Tyler Cloyd Called Up

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According to, well, everyone on Twitter, the Phillies have selected the contract of Tyler Cloyd from Lehigh Valley to pitch tonight in place of an ailing Cole Hamels, who is out with a gastrointestinal issue. 

Cloyd has had very fine results in AA/AAA this season, posting 15-1 record with a 2.26 ERA, giving up 127 hits and a quite good 41BB (2.21 BB./9), but just 113K (6.09 K/9) in 167IP.  He gave up 15HR, at a rate of 0.81/9, which is a bit on the high side. His WHIP for the year sits at 1.01, giving up just one more hit/BB than he’s pitched innings.  He was recently name the International League’s Most Valuable Pitcher for 2012.

At AAA he sported a BB% of 6.9%, K% of 16.8 and a .233 BABIPA on 46% GB rate, and an FIP of 4.03, indicating his ERA was getting some help from a little bit of better than average luck. The knock on him is that he does not throw very hard.  His advantage is clearly a repertoire of pitches that he commands well, and first hand reports from commenters on this site have said that he seems to keep hitters off balance.

I, for one, can’t wait to see what he can do.  He could wind up baffling the Mets for innings on end.  We shall see.

71 thoughts on “Tyler Cloyd Called Up”

  1. Not exactly the team I want him to play against but it’s a start (no pun intended). There really is no downside to this. Bring him up, see what he can do. It’s not like the Phils need 4 or 5 wins out of him. In fact, I’d like to see the Phils in the 10 worst record slots for draft purposes. I don’t want to see him pitch poorly, just bad enough for the bullpen to lose the game. There… I took all pressure off him.

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    2. The one guy who I see little future and potential for on the Phillies is Raul Valdez(s). So I hope he loses every game he pitches in the rest of the season and has an ERA of 56. Cloyd goes 6 gives up 3 and then Valdez gives up 4 an inning later. It’ll be great

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      1. What is with the Valdes hate? He has been effective for the most part. He works hitters well. I had him penciled in for next year. He and Horst were the steady left-handed influences this year in both the AAA and the ML bullpens.

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        1. I agree. He’s been dominant this year with a WHIP of 0.75. He should have every chance to be on the team next year.

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      2. Bizarre. The bullpen as a whole has been putrid, so let’s root against one guy who’s been good …

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  2. The important thing is that he has the 40-man spot now, which means he will be protected from the Rule V. You have to think going into 2013 that the #5 spot will be a three way competition between him, Kendrick, and Pettibone with second getting the long man job and the loser going back to AAA has the next pitcher in line.

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    1. Kendrick is acing his trial period this month. He will probably be #5. Cloyd may very well be the long man. Let’s see how he does? It won’t be too much of a window. He will have to perform right away.

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    2. Kendrick is not going back down. At worst, he’ll go back to being the long man but I don’t see that happening. KK was 1 bad pitch away from having 3 consecutive shutout outings. His ERA is already down to the low 4s.

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    3. Is it true that if Cloyd is on the 40 man roster now, that he will be protected later? Can’t they just shuffle him off after the season if they would rather protect someone else?

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      1. To remove him they need to DFA or outright him (depends on where he is assigned at the time) but both subject him to irrevocable waivers where any team could grab him and just have to keep him on the 40 man roster.

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  3. Just realized that by giving everyone an extra days rest and plugging Hamels in on Thursday that they could just put Cloyd in Worley’s spot for the rest of the year and just shut Worley down. He looked terrible last night, the pitches just didn’t have the same movement and he was clearly laboring.

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    1. I agree about Worley. The major knock on Cloyd is his lack of velocity. Well, I haven’t seen much velocity from Worley this year and his pitch counts indicate that his control hasn’t been good either. At least Cloyd is reported to have excellent control. Hopefully, Worley can come back from his surgery and pitch better, but if not, I would put Kendrick as #4 and Worley can compete with Cloyd and Pettibone for #5.

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      1. I don’t think worley’s problem is his velocity. His control has been suspect and he’s missing in the zone. That HR he gave up yesterday, that ball cut back into the heart of the plate and it got hammered.

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        1. I agree with you guru, but my point was that Cloyd can be as good or better than Worley even if his velocity tops out at 90 or so.

