Add Meyer to lefthanded relief candidates
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Add Meyer to lefthanded relief candidates
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
It's quiet on the Phillies' free-agent front. Not hard to see why. The Phillies want to upgrade the bullpen, where a multitude of possibilites exist.
But it might be worthwhile to sit back and wait to see how the market develops. That is, unless you want to pay $16.5 million over three seasons for a middle reliever, like the Detroit Tigers did Wednesday with righthander Joaquin Benoit.
Remember, middle relievers are the most difficult to predict from year to year. That's because they don't have good enough stuff to be a starter or a closer. So by nature, they are suseptible to ups and downs. (Need we not look any further as Danys Baez for an example of the perils of multi-year deals with middle relievers.)
Lefthanded relief is a target of Ruben Amaro Jr. this week and for the remainder of the winter. J.C. Romero is gone. Antonio Bastardo is young and talented, but the Phillies want additional options. Pedro Feliciano, Hisanori Takahashi and Brian Fuentes are top lefties on the market.
But they will scour the bottom of the barrel, too, and come up with signings like Dan Meyer, a lefthander who spent the last two seasons with Florida.
Meyer, a Woodbury native, signed a minor-league deal over the weekend, according to the Gloucester County Times.
Last season, Meyer pitched in just 13 games for the Marlins with a 9.64 ERA. In the minors, he had a 2.93 ERA in 46 innings.
During the 2009 season, Meyer was Florida's primary lefthanded option out of the bullpen -- a role he thrived in. In 71 games (58 1/3 innings) he had a 3.09 ERA. He held lefties to a .228 batting average and .674 OPS.
But for his career, lefties hit .283 with an .816 OPS against Meyer.
Meyer, 29, is a former first-round pick of the Braves. He's a low-risk signing with potentially high reward, a type the Phillies will seek out this off-season as the payroll climbs even higher.
"It was one of those things, I struggled with my breaking ball early, tried to do too much in too short an amount of time," Meyer told the Times. "I ended up going down and pitching well, but I never really got a chance the rest of the year. I came up in July, threw one good inning and got sent back down. I never really got an explanation why."
So for the cost of a split minor-league contract, the Phillies will attempt to discover if Meyer's 2009 was an aberration or not.
Here is how you upgrade the bullpen, get another horse that will keep you from using the mid of the bullpen, i dunno, like a cliff lee?— Random39- Yeah, and if Lidge, Madson and/or Contraras go down? Then what? Tell your starters they have to pitch 8-9 innings no matter what? This isn't the Overbrook Travelling League. They need a middle reliever.— MichaelZoe
- Meyer is a decent pickup.— Grazman
Agreed, Michael. You don't go into a season with 10 Cliff Lees and 15 Albert Pujolses. Guys like J.C. Romero ca. 2008 play a role far beyond the individual innings they pitch. They make it possible for starters, let-inning guys, managers and coaches to map out a pitching strategy for 4- and 5-game stretches. for this team to pick up another #1 starter would be like a guy with no pants spending his last $20 on an extra shirt.— 1980- (I meant 'late-inning')— 1980
- 39 - random's IQ.— amg
- I liked what I saw of Meyer in '09 - - - - - Plus, he's a local kid (Woodbury, NJ) who grew up rooting for the Phillies.— PhightinPhil
If Cliff Lee ever wears a Phillies uniform again I will personally pelt him with batteries. He refused to stay matched up against Sabatthia in 2009 and cost the Phils any chance of a repeat. He was up to his sissy boy BS again in Texas and it helped an inferior team beat them in this season's WS. Oh, but he wants a contract that matches Sabatthia's, what a POS.- Youch. That's harsh.— 1980
Comment removed.- @Paul SoTx..with the exception of the batteries, I agree with you 100%. Soft Cliff's refusal to pitch on 3 days rest cost the Phillies the 2009 World Series, yet the fans in this town somehow love this guy...as a lifelong baseball fan, I just don't get it.— Phront_Runner
- I went to school with Meyer. He got picked on in middle school and cried all the time. How will he handled 40,000 people booing him after a bad 1/3 of an inning? Good luck kid!— rsjII
- Dragon Pride!!!— mtt122
- I went to school with Meyer. He got picked on in middle school and cried all the time. How will he handled 40,000 people booing him after a bad 1/3 of an inning? Good luck kid!— rsjII
- I'd venture to guess a 29-year-old man isn't the same person he was at 11. WTF?— ejc527
