Phillies shuffle bullpen
Update: The Phillies have called up lefthander Jeremy Horst and designated Chad Qualls for assignment. Qualls was roughed up in Wednesday's 11-7 loss to the Pirates, allowing three runs on three hits in one inning of work.
Phillies shuffle bullpen
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
Update: The Phillies have called up lefthander Jeremy Horst and designated Chad Qualls for assignment. Qualls was roughed up in Wednesday's 11-7 loss to the Pirates, allowing three runs on three hits in one inning of work.
Overall, Qualls was 1-1 with a 4.60 ERA in 35 appearances this year. Over the last 29 games, he posted a 5.68 ERA, and opponents hit .333 against him.
Horst has gone 2-1 with two saves and a 2.11 ERA in 26 games with the IronPigs this season. Since April 28, Horst has posted a 1.61 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 27.1 innings for Lehigh Valley. The 26-year-old made 12 relief appearances with the Cincinnati Reds last season, posting a 2.93 ERA in 15.1 innings.
He will wear No. 47 for the Phillies.
From earlier:
The bullpen pitcher du jour is Brian Sanches.
The Phillies called up the righthander from triple-A Lehigh Valley Thursday morning in time for their afternoon series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sanches, 33, replaced Joe Savery, who was optioned to the Iron Pigs after pitching 2 2/3 innings during Wednesday night's 11-7 loss that featured six Phillies relievers.
This will be Sanches' second stint with the big-league club this season. He appeared in three games in early May and allowed five earned runs on nine hits in four innings.
Given the fact that everyone except closer Jonathan Papelpon pitched out of the bullpen Wednesday night, there's a decent chance Sanches will make an appearance against the Pirates.
Sanches was 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA in 21 appearances at Lehigh Valley and had walked only five batters in 32 2/3 innings. He was 2-1 with a 1.15 ERA in his last 10 appearances for the Iron Pigs.
I said qualls was a mistake when they signed him and he proved me right.The bullpen is killing this team.I see further moves in the future but getting good bullpen guys will be almost impossible.— sewell guy- I don't know how Amaro could have anticipated Qualls falling apart this year after a career of sustained major league excellence.— jtj06
- yes Gillick won 3 World Championships with 2 teams and built 4 franchises despite his mistakes... Amaro has won zero championshps and has one of the weakest minor league systems and bleakest futures despite starting with as much big league and minor league talent as any team in baseball and having the biggest budget in the league— warbiscuit
- Defination of INSANITY
Doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results— baeboo - Qualls was just Baez all over again....and Bastardo is turning into Romero all over again. I said to people last year when Savery was getting his one or two guys out per appearance that he didn't have what it takes, he didn't have the "stuff" or the action on his stuff to consistently get ML hitters out. Now we know for sure. Aumont down in AAA is not has never and will never be a MLB pitcher of any consequence unless they can do a brain and an elbow transplant. Stutes always had a shoulder problem waiting with his mechanics. DeFratus, Schwimmer, etc.....more filler. But that's the problem. MLB is full of filler everywhere you look. Hitting is trumping pitching everywhere. All teams need pitching don't they? The Yanks lost Pettite and CC the same day. They got nothing in their system to replace that. Maybe the real key is to have more hitting? That worked in '08 for us.....— Mark1npt
- Amaro gave away Grili and Vogelsong for free but insisted on keeping Herndon and signing Qualls and Kendrick (for top dollar) ... Amaro traded away a dozen prospects but insisted that Brown was "untoucahble" ... Gillick made some bad (awful) decisions on players who underperformed, but moved on and won championhips and also acqired some terrific players at little or no cost, but the "underperforming" players acquired or re-signed by Amaro (Qualls, Baez, Bowker, Schneider, Bruntlett, Moyers, Willis,etc ) all performed exactly as their most recent history would have predicted that they would perform— warbiscuit
- PS....Horst is the new Savery....no difference there. Gonna be more pain this summer......— Mark1npt
I don't know which RP let out the most air in the balloon, Bastardo (blowing Cole Hamels' gem), or Qualls (kaboomed 80% of time). Either way, this team just got better.
Thank you, Chase Utley— Homersez- quick: name the last undervalued player and future star (e.g., a Victorino or Werth) acquired by Amaro for little cost.., as another blogger said, some guys have it (gillick) and some guys (amaro) don't even know what it is and trade away their whole future for a middling outfielder (Pence) who can't field and not only can't ever get a hit with a runner in scoring positon but cannot ever even advance a runner— warbiscuit
- and all this time that I was ripping Amaro, i didnt even realize that the recipient of the 3rd largest contrct he handed out this off-season (kendrick $7.6 million) was continuing to show on the field what a clueles imbecile the g.m. was— warbiscuit
- if you go back years ago pitchers pitched every 3 days they did not need rest like all of todays clowns. pitchers when called upon pitched. no matching up a pitcher against a certain hitter.there was no special pitcher for the 8th inning or the ninth inning. all these high paid pitchers on the phillies should do a little soul searching.— rfklak
- any week that includes the dismissal of little leaguer Michael Martinez, Joe Un-Savery and Chad Un-Qualls-ified is a good week.— advantasux
- there are 2 words that categorically prove beyond any shadow of doubt that Ruben Amaro is an absolute imbecile with absolutely zero ability to assess talent or run a baseball team: "Kyle Kendrick"... I'd venture to say that that there is no other basbell person in the history of the game who would have given such a $7.6 mil/2 yr contract to such a clearly useless player ...crashburnalley was among the first to say it was one of the most baffling contracts he had ever seen— warbiscuit
- now, if these could add to these three moves (Martinez, Qualls and Savery) by also finding a new home for Kyle Kendrick, that would be best of all.
Dismissing three of their embarrassing players is a good start, but it's only a start. There are more moves that need to be made.
Meanwhile, the Amaro defenders are sharpening their pens ready to pounce on me..."and just who should they bring up, genius?" they will ask.
My answer? How does a man spend $180MM and have so many fringe players on his roster and virtually nothing in the farm system to turn to. For $180MM and a rich farm system legacy over the past decade, the Phils under Amaro have maybe 14 or 15 big-leaguers in the entire system.
In other words, that I have no answers as to who should replace all these pretenders is more proof that Amaro has ruined this club.— advantasux - Excellent point, advantasux. Ruben Amaro has Ruined Tomorrow.— dasher