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          1. I guess after tonight, all questions will be answered about Cloyd’s velocity. I’ve been hearing he tops out at 87-88.

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          2. As good or better than Worley has been lately, I certainly hope. I think Vance has lost some movement on his fastball too. I haven’t heard much about how Cloyd’s pitches move, but I have read that he relies a lot on his cutter.

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    2. They really hurt Worley’s trade value by allowing him to continue to pitch in pain. Next year we’ll learn if his velocity regression was permanent or a by-product of the elbow chips.

      By the way, for those keeping track R. Halladay’s velocity has not returned to anything close to what was last year. It’s unclear if he’ll get some of it back with a winter of recuperation (I would say rest, but I doubt Halladay does anything remotely approaching rest).

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  4. Good for him. Believe it or not Art, we actually all want him to succeed. I am hoping he proves me dead wrong.

    By the way, I did think of another righty soft thrower that was a pretty darned good pitcher – Mike Boddicker. But Boddicker had a couple of very weird, almost unique, breaking pitches, including a slurve and his famous “foshball” – which was a super breaking change-up. Here’s the Wikipedia reference confirming my recollections. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Boddicker

    Still, for every Mike Boddicker, there are 250 Andrew Carpenters. It probably won’t be easy for Cloyd the second time around the league (or the first time, for that matter).

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  5. Can’t wait to see Cloyd. He simply deserves it. This will be the most innings he’s pitched in one year. Hopefully fatigue won’t be an issue. 6 and 3 would be nice.

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  6. Kevin Goldstein ‏@Kevin_Goldstein
    Hey Tyler Cloyd is up, that’s cool. I’ll bet right now that he does more in his career than Darin Ruf.

    So I guess we know where he stands.

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    1. I don’t know why (because I hope they both ultimately succeed), but that made me laugh. KG must be tired of hearing Ruf questions.

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  7. Finally!! I know there are nay sayers about Cloyd, but he did all he could do in AA/AAA to get to this point. It must be a thrill for him. I wish him the best of luck!

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  9. I was going to watch this game just to see Matt Harvey, but with Cloyd in now, it’s must-see tv. I want to see how he’s going to get big league hitters out.

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  10. I am surprised! I wonder how nervous he will be.
    I really figured Phillies would leave him exposed in Rule5.
    Starting pitchers are quite valuable so even the very small chance that he might make it must be worth the roster spot.
    I though Hyatt was going to get a callup but Cloyd has certainly performed well all season.

    I supose I agree with Goldstein since pitchers generally get more chances than poor fielding OFs.

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    1. Hyatt? Yuck. He’s been hit around so much that he has been a disappointment since that one season at Clearwater. At that time many, including myself, thought he might prove to be a “find.” Not so much now.

      But Cloyd…? Great news for him and it increases the likelihood that many here will be glued to their TVs tonight.

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  12. Kevin Goldstein ‏@Kevin_Goldstein
    I actually kind of like Cloyd. Not much stuff, but tons of moxie, chance to settle in No. 5 role.

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  13. Matt Gelb reports that Worley has been shut down for the year. Looks like Cloyd gets an extended tryout. :o)

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    1. Good. Hopefully Vance comes back strong and healthy next season. Should be interesting to see how Cloyd does over the last bit of season.

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  14. Now THAT is good news. Worley had no business continuing to pitch in the face of needed surgery. If surgery had been performed a month or so ago, he’d have been given these several extra months for complete recovery. Poor thinking from the FO. And maybe risky, too.

    Fun to see Cloyd for several more starts.

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  15. Let the Kyle Kendrick v2 era begin……..in all seriousness, this will be interesting to watch him pitch, looking forward to it.

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  16. Maybe the Phils could arrange for Jamie Moyer to work with Cloyd this winter. God knows Dubee will be no help.

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  17. Not great so far. Kept his poise in a jam but looking very hittable, hanging breaking balls, and not looking super controlled (just hit a batter). Pretty much exactly what we were told to expect from Cloyd in the bigs, so far. Hope he turns it around.

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    1. You’ve got to think that Cloyd is fatigued at this point in the season. That being said, he’s got a pretty nice cutter. I don’t think he trusts his curveball enough though.

      P.S.- Pierre shouldn’t even be allowed to pick up a glove.

