As you know by now, Andrew Carpenter turned in a gem of a performance yesterday, and everyone is raving. Scott Lauber with the recap
In their final Grapefruit League game at Bright House Field, the Phillies brought Carpenter over from the minor-league complex to relieve Brett Myers. He tossed four scoreless innings against the Yankees in an outing that featured several highlights. Take your pick:
– Sixth inning: He walked Bobby Abreu with one out, then got Alex Rodriguez to ground into a double play.
– Seventh inning: He struck out the side, including Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada.
– Ninth inning: After loading the bases with no outs, he struck out Nick Green, got Jose Molina to foul out to the catcher and caught Chris Woodward looking at strike three.
The last time a young Phillies pitcher looked so good against the Yankees in spring training, Cole Hamels was striking out Tony Clark, Derek Jeter and A-Rod in 2004. That wasn’t enough to get Hamels, then a Class A pitcher, a spot on the roster, and Carpenter’s performance today won’t win him a job, either. But Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee were effusive in their postgame praise of Carpenter, and if he gets off to a good start at Class AA Reading, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get called up to Philly.
Here’s the thing. Just like folks were getting excited over Carrasco’s great outings earlier, this has to be taken in context with Carpenter’s pro career and his scouting report. I ranked him #9 on my Top 30, and I think that still fits. He doesn’t have the raw stuff of Outman, Savery or Carrasco, but he does have the best control out of the group. He’s likely to be the first one of the group called up because he has the most polish, but he might still be behind JA Happ on the depth chart.
These performances are great to see in spring training, but they are just that, spring training performances. Carpenter wasn’t pitching for a roster spot, there was no pressure on him, and he pitched well. If he carries that over with him to Reading and pitches in the same fashion, he’ll be just fine.
Phuture Phillies 
It was a gem to see, but I too have had to temper my enthusiasm with the reality that it was just throwing Carpenter a bone to let him pitch the final game of ST in Clearwater. I doubt though that originally it was planned to let him go the entire last four innings. He earned that himself, and perhaps earned a little attention from the coaching staff, but little more.
Hopefully he can continue to be sucessful at Reading and be a big story in the future. Right now though this is just the first sentence in the second chapter. We still don’t know if it’s going to be a novel or a short story.
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Just like with Donald’s performance last week, it was certainly an attention-getter. Kudos to him.
– Jeff
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People who are Phils fans have been waiting and watching the “nearlies” to find a gem to spark-le the pitching staff…especially with the recent implosions of KK and AE.
With Carpenter’s outing we have the first hint of this season’s possible call-ups, as Drew C. says, looking for a repeat of ’07s KK story.
The things to like about the short outing were his working with the sacks drunk to get out w/o a score, and that he does have the extra coaching (college) that KK didn’t.
OF COURSE nobody is hailing him as “The Answer”…but giving the guy his due, he did shine like a new copper penny. That’s the kind of outing that dreams are made on.
Warning us to not get excited…too much…is redundant—but then, cancelling likelihood for good results is also a clouding of spring sunshine!
I’ll still enjoy the possibilities…and bet [PREDICTION!] that Carpenter–absent injury–will be part of the big club’s pitching staff by June’s end. And likely not a moment too soon.
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