Phillies claim Lahey off waivers

Spring Training 2008

The Phillies claimed Rule 5 draftee Tim Lahey off waivers. Lahey had been waived by the Cubs after being taken first in the Rule 5 draft. This was BA’s assessment of Lahey back in December

Lahey was a catcher at Princeton, then converted to the mound when the Twins drafted him. He has a short, catcher-like arm action, but he throws strikes with his 90-92 mph fastball, one that has touched 95 according to Cubs officials, and the delivery adds some deception. A 20th-round pick in 2004 by the Twins, Lahey also throws a solid-average slider and a changeup. The Cubs see room for improvement, since Lahey is still relatively new to pitching.

“He’s got real good sink with a ground ball ratio of almost 3-to-1 and the makings of a pretty good slider,” Cubs farm director Oneri Fleita said. “It’s amazing—I think he has 178, 179 innings and has less than a hit per inning pitched. That’s pretty good for a guy who just got converted. We’re excited to see him.

So, here’s how this works, to my knowledge. The Rule 5 process still applies. Lahey must go straight onto the 25 man roster and must remain there all season. The Phillies were able to get JD Durbin through waivers and to AAA, so thats one less obstacle. If Lahey can’t stick, he will be placed on waivers. If no one claims him, he has to be offered back to Minnesota. If Minnesota refuses to take him back for $25K, we can outright him to AAA. I don’t really see how he will fit into the team, but then again, any new warm body is probably better than a bunch of the old warm bodies, so stay tuned.

20 thoughts on “Phillies claim Lahey off waivers”

  1. When I saw his ST stats, he didn’t look any better than the guys we just waived, but the 3:1 ground ball ratio does look interesting so maybe he is a slight upgrade from what we had in camp.

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  2. When you’re broke you bend over and pick up the pennies.

    I’ll go out on a limb and say this is an attempt to sneak him through waivers and develop him. I don’t see him sticking on the roster all season.

    At 6’5″, 250LB, he’s a big right hander with interesting peripheral numbers. Worth a shot.

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  4. Ground ball pitcher with a Catcher’s mentality sounds like he’s worth a look to see what he’s got. Chicago’s bullpen is deeper than Philly’s.

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  6. I wouldn’t even pretend to know much about the Rule 5 guidelines but, if Lahey was picked up off waivers, wouldn’t that mean he already was offered back to the Twins? Is the waiver fee more than the $25K the Cubs could have received from the Twins?

    Sorry to take everyone reading to Baseball school 101.

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  7. LIKE IS SAID BEFORE-THE PHILLIES WILL BE THE 2008 WORLD CHAMPIONS. I HAVE BEEN A PHILLIES FAN FOR 48 YEARS.

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  9. in case anyone was wondering, Chris Snelling also cleared waivers and is currently a Pig, i think he can be useful this year if his leg doesn’t fall off or something

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  10. Lahey has to be better than Durbin, who, every game, is a disaster looking for its moment to erupt. Lahey seems like a guy with some talent. He is worth a shot to see if he can put it together this year.

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  11. xfactor: “When you’re broke you bend over to pick up the pennies”.

    I laughed out loud at that one.

    Bellman-

    With Rule V, the pick has to remain on the 25-man roster for the duration of the season. If he is placed on waivers and claimed, then the waiving team can pull him back or let him go to the claiming team. The Rule V legalities then transfer to the claiming team. If he isn’t claimed, he must be offered back to the original team for $25k. If THEY don’t want him, then he can be outrighted to the minors.

    So, the Cubs didn’t have to offer him back to the Twins since he did not clear waivers. Only if he had cleared does he have to be offered back.

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  12. I was at the game at CBP today and Lahey looked awful. He didn’t miss a lot of bats and the hits sounded real sharp coming off the Jays bats.

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  13. On the telecast of the game, they said his pitches had good movement and speed but they were staying up in the zone. I forget which commentator it was but they said it appeared he was trying to overthrow his pitches and that was the reason they would be staying high in the zone rather then the lower half, which as a sinkerballer, they should be in.

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  14. I watched the game on the computer. It looked like he threw fairly hard with good downward movement. He did get some ground balls that went through the infield. He got a couple of pitches up that were hit hard. He has a funny motion too — he looks like a converted catcher.

    I don’t think he’s readty for the big leagues but he could develop into a pretty effective pitcher. He’s interesting.

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  15. I was at the game, he didn’t look THAT bad… he gave up a couple of singles that might have been playable if we didn’t have our C-team fielding behind him at the time.

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  16. Heck, he looks better than current closer Gordon. Hopefully Lidge will be back soon (Saturday) then move Gordon down to mop up as Madson/Romero will be the set up guys.

    With Lahey as a groundball pitcher, he could be useful. Hopefully Mathieson will be ready by midseason. I forsee Gordon falling apart shortly.

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  17. Agree Lahey actually looked pretty good in his first MLB stadium appearance. No way of knowing anything from one appearance though, since you have to give him a couple “butterfly” passes. His control seemed a little off, but not much. If it’s better than that when the butterflies go away and he can keep the ball down, we may have something.

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  18. I regret to say that I just am very tired of Gillick’s
    scrounging around in the bowels of dumpsters. We have
    had a serious need for pitching since he got here, yet he
    continues to keep looking for these “bargains” to fill the
    voids. Alas… Sigh…

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  19. Sarge,

    I agree with you except his attempts at improving the pitching through trade or Free agency resulted in Freddy Garcia and Adam Eaton. The bargain basement and mid season trades have been his best work — and not so good there some times either.

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  20. Lahey should be given a good shot and hopefully stay with the big club. I doubt they could get him through waivers to Allentown.

    We know that Gordon won’t last the season…and could/will cost us games in the late innings before then.

    With Seanez now added to the mix, I’d LOVE to see the Phils send Gordon to Allentown to “recover” his stuff [if possible–and to join Bisenius/Mathieson to get ready for late-season work in Philly] while keeping Seanez AND Lahey. UNLESS PG can work a miracle and get Lahey to Allentown alsao…but IMO very unlikely.

    What I liked about Lahey is how his pitches sink…and I understand he DOES have an “average” slider and a changeup that is a work in progress.

    He could mop up and get into games late when we’re way ahead and develop his pitches that way.

    BUT, a sinker-ball pitcher MUST have a “tired” arm in order to have that down-break on his sinker…which means getting him “steady” work……….and he seems to know how to hit the strike zone………

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