Phillies trade Brian Schlitter

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for Scott Eyre, per Todd Zolecki. Schlitter was drafted last year, he’s a fringe guy, but having a nice run at Clearwater. Eyre is, of course, a “proven veteran” and will give Manuel someone else to choose from instead of having to use Romero, Durbin and Lidge in 5 run games.

77 thoughts on “Phillies trade Brian Schlitter”

  1. good trade in my opinion. Schlitter was having a good year but i never really saw him as anything beyond a bullpen guy anyway. Eyre is a proven vet. He may not be having a great year but thats mostly because piniella hates his guts for no apparent reason. Im glad they didnt have to give up anything spectacular to get him.

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  2. A minor, but totally horrible trade. Schlitter might have been a reliever for us in future, Eyre was released because he flat-out stank. Putting him on the major league roster makes the Phillies a worse team.

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  4. allentown’s obviously been watching today’s game…

    Eyre started the season with a long scoreless streak. Piniella used him, it seems, only for a batter or two, and he usually got the guy. Then he was injured, and when he came back he had about four horrible outings in a row that ran his ERA from 0.93 to 7.15.

    If it’s a situation where Manuel uses him the same way–to get a Carlos Delgado in the 6th inning of a close game so he can save Romero for later–then fine.

    I know little about Schlitter, but in general guys who are non-elite minor-league relievers more or less meet the definition of “expendable.” It’s a little like the Michael Dubee trade for Iguchi last year, and obviously we’d all be thrilled if this one turned out as well as that one did.

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  5. lol how is that a horrible trade? Some people just like to complain about every trade. Oh no we gave up an org filler to take a flyer on an actual major league pitcher.

    Schlitter will be lucky if he ever becomes a mop up reliever in the bigs. The phillies can’t afford to have Walrond & Happ both coming out of the pen. They needed to make this trade. Eyre has had a bad year, but he is a better option then what we have in AA/AAA right now.

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  6. dajafi, you’d think that Manuel planned to use Eyre in the way you described it. If that’s the case, and if Schlitter was a “fringe guy” then good move. Banking on the future potential of a guy in A-ball who projects nothing more than a middle reliever seems silly, especially if you can get a decent situational lefty in the deal (yeah, the Cubs released him but obviously he was in demand if the Phils had to trade for him).

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  7. The Phillies don’t make bad trades. I won’t allow negativity here anymore. Its time to take off the objective glasses and put on the rose colored glasses. Any more negative comments made from this point forward will be removed. Eyre = missing piece of the puzzle.

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  8. Remember how “horrible” Romero was before he got released. Yes, he was released. Eyre is worth a shot.

    Eyre had a couple bad outings. This is a great trade. The Phils gave up nothing. The guy was not even a top 30 prospect and out of our top 30 prospects, how many do you think will actually make it to the bigs and be productive.

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  9. Not sure why we are comparing Eyre’s situation to Romero’s situation:

    1. Phillies traded nothing for Romero; something for Eyre

    2. Romero was released and, thus, had no contract to assume. Eyre costs the Phillies a little less than 1.3M for the rest of the year (unless the Cubs kicked in something)

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  10. If the Phils can’t make-up for the loss of Schlitter in the next 3 years, we have some very serious problems.

    I guess the cubs didn’t want Adam Eaton for Eyre.

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  11. Nobody says you can’t criticize a trade but if someone is upset that the Phillies traded a 22 year old high A relief pitcher who projects as a middle inning guy, then they just don’t want to see any prospects traded ever. Thats not realistic.

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  12. i smell another antonio alfonseca. cept this guy has 5 fingers ( i’m guessing here)

    bad trade but gave up fringe guy for him. Rays got Chad Bradford (pitching much better for the PTBL)

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  14. You have to give to get and as PP noted in the original post perhaps this means the big three of Durbin, Romero and Lidge won’t be used as much. Not to get off topic but the amount of innings some of these guys have worked this year is alarming, especially considering the long term commitments to two of them.

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  16. Getting a third of an inning out of him probably won’t do much to reduce anyone’s innings but he was almost free 🙂
    I wish he could hit and play third.

