Competition heats up for 2 to 3 Phillies bullpen jobs
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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - A couple of days ago, when Rich Dubee announced that the competition for the two or three open spots in the Phillies' bullpen would begin "pretty soon," he sent a message to the handful of relievers who are in the mix for the jobs. Forget about the past 3 weeks, the pitching coach said, and show us what you've got.
That's good news for several players who have spent the first month of spring training trying to find a steady groove. At the top of that list is lefty Jeremy Horst, who already enjoyed a certain amount of leeway, thanks to a 2012 season in which he was the Phillies' most consistent reliever in front of Jonathan Papelbon. The 27-year-old has allowed half of the 26 batters he has faced to reach base, surrendering four home runs and three walks, while striking out two. Horst, who did not have a great camp last year, offers a good case study on caution one must use when using spring training for evaluation purposes. One thing to note: 22 of the 26 batters he has faced hit righthanded.
"Spring training is spring training," manager Charlie Manuel said. "Don't get me wrong, spring training means something. But spring training is not a season . . . I remember exactly what he did [last season]. That will mean something."
Same goes for 34-year-old lefty Raul Valdes, who struck out 35 batters while walking only five and posting a 2.90 ERA in 31 innings for the Phillies last season. Valdes has looked pretty sharp lately, retiring 15 of his last 19 batters, eight of them via strikeout. Then again, so has 26-year-old lefty Jake Diekman, who has struck out nine of the 20 batters he has faced this spring, while walking two and hitting one with a pitch. Eight of those 20 batters are projected to enter the season as major league starters, and two more are projected to be bench players. According to Baseball-Reference.com's Opponent Quality metric, which measures the quality of batters a pitcher has faced in spring training, Diekman has faced the toughest competition of the three. But while Diekman has the most upside of the trio of lefties, he probably entered spring training with some ground to make up on the other two, after walking 20 batters and hitting three in 27 innings last season.
The pitcher with the most to gain over the final few weeks of March might be Mike Stutes, who had an impressive outing against the Rays on Friday in Port Charlotte, striking out Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson and getting Evan Longoria to ground out in a clean inning. Stutes played a key role for the Phillies in 2011, but struggled down the stretch and then missed most of last season with a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery. The smart money is on the Phillies' keeping two lefties besides Antonio Bastardo, with one of those lefties serving as the long man. That would leave one open spot for a righthander, with Stutes, Justin De Fratus and Phillippe Aumont the leading candidates to fill the role.
"It's open," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said earlier in the week. "No one has really stepped up other than maybe Aumont a little bit. Aumont has pitched as well as anybody, and it looks like he's got a good demeanor. He's confident on the mound. That's good. I think Valdes took another step forward. We'll see how Horst pitches the next time out. I have confidence in Horst, because he pitched so well for us last year. He's going to have a little bit of an edge over some of the other guys, naturally. But things are open."
Saturday just might be the first day of the competition, as Diekman and Horst are both scheduled to pitch against the Rays in Clearwater.
Phillers
Infielder Kevin Frandsen went 2-for-3 in a 3-2 loss to the Rays to improve his average to .385 . . . Leftfielder Darin Ruf connected on a double off David Price, while rightfielder Domonic Brown went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles off Price, improving his spring average to .424 . . . Righthander Kyle Kendrick struck out three, walked one and allowed three runs while throwing 61 pitches in four innings . . . The Phillies host the Rays on Saturday. Scheduled to pitch are John Lannan, Adam Morgan, Jeremy Horst, Antonio Bastardo, Jake Diekman and B.J. Rosenberg.
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