Phillies option Savery, need to find answer for leaky bullpen
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Phillies option Savery, need to find answer for leaky bullpen
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
The tone in Manuel's voice relayed a sense of urgency he seldom projects this early in a season. Now, the urgency must spawn action.
The optioning of Savery opens up a spot on the active roster, which a team spokesman said would be filled after Thursday's off day. The logical choice is Triple-A prospect Jake Diekman, a 25-year-old lefty who impressed Dubee so much during spring training that the pitching coach jokingly offered to become his agent. Heading into yesterday, Diekman had allowed one run with 22 strikeouts and three walks in 14 1/3 innings at Lehigh Valley. He has a mid-90's fastball and a serviceable slider that has improved steadily since he jumped onto the organizational radar last year. At the very least, he is worth a try-out.
Whether Diekman is ready, or whether he will ever be ready, is no longer a factor the Phillies have the luxury of considering. Last night, Manuel said that Qualls was unavailable, despite the fact that the veteran sinker-baller had logged just one three-pitch outing over the previous four days. Bastardo was an unsurprising scratch after pitching on back-to-back days, but even when available he has looked nothing like the set-up man who dominated throughout last season.
At 14-18, with Chase Utley and Ryan Howard's return dates still TBD, the Phillies cannot afford to keep direct mailing victories to opponents. They have to hit, yes, and they have to catch. But a team built on pitching needs to hang onto the leads it is given. And right now, that means an active search for a pitcher who can do so.
The tone in Charlie Manuel's voice relayed a sense of urgency he seldom projects this early in a season. Now, the urgency must spawn action.
The optioning of Joe Savery opens up a spot on the active roster, which a team spokesman said would be filled after Thursday's off day. The logical choice is Triple-A prospect Jake Diekman, a 25-year-old lefty who impressed Rich Dubee so much during spring training that the pitching coach jokingly offered to become his agent. Heading into yesterday, Diekman had allowed one run with 22 strikeouts and three walks in 14 1/3 innings at Lehigh Valley. He has a mid-90's fastball and a serviceable slider that has improved steadily since he jumped onto the organizational radar last year. At the very least, he is worth a try-out.
Whether Diekman is ready, or whether he will ever be ready, is no longer a factor the Phillies have the luxury of considering. Last night, Manuel said that Chad Qualls was unavailable, despite the fact that the veteran sinker-baller had logged just one three-pitch outing over the previous four days. Antonio Bastardo was an unsurprising scratch after pitching on back-to-back days, but even when available he has looked nothing like the set-up man who dominated throughout last season.
At 14-18, with Chase Utley and Ryan Howard's return dates still TBD, the Phillies cannot afford to keep direct mailing victories to opponents. They have to hit, yes, and they have to catch. But a team built on pitching needs to hang onto the leads it is given. And right now, that means an active search for a pitcher who can do so.
Read more in tomorrow's Daily News.
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Buy Phillies tickets Comments (22)
Tonight was a dark classic. First was Kendrick, you know, the man who is blatantly poor to mediocre yet has been lauded because of his oh so rare ability to be used in the pen and the rotation (as if any donkey couldn't fill that role). He blows up and has nothing. Then 55 year old Contreras does his part. Then, just to make sure he doesn't get left out of the carnage, here comes Sanches to give up his bomb just to cap it all off. Here's the problem. At least with the offense we can kid ourselves with the fantasy that Utley will ever be able to consistently play again. Who's coming to save the pen when you have nothing left to trade? Will Ruben further drown this team in age and large contracts by giving up more of the very few prospects that are left just to try and stop the bleeding? What a mess.— Sewellmatt- This is all on Booben Amaro. He squandered the inheritance bequeathed to him by Gillick, and completely gutted the farm system of talent. Now that reinforcements are needed, none is to be had. Thanks, Booben for your "Return to the 70's" nostalgia trip.— DameB
