Introducing Brian Sanches
As you may or may not know by now, the Phillies have added Brian Sanches to the 40-man roster and promoted him to the active roster to fill the void left when David Herndon hit the disabled list with an elbow injury last night.
Introducing Brian Sanches
David Murphy
As you may or may not know by now, the Phillies have added Brian Sanches to the 40-man roster and promoted him to the active roster to fill the void left when David Herndon hit the disabled list with an elbow injury last night.
The Phillies opted to go with the experience (and, perhaps, right-handedness) of the 33-year-old, who pitched well in spring training and has continued to do so at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The roster move means no promotion for lefty prospect Jake Diekman. You can read our earlier summation of the situation here.
In the meantime, here's Brian Sanches in Cliffs Notes:
Sanches averaged 49 appearances and 61 innings from 2009 through 2011, posting a 2.92 ERA while averaging 7.8 strikeouts, 4.4 walks and 0.9 home runs per nine innings. In 2009 and 2010 he posted ERAs under 2.60 with solid strikeout numbers and a middling walk rate. Last year, his walks ballooned to 5.3 per nine innings, and along went his ERA, going from 2.26 in 2010 to 3.94 in 2011. Like a lot of guys in his role, Sanches struggles against lefties. Last year, they hit .257/.393/.487 against him. Over the last three years he has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 1-to-1 against lefties (52 walks, 55 strikeouts).
Against righties, Sanches has been nothing short of dominant. Last year, he held them to a .198/.271/.328 line. The year before, .195/.263/.325.
With Brian McCann, Michael Bourn and Jason Heyward all on tap for this three-game series against Atlanta, rookie lefty Joe Savery could be pressed into action if Charlie Manuel tries to go batter-by-batter in certain relief situations. The obvious hope is that Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay pitch deep into the game and eliminate any need for anybody besides Jonathan Papelbon, Chad Qualls, Jose Contreras and Antonio Bastardo.
Stupid move by Ruben. He should have brought up Scott Posednick, at least he would get some playing time. Our starters go deeper into the game than any other team's starters. There is no need to have that many pitchers in the bullpen.— Ry824Guy- Isn't Posednick hitting under .200 at Lehigh Valley? Amaro doesn't make the calls on the 40 man roster. Charlie does. If Charlie wants 30 pitchers, Charlie gets 30 pitchers. If he wants and extra lefty in the pen, Charlie gets an extra lefty in the pen. — beegal99
- Herndon to the DL is addition by subtraction.— Penfold18
- I thought he's been on the DL for years... — justacarpenter
- Our starters are now H2-Oh-No!— Edward Creed
- Use Bastardo? Really? I think he's hurt. He has been below average thus far and very inconsistent.— homerjay99
- The article mentions the void left by Herndon going on the DL. What void would that be, exactly?— dasher
- he's all we got down on the farm? whose next geoff geary? brian sanches is just not very good. i thought the strength of our system was our bullpen arms in the minors. sanches will lose us a game or two if put into big situations.— slanted and enchanted
- Geoff Geary? Come on! No...next up is Clay Condrey! He definitely wins the Cy Young Award for mop up men :-)
— SteveS11 - Jake Diekman has had control issues and Pods is BA.200 with a .510 OPS at LHV AAA. As Far as Herndon he performed well last year and if you need to see his stats look them up yourself. Do you people ever actually watch baseball and see what passes on other teams for relief pitchers. Some of you think every guy in every position on every play has to be perfect. Fantasy land. No team has 25 all stars, Herndon was decent last year and this year he is hurting.— DUDESKINS
- Jake Diekman in 11 innings has allowed 3 walks and struck out 17 with an ERA of 1.45. — VermontPhilsFan
- Jake Diekman in 11 innings has 3 walks, struck out 17 and has an ERA of 0.82. — VermontPhilsFan
- As the season progresses, if the AAA relievers step up, then Herndon needs to go down. The guy has decent stuff and is OK at times, but horrible when it counts. He has barely pitched above AA, and he only spent 1 1/2 seasons as a reliever. He needs practice in high-leverage situations but not here, where it hurts the Phillies. We didn't have good options before but should soon, if not already.— PhilaLogic
- Dudeskins, do you ever look up stats to support your comments? Diekman has been in 9 games, has 3 saves, an era of .082, 13 strike outs and 3 walks. Control issues? Doesn't look that way to those of us who actually watch baseball...— Russ
- Remember the name of the game is options and cap space. This guy has options, no cap space hit and, has really no future when it comes to the big picture. Every day in the majors adds up on the ultimate deal and time a player has before the "big" payday. With this season going nowhere fast, why take a chance on disrubting the kids, "down on the farm". They are doing good there, so leave them there. They won't make a difference this year, and things can only go from bad to worse. The Phils will have a bad year, they will lose Hamels to free agency, Blanton will have to go because his price-tag is too high, (although lately he has picthed well, but not well enough to justify his rate), Thome will retire, the Flyin' Hawaiian will either sign for less or move on, Utley retires, (medically). The list goes on and on. But, the franchise will be able to make moves that keep it on top. The key is to get Ryan Howard healthy and produce some more RBI's. This increases his trade value to the American Leauge for a DH role. I see about $20 million cap room next year. Invest wisely, (see Puljos, Fielder, Reyes, Crawford, etc.). This year will be a year of change. Be patient.— mattbagley