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  17. I am glad Happ went down ——–he is wasting away in the pen. I guess Walrond will clean up when a starter gets dusted early.

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  18. i think their thought on sending Happ down vs Walrond is that they want Happ to get regular as a starter again and they’re not worried about Walrond’s “future” whereas they are with Happ.

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  19. PP, going by your own assessment of Schlitter as a “fringe guy,” it’s hard to fault the trade.

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  20. I agree, Happ is better off at AAA so he can start every five days. At some point this season the Phillies are going to need another starter. Let him stay on a regular schedule.

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  21. Seems like they somehow outsmarted themselves with Happ. (Not that this is difficult…) I agree that it’s better to get him back in the LV rotation for possible replacement duty.

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  22. Agreed I would much rather let Happ start in AAA, let Walrond pitch the junk innings that we don’t care about.

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  23. When this trade was announced, I looked in vain on this site for any information about the unfortunately named Brian Schlitter. Two hours later, half of you are talking like the Phillies traded away their most promising prospect for some middling pitcher with an era over 5. (Wait–they did that already!) Anyway, this trade, unlike that one, doesn’t seem like anything to get riled up about. The only person who will miss Brian Schlitter is Larry Anderson, who was so hoping to pun on his name.

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  24. to disagree with this trade is absurd. ive never even heard schlitters name once and i read this site and all the comments fairly religiously.

    and i think its the appropriate move to have happ starting every 5 days until an injury or the AAA season is over. you dont want to be turning a guy into a reliever in the midst of a pennant race.

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  25. some of the people in this forum crack me up with some of the stuff they say. is there any such thing as a promising “fringe guy” reliever.

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  26. I do love my readers.

    This really isn’t a big deal. Schlitter likely isn’t going to amount to much if anything in the bigs. Eyre is likely to not be very good, but if we can get anything of value from him, then its ok.

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  27. First time poster here, very upset over the loss of Schlitter. Dear lord not Schlitter!

    Squire, you make a good point about how we picked up Romero foe nothing and in this case we had to give of “something” but c’mon did we really give up much.

    And on your second point, why do we as fans care if the Phillies spend more money.

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  28. Does anyone remember a week ago we were talking about trading Donald for Wil Ohman? In the grand scheme of things, they got a guy who is similar to Ohman for some dude nobody’s paid any attention to and will never hear from again. The big club got the decent lefty they wanted for filler. Now they need to hit a little.

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  29. “You have to give to get ”

    Ugh, can we stop this already. Everyone knows this, it’s who you give up and who you get that is the point of the discussion. The prospect is useless, but it all depends on how Manuel uses Eyre.

    Eyre is just a horrible, horrible, pitcher, unless he is facing a lefty. RHB have a career 812 OPS against him. And the last 3 years he hasn’t even been that good a LOOGY. 864, 787, and 804 OPS against from LHB, respectively.

    I suppose he could get lucky, but there is zip in his record to suggest he could be like Romero. I don’t care about the prospect, but Eyre is probably about the 20th best pitcher now in the organization.

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  30. “they got a guy who is similar to Ohman”

    Heh, no, unless you mean white and lefthanded. For his career, Ohman has allowed a 190(!) BA against lefties. Take five minutes to peruse Eyre and Ohmans career at B-Ref, and I think you’ll reconsider.

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  31. This was a good trade. If Eyre gives us anything at all this is a good move. We can’t not trade a fringe prospect because he MIGHT be a league average reliever in 5 years.

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  33. Seriously, if anybody is really broken up about trading BRIAN SCHLITTER, then you need to not emotionally attach yourself to prospects. Seriously, it seems like half the people here would hate it if we traded Kyle Drabek straight up for Albert Pujols because Pujols has an elbow injury that has never hampered him. If you don’t like the trade because you think Eyre makes us a worse team, then you may have a valid point. But we really traded an org filler, at best a Clay Condrey.

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  34. heh. Sometimes I think some of this site’s readers would rather we traded Utley than any of our prospects.