- Ruben really did gamblit all away on a year or 2 of trying to ride Halladay, Lee, and Hamels to a title. Sad thing is that if Lee has a game like he has 90% of the time against the Cards in game 2 last year the Phils might indeed have paraded down Broad Street again last year. Unfortunately the gamble now seems to be a real bad loss. Everyone is talking about signing Hamels. If he is crazy enough to sign on with this team that is a year or 2 from major rebuilding, they will have a payroll of near $150 million for just Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Pap, Howard, and Utley. How on gods earth do you fill in the rest of the team on about 25 more million?. And if the offense is this bad this year what do you do when you now can't sign Victorino or Pence? Yikes... starting to really see a Hamels trade by the deadline this year. Hate to see the youngest of the aces go but we may have falsely assumed that he even wants to sign up again here. If you were him, would you like the future here?— Sewellmatt
Comment removed.- Phillies will be sellers by the trading deadline, with Hamels and Victorino being their major pieces. That's how they'll need to rebuild the offense, trading for near major league ready prospects at 3rd, 2nd, and maybe OF. They shouldn't need to trade for pitching. Offseason, they sign a couple middle relievers, promote May to the rotation. This year they NEED to take a step back or else it'll be downhill for a longer period.— bdm155
- Kyle Kendrick is a AAA pitcher, and always has been..........he needs to be banished to Lehigh Valley— njd3x3x3xchamps
- Amaro has to pull off a trade for a quality long man. Question is what does he have to trade? Blanton? Then who the #5. Kendrick? PLEASE! The guy is a loser.— 1republican
- Can we option Kendrick to AAA? But I don't think the Ironpigs want him. Can we trade him for some rolls of used ace bandages and 2 bags of used baseballs for batting practice, preferably not the ones the other team hit off him which are probably unusable.— skolman
- Phillies must make a move. If they are not serious about resigning Hamels and Victorino than they must get some position players. They need a second baseman and a third baseman and someone to replace Victorino. With May and possibly Colvin, Pettibone in the wings it essentially becomes a trade with Hamels for some young ready prospects. If they could trade Lee with his salary they could get a great deal in return. In two years the young Phillies could be young, hungry and affordable instead of old, complacent, and costly.— Phillip Phan
- Colvin? Colvin is back in Clearwater and has regressed the last few years. Maybe Cloyd. And Pettibone until yesterday, hasn't pitched real well at AA.— EL Zorro
- Comment removed.
- Cloyd and May are their two best pitching prospects that might bring something in a trade. They'd be very reluctant to part with either I would think, particularly May. One of these guys is probably being viewed as taking Halladay's spot in 2-3 years. Trading more young prospects like these guys really only makes sense if the Phillies are in it for a post-season run. Trading them now and being 12 games out in July would just make the long term problem worse. They would also look pretty stupid.
I think the pain will continue into July for two reasons: First, even as bad as they are right now, it's too early to tell what they'll be in the second half. That will dictate whether they take the knife out or try to piece something together for one last shot. Second, they really have to get Utley and Howard back into the mix to get that read. Also to make some of their players look better for possible trades. If the entire lineup is stinking it up in July the trade value of every player goes down.
I am not convinced there's any simple move they can make now that helps. It might be better to shake the bullpen up with what they have. Personally, I'd stop using Qualls regularly in the 8th and get Bastardo back in there regularly again. Bring Diekman up and see what he can do as a late inning LH specialist type. Stop the Sanches experiment and maybe try a guy like Horst. Don't pitch Kendrick in late innings -- that's never been a role for him. For now, no Contreras past the 7th until he shows something.— s - The Jimmy Rollins signing was bad for this club and will kill them for the next three years. He is hitting under 200 w runners in scoring position - almost a guaranteed pop up every time. If Chase wouldn't have gotten hurt again, Freddy Galvis would never have seen the light of day with Jimmy blocking him. Ruben keeps saying they need to get younger, yet he continues spending big bucks on guys well over the hump. I don't get it.— AngryGregR
- Phils are done. Not worth making trades that drain the system. Time to rebuild. Need to try to trade Utley, Howard to AL teams for top prospects (not that anyone wants either of them, for different reasons). Consider: even w/Utley and Howard the offense stunk last year. And possibly trade Dom Brown, Victorino, Polanco, and even Rollins if possible, or Doc and/or Lee. It's over.— johnandursula
- blanton,kendrick, hamels, victorino all candidates for trading off if we can get younger players with good potential. hard to understand victorino's not great season when he's free agent end of season. team needs retooling.
— righty
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