While many of us have been handicapping the chances of one of the young guys making the team, based on info passed on by Jayson Stark, it looks like maybe none of them will make the team. Stark says

Teams that have spoken with the Phillies say they’re frantically searching for two relievers to add to their middle-innings mix. But they have so little to trade — aside from Wes Helms, who has attracted just about zero interest — they’re likely to just see what’s out there on the waiver wire or the out-of-options bargain bin. Nevertheless, they’ll almost certainly do something. One baseball man reports that when he asked a member of the Phillies’ organization this week whom the 11th and 12th pitchers figured to be, he was told: “They’re not here yet.”

Emphasis added by me. So. The bullpen locks are Lidge, Gordon, Romero, Madson and probably Chad Durbin, considering his contract. That means the two spots they are referencing are currently being battled for by JD Durbin, Blackley, Rosario, and Condrey. There’s no question that dumping Helms to make room for a new reliever would be beneficial, but only if the reliever was actually good. The ramifications for the minor league side of this is, none of the 4 guys above can be optioned down. Blackley would have to be returned to the Giants unless a deal could be brokered, a deal that might involve Helms. Rosario, Durbin and Condrey would all have to pass through waivers. Rosario would probably be claimed by a team like Baltimore with zero playoff aspirations. Durbin has been waived/claimed about 343 times in the last year. Condrey cleared waivers both times last season and was allowed to be optioned up and down because of it.

I posted this elsewhere, but its my simple defense for Clay Condrey.

Last season he ranked #4 among Phillies relievers in WXRL

Romero — 2.220
Myers — 1.647
Madson — 1.643
Condrey — 1.640

I made a case for him last year, and I’ll make the same case for him now. He got absolutely bombed in 5 outings, and all of them came in lopsided games.

5/19 v TOR — 0.2 IP — 6 ER — 3 H — 3 BB — 0 K
5/27 v ATL — 0.0 IP — 3 ER — 4 H — 1 BB — 0 K
6/1 v SFG — 2.0 IP — 5 ER — 4 H — 2 BB — 1 K
8/22 v LAD — 2.2 IP — 5 ER — 9 H — 0 BB — 0 K
9/17 v STL — 0.0 IP — 4 ER — 4 H — 0 BB — 0 K

In those games, he was either brought in when we were way behind (TOR, SFG, LAD) or way ahead (ATL, STL) and in the LA and SFG games, he was basically just used as the whipping boy to avoid having to use another reliever.

5G: 5.1 IP — 23 ER — 24 H — 6 BB — 1 K
34G: 44.2 IP — 5 ER — 37 H — 10 BB — 26 K

His ERA in the 5 outings was 40.59 with a WHIP of 5.90. I think that would skew anyone’s numbers.

His ERA in the 34 other games was 1.02, with a WHIP of 1.06.

If the Phillies are going to find 2 relievers from outside the organization in the waiver bin, the odds of both of them being better than Condrey aren’t very good. I have a bad feeling about all of this.