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      1. Fatifued or maybe nervous/amped for his first MLB start? Plus it does look like the ump is squeezing him a little. Either way he’s hung way too many balls tonight. If he can give them 6 and keep it at 3 runs, I’ll be pleased enough. After all, no one’s confusing him for a stud.

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  19. Hmm, well he has a K/9 of 9.0, and is tied for the best K/BB ratio in baseball at the moment. His FIP is 1.09.

    The joys of a small sample size. 🙂

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  21. Looks like he has pinpoint accuracy…I like the way he throws. But he gives new meaning to off-speed sitting in low to mid 80’s on non fastball pitches. Cutter looks great..its shame this guy doesn’t have bonafide fastball or he would be dangerous.

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  23. This guy cloyd is the reason, that i want to see guys pitch, and not go by numbers alone. i would bet my life he never plays more than maybe on a bad team one year. he stinks. without a fastball and no knuckball, he is a hitting machine, I laugh at the numbers guys, 15-1 and cant break a egg. sorry this guy is never going anywhere. not even as a relief pitcher.

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    1. What were your MLB stats? Better yet, what were your AAA stats? He may not have a future in the majors but he’s been at the very least, good throughout his minor league career. Watch him all you want, he’s still on the field and you’re still in the stands.

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      1. I hate people who say things like this. I’ve never been President of the United States, a Senator, a congressman, a Governor, a Mayor, a city councilman, etc… So does that means I can’t ever criticize or say someone is doing a horrible job just because I’ve never done it?

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        1. Amusing that you took what he said as criticism. Watching a guy for 3 innings and saying even though his results have been good but he stinks and can’t crack an egg is about as far from a critique as you can get. I’m sure if you think a particular politician is doing a horrible job you have a reason and have formed your opinion over a period of time. Right? Or am I giving you too much credit? You don’t think Cloyd has a future, state your reasons, but saying he stinks when his results in the minors make it pretty clear he doesn’t is just plain ignorant.

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    3. What were you watching, Roccom? That was a solid debut by Cloyd. Not spectabcular, but it wasn’t bad. If you believe you saw enuf tonight to write off Cloyd entirely, you might be unsmart.

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    4. That’s a pretty harsh assessment there. I don’t think the majority of folks here are thinking that Cloyd is going to be a superstar. He is what he is, a 5th starter/swing man. He flashed enough ability I think to stay in the major leagues. But for the Phillies, there’s no question that KK is better than Cloyd. If he sticks for the Phillies, Cloyd’s in the bullpen in the future.

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    5. Wow. He drove down from Allentown this afternoon and gave you a better start than Worley did yesterday. Did you expect Cy Young? And you don’t think that an offense should score more than two runs in order to win a game? Dag. Harsh dude. Most of us are hoping he can be a 4 or 5. He didn’t prove us wrong tonight.

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    6. I don’t think there was one numbers guy who praised Cloyd.

      Anybody who sited his 15-1 record as a reason he deserved a call up was almost certainly not a numbers guy.

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  24. the phillies seem to be snakebit this year against the mets, who are eminently ordinary against everyone else. utley and howard just hit two balls hard, right at people.

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    3. Maybe went to the curve too much tonight but it’s not hard to see the potential he’s got. Made Shoppach look goofy a couple times.

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  27. Not a bad debut. His control wasn’t as good as advertised which makes perfect sense in a debut and the pressure so we should see that much better next time out. His pitches appear to have better than average movement to me which is a plus, as well as the way he hides the ball until the last split second, which may be the equivalent of his 87 mph fastball look 90 to the hitters. The one other thing I’m a bit concerned about is the lack of difference in velocity of his various pitches. They all seem to be 81 to 88, with most fastballs 87 and most change ups 82. His change up would probably be more effective if it was high 70s or 80.

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  28. We probably did not see the best of Cloyd last night as :
    A) His AAA performance has declined in the last month, probably due to fatigue
    B) He was understandably nervous in his major league debut.
    So, overall, a “quality” start from him is not too bad. If Duda’s homer to right field hooks foul, he probably wins. That said, his velocity was disappointing. I only noticed one pitch that clocked at 90 mph. It is possible that earlier in the season, when he was pitching better, his velocity was higher.

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