Lehigh Valley Roster Moves

7. Lehigh Valley

As mentioned in a prior post, Pitcher Nate Robertson was signed as a free agent and will be starting tonight for Lehigh Valley. He, along with Brandon Duckworth (who was on the DL with a calf strain) were activated today by Lehigh Valley.

Making room on the roster, the ‘Pigs placed 1B Matt Rizzotti (thumb) and RP Michael Schwimer (lower back strain) on the DL retroactive to August 24th. Both will be eligible to return on Tuesday August 31st, for the last week of the minor league season. Lehigh Valley will be going with 13 pitchers and 11 position players for the time being.

20 thoughts on “Lehigh Valley Roster Moves”

  1. It’s too bad that Rizzotti won’t get enough at bats at AAA this year to tell if he can hit at that level or not and whether his power will translate to the AAA level. I had been wondering whether his relateive lack of production since moving up could be due to his being seduced by the short right field porch at LHV, but the thumb is a much more likely explanation.

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  2. According to Jayson Stark the Sutter signing was to help Mathieson and the other AA and AAA relievers develop for next year, since they won’t have money to sign any BP free agents. He said Mathieson will be taught the splitter since he still hasn’t developed a second pitch. Well I guess if you’re going to learn a splitter, there’s no better teacher than Sutter.

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  3. How long has Mathieson been in the organization? 8 years? And he doesn’t yet have a second pitch?

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  4. Time, I think you forgetting that Mathieson has had two TJ surjuries and missed alot of time due to them. However; he told to work on other pitches and has not been successful.

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  5. It seems that this approach could work; take pitchers who already have one or two decent pitches and teach them another one (the splitter) that can be very effective; if enough pitchers are taught the pitch, perhaps some will be successful and make it to the majors.

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  6. Mathieson should try anything that gives him a chance to be dominant, even if the new pitch limits him to only a 3-5 year career. Throwing only a straight FB with no sharp slider is not enough. Wagner needed the slider to complement the 100 mph FB. So Scott will need something.

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  7. i guess its all or nothing at this point for scott. The Splitter is one of the toughest pitches to throw on the arm, a major health risk, but when there is nothing left to lose i guess you will try anything.

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  8. A splitter isn’t any harder on the arm than any other pitch, it just has to be thrown properly. Just as many guys have destroyed their arms throwing cutters and sliders incorrectly.

    Teams don’t teach the forkball/splitter because most guys don’t have fingers long enough to control it so it’s easier to teach a young pitcher to master a slider or cutter.

    Since it appears that Mathieson hasn’t been able to master the slider, having him try to throw a splitter is worth the attempt.

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  9. Robertson has nothing. Pitched at 84-85 most of the night and dialed it up to 89 at one point (and that ended up a double). Of 89 pitches thrown, only five resulted in swinging strikes.

    Bruce Sutter sat behind the plate, the highlight of the night was getting an opportunity to meet him.

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  10. I heard that Rizz was playing with a strained thumb for weeks. He was hitting then he stopped due to thumb strain or something similar related to thumb.

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  11. Mathieson will be fine. Still overpowering. Changeup is a plus-pitch. Slider is average or plus. This is his first year in the pen, and all indication are that it has been a success. He’s Contreras and Herndon and much, much more. Give him a bonafide chance to nail down a job.

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  12. Let’s see 95+ fastball and 2 plus offspeed pitches. He should be the next Mariano Rivera. You know so much more than that Philly minor league executive who was quoted in the paper just the other day, that Bruce Sutter was brought in to teach Mathieson the “split finger fast ball” because he lacked a 2nd pitch to go with his fastball.

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  14. If Mathieson had just one of an acceptable slider or change up, he’d be in Philly closing games already. It is pretty clear that he doesn’t have either one of those that the Phillies consider acceptable. And that’s even more obvious because your slider or change only has to be mediocre if you have a 97 mph fastball and you can still get most guys out.

    When I pitched, I never tried a splitter. In fact, it was the early 70s and very few threw the splitter/screwball. The Phillies have refused to teach the pitch before because they felt it was too hard on the young arms. I don’t know enough about the splitter to know if it can be taught with pronation. My fingers aren’t long enough to approximate it well, but I’ve tried it in the back yard and it should work with pronation. If it can’t, they should just get ready for TJ3 on him now.

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  16. ****A splitter isn’t any harder on the arm than any other pitch, it just has to be thrown properly.****

    Um…yeah it is actually. Have you ever thrown it?

    Do this little drill for me: Hold your arm out and push your fingers against the wall with them with a normal 4 seam grip…then do the same thing but with a split finger grip. It exacerbates the pressure on the shoulder and you can easily feel by doing that test. Its not quite as bad as a forkball but its an unnatural act…as is throwing a baseball 90+ mph to begin with. Even thrown correctly, it is a dangerous pitch to throw even for adults. If you’re a little league/teenage aged coach, I would recommend never teaching a kid to throw any off-speed pitches other than a changeup until they’re physically mature…you can seriously screw up a kid’s elbow/shoulder doing that.

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  17. Yes, I played baseball as a high level…not major leagues and was a pitcher. The split-fingered fastball can put pressure on the ELBOW, not the shoulder. Your delivery is not suppose to change while throwing it, just your hand position. That is the reason for its effectiveness. Looks like a fastball but the bottom drops out of it. A splitfinger should not be confused with a forkball. As it has been mentioned though, you need a fairly large hand with the ability to spread you fingers(without grimacing). I think NEPP was talking about a delivery on a splitfinger where the pitcher turns the ball over in their delivery…in other words their hand breaks inside rather than straight down, almost like a screwball motion. This gives the ball better drop and tail action. Most pitchers (myself included) use that same arm action on a circle change to give the ball that down and away action. The circle change you are not throwing as hard as you can and typically; the split fingered is a power pitch that the pitcher throws as hard as they can. A split is much easier to learn and master than a slider/curveball. Minor league history is littered with guys who could throw in the upper 90s and never made it to the league without a second pitch.

    All of that being said, I guarantee you that Mathieson knows he needs a second pitch(preferably a strikeout one) to stick in the big leagues. A 2- year career in the big leagues is better than being a career minor leaguer. Hopefully he has a much longer one since he has shown so much tenacity to be where he is.

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  19. Yes, Nepp I have tried to throw it but I didn’t have long enough fingers to control the pitch. Again, its about throwing it correctly and not turning the wrist which puts pressure on the elbow. Your little drill is meaningless. Pushing against a wall has nothing to do with the pressure of the ball leaving your hand.

    As for little leaguers/young teenagers, I absolutely agree that they should be limited to throwing fastball/change-up combination until high school.

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  20. Mathieson seems to have no other choice than to try the splitter if he wants to play in the bigs.
    It may be a tough chance that that could harm his arm but as has been said 2-3 yrs in the bigs mat be worth the risk.
    Then again, it could turn out to be a revelation for him and with no bad consequences.

    Wouldn’t most of US make that choice…??…given that our love for the game is just secondary to the players own love for the game’s and its financial rewards. Especially Mathieson who has endured the severest test and challenges of several pitching arm surgeries.

    Let’s hope he does it w/o bad results. The guy is A plus in courage and determination.

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