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  35. I think the supporters of this trade have rose-colored glasses on. The comparison to Ohman is absurd. Ohman is a good reliever having a really good season, who seemed available because the Braves are out of contention. Eyre is having such a totally awful season that a contender did not want him, even as a LOOGY, to the extend they were willing to eat $1.2 million in salary to free his spot on the 25-man roster. The Phillies were a godsend, saving the Cubs that money and giving them a fringe prospect.

    Schlitter is better than many make him out to be. He has a good record this year and has a 95 mph fastball. Middle inning relievers may not be exciting, but if you grow your own, you avoid having to pay $1.2 mill for 2 months of a guy like Eyre and lose a fringe prospect to do so.

    Even if Schlitter is regarded as totally without value, the Phillies are a worse team for having Eyre on the 25-man roster.

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  37. So we gave up ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and got a guy who was a pretty good LOOGY until he was injured earlier in the year. His career numbers are pretty good and he’s a hell of a better option than Les Walrond. Who gives a crap about Brian Schlitter?

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  40. Looking at Schlitter numbers if I didn’t know this site I would have thought the phillies traded a good prospect. He is twenty one at high a and expect for walks has great numbers. Luckly he isn’t a prospect according to the people on this site.

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  41. Good to see a solid discussion on this. It’s an interesting deal, and while I have some serious doubts about Eyre, I suppose it’s not a bad gamble to hope he can be a decent second lefty from the pen (though as others have mentioned, he should be shielded from righthanded hitters to the greatest extent possible).

    Schlitter was having a really nice year, and I kept meaning to comment on the Clearwater threads about his success, but he’s still two levels away from the majors and isn’t a huge loss. With some successful relievers from this draft class (Rosenberg, Schwimer, and guys like Stutes and Cisco who will probably eventually be relievers), the Phils could afford to part with Schlitter.

    Good luck to Brian in the Cubs system. I wonder if they’ll promote him to Double-A?

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  42. I hope they give Eyre a physical because he sounds like a guy who got hurt mid-year (two trips to the DL) and has lost his effectiveness.

    Schlitter is probably somewhere between where Squire ranks him (around 20) and where the posters here seem to think he belongs in our system). The things that make him a prospect rather than suspect is 1. he throws a 95 mph fastball 2. he doesn’t have any off-speed pitches that he can rely on and 3. he still misses bats.

    My take: Schlitter is something to lose, though not a really big something. BUT, Eyre is likely to be mis-used by Manuel (a middle inning LOOGY is really a rare thing), and do damage to our chances rather than help them.

    And, as to who cares if the Phils spend money, I’d have split the 1.3 million among Ryan Weber, Jonathan Pettibone, and Keon Broxton. And I’d still have enough left to retire on.

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  43. Oh dear Lord in heaven, please tell me that this is NOT HAPPENING. Please tell me that Schlitter is not gone. Life as I have known it is over.

    How could this happen? When will this nightmare end?

    Take my home, my children, and all my worldly possessions, but NOT SCHLITTER!!!

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  44. ya its kinda a crap for crap trade so i dont know what to make of it until i see if eyre can actually help and not blow games, also brummett and blackley got absolutely molested today in their starts, and lakewood continues to get dominant performances from their starters

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  45. “Even if Schlitter is regarded as totally without value, the Phillies are a worse team for having Eyre on the 25-man roster.”

    You might be right. But whether or not Schlitter stinks, Gillick had to Eyre out the clubhouse.

    I wouldn’t give Eyre much more than a few appearances to show his worth. He either hits the ground running or he hits the door. Walrond, too. I’m hopeful but skeptical one of them steps up.

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  47. I agree with allentown that’s a horriable trade. dajafi He WAS good untill he got injured NOW he sucks.

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  48. It’s not like Schlitter isn’t a prospect. He very well may be. It remains to be seen. What is for sure is that he can be replaced by any number of other pitchers who have the same talent. If Eyre steps in and puts up a sub 3.00 ERA for the remainder of the season. What can you say.

