(Thescore.com)
According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the Phillies were among a handful of teams that took a peek at 33-year-old Ben Sheets in Louisiana on Wednesday.
Sheets sat out all of 2011 and hasn’t thrown a pitch since 2010. He had multiple arm surgeries in 2010 while with the Oakland A’s, who gave Sheets a $10 million, one-year deal despite also sitting out all of 2009 with arm issues.
When healthy, Sheets is (was?) one of the more intriguing pitchers in baseball. He’s a 4-time all star, exploding onto the scene in 2004 with a 264-strikeout season; one in which he only walked 32 batters in 237 innings. Injuries have wrecked a once-promising career, but because of those flashes of brilliance, Sheets will continue to be looked at until he hangs ’em up for good.
It’s unlikely anything will come of this – especially from the Phillies side – but one has to wonder if Sheets would be a good bullpen arm down the road should he be able to make a return.
