My Tirade

By Amy McCormick

Roy Oswalt was activated from the disabled list today, and he’ll return to pitch tomorrow.  Vance Worley, as a result, has been sent down to Lehigh Valley.  To be perfectly honest, my first reaction was “We’re holding onto Baez and Romero, but Worley is being sent to AAA?” After a little thought, though, it makes sense.

Vance Worley is a starting pitcher, and at this point, he seems a little rusty coming out of the bullpen.  He needs to pitch seven innings.  If he were to stay in Philadelphia, he’d be the odd man out in our rotation, and would hardly see any playing time.  At least in the Lehigh Valley, he will be a starter.  If and when we have an injury occur, I expect him to be called up again.  We also need to remember that Worley is just 23 years old, and we should be seeing him for some time.  Personally, I’d like to see Blanton unloaded before the deadline, but who knows if that will happen.

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about our bullpen right now.  The one inning I don’t really worry about is the ninth; Ryan Madson has proven that he runs that show.  In all honesty, he’s proving that Brad Lidge is essentially unnecessary. 

For long relief, we’ve got Kyle Kendrick, who’s 3-2 with a 1.83 ERA.  I actually like Kendrick in this role, and I think he’s handling it decently well.  It could certainly be worse. 

Speaking of “worse” … our right handed pitcher situation in the bullpen doesn’t make me very happy.  We’ve got David Herndon with a 9.28 ERA, Danys Baez with a 3.94 ERA, and Michael Stutes with a 3.60 ERA.  It’s a sad state of affairs when Stutes and Baez are the best righties we have.  I don’t worry so much about the LHPs, because Antonio Bastardo is doing well.  We need a decent RHP for the eighth inning.

I suppose I really shouldn’t be complaining about our 25-14 team.  We’re second only to Cleveland in all of Major League Baseball.  I worry, though, that our injury-stricken team will not hold up as well as it should against our upcoming opponents (Cardinals, Rockies, Rangers and Reds).  Our offense isn’t producing, so our pitching staff needs to maintain the “every run counts” mentality.  If the Phils’ lineup isn’t going to score more than a run or two, then the pitchers – starters and relievers – need to keep a lid on the opposing teams’ offense. 

That’s all for today’s complaints.  Unless, of course, Cliff Lee gets no run support tonight and I get annoyed.