The Phillies announced the signing of two pitchers today, Ty Taubenheim and Josh Fogg. I am not quite sure where Fogg fits in after being released by the Mets but the 33 year old Fogg may be fighting for the last job in the Phils pen or be headed to Lehigh Valley. Last year pitching for Colorado, Fogg was 0-2 with a 3.74 ERA in 24 games (1 start). He had an uncharacteristically good WHIP of 1.13, as opposed to his WHIP the rest of his major league career which hovered between 1.45 and 1.55. Fogg’s signing could certainly have some impact on Rule 5 pick David Herndon, who has had an extremely impressive Spring, giving up his first earned run yesterday. Fogg is a veteran of nine major league seasons who has a career mark of 62-69 with a 5.03 ERA and 1.46 WHIP.
Taubenheim, 27, was a 19th round pick of the Brewers in the 2003 draft. He has spent the last two seasons at AAA Indianapolis (Pirates), starting 38 games Last season, Taubenheim was 7-9 in 26 games (19 starts) with an impressive 3.65 ERA. He walked 37 and struck out 63 in his 106 innings of work, with a WHIP sitting at 1.36. The 6’5 righty has seen Major League action in ’06, ’07’ and ’08, most prominently with the Blue Jays in 2006, appearing in 12 games.
Phuture Phillies 
Are you implying they will trade Fogg for the rights to Herndon? Or that Fogg will be in the Phillies bullpen?
Do the Phillies really want someone who the Mets released?
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Sounds like rotation insurance to me. I’ll be surprised if both aren’t ticketed to Lehigh Valley.
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Amaro said something a week or so ago about starting pitching depth. So there you go, Fogg is somewhere in the SP depth chart behind Kendrick with the likes of Vogelsong, Carpenter, Duckworth and Mazone.
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OT, but Justin DeFratus has thrown 2 scoreless against the Blue Jays today. His curve is very inconsistent and I think he only threw 1 change, but no one got a very good swing on his FB. No gun readings but he looked like he was throwing pretty hard
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My guess is that Mazzone and maybe Duckworth will get released as the organization tries to improve the starters at AAA to be ready just in case. It already looks like Blanton may start on the DL which would probably cause Carpenter to slide into the long man role with Kendrick starting. The team needs possible major league options and Fogg is a better option than Savery, Mazzone, or Duckworth.
DeFratus will start at Clearwater but he’s certainly someone they’ll look at next year if he has a great year in the pen this year ending up the year at Reading.
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Blanton is hurt and my start season on DL. Insurance for bullpen if Kendrick bumped up to rotation.
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What is wrong with Blanton? News to me.
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he injured his oblique muscle.
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Blanton has a strained oblique muscle. Not sure how serious.
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That sucks! Blanton is a rock! He’s been the most stable and consistent member of the pitching staff since he arrived.
If Fogg is even halfway decent, why was he released by the Mets of all people?
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The Mets gave their RF job to Jeff Francoeur, Mike Jacobs looks like their opening day 1B and Oliver Perez is part of their rotation thanks to his multi-year contract. Talent evaluation is not their strength.
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He got released because he’s terrible…absolutely terrible. Fogg is an emergency starter at best.
Yeah, he had a sub 4 ERA last year…he also had a ridiculous BABIB of .197 to go with it. His career BABIP is right around .299 IIRC.
Fogg is terrible.
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So… why on God’s Green Earth would we replace a tall, hard throwing young player in Herndon with HIM? Shouldn’t it be a priority to keep Herndon and a LOOGY in the bullpen at all times? Where does Fogg even fit in?
And, in case they do need an emergency starter, don’t the Phillies plug in an AA guy every time? Didn’t they do that a season or two ago when they had like 20 different starters?
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Step back from the ledge. There is NO indication that Fogg is competing for an MLB spot. He signed a minor league deal, he’s reporting to the Carpenter Complex. He will NOT take Herndon’s spot.
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I’m a Philadelphia fan. All I have is the ledge.
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Please step out of the Fogg. He is a 5 ERA guy lifetime.
“Blanton has a strained oblique muscle. Not sure how serious.
From personal experience no one knows its better until you try it. I guess KK gets his chance after all. The baseball gods are jokers.
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I did not see in the text that these were minor league deals. It is not usual to place players released by other teams on the MLB roster this late in the Spring Training.
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With Blanton out for 6 weeks now, what are the chances of Fogg being called up to fill a BP slot…or someone like Stutes/Schwimer to do it?
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I think Carpenter is the most likely candidate.
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I really hope Fogg is some kind of “Let’s see if he can pitch well in AAA even though he failed for the Mets” deal. I can’t imagine him being even the 10th best choice to be called up for BP help.
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Duckworth and Mazone are both significantly better than Fogg. I hope neither gets released.
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Fogg isn’t particularly good but he is better than either Mazone or Duckworth.
Fogg has had 5 ML seasons where he won at least 10 games. Duckworth hit 8 once and Mazone hasn’t appeared in a ML game in 11 years. Of the 3, I’d take Fogg..
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