Phillies' Zagurski looking for a chance

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Mike Zagurski spent an entire year at the Phillies' Florida complex rehabbing from Tommy John surgery in 2008. It was a cruel outcome for a pitcher relishing his unlikely first taste of the major leagues.

"I wasn't the most pleasant person to be around," Zagurski said.

Now Zagurski is back in the same clubhouse with the rest of the Phillies. He's healthy, confident and still lefthanded - a trait that is valued by the Phillies.

Zagurski is often the candidate unmentioned in the race to be Scott Eyre's replacement as the second lefthanded pitcher in the bullpen behind J.C. Romero. There's Antonio Bastardo, who impressed Phillies brass with a clutch strikeout of Jason Giambi in the playoffs. And then there's Sergio Escalona, who appeared in 14 games for the Phillies during the regular season and turned a few heads.

Both manager Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee have spoken positively about Bastardo this spring, but the competition will be won when the exhibition games start.

"You watch him right now, he's throwing real good," Manuel said of Zagurski.

For a player who made a meteoric rise to the majors - in 2007 he began the season in single A only to pitch for the Phillies on May 25 - Zagurski is a poster boy for the old baseball adage: It's easy to get to the big leagues, but it's harder to stay.

In his case, it was injuries that derailed a career. He hurt his right hamstring trying to field a ball in a game against Pittsburgh on Aug. 18, 2007. That required season-ending surgery, which later hampered him in 2008 spring training. And when he finally got into a game in late March, he injured his left arm, requiring Tommy John surgery on April 3, 2008.

In Florida after the procedure, Zagurski joined the club of rehabbing pitchers. He became close with Scott Mathieson, another former Phillie who made the big leagues on a fast track only to succumb (twice) to Tommy John surgery.

Mathieson helped that grumpy person Zagurski described himself as survive the mundane rehab work.

"I don't want to say I was lucky [Mathiesen] had it first, but I was able to lean on him after he had his first one," the 27-year-old Zagurski said. "There were certainly days when I came to the field and I didn't feel very good. I wasn't sure if something was wrong. But he was there to reiterate to me, 'You're going to have the days where you're stiff and you don't feel great.' "

Zagurski made his return to the mound last season, pitching 53 innings for double-A Reading. He was 3-4 with a 3.57 ERA. If he can get lefties out this spring, the Phillies will take a hard look.

When he first appeared on the scene in 2007, he was effective against lefthanded batters in the majors, holding them to a .216 batting average. Righties hit .340 off Zagurski.

His control - not Jamie Moyer-like before the surgeries, Zagurski said - is much better against lefties than it is righties. In the minors last season, lefties hit for a better average off Zagurski than righties did, but his walk and strikeout rates were significantly better against lefties than righties.

Because the Phillies have a handful of middle relievers who can pitch more than one inning - Jose Contreras, Danys Baez and Chad Durbin, to name a few - the 12th pitcher on the staff could very well be used as just a one-out guy.

Whether Zagurski needs more innings before he could assume that role will depend on how he responds to the opportunities this spring.

"You're asking a lot of a guy who has had very little time in the big leagues and is coming off two surgeries with very little mound time last year," Dubee said. "He's still a little rough. He still needs some ironing out. He's got enough stuff."

Zagurski is optimistic.

"I think I can help them," he said. "Hopefully, they'll see that."