Transaction: Kendrick optioned, Escalona recalled

As expected, Kyle Kendrick, after taking the loss in last night's ballgame, has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Left-handed reliever Sergio Escalona, earning his third promotion of the young season, has been recalled. Beerleaguer: A day late and a dollar short perhaps. Escalona, who has appeared in three games with the Phils, makes more sense for what they need with Scott Eyre on the shelf.

Comments

[pb]

Anybody interested in tickets for tonight (sat. 6/13).. email me at pborges25@verion.net… asap

[mikes77phillies]

From the last thread, "it doesn't look to me like Garland's really any worse than Joe Blanton. Maybe a tad better."

Garland does'nt have Blanton's upside. Garland's career stats are inflated by a very good year, 5 years ago. Blanton, when he is good can give you what he gave last night. Garland has Moyer type upside.

In fact, if the Phillies wanted to trade for a John Garland level pitcher, you might as well trade for Jason Marquis. He has been a much better pitcher than Garland the last 3 years. Or try to fleece Pittsburg out of Zach Duke.

[MG]

Question is - does Cholly use Escalona or does he have two guys (including Taschner) in his bullpen the next 2 weeks that he absolutely refuses to use unless he really has no other alternative?

[RSB]

That's just bizarre, the kind of thing you'd expect from an incompetent organization instead one that's supposedly one of the classes of the league.

Still, it's better to have this additional evidence that the Phillies can at least expediently admit and expediently correct mistakes instead of stubbornly clinging to them, as in the past.

JW: Marquis is definitely the pitcher I want - him or Aaron Cook. Problem is, the Rockies are on one of their out-of-nowhere winning binges and neither of those guys will be going anywhere should it continue much longer.

[Tray]

"Blanton, when he is good can give you what he gave last night."

As I suppose can Garland. Even this year, he's had a 7 inning, 3-hit, no run outing against the Padres, a 7 inning, 3-run, 5-hit start against the Dodgers, 6 innings, 1 run on 4 hits against the Dodgers again, 6 innings and 1 run allowed against Florida (not sure why he didn't go deeper, he just threw 80 pitches), and 6 1/3, 2 runs on 7 hits against the Brewers. His numbers are what they are because of four very poor outings; the other 8 have been decent to very good. I'm not recommending that we target this guy - although, with injuries to Marson and Donald, you might have to set your sights low if you want to avoid giving up Taylor - but, if Bastardo doesn't work out, you could do a great deal worse with your 4th starter.

[doubleh]

With regard to Marquis--do the Rockies really think they can win the NL West? They are as crazy as the Astros.

That being said, they would likely ask for the world in return for Marquis. I think there's a reason why we've never done business with the Rockies.

[Tray]

Moreover, they're 6-6 in his outings, in spite of their pretty shoddy offense and (quickly glancing at their numbers) so-so bullpen. It would seem to me that on our team, we'd win a good two thirds of the time with him on the mound. So while there are better options, including Marquis, he wouldn't be a terrible pickup.

[Tray]

On second thought, maybe two-thirds is a bit bullish... anyway, he'd be a mildly disappointing but non-disastrous acquisition.

[doubleh]

Looks like the Mets are bouncing back from that disaster of a game last night...or perhaps it's the Yankees starting pitching.

[mikes77phillies]

Tray. While I disagree with your assesment of Garland's ability, that is really not the point. Garland is no better than what we already have. I say he is Jaime Moyer level. You say he is Joe Blanton level. And as you say, the Phillies could win regular season games with him.
There is, however, no need to trade for Garland, because he is not going to beat any playoff teams' #2 or #3 starter. We need a pitcher who can win game 2 and/or 3 in a playoff series. We already have a #4 starter and 2 #5 starters. We don't need anymore of those guys. That is what Garland is.

[Andy]

Escalona. Thank you baseball gods, for restoring a modicum of common sense to the FO.

Now if you could only do something about Bako....

[phightins]

Anyone know the status of tonights game with the rain? Dont know whether I should head down or not

[pnw duder]

from the radar, looks like he start will be delayed for sure.

[mikes77phillies]

re: Bako.
There really is nothing wrong with having Bako on the roster. The only problem is using him as a pinch hitter. He is the emergency catcher and Coste should be the pinch hitter.
Guys are angry at Cholly (and Bako) because Bako struck out in a big situation. Cholly was trying to force JerryManuel's hand when he sent him up to bat with the bases loaded. He wanted the Mets to counter with Feliciano early, without having to burn Stairs. The Mets did'nt bite, and since there were no outs, there was nothing to lose (except a bigger inning). It was'nt a horrible stategy. If Bako hits a fly ball there, nobody complains about his roster spot.

[danger lad]

point is, Bako didn't come close to hitting a fly ball. Which, in a game against your rivals (not to mention the 2nd place team in your division), is the bare minimum expected by a pinch hitter of any ilk in that situation.

If Bako had homered, Modell's would already be selling his Tshirt. Again, the most important point is that he didn't touch the baseball with the bat.

[bay_area_phan]

mikes: I'm not too smitten with Garland either. I agree that what the Phillies (along with about 28 other teams) really need is a front-line stater. My point is: considering how few teams are truly out of contention, I don't think any of these front-line starters are going anywhere. The second-tier guys like Garland and Doug Davis could very well be the best that's available.

[Tray]

If Bastardo or Happ don't work out, we'll need a 4th or 5th starter. Certainly it wouldn't make much sense to trade for a Garland now.

[pnw duder]

Massive raincloud about to hit the stadium from the West. IT is moving rather slowly. Could be a lengthy delay (> 1.5 hours) at the start tonight.

[Phlipper]

Oh geez. Son of Sam is back at it again tonight with his ransom-note type posts.

[Phlipper]

No sooner said than deleted. Thanks JW.

[bay_area_phan]

There IS something wrong with having Bako on the roster. Something very wrong. You only have 5 bench spots. No other team in baseball uses one of those bench spots on a guy who is never supposed to hit. The Phillies are playing with a 4-man bench while everyone else is playing with a 5-man bench. And, when you consider that 1 of those bench players is Eric Bruntlett, it's really only a 3-man bench.

With Bako AND Bruntlett on the roster, we're stuck with only one viable right-handed bat off the bench, and often you need 2. If we had called up Mayberry instead of Bako, we'd have those 2. Instead, we're wasting a roster spot on a contingency plan for a contingency that literally has about a 1 in 1,000 chance of ever happening -- i.e., a late-game injury to Ruiz after Coste has already been used up.

[redbeard]

this is brutal

[curt]

Maybe it'll rain long enough to order up another sacrificial lamb pitcher from LV or Reading.