

Despite Zambrano’s enthusiasm, a scout that the Inquirer’s Mike Still spoke to saw it differently: “He wasn’t like the old Carlos Zambrano. I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high. He won’t be anything close to what he used to be like.”

But is what Zambrano is right now better than what the Phillies already have?

Continue reading Zambrano Nearing – Is He The Best Option?

Rupp gets the call to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Photo by: Jay Floyd

According to Reading Fightins Director of Public Relations Eric Scarcella, the Phillies have done some reorganizing in their minor league ranks to adjust for Steven Lerud‘s promotion to the Phillies. Catcher Cameron Rupp, 24, has been promoted from Double-A Reading to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Rupp, 6’1″ and 240 lbs, has found his power stroke in 2013, hitting 8 HR for the Fightins while posting a .245/.329/.455 line in 161 PA. Rupp was ranked #23 according to our Jay Floyd in his 2013 Prospect Nation Countdown.

Filling in for Rupp at Double-A Reading is Justin Dalles. Dalles, 24, has built on an impressive defensive reputation and has hit the ball well in Single-A Lakewood (.342/.395/.737 in 43 PA with 4 HR). Dalles will likely be the back-up for Sebastian Valle, 22, who is now the default starter for the Reading Fightins after a disappointing start (.212/.256/.410 with 5 HR in 129 PA).