Schwimer: Diekman, Valdes and Luna joining Phillies
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Schwimer: Diekman, Valdes and Luna joining Phillies
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
According to recently demoted righthander Michael Schwimer, the team has promoted three players from triple-A Lehigh Valley. The trio, according to Schwimer's Twitter account, includes pitchers Raul Valdes and Jake Diekman and infielder Hector Luna.
A Phillies spokesman said the team will not confirm those moves. The team is off and returns to play Friday night against the San Diego Padres at Citizens Bank Park.
As bad as the bullpen has been -- and it has been awful -- these are not moves made entirely because of failure.
Diekman, 1-0 with five saves, a 0.59 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings for the Iron Pigs, was likely going to be promoted regardless of circumstances because lefthander Joe Savery was optioned to Lehigh Valley after the Phillies' 10-6 loss to the New York Mets Wednesday night. Diekman, also a lefty, was the most impressive young Phillies pitcher during spring training and you knew when the team broke camp that it was only a matter of time before he'd be in the big leagues.
The 34-year-old Valdes will give the Philllies a third lefthander out of the bullpen, but his promotion is likely to replace righthander Chad Qualls, who was unavailabe to pitch Wednesday. Valdes, who has a career 3-4 record with one save and a 4.58 ERA in 51 big-league appearances, was 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA at Lehigh Valley. He had struck out 26 batters in 21 innings.
Luna, 32, is likely joining the Phillies because Laynce Nix is headed for the disabled list. Nix aggravated a calf injury after contributing a pinch-hit RBI single Wednesday night. Luna, after a strong showing in spring training, was hitting .274 with 10 extra-base hits and 12 RBIs at Lehigh Valley. He hit .324 in his last 10 games and was in the midst of a six-game hitting streak.
We'll give you more details if and when the Phillies make the news official.
Hector Luna got a big game winning walk off RBI in spring training. This should fix everything.
— thingfish- Hector Luna got a big game winning walk off RBI in spring training. This should fix everything. (HTML deleted)— thingfish
- Five years was a good run.— ManU63
- Bandaids on a festering wound.— gentian
- Why bother waiting for the Phillies to make it official when you can just sit around and read Tweets?— apreziosi
- problem solved. now only if Sammy can teach Pence how to play RF, we'd be good!— palmyra21
- Ok, that's official: Schwimer will never comeback.— EL Zorro
Comment removed.- The Phillies are headed for a major collapse with no saviors in sight.— eaglesman1
- plamyra21, Sammy already has helped Pence and Brown too.— EL Zorro
- Valdes and Contreras for Ruben's grandfather. Guess mom is mad about Schwimer going down. Ruben is so sentimental. Don't why anyone would want Luna other than he is a position player over 30 who can't play. This is pathetic! This team is run by cronyism, nepotism and politcal identity in the front office.— Dull
- People they are 5 games out and if they fix the bullpen the division is still ours.If the bullpen does not blow 6 games they are 18-12 and in 1st place.— donne8008
- Ok, so we're relying on a Tweet from GasCan Schwimer? Nice bit of journalism there.
- To quote Gene Mauch the Phillies are riding on a dead horse...— denny1945
