Slow news day today, and I have some other obligations (like, my actual job), so I’ll keep this one short. The Phillies re-assigned Jason Jaramillo and Pete LaForest to minor league camp, meaning that Chris Coste is the backup catcher and will make his first opening day roster, unless he gets hurt. As you may remember, Coste was on the verge of the same feat 2 seasons ago when the Phillies traded for David Dellucci, making Coste the last guy sent to the minors.

I also wanted to take a moment to recommend Coste’s new book, The 33 Year Old Rookie. The kind folks at Ballentine Books (thanks Katie) were gracious enough to supply me with a copy. I’m about half way through, and it really does give you an appreciation for the life of a minor leaguer, and the obstacles you have to overcome to make it to the majors. Coste is a good writer, he doesn’t go overboard, but he does a great job conveying his feelings and emotions about a wide array of situations he’s faced. You know I don’t tell you what to buy and do with your dough, but if you like the Coste story, and if you ever had aspirations of playing baseball professionally (or any other sport really), then I’d recommend you pick this up. You can get it at Amazon.com, and I’m sure it will be in bookstores soon, if it isn’t already. I receive nothing for you clicking the link and buying it, I just thought I’d pass along the info for those who weren’t aware.

Happy Tuesday.

First, we have the Travis Blackley situation

“I honestly don’t know,” the lefthander said after pitching a scoreless ninth inning yesterday against the Reds, “but it feels like it.”

Blackley, a Rule 5 selection from San Francisco, had been competing for the No. 5 spot in the rotation, but he has pitched just three innings combined in his past two appearances and said he has been using the warmup routine of a reliever.

“I normally would take 50, 60, 70 pitches before a game as a starter,” Blackley said. “I’ve been throwing 40 here, and they want me down to 30.”

Hmmm. So I guess we can scratch Blackley off the list for the #5 spot. But with the Phillies desire to carry a 2nd lefty in the pen, you’d think he’d have an advantage over a guy like Youman or Castro, who both have options.

Continue reading Monday roundup →

Happy Friday. I thought today we could again take a look at the impending pitching crisis facing the Phillies, and who is possibly going to step into the open spots.

Myers
Hamels
Moyer
Kendrick
( )

Lidge
Gordon
Romero
Madson
(________)
(________)
(________)

Continue reading Sorting out the pitching mess →

The Phillies 40 man roster no longer contains Lincoln Holdzkom. Either this is a typo/web error on the Phillies end, or they’ve already seen enough to know that he’s not going to stick. Which do we think it is?

With many of the prospects re-assigned to minor league camps, there won’t be as much action to report on from big league games. Ken Mandel, the guy responsible for writing most of the pieces for Phillies.com, keeps a “mailbag” where he answers reader questions, though I have a hard time believing people ask some of the questions that get posted. Anyway, he touched on a few Phillies prospects in yesterday’s version

Continue reading Interesting (I guess) tidbits →

The Phillies have done some spring cleaning, optioning Joe Bisenius, Scott Mathieson, JA Happ, and Brad Harman to minor league camp, while re-assigning Joe Savery, Lou Marson, and Jason Donald, among others, to minor league camps as well. Players on the 40 man are “optioned”, while non-40 man guys are re-assigned, that’s just the way its designated. To me, this is kind of surprising. I didn’t really think Happ was a choice for the #5 spot in the rotation right out of spring training, but you’d have thought they’d have kept him around a bit longer to face quality big leaguers. Bisenius similarly was a longshot for a bullpen spot out of the gate, but again, he’ll probably be up to the bigs again this year at some point, so it seems odd to option him with 3 weeks left in spring training.

Here’s the question of the day. The Phillies top 3 is Hamels, Myers and Moyer. Kendrick is the #4 for now, though he’s gotten his brains beat in this spring. Assuming he is the #4, and assuming Adam Eaton wisely opens the season on the DL, who starts as the #5? Travis Blackley has had mixed results this spring, Kris Benson is still recovering, and now Happ has been optioned out. Is it Blackley’s job?

Yesterday’s game was shortened to 6 innings, much to the delight of Adam Eaton and Chad Durbin who both got smacked around. No real prospect action to report. This article, albeit from Phillies.com, talks about JA Happ, his rough 2007, and his desire to bounce back this year. I’m still kind of worried about him healthwise, as nothing concrete ever came about with his elbow, but I’m hoping he can put it together this year, as we’ll likely need him at some point. Scott Lauber also has a feature on Drew Carpenter, and how he could possibly be this year’s Kyle Kendrick. I disagree with that notion, only because Carpenter is much more on the radar (at least to people who follow the minors) than Kendrick was at this time last season.