Phillies Foul Balls

It’s time for yet another article in the Philly papers about how Ryan Madson is definitely going to stay in the bullpen this year. As always the refrain is “we need him more in the bullpen.” At this point I’m starting to wonder if it’s really a case of “because we said so and we don’t like being questioned.”

Lieber and Lidle are innings eaters, and Myers looks like he may be on the verge of becoming a pitcher who they can count on going deep into the game. If so, having a reliable fourth pitcher who they can count on to go long should substantially reduce the need for an extra strong bullpen arm. Right now they’re bordering on not having enough innings for the relievers to need a 7 man bullpen, and an extra strong starter would definitely make a 6 man pen the best way to go.

The other implication in that article was that if someone in the rotation goes down and needs to be replaced, Gavin Floyd is the one who will replace him. That sounds like a recipe for disaster. All told he’s had about 6 weeks at AAA and there’s still quite a bit he can learn at that level. By leaving him in the majors for a couple extra weeks, the Phils made that quite clear. If they were to start yanking him back and forth between the majors and the minors, that would probably be the absolute worst thing that they could do. In the near run, if they need an extra starter Madson really is the obvious first choice with Amaury Telemaco and Pedro Liriano being other possibilities. I don’t think the Phils should be thinking about Floyd again until after the All-Star Break.