Remember last season, when it seemed like Geoff Geary pitched every day. Geary posted a 2.96 ERA, ranked second among NL relievers in innings (91-1/3) and emerged as one of the Phillies' most reliable bullpen options.Today, he was sent to the minors.
In baseball, like in Vegas, your luck can change that quickly.
Actually, getting sent to triple-A Ottawa has nothing to do with being unlucky. Geary just hasn't been particularly good. In his last 20 appearances since May 11, he has allowed 44 base runners (31 hits, eight walks, two hits batters) in 21 innings and posted an 8.57 ERA. The last three times he entered a game in which the score was within three runs, he has allowed six runs in 2-1/3 innings. Overall, he's 1-2 with a 5.31 ERA.
That's not good enough.
The Phillies needed to create a roster spot for rookie starter J.A. Happ, and Geary had an option left on his contract, meaning he could be sent to the minors without clearing waivers.
"He was a big part of our club last year," general manager Pat Gillick said. "We think he needs to go down [to Ottawa] and get straightened back to where he was. He needs to work out a few mechanical problems, and we felt it would be better to do that in Ottawa than here. We don't think Geoff can work it out here."
* Basically, what happened yesterday was the Phillies' worst nightmare. Not only did J.D. Durbin lose, so did Cole Hamels. Now, all that stands between the Phillies and a sweep at the hands of the Mets are Happ and Kyle Kendrick. Good luck.
* Maybe the Phillies just don't have the pitching to compete, Martin Frank writes. Within this notebook, there's news about Jon Lieber's ankle and details on the Phillies' suspicion of foul play by El Duque.
* Line of the day: Good friend and New York Post columnist Jay Greenberg asked me about the Phillies' three newest pitchers -- J.D. Durbin, J.A. Happ and J.C. Romero. "It's like the Phillies are calling up pitchers who are in the Witness Protection Program," he said. I laughed, then thought, maybe these guys really should be.
2 comments:
Martin is dead right. The Phillies pitching has the worst ERA in the league, has allowed the most runs, has the third worst opponent OBP and has allowed the most home runs. We all thought the rotation would be a strong point for this team. It's been a complete and utter debacle. We knew the bullpen would be bad. The bottom line is pretty simple. This team is just not good enough. They are a mediocre team and will likely flirt with a wild card spot but will probably come up short.... again.
Paul and Jamie made comments the other day about trading Roward at the deadline. I said this about a month ago and still agree totally with Paul and Jamie. They need to get what they can for Rowand because we know the Phillies wont spend the jack to keep him (nor should they in my opinion). Most importantly, Rowand is the only valuable piece they have to get pitching. They need to deal him and take whatever pitching they can get in return. Anyone who thinks this is a team that can win the NL east let alone a World Series is kidding themselves. So, make the deals you can for guys who you won't be able to re-sign and move on.
I feel like I've been pretty negative on the team in my recent posts so let me say some positive things. I think Charlie Manuel has done a really nice job this season playing the guys who deserve to play. Greg Dobbs has earned the right to play every day for the time being and Charlie is giving him that chance. Burrell has earned the right to sit on the bench and Charlie has done that. Bourn earned playing time and is getting it. I know people love to torch Charlie all the time but the guy has done a really nice job in that regard. The only thing I think people can bang on Charlie for is the team's poor fundamentals and to tell you the truth I don't know enough about the inner workings of the team to know who is to blame for that.
This is Jamie's comment with an accidental expletive deleted.
phillies pitching has been terrible. but it doesn't help when your season opening pitcher is on the DL. you're ace to be/number 2 is on the DL and hamels is experiencing to me what is a tired arm. i think if we had those three working our starting pitching would be great. moyer has pitched fairly well. eaton has been up and down, but i think he's been up more than he's been down. so he's still okay for me.
the bullpen has been terrible. but our closer is on the DL. our second closer is on the DL. geary who was the magic man last year is having troubles. i think his good luck has just run out on him. i don't think he has a mechanical problem at all. injuries have just killed us all around.
and i hate to say it, but manuel has done a good job this year. he's doing the best with what he has and he's not taking any crap. he's made gutsy move after gutsy move all year long and its paid off it seems. gotta back a guy like that up. now if only he could figure out how to use a bullpen properly..
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