The latest minor leaguer to get the tap and head into the firestorm is Anderson Garcia, who will replace JA Happ on the 25 man roster. Garcia, acquired on waivers from Baltimore, via the Mets, will be making his Phillies debut sometime soon, and likely will be thrown into the fire that is the Phillies 2007 season. Garcia has had a nice run this year at Reading and Ottawa, and is striking out lots of guys. If he can limit the walks, he might be useful.
Geoff Geary has also been optioned to Ottawa. Let this be a reminder as to how important strikeouts are, especially to relievers. Geary does not have a putaway pitch. When balls are hit at someone, or he gets good defense behind him, he’s capable of being a useful reliever, as was evident last year. However, when those line drives fall in, and you’re still not striking anyone out, you get the 2007 version of Geoff Geary. As “unimportant” as strikeouts are for batters, they are vitally important for pitchers, especially relievers.
The Phillies are running out of minor leaguers to baptize by fire. Matt Maloney has to be next, and I’m sure they are toying with the idea of rushing Carrasco up. I pray to all things holy that it doesn’t happen, and Gillick doesn’t do something stupid, like trade the farm for a Jeff Weaver type. Ok, I removed my finger from the panic button…back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Phuture Phillies 
In all my years, I have not seen the injury bug hit the Phillies this hard. It looks bad now bringing up guys hoping they will get the job done, but in the long run, I think guys like Happ and Segovia will be better off for it. They have gotten a taste of the Bigs, they know what they need to do to get guys out, and hopefully this will motivate them to return sooner rather than later.
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Trying to fill the rotation and relief staff is a shot in the dark. No demerits for not anticiapating this. NEXT SEASON will show the benefits of moving guys up even if a bit early…were it not for the injurious. As I and others have posted, the team should be able to choose among 5-6 of them to help in filling the swtaff w youth for the years ahead.
Plaudits for Kendrick…whose walks per inning was low before bringing him up…and he’s done a good job!
P.S. WAnted to mention a couple add’l observations:
1st: Drew Naylor, RHP, now at Williamsport has been lights out there, BUT IMO—even tho’ early in the season–he should NOW be moved up to Clwtr FSL because his Ks and H/inn together w command and is now 21;
2nd: Note Tyler Mach who–in few games–has shown ME that he is not being challenged enough and could ezasily move up also to clwtr or at least Lakewood. If he can play 3rd base (enough arm?), he should be able to fit well and move up more rapidly than others.
Given our almost desperate need at 3rd base and the necessity of moving Mattair more slowly and carefully, and I wouldn’t hesitate to move him up NOW. He hits righty w POWER! Soooo needed!
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I like the idea of moving Mach and Naylor up a level, but not to CLW.
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Whatever you do Gillick. DO NOT TRADE D’ARBY MYERS, CARRASCO, OR CARDENAS. And do not bring up Carrasco untill september or 08.
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With Carrasco’s start not so hot just now, it seems as if he needs to ground himself at Reading before he could move up. However, that may take less time than we think. We’ll see.
Should he get it together w/in 6 weeks, I’d have no problem bringing him up in August.
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Geary isn’t the same pitcher this year- though it wasn’t hard to predict he’d become susceptable to arm issues after he was abused last year. Last year he started very strong- 94 mph fastball, good curve- and pretty good control. We’ve seen nothing like that from him this year. And likewise- just visibly watching Ryan Madson- his stuff and what i guess is a minor change in arm angle, have made his stuff, particulary his changeup, look nothing like what he was 2 years ago. 2 arms that have been abused to some degree, and now they join the ebb and flow common amongst relievers- at some point they are likely to pull it together and regain some aspect of what made them good, its just from season to season you don’t know when that will be.
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Art D. –
I agree about Tyler Mach. Even though we’ve only seen a limited sample (>20abs), he has been clobbering the ball. Anytime you go 2-5 with a double and see your OPS plummet by about 200 points, that means you are on a hot streak.
Reading James’ write-up regarding Mach, he did play third in college, but moved to second, and apparently looks like he may eventually end up at first.
– Jeff
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Whooo hoo: Mach at 1st?? Hell, no. Chuckle. No 1st base for him! Need him at 3rd; Ryo has 1st base covered for the next 7-8 years. Wow. He’s gotta play 3rd if he has enough arm!!….as we all know. Jeff: here I am, trying to fill our need and we get interference from the baseball gods. Tell them to leave! Gotta get him at 3rd….!!
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I wonder if Mach’s future is as a super-utility guy. Not sure he has the defense for 2B or the offense for 3B. But he might have the skillset to play 1B,2B,3B,LF and help the team sort of like Dobbs does now. Cardenas needs to stay at 2B for now because he is the much better prospect. Thus it is not the worst thing to leave Mach where he is today, even if he might deserve a promotion. He can always go to Clearwater next year and play mostly 3B.
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Yeah, I think Mach’s future is as a utility guy. He’s like a poor man’s Mark Reynolds, the D-backs prospect. Not really good enough to be a regular at any one position defensively, but can hit a bit.
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Heh. If they moved Mach to third, could he be worse than Costanzo and his 22 errors in 70 games?
One thing I’ve noticed about the Phils farm system – they have a very fertile group when it comes to headline-friendly names. The guys are the Daily News are probably eagerly awaiting Savery and Outman (and even Happ to a lesser extent, when he is a little more ready) arrival. Does anyone know if Mach is wearing #5?
– Jeff
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Yikes, Tyler Mach is getting hard to ignore up there in Williamsport: 3-5 last night with 2 doubles and 5 rbis. He’s now hitting .500, and his splits are impressive: Basically the same vs lefties and righties, 8-12 with runners on and 7-10 with runners in scoring position, leading to 13rbis in only 24 abs.
I have a hunch he’ll be getting bumped up another level soon.
– Jeff
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