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.
More stupidity from sorebiscuit. This is a common practice - teams load up on longshots in the hope that even one makes a comeback, fills a niche or gives them flexibility on minor league rosters. All at little or no cost. It's how SF got Ryan Vogelsong as a non-roster invitee. Everyone criticizes that RAJ didn't get a Ryan Vogelsong but this is how the process works. And it's always a longshot. These moves are a no-brainer - which, by definition, should be something that sorebiscuit understands.— inky93- I third the notion of knocking the bottom out of Anna Benson.
- i could pitch better than some of these clowns,....and i've been dead for over 40 years,......by the way-.....Floyd Rules!!— SyddBarrett
- Interesting sign in Cook as a ....5th starter if Lanan, KK cannot do it???? Losing 11 games is not what I would call , signing with CONFIDENCE.— Koons
- Never know what may happen with those three. SOmetimes you may find a diamond in the rough. Better than throw 50M at a dud of a stud pitcher.— Aces high
- Psst...Hey Rube, you need more than pitchers to play baseball— twpman
- @s -- i never said these deals were a "problem" becuase they cost money--problem is that Clueless rube strikes out on about 100% of these low risk signings becuase he has zero ability to spot talent so just wastes time getting leftovers that nobody else has the slightest interest in,,, and he lets go the guys that end up working out that fell into his lap accidetnally becuase he's such a putZ that he didn't even recognize what he had (vogelsong, Moss, Grilli) -- Rube isn't signing these guys because he has any inkling that they may be any good (unlike a Gillick or Sabean low-cost signing); he's just signing them cause they're "available" and calling it "depth" and he's merely into deep sh#$— warbiscuit
- I think most of these guys are misses for most teams. Very few turn into anything. But it's fair to criticize for the Grilli and Brandon Moss guys who they let walk.
— s - How is it fair to criticize letting grilli walk? Guy had an era between 5-6 for every organization (which was many) prior to San Fran. Exactly what would prompt RAJ to keep him? Please — DogBiscuitthedope
- I think it's fair. He had a 1.93 ERA at Lehigh. If you're picking up these guys looking for diamonds in the rough or turnarounds he was shining pretty brightly. Making roster space was maybe an issue but I believe all that was required was to give him a major league contract which would have meant adding him to the 40-man roster -- he would not have to have been called up (someone correct me if I'm wrong there). I don't know who was on the 40-man at the time but I do know we've had projects like Joe Savery on it for a while that appear to be going nowhere fast. It would have been a gamble but GMs are paid the big bucks to make the correct, calculated gambles. In that regard warbiscuit is correct. — s
- I might also add that when Grilli walked it was July. Remember how well that bullpen was pitching in June and July? I can still smell it ... like it's stuck on my shoe forever.
The Phillies do not get great grades from me for talent evaluation. Ed Wade really brought up the best core of talent. But he stunk at making in-season moves.— s - as I posted exactly one year ago: warbiscuit 1/16/12: "problem is NOT that they got Pineiro (or Willis for that matter)..problem is what they did NOT do -- all these meaningless bullpen and bench deals for low-cost garbage generally result in useless garbage (see, e.g. Baez, Schneider, Bruntlett, Herdon, Gload, etc) and Amaro has still failed to improve offense, bench and bullpen in 3 1/2 yrs - an intelligent g.m. does NOT max out his budget (as UncleStosh is correct on this score) by putting ALL his reliever budget into a single overrated and overpaid closer but instead gets multiple quality relivrs .. an intelligent g.m. does not put all his "offense" budget into a non-slugging so-called slugging 1st baseman with the rest of the offensive positions at best avg or below avg offensively and then can't afford a decent hitting 3rd baseman or any real quality on the bench, and major q's in the bullpen ... yes a team can get to the post-season just on the strength of its starting pitchign but the Amaro method is 0 for 3 in October and I doubt the numbers will improve as the team is actually getting worse---meanwhile he has also squandered the Phils quality prospects in his reckless manner of overspending for a few players, trading away all his prospects, while neglecting depth, balance, bench and bullpen, etc and the proof is in the pudding as he has never won squat"— warbiscuit
- airbiscuit says: "and $50 mill on a choking non-reliable closer". Did I sleep through 2012? Papelbon did the job he was brought in to do.— maurysline
- airbiscuit says: "and $50 mill on a choking non-reliable closer". Did I sleep through 2012? Papelbon did the job he was brought in to do.— maurysline
- warbiscuit will gladly outline the bad losses Papelbon had in 2012. There are some he lost where you'd expect a win. Personally, I have a different gauge but a similar set of concerns with Papelbon that only a trip to the post-season or two will answer. First, he is expensive. And there is an argument for instead having multiple cheaper relievers. It works either way for different teams so there's no one answer there. Second, the cracks in Papelbon's performance started showing the two years before we acquired him. It may be yet another case of the Phillies getting the right guy a few years too late. The last point, which is the big one to me is this: Papelbon's real value is in saves during the season and, maybe more importantly, for what he can offer in the post-season. He's only had one bad post-season. Like I said before, 6 post-seasons in a row giving up zero runs. Pretty impressive. But that was a younger Papelbon. We won't know if he still has that value and that one year was an anomaly until we see him in the post-season again. If we can't get there his signing will end up as at least some wasted money because that's what we got him for more than anything (my opinion). I think the chances of him not living up to the last year or two of his contract are very possible. His real value comes in getting to the post-season this year and next year. — s
