Michael Schwimer gave the assembled media, Phuture Phillies included some of his time prior to the game this evening against Gwinnett. Schwimer has been simply dominant lately, going 1-0 with a 0.64 ERA in his last 9 games with a save.  During that same time period, Schwimer has thrown 14 innings, giving up just 2 runs on five hits, while striking out 23 and allowing just one of eleven inherited runners to score.

With his profile continuing to rise on the Philadelphia radar screen and after some early season struggles, Schwimer has turned it around, “I have to give credit to two people on that.  Rod Nichols had tinkered a little bit, a few weeks back with some of my mechanics to get my front side turned in a little more and get more closed off.  I felt I was opening up a little bit early and I was able to be more deceptive to hitters because of that…I also had a meeting with Chuck LaMar a few weeks back and he talked to me about my mental demeanor and being more aggressive…rather than getting to cute and trying to make certain pitches in certain counts.  Those two things have changed the way I have approached pitching this year and it has a lot of positives.” Continue reading Schwimer Focused…. →

In the first of what will be a series of roster moves the Phils have called up RP David Herndon and OF Domonic Brown, placed OF Shane Victorino on the 15 day disabled list and optioned RP Scott Mathieson to AAA Lehigh Valley.  Just 12 hours after GM Ruben Amaro told the assembled media that Brown would not be called up, that is just what happened and Brown is expected to be available this evening against Texas.  The swap of Herndon and Mathieson makes sense in that Herndon is fresh and can provide some immediate innings in Philadelphia if necessary, after the depleted bullpen threw, in essence, the whole game last night (including two IP by Mathieson).

P Joe Blanton is still expected to be placed on the DL, most likely over the weekend.  When that occurs, the likely move will be Vance Worley rejoining the Phillies rotation.  Herndon has pitched well in Lehigh Valley, going 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA and a save in 5 games, spanning nine innings.  He has walked one and struck out nine for Lehigh Valley.

Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Roy Oswalt has been activated from the DL and will be starting tomorrow against the St. Louis Cardinals.  To make room on the roster, the Phils sent Vance Worley back down to AAA Lehigh Valley.  Sources in Lehigh Valley say that Worley will be starting tomorrow night when the ‘Pigs start their series against the Yankees in Scranton. Worley could not have performed much better then he did for the Phils, both in the rotation and out of the ‘pen in his several weeks with the big club.

In another roster move, ‘Pigs pitcher Jason Grilli has been placed on the DL with back problems.  Grilli threw 12 pitches yesterday before removing himself from the game with a back problem.  With both Scott Mathieson and Mike Stutes in Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley relief corps is very thin with Grilli’s placement on the DL.  Grilli had been unscored upon 11 of his last 12 outings, currently throwing ten consecutive scoreless innings.