Phils add three veteran arms
The Phillies may be a little slim on the corner outfield spots as spring training nears, but they should have plenty of pitching depth.
Phils add three veteran arms
Ryan Lawrence, Daily News Staff Writer
The Phillies may be a little slim on the corner outfield spots as spring training nears, but they should have plenty of pitching depth.
The front office, which has been mostly quiet since the holidays, added to the pitching staff’s inventory in the last week by reining in three veterans.
The Phils have reached deals with right-handers Juan Cruz, Aaron Cook and Rodrigo Lopez. All three will be in camp as non-roster invitees on minor league contracts.
Cruz, 34, is 38-36 with a 4.05 ERA in 447 major league games in 12 seasons. He went 1-1 with a 2.78 ERA in 43 games with Pittsburgh last season, striking out 33 while walking 19 in 35 2/3 innings.
The 33-year-old Cook, who has spent the majority of his career with Colorado, went 4-11 with a 5.65 ERA in 19 games (all starts) with Boston in 2012. According to a foxports.com report, Cook will earn $1.625 if he’s on the Phillies major league roster.
Over the weekend, the Phils also added Lopez.
The 37-year-old Lopez went 3-1 with a 3.62 ERA in five starts for the Phillies in 2009. He made just four appearances with the Cubs last season, spending the majority of the year at Triple-A Iowa (2-5 with a 5.28 ERA in 18 games, 15 starts).
This is business as usual for the Phillies. In recent years they’ve added the likes of Dontrelle Willis, Joel Pineiro, Brian Sanches, Gary Majewski, Raul Valdes, Dave Bush, Kris Benson and Scott Elarton before spring training.
Some were released before the end of camp, some stuck around to help Triple-A Lehigh Valley and some have even managed to make the big league club at some point during the year.
Of course, some have also been Ryan Vogelsong and Jason Grilli, two former Camp Clearwater attendees who didn’t get the chance to graduate to the big league with the Phillies but went on to have a great deal of success elsewhere.
DogBiscuitthedope - lol
— Zero- "the facts are incontrovertible that Phils have declined precipitously as a franchise since Rube took over"
2009-Acquired Cliff Lee, returned to the WS despite a huge drop-off from Cole Hamels and others.
2010-Acquired Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt, had the best record in baseball, bounced by a team that got hot at the right time.
2011-Re-acquired Cliff Lee for below market value, repeated as best record in baseball, again bounced because the other guys got hot at the right time.
2012-Beset by injuries in the first half and falling 13 games under .500, the team rebounded when Utley and Howard returned to the line-up. From that point on they had the best second-half record of any team in baseball.
Yeah, they've really been a complete disaster since Rube took over. No one wins every year. All you can do is do your best to get to the post season, hope you get good match-ups, and hope you get hot. Amaro is not the greatest GM in the world, nor is he the worst. The Phillies have been consistently in contention for nearly a decade now and there are those of us that remember what things were like before, so forgive me if I don't freak out that we haven't won the WS in *gasp* four whole years.— Dante1138 - Exactly right. After getting Lee in 2009 Phils were 16-5 in Martinez and Lee's starts. 19-22 in the rest of the games. Fair to say they made the playoffs because of those two additions. And Phils won all 5 of Lee's starts in the playoffs where they won 9 games. Fair to say Lee had a big impact in Phils getting to the WS.
2010 - Phils were 3 games back of Braves when they got Oswalt. They won 10 of his 12 starts. That year acquired Halladay (Cy Young Winner) Gload, Valdez and Contreras ... who all contributed big time to the best record in baseball.
2011 - Acquired Lee. Had best record in baseball. Got Pence at the deadline (batted .320-something) hoping it would put them over the top.
Yeah. I'd fire the entire front office for the foolish moves they made.
PS ... compare the losses of Grilli, Vogelsong and Moss to the guys that were given away during Gillick's rein ... Floyd, Bourn, Gonzales. ?? Nuff said.— zubzub - never enough pitching no matter who they are,. ruben has not developed a single player since his arrival, he has consistently traded talent throughout the organization. now all they can do is sign who ever available. right now nearly every trade he's made, he has had his pocket picked.— stayoutofphilly
- Some of these "fans" are pretty rough on Ruben. It's pretty easy to be a Monday morning quarterback. You might recall that our previous general manager made some major mistakes along the way as well. Ruben isn't dumb. It's up to the players to play up to their capability. I think this core group- Utley/Howard/Rollins has one more World Series win in them. I would be surprised if they DON'T win it all this year.— Philsfan56
- not a big Aaron Cook fan and Rodrigo Lopez is . . well, Rodrigo Lopez, but Juan Cruz is interesting. Cruz has had lots of arm trouble but at one time his stuff was as good as anyone's. Don't know what its like now but I guess we'll all find out.— aintnorep
- I wish, when these articles were written, that we could all stay on-point a little bit. There is always reason for hope when we are talking about sports. That's why we like it, right. Fans are allowed to like their GM or dislike him, agree with him or disagree. They are even allowed to call them out and make up funny names ("Ruin Tomorrow Jr." is my new favorite). But, we shouldn't be attacking each other!! We all love the Phillies. I want them to win!! I want one or two of these pitchers to contribute. But, I am pessimistic b/c we have a GM that has a poor track-record when it comes to evaluating talent and making personnel decisions.— Copper34
