The Philly Phyles

[General]

Sorry for the lame thread title, but I couldn't resist. Just a Philly notebook, keeping track of stuff as the season moves on.

[General]

Gavin Floyd shut out the Tigers for five innings and struck out five in the Phillies' 7-4 victory on Tuesday.
Back-to-back excellent outings from Floyd, who now has a 2.30 ERA this spring. Still, a return to Triple-A seems to be in his future. The Phillies seem happy enough with their pen that they're going to keep Ryan Madson in the rotation

[Fishercat]

The Tigers suck now, yay!

Really though, the Phillies could use some nice pitching add to Myers in terms of young guys. Not really a big star in that rotation.

[General]

Floyd, Madson, Hamels are all pretty damn good young pitchers, especially the first two.

[General]

Robinson Tejeda was limited to one scoreless inning of work before a raid delay shortened his outing on Thursday.
A bad break for Tejeda, who is having to compete to keep his relief role. He might lose out to Ricardo Rodriguez and/or Eude Brito.

Rule 5 pick Chris Booker surrendered four runs in an inning Thursday in his spring debut.
Booker's chances of making the Phillies have likely been erased by the left knee injury that has troubled him since early on in camp. He'll have to be offered back to the Nationals if he fails to win a spot.

Ryan Howard hit a franchise-record 10th spring homer in the Phillies' loss today.
Howard also singled, leaving him with a .386 average in 58 at-bats.

[redsrbetter]

Well my boy Booker is getting beat up.

Howard is simply a monster. I am afraid of him this year. He is going to crush baseballs.

[General]

Howard reminds me of that fat guy from the MLB The Show commercial, who admits to being an "inconsistent" hitter.

Oh, Hamels is going down south:

Cole Hamels, originally expected to be optioned to Double-A Reading, will instead open the season at Single-A Clearwater.
Staying in the warm weather can only be a good thing for Hamels' back. If all goes according to plan, he'll likely move up a month into the season.

[Fishercat]

Howard = Beast.

He was awesome for Philly in the sim league, and I was able to put him in when I dumped Thome's huge contract on Husker.

[General]

Too bad Boston reject Billy Sadler was your closer last year.

[Fishercat]

Burn. That hurt. At least he's undeservingly in AAA after blowing up this year.

[General]

Aaron Rowand returned to the second spot in the order tonight and went 3-for-3 with a homer and a double.
Rowand had been hitting seventh recently, with Abraham Nunez in the second spot. It's nice to see that he still seems be viewed as a candidate to hit second. It'd definitely be better for his fantasy value.

Pat Burrell, troubled by a strained left calf, was given Friday off after DHing in a minor league game on Thursday.
He went 3-for-6 with a homer and a double in the minor league game, so his bat is just fine. He's day-to-day.

Ricardo Rodriguez threw three hitless innings of relief tonight in the Phillies' 5-4 win over the Pirates.
He has pitched 13 innings and allowed six runs this spring. Rodriguez remains in the running for a spot in middle relief, though if he's carried over Robinson Tejeda, it will probably because Tejeda has options remaining and he doesn't.

[Fishercat]

Pat Burrell, who had missed time with a left calf injury, rejoined the starting lineup on Sunday and went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
He also found himself batting sixth behind Ryan Howard, which wasn't the plan at the start of the spring. Howard looks like the better hitter against right-handers, but if he hits fifth, that'd give the Phillies three straight left-handed hitters in the middle of the order. Burrell would have less value batting sixth, especially since the Phillies have one of the worst bottom thirds of the order in the league.

Not a bad debut for Burrell. All I got to actually see was him striking out on a pitch by Craig Hansen. Not a surprise, Hansen's owned so far, but the Phillies need something to balance out all those lefites in their lineup.

[General]

Phillies optioned LHP Cole Hamels to Single-A Clearwater; reassigned RHP Aquilino Lopez and RHP Yoel Hernandez to minor league camp.
Both Lopez and Hernandez would likely be adequate options as the last pitcher in the pen. Hamels, the club's top pitching prospect, is expected to spend the first month in the Florida State League until the weather up north gets more pleasant.

[love_that_reefer]

Hamels is going to Single A? What the hell is going on?

[General]

Gavin Floyd has apparently won a spot in Philadelphia's rotation, though the Phillies didn't announce who he'd be replacing.
The hunch is that it'll by Ryan Franklin, not Madson, who is sent to the pen. Floyd's throwing much better now than he did while getting lit up in both the majors and in Triple-A last year. He might be ready to help the Phillies and fantasy leaguers.