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Carpenter complex
By egrissom | March 27, 2008
Turns out that the remaining issue of spring training for the Phillies isn’t who fills out the last two spots on the roster so much as whether Andrew Carpenter should be made the fifth starter or traded for A-Rod. It’s an issue intelligent people can disagree about, so maybe they can make him the fifth starter for a while and then trade him for A-Rod.
Brett Myers and prospect Andrew Carpenter shutout the Yankees on four singles yesterday as the Phils improved to 12-15 with a 4-0 win.
Myers got the start and went five innings in his final spring tune up. He struck out three while allowing two singles and two walks to drop his ERA to 1.13. Carpenter followed Myers and struck out six in four innings, allowing a pair of singles and two walks.
Andrew Carpenter is a 22-year-old righty the Phils took in the second round of the 2006 draft. He was really good at Single-A Clearwater in 2007, going 17-6 in 27 games, 24 of which were starts. He threw to a 3.20 ERA with a 1.25 ratio. In 163 innings he gave up 150 hits and walked 53 while striking out 116.
Article about him here. A lot of people think his name is Drew Carpenter, but Phuture Phillies got to the bottom of that one and some other issues in an interview earlier this month.
Jenkins was 3-for-4 with a double for the Phils. He has his spring average up to .254. Burrell had two singles in three at-bats to raise his average to .275. Rollins drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single, he was 1-for-3 on the day with a stolen base. Utley returned after missing some time for personal reasons and went 0-for-4. Werth was 0-for-4 and struck out twice, dropping his average to .159. Taguchi was 1-for-1 with a double, he’s hitting 371/488/457 in 43 spring plate appearances.
The Phillies play Detroit today.
This article says that Benson may still be back in May. It also says that Davey Lopes feels good after prostate surgery and that there is still a possibility the Phils will get Jimmy Rollins fan and left-handed pitcher Steve Kline.
This suggests that the efforts to trade for Kline fell through, that JD Durbin thinks his chances to make the team don’t look good and that Helms has an advantage over Snelling if the Phils carry a 14th hitter. Over the last couple of days several articles have suggested it’s Snelling that would have the edge over Helms. And there’s always the good chance that neither of them make the team.
Update: This suggests the Phillies put JD Durbin on waivers.
Update again: David Murphy says Travis Blackey cleared waivers and was sent to Triple-A.
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March 27th, 2008 at 11:01 am
what’s the deal on Darensbourg, Knotts, and the Real Deal? Can they be signed by the Phils as insurance/AAA pitchers? I know they’d have to be placed on the 40-man roster to get to the bigs, but wouldn’t it be helpful to have them around in Allentown?
March 27th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Darensbourg and Knotts were reassigned to the Phillies minor league camps. I believe that the fact the Phils can keep them was a factor in deciding who would make the team. And I agree that they are important guys to have given the state of the pitching for the Phils. JD Durbin can be sent down to the minors if he clears waivers. I don’t know if he will or not, but I think there’s a reasonable chance he will. Blackley already cleared waivers and was sent to Triple-A (according to the link in the post).
March 27th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
your right…I don’t have faith in Gordon either (listening to game now) too many HR’s. But what else ya gana do? Glad Blackley cleared be nice if JD did too…just to have them around…more for Blackley.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
No doubt it was a good outing for Carpenter, and he is coming off of a terrific year in Clearwater last year. Definitely one of the guys I’ll be pulling for going forward. We can only hope he develops into worthy trade bait for A-Rod…
March 27th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
If Lidge really can come back after just a few games that would be great. Not sure that’s going to be the case, though. I don’t think it’s going to take too many outings by Gordon before the Phils try someone else at closer and the interesting thing is going to be who that is. Anyone but Myers works for me and I would guess Madson if I had to guess.
Definitely with you on Carpenter, Jeff. If nothing else it helps get him on the radar of the casual fan. Nice to see such a solid outing from a prospect after so many of the pitching prospects in major league camp got hit hard this spring. Looking forward to seeing what he does at Double-A this year (Jeff is presumably the same Jeff Crupper that did the interview with Carpenter posted at Phuture Phillies).