Phillies searching for bullpen help
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Phillies searching for bullpen help
Matt Gelb
BALTIMORE — It does not take a genius to know the Phillies require reinforcements for their depleted bullpen. Charlie Manuel intimated Friday the front office is actively searching for just that.
"We're trying to do some things," Manuel said.
The Phillies have just two righthanded relievers before Jonathan Papelbon. One is a maligned Chad Qualls, who has a 5.32 ERA and allowed 29 hits in 22 innings. The other is Michael Schwimer, who has all of 22 1/3 major-league innings to his name.
It is a problematic situation that makes late-inning management an exercise in futility.
"We're in a tough spot right now," Manuel said. "I think everybody knows that. We're in a tough spot, but we still have to come out and play as good as we possibly can and see if that's enough."
Manuel was obviously briefed on the situation and said the organization's goal is to improve with an external move. Assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said there is no increased pressure to make a move for a relief arm.
Proefrock would not say if the team is involved in trade talks for a reliever. He did say there are no financial limitations that would preclude such a move.
"We're always trying to get better," Proefrock said. "That's what our job is."
The Phillies had originally hoped the bullpen would be a source of strength. But injuries to Jose Contreras, Mike Stutes, David Herndon and Justin De Fratus have severely depleted the righthanded relief pool.
Qualls signed for $1.15 million in the winter and has been nothing short of abysmal. Correcting that perceived mistake is more difficult without depth.
Proefrock believes the team still has internal options, but it's likely the Phillies would have made said move by now. Recently, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. ruled out the idea of converting a young starter in the minors to relief for a short-term fix.
That leaves a trade as the best possibility.
"I'm not saying something's going to happen," Manuel said. "I don't know. I'll wait and see just like you will. But I know we're definitely trying to improve our team."
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I said a few dozen times (hundred times?) this past off-season that Phils were living a fantasy if they thought they could go into season relying on Qualls and Dontrelle Willis and that they would end up having to lose valuable prospects to trade for a reliever when there infinite decent relivers available for 2 to 3 million/yr instad of the bargain basement trash rube did sign after blowing $50 mil. unnecessarily on a closer— warbiscuit- so rube goes into 2009 needing to strengthen starting pitching and bench and instead just re-signs Moyer and Bruntlett (addressing the first problem with Lee in July but never solving the bench and bullpen issues which costs them the WS), goes into 2010 after trading Lee for peanuts again needing another starter and so has to trade valuable prospects for Oswalt in July but now having a truly awful bench and loses again in NLCS with terrible offense and worse bench, goes into 2011 needing to replace Werth and instead does nothing and so trades even more valiable propsects for even less valuaable Pence in July in a trade that will haunt the franchise for years to come; and then goes onto 2012 needing to find offensive help for the entire injured infield and leftfield and to fix bullpen and instead gets even worse bargain-basment trash that can't pitch, hit or field and now he would need to come up with and trade some 30 prospects to acquire some 10 decent players to replace all the garbage that is on the team— warbiscuit
- Please do it. As a start.— mmds
- I have no idea what they were thinking when they constructed this bullpen.
Contreras was hurt. Bastardo and Stutes were leaking heavy oil late last year.Herndon and KK are mop up guys. Qualls has been shot for the last 2 years.
— joe smith - The Phils are a boat with 10 leaks. Fixing 1 or 2 of them won't change much.— farley
- I'll try to be as objective as I can. Like him or not, Warbiscuit Pretty well sums it up. I would disagree with the Pense deal. I think he's hurt, but beyond that, I think he'll turn into a threat at the plate. Right now he's swinging first pitch, high, and out of the strike zone. He needs more discipline at the plate.— phineas
- I would rather suffer a losing season than trade more prospects away. Rube just doesn't get it...wish we could trade him for a reliever.— CGPhilly
- i still chuckle every time that buscuit brings up Willis in the conversation. bastardo and stutes were 'leaking heavy oil' because they pitched more than they have before..prime example, the Braves bullpen last year..bastardo has pitched better since a rocky april and has been a big key for us. kk is undervalued by many of the fans. but can't argue about herndon, qualls or contreras. one would have to think that if they had healthy right-handed relievers qualls would have been replaced by now.— ESFjellin
- CGPhilly, completely agree with you. We need to trade FOR more AA and AAA prospects. So far as I'm concerned, this is a lost season -- it's OK, really, we've been very good for a long time -- and Hamels will not sign here. On my trading block would be Hamels, Victorino, Blanton, Polanco (hard to trade after today's news, I know), Pierre, Nix, Mayberry, Dom Brown, Wigginton, Kendrick, etc. You can't dump all of them and still have a 25-man roster obviously but there are pieces here to trade. What I would NOT do is trade any prospects in a desperate attempt to be relevant this year.— eman
- If Gilles and Monty give away their last power hitting hope for the outfield in Brown for some garbage, bargain basement relief pitcher than I will write Selig myself to request an investigation into the nefarious activities of those two people who's interest is obviously not developing a contender any longer. I keep checking to see if Rod Serling is in the room but so far, no sign of him:-)
Why did Amaro procure a travesty like Quals in the first place, WHO is scouting these people and WHO is recommending that the Phils buy them? Its frigg.in joke! As of now, there are only three critical moves they need to make and make them now.....that is fire Cholly the clueless wonder squirrel then bring up Domonic Brown NOW and replace the inept, tepid Pierre and perpetually disappointing Mayberry, then trade Blanton or Nix or something for a half baked reliever somewhere, or bring up a young arm, but why bother? Montgomery and Giles are determined to destroy the team, the fact that Cholly the clueless squirrel hunter, still has his job, says it all.— daystrum - Dom Brown is the most overrated prospected in baseball except every other team has realized that except the uneducated fan. HE CAN'T PLAY DEFENSE, watch the route the balls he takes. So what bring him up for what a ton of K's and an occasional extra base hit. He is the exact opposite of Galvis, he lacks the very baseball IQ that we praise Freddy for. We need an overhaul if they haven't hit rock bottom. Tough choices should be explored like trading Victorino and/or Hamels. We cant fix our problems with more 30+ yr patch jobs. While Amaro has done well with the adults check book, he has done anything that Gillick has taught him.— dtm_247
