Matt Smith Called Up

The Phils recalled LHP Matt Smith to replace Brian Sanches, who has been disappointing as of late.  You may recall Smith was acquired in the Bobby Abreu trade, which will give Pat GIllick a chance to see if his addition by subtraction success can mirrored by the addition by addition (did that make sense?).  White has impressed in his AAA-level performances with the Yankees and Phillies teams posting ERAs of 2.08 and 2.00 respectively.  He has recorded 28 strikeouts in 35 innings while allowing 32 hits and 14 walks.  In 12 games with the Yankees this year, opponents batted just .105 against him.  Also working slightly in his favor is the fact that he has already pitched four innings against NL East teams during interleague play.  This is his first full season as a reliever and will likely be used in a setup role now that the Phils are going with the closer by committee

strategy.

In other news, as a follow up to the suggestion that Jamie Moyer and Mike Lieberthal might take some time to get comfortable with each other, the two had this to say:

"He’s very easy to catch, except for the 10 different signs. He’s got four pitches on every side of the plate. It’s even tougher when there’s a runner on base." — Mike Lieberthal, on catching the soft-tossing Moyer

Moyer’s response: "He’ll get used to it."

Well, hopefully Mike’s a fast learner since he’ll only be catching Moyer at most seven more times in the regular season.