I know I should know but who the hell is Paul Hoover? Well whoever he is, he was called up to be put on the Phillies 40-man roster to finish the season. To make room for him, catcher Joe Naughten was designated for assignment.
A day after the Phillies purchased injured pitcher John Ennis, the Phillies called up Jack Taschner to the bull pen. He's 1-1 with a 5.20 ERA in 21 appearances before he was previously designated for assignment two months ago. He went 0-2 with two saves and a 2.08 ERA and a .213 OBA with Triple A Lehigh Valley.
Ennis is recovering from Tommy John surgery. After the Phillies bought him, they placed him on the 15 day DL because any player on the 25 man roster or DL by August 31 can be eligible for the playoffs. They're hoping Ennis can pitch by then if they want. The Phillies have 31 players eligible which include the six on the DL: Brett Myers, J.C. Romero, Clay Condrey, Greg Dobbs, Antonio Bastardo and Ennis.
Phillies top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek was placed on the inactive list yesterday. He isn't hurt but reached his innings max, throwing 158 innings this year in Double A Reading and Single