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What can Brown do for himself? Probably not enough
By egrissom | March 8, 2010
Here’s today’s guess on who will be on the 25-man roster for the Phillies on opening day:
Hitters (13): Ruiz, Howard, Utley, Polanco, Rollins, Ibanez, Victorino, Werth, Schneider, Gload, Dobbs, Castro and Francisco.
Sure looks like it’s a tough task for Brown to work his way on to the roster, not matter how well he hits this spring.
Pitchers (12): Halladay, Hamels, Blanton, Happ, Moyer, Madson, Durbin, Baez, Contreras, Bastardo, Kendrick, Escalona.
Romero and Lidge on the DL. Pretty low confidence in the Bastardo, Kendrick and Escalona guesses, especially Escalona. The other 22 look like sure things and Bastardo seems closer to a sure thing than Kendrick or Escalona.
No change there for me since the last guess, which came on February 12.
The Phillies are 1-2 in spring training after two losses and a tie since the last post.
Yesterday they lost to the Rays in ten innings, falling 5-3. Happ and Aumont combined to throw five scoreless innings to start the game before Joe Savery gave up three runs in the sixth. A two-run double by Domonic Brown, who is hitting .538 so far this spring, tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth. Yohan Flande threw a scoreless ninth inning but gave up two runs in the top of the tenth. Jimmy Rollins had a solo homer in the game and Ross Gload went 3-for-5 with a double.
Saturday the Phils and Pirates played to a 3-3 tie in ten innings. Blanton gave up three runs in the bottom of the first, two of which came on a two-run shot by Ryan Church. Baez and Zagurski both pitched two scoreless innings in the game. Jesus Sanchez had another impressive outing, striking out two in a perfect bottom of the tenth. Brown went 2-for-3 with a walk.
On Friday the Phils fell to Toronto 14-9. Hamels celebrated the start of a brand new year by giving up a home run to the first man he faced. He pitched better after that, allowing a run on two hits and a walk in two innings overall. JC Ramirez, Ryan Vogelsong and Bill White followed Hamels and combined to give up 13 runs over three innings. Bastardo struck out two in a perfect eighth. Tyson Gillies went 2-for-2 with a home run and Brown was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI.
Moyer had an impressive outing in the B-game against Toronto on Friday. He struck out three while tossing three scoreless frames.
Lidge will face hitters on Wednesday and Romero is “a ways from facing hitters.”
Victorino still has a sore shoulder and will not play today against the Yankees. Kendrick is expected to pitch in today’s game.
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March 8th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Moyer both terrifies and fascinates me. What I find scary is that he’s probably going to nab a spot in the rotation this year.
What fascinates me is that whenever I reach the age of 48(thousand) I’ll know that I can’t use being 48(thousand) as an excuse for anything since he’s still striking guys out (easily young enough to be his children).
Granted, Spring Training (a necessary evil that is really evil), but come on.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Wow. So you really do not think that Kendrick will make the big club out of spring training? Is your reasoning that he is a starter and not as effective out of the ‘pen, and that Moyer will be #5? From what I have read, the man has really done what has been asked of him in terms of pitch development.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
BTW, now that Howard will see no one but lefties and get hothing but 50% breaking balls, does he have a future as a platoon player? Yeah, I know. Hyperbole. But he does not seem to be able to make the adjustments. He could have looooooooong year.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Moyer scares me, too. I’m getting kind of excited about Bastardo. His numbers in the minors look really good despite how hard he got hit last year. Having him start out the year as a reliever pretty much means you’re not going to see him start for a while, though, so if Moyer gets lit up again it looks like Kendrick is the first option and there aren’t a ton of other choices.
DaMannse, I do think that Kendrick will be on the team to start the year, pitching out of the bullpen. I just don’t fell like he and Bastardo and Escalona are locks in the same way that the other 22 guys are. But I think he will be one of the 12 pitchers on the team to start the year.
I think that all the attention on all the curve balls that Howard saw last year is going to help him. As Milt Thompson and Charlie Manuel point out, there’s a good chance for Howard to draw a lot more walks (http://zozone.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/03/breaking_down_howard.html) if he at least makes everyone throw their curve ball in the strike zone.