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  51. For those of us who’ve been on this board for a little while, we’ve had Schlitter (watch that spelling or the board censor might get you) on our radar screen. We didn’t have him in the top 30 but we’ve talked about him from time to time. I liked him and thought he had a 30% chance of pitching in the big leagues. He might even turn into a decent middle reliever. He was expendible if we got something in return. I hope they don’t throw Eyre into the fire until he’s proven to be 100%. Happ was being wasted and maybe impeded by being in the bullpen. He deserves to be pitching for the Phillies but as a starter.

    Unfortunately Eyre’s not going to help the sagging offense.

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  52. Perspective: Schlitter was a long long way off from ever helping the Phillies. He may never develop or even make it past AA. Honestly the odds are stacked against him ever having an impact at teh MLB level. We have a team in a pennant race that has determined that it NEEDS a 2nd LOOGY in the pen. This NEED has made them consider trading away guys like Golson or Donald who we’ve cried about saying its a huge price to pay for a 2nd Lefty. I agree with that as it doesn’t make good financial sense to trade a possible position player who’s basically ready for the “The Show” in Donald for an aging reliever. The FO actually does something halfway smart and trades a fringe single A pitcher for a proven reliever who had been good until he got injured earlier this season. We gave up very little for a guy that may help our big league club right now during a pennant race. Compared to the other possiblities like the Mahay trade or the Ohman trade…I’m very happy with it.

    Now I would have rather they made a trade for Giles (like those silly BoSox) and actually filled a legit need (a high OBP OF who can hit lefties and hit for average and who also doesn’t strikeout but that wasn’t gonna happen.

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  53. whether or not schlitter makes the bigs or not, the phils thought enough to give him a look in a spring training game one sunday in march. fortunately it was a televised game and i saw it. he looked pretty fast and i think he gave up a run. it got my attention. eyre might work out or not but schlitter, as a low A pitcher, was not too much to give up if it works. BUT, i think he does have decent potential. so i wouldn’t poo-poo this trade as schlitter was fodder as some are doing.

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  55. As is the case when we trade many of our prospects, I am sorry to see Schlitter go.

    He is one of the many that I keep daily progress on; he was definitely on my radar screen. His age, size, arm strength & improving “K” ability made him an interesting prospect in my mind.

    With that said, prospects have just one purpose… to make the Big team better, whether directly or by trade value. We just have to hope that management is “somewhat” sure that Eyre will have a positive impact for the remainder of the year.

    Best of luck to Brian but even better luck to Mr. Eyre!!!

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  56. if schlitter’s numbers weren’t that good this year, we wouldnt even care…. but because he was doing decent people are projecting him a bit too much… thats all, if eyre helps the team, its a fine trade… if he hurts the team, its a bad trade…

    but we cant say its good or bad because we lost schlitter… right now a RP in A ball is the least of my worries…. i love our prospects as much as the next guy, but there is a bigger goal to be had at the end of the day, and thats competing for a playoff spot…

    perfectly fine trade if it helps, if it hurts, we only lost a shmitter…. they make like 2,000 of them a game anyway…

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  57. if schlitter’s numbers weren’t that good this year, we wouldnt even care…. but because he was doing decent people are projecting him a bit too much… thats all, if eyre helps the team, its a fine trade… if he hurts the team, its a bad trade…

    but we cant say its good or bad because we lost schlitter… right now a RP in A ball is the least of my worries…. i love our prospects as much as the next guy, but there is a bigger goal to be had at the end of the day, and thats competing for a playoff spot…

    perfectly fine trade if it helps, if it hurts, we only lost a shmitter…. they make like 2,000 of them a game anyway…

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  58. We should care even if Schlitter’s numbers weren’t so good this year and he didn’t have a 95 mph fastball. We should care because Eyre can’t pitch, will take up a roster spot, and cost the team $1.2 million, in addition to Schlitter.

    o those who like this deal have any idea how bad Eyre has been over his last 10 appearances? This is why Cubbies were willing to cut him and eat his contract, before Gillick stumbled along to bail them out. Here it is:
    6.1 IP 12 H 1 HR 3BB 7K 9ER

    That’s right, the guy gives up 2 hits and 1.5 runs an IP.

    Since he was a deadline pickup, he will be used and he will cost us some games, just as Wade’s injured vet relievers always did.

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  59. “o those who like this deal have any idea how bad Eyre has been over his last 10 appearances? This is why Cubbies were willing to cut him and eat his contract, before Gillick stumbled along to bail them out. Here it is:
    6.1 IP 12 H 1 HR 3BB 7K 9ER

    That’s right, the guy gives up 2 hits and 1.5 runs an IP.”

    8 of his 9 earned runs given up this season were in his last 3 starts: The two before going to the DL and one in his first game back. Before that he had an 0.87 ERA in 16 appearances (mostly as a LOOGY). To say that he’s definitely going to fail and cost us some games based on just three outings is insane.

    If he’s healthy then it was probably a good pickup. If the Phillies failed to do their homework… well then shame on them.

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  60. I agree with allentown 100% For those of you that keep saying that he was good untill he got injured, he is playing for us now. so that means that we are getting the horrible version of him not when he use to be good. Seriously think about what you are typing.

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  61. bluethree —
    No, it’s not insane. If his last three relief appearance, in which he gave up 8 ER in a single IP, is an aberration, then why were the Cubbies willing to eat $1.2 mill of salary to cut him? The Cubs are in a pennant race and if this guy were a useful LOOGY, the Cubs would have kept him. They know more about him than anybody and they didn’t want him.

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  62. Here’s a thought:

    1. Gillick’s one strength is post waiver trades…at least its his greatest strength. Until proven otherwise I’ll side with his opinion on this one. The Phillies think he’s healthy (large grain of salt) so I’ll not criticize until he actually pitches and sucks for us.

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  63. The Cubs cut bait because they had Samardijiiedeehnfd (sp) up from their minors…Eyre became an extra at that point….kinda like when the Sox cut bait on Romero last season. Everyone criticized that pick up too.

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  66. Padraic,
    Sorry to get back late on this but I think you’ll agree with this statement:
    “.190 vs .244 LHB AVG” < “Donald vs. Schlitter” (though there’s a better case for .552 OPS vs .729).

    Even in an Ohman vs. Eyre debate, we’re probably only talking about 1 win difference. Though the difference between Eyre and Walrond is probably 1 win as well.

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  67. It’s hilarious that people care about trading a guy who, let’s be honest, was given a very generous 30% chance of being a ML reliever by someone on the board for a guy who, yes, was released, but who is a left-handed reliever that in his career has been at least decent. So we’re mad about trading a guy who in 5 years has a 30% chance of being…. the guy we got for him now, on a team trying to strengthen its bullpen for a playoff run. That makes absolutely no sense and is why the impression of some people on here is that they don’t actually care about the Phillies, they just like the idea of prospects- it’s called missing the forest for the trees. If Eyre gives us even a single productive inning, it’s worth the deal. Seriously, the point of all of this is for the Phillies (the Philadelphia ones, not the Reading or Lakewood teams) to win. That’s it.

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  69. ZOG,

    I was only responding to the comparison of Eyre to Ohmam, not the respective trade packages.

    This was better than giving up Donald for Ohman, no question, but I would rather just have Happ or Walrond, considering Eyre’s vetranacity is just going to put him in a whole lot of spots where he shouldn’t be. And are you saying that Eyre is 1 win better over the course of two months than Walrond? I highly doubt that. A couple of runs at best.

    I think everyone agrees that this can be an alright move if Manuel is *very* selective about when to use Eyre.

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  70. How bout that Joe Blanton?

    He’s going to take some knocks from time to time, but JB really looks like he can fill the No. 3 starter role very nicely in the NL. He pounds the zone and will give us durability over a lot of innings.

    A really good trade.

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  74. Eyre can pitch to one hitter without too much risk. He can do an inning if there is no pressure. If pressure arises, (can’t find the plate and walks someone, gives up a hit, or the game is on the line) watch for him to start shaking his shoulders. When he starts that, its over. Get him out or he will give up the game in a big way.

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  77. Just for anyone wondering what happened to Schlitter. He’s 1-7 with a 4.60 ERA in AA. Strike outs are down, and fly ball are up a ton.

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