The Phillies have done some spring cleaning, optioning Joe Bisenius, Scott Mathieson, JA Happ, and Brad Harman to minor league camp, while re-assigning Joe Savery, Lou Marson, and Jason Donald, among others, to minor league camps as well. Players on the 40 man are “optioned”, while non-40 man guys are re-assigned, that’s just the way its designated. To me, this is kind of surprising. I didn’t really think Happ was a choice for the #5 spot in the rotation right out of spring training, but you’d have thought they’d have kept him around a bit longer to face quality big leaguers. Bisenius similarly was a longshot for a bullpen spot out of the gate, but again, he’ll probably be up to the bigs again this year at some point, so it seems odd to option him with 3 weeks left in spring training.
Here’s the question of the day. The Phillies top 3 is Hamels, Myers and Moyer. Kendrick is the #4 for now, though he’s gotten his brains beat in this spring. Assuming he is the #4, and assuming Adam Eaton wisely opens the season on the DL, who starts as the #5? Travis Blackley has had mixed results this spring, Kris Benson is still recovering, and now Happ has been optioned out. Is it Blackley’s job?
Phuture Phillies 
I think it is Blackley’s job to losebut I am suprised about Happ.
Also what are thay planning to do with Castro. Is he starting or will he be used in relief this year?
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*gulp*
I think if the season started right now, it would be Blackley’s job, though more because of what others haven’t done than what he’s actually accomplished. If we do assume that Eaton’s headed to the DL — and unless he shows his back is healthy and he pitches with some kind of success and/or consistency, that’s surely where he’s headed — then the roundup of other candidates isn’t looking that impressive.
Chad Durbin was awful in one start and was likely signed to be the long man anyway (7.20 ERA in 5.0 IP so far this spring); J.D. Durbin will have another chance against the Bucs today but has been brutal thus far (7.50 ERA in 6.0 IP); and Benson won’t be ready until late April, unless the Phillies do something stupid like rush him back.
I agree that Happ should have stuck around; Outman and Carrasco have pitched well at times, but neither should make the roster until they’ve shown they can do it at AA first. The scary thing is that as the above competition gets more and more jumbled, the possibility of Rosario or Castro starting the year in that fifth spot because a bit more plausible. Now THAT’S scary.
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Also, do we take both Durbins north or just Chad? And has Rosario earned that bullpen spot?
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I think Blackley has the inside track. Rosario and Castro are also fighting for a spot. I think they want Rosario for the bullpen, and that seems like a good call to me. I think, under the right set of circumstances, Castro might surge ahead of Blackley, thus relegating Blackley to the bullpen. Chad and J.D. Durbin are hanging around – so if they have multiple impressive outings, they could go right back into the mix. To be honest with you, I’m still have a hard time reconciling their paying $ 1 million (or so) to Chad Durbin and penny pinching with Cole Hamels (yes, I know it’s all about service time, but, at some point, making your stars happy, and certainly not getting them unduly annoyed, is a good idea).
I’m surprised about Happ too. They may be thinking that he will be the first player called up, so it’s better to get him a lot of quality innings now and more frequent starts in the minors (opening day pitcher, I would assume) so that when he is called, he will be ready. It’s not the worst strategy in the world.
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they apparently like Rosario as a starter. One of the guys (i think arbuckle, not sure though) was quoted as saying he always threw better as a starter. He was brought up through the minors as a starter and started in the winter leagues this year so you never know…
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I’m not sure which way they’ll go, and I am wondering if Kendrick will head north with the club. By default, he probably will. My guess is that Blackley is the #5, but Castro might push him
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Kendricks #’s will improve over spring. Sinkerballers take more time for their pitches to start getting movement.
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So with Mathieson officially optioned down, does he start or relieve in AAA?
I vote start, but unfortunately I don’t have the ear of management.
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Cutting Happ so early is a bit of a surprise to me, too. The question of the 5th starter is one Phillies fans are long used to suffering over. You would think the light would go on at some point. And instead of tackling the problem from the top down, which the Mets just did by signing Santana, we get the annual bottom-up approach.
At the moment, I’m leaning towards Rosario to start. I think wildness can be overcome from the start of a game more so than in relief with runners on. Unless they see Rosario as a set up man, which they shouldn’t, the greater need is in the rotation. The other issue is the lack of lefties in the pen. Madson, Gordon and Condrey are all right handed. Only Romero is a lock among the lefties. Maybe Castro, Darensbourg or Youman will make the pen, but Rosario, like Condrey, is out of options and needs a spot.
The other #5 contenders, in order: Blackley, Chad Durbin, Castro, and JD Durbin. As lefties, Blackley and Castro could move into the pen. Someone needs to step up and demand the job.
I was surprised that Ron Chiavacci, who had a solid season at AAA, was not given more of a chance to show his stuff this spring. An outside shot should be given to Gary Knotts as well, but only because the situation is so dire and wide open. Sad, but true.
The story behind the non-negotiating with Lohse has been buried. To say simply “that ship has sailed” is an insult to fans. Lohse is not a valid #3 starter, but the Phillies need as many contenders as possible for the bottom of the rotation. I’m not a huge Lohse fan but as a league-average pitcher with some playoff experience, he’s a better option than what they have so far. If the issue were his personality and fitting in with the team, they wouldn’t have made him an offer to to begin with. If insults were traded during the initial negotiations, well, get over it. Pride is easier to swallow than losing the division to the Mets.
Frankly, anyone actually counting on Benson to solve the Phillies starting pitching problems is wearing rose-colored glasses. Yes, he might surprise everyone with a remarkable comeback, but there’s just too much at stake to hang your hat on him. And by the time he’s shown he can eat 7 effective innings at AAA (if that even happens this year), the rotation may develop another hole anyway. In short, even a healthy, effective Benson won’t be the final piece to the rotation puzzle, much like having 6 starters last spring didn’t leave us with a surplus for very long. Depth doesn’t mean 5 starters, it means up to 10 between the pen and AA/AAA. As usual, the Phillies are far short of that.
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Happ being sent out was a surprise to me. I see Blackley, Castro, and Rosario still battling it out for the 5th spot. Blackley has had only 1 bad start while Kendrick and Eaton many bad ones. I would say Kendrick is not gauranteed a spot either.
As for Rosario he has the stuff and ability to be in the backend of the pen and maybe even closer. With Gordon’s struggles he maybe better off left in the pen.
At some point we should see a number of pitchers ready to throw for the Phils, but not in April. They include: Benson, Mathieson, Bisenius, and Eaton. Throw in the prospects then the team may have alot to pick from.
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I’m not surprised they sent down Happ and Bisenius because neither had any shot of making the team and the team needs to have fewer pitchers around to throw more innings at the guys they do have. There are still two spots open in the bullpen and 1 in the rotation for now. Lidge may miss the start of the season but it wouldn’t surprise me if the team uses that spot to hold Helms as an extra player until they’re able to trade him for something and not for a pitcher. For those 2/3 open spots, JD Durbin and Holdszcom look out of the competition already but Youman, Rosario, Condrey, Castro, Blackley, Darensburg, and Eaton are still all in it. Rosario has looked great and has no options so count him in for one spot. I think the 4 lefties I mentioned are fighting for 1 spot and Condrey will get a spot if Eaton goes DL but not otherwise. To me, Blackley doesn’t look worth keeping and it will come down to Castro or Darensburg for the lefty specialist spot. I think Benson will be ready before the end of April. This guy wants to compete and is a decent enough pitcher when healthy and he’s pretty close. I can see Rosario or Castro getting two starts waiting for Benson or Eaton to come back.
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I don’t see either Durbin getting into the starting rotation. JD pitched better than we coudl expect last year but I think he’ll fall victim to the numbers game this year and Chad hasn’t done anything to warrant handing him the job.
According to my dad whose been down in clearwater for what seems like over a month now Blackley is a slightly faster version of Moyer and I’m not the biggest fan of having two Moyers in the rotation. I think we are getting lucky with Moyer’s success as it is let alone counting on a second lefty to okie doke a team. Thats why I feel Rosario should at least get a shot to see if he can earn the spot. He has the best natural stuff of all the contenders and so far none of the other options have done anything that makes me want to give them the ball every 5th day.
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Great blog, im adding you to my blogroll over at http://215sports.wordpress.com. Hopefully we can do a link exchange.
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I would like to see Carrasco get a fair shot at the #5. He got hit around his last time out, but at his age inconsistency is expected. I like his demeanor on the mound better than Outman’s who looks scared to me.
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Right now, with a lot of the spring left, I’d rate’em Rosario, Castro, then Blackley. A few days ago they were Blackley, Castro and anyone else. I would also like to see someone step up and say, “# 5 is mine”. Kendrick is worrisome to me right now so we may need two guys to step up. What’s up with Myers? He’s pitched 4 innings all Spring. Is he pitching in the minor league games? He needs to be stretching out. Big difference between closer and starter. We may also have to worry about Hamels’ head too. I hope he get’s past his paycheck issues.
Nice article from Conlin on Philly.com about Galvis, Mattair and Domonic Brown (with a little Sampson thrown in).
Tried to add the link but it didn’t work so well.
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One thing about sending Happ and Bisenius back down this early is they will get more pitching time. If they were kept up the “quality” of big leaguers they would have faced is questionable, seeing as after the fourth inning or so there aren’t many big leaguers left in the games for most clubs anyway.
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Myers got 5.2 innings today, 6 SO, 2 Runs. Pitched very good.
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Fabio get the big start on Wednesday night against the Reds though it is Hamels turn in the rotation. Guess Hamels will get to pitch in one of those B games against AA hitters. One way to cover up bad spring pitching numbers. Phillies.com is reporting that Carrasco, Rosario and Condrey will come out of the pen to follow Fabio. Just wonder what the high command has against giving Rosario a start?. He only has some of the best numbers of any pitcher in the ML so far in the spring.
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Because Francisco Rosario is the worst pitcher that has come through Philadelphia since Terry Adams. If he makes the team, I’ll have to watch the game reflecting the screen off a mirror, because if you look directly at Rosario while he’s pitching, you turn to stone. A few decent spring training games shouldn’t be enough to overlook his awful past.
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He also can hit 97 with his fastball, and has a decent if inconsistent breaking ball. He’s better than Alfonseca, and he’s worlds better than Jose Mesa, and both of those guys pitched important innings for the team last year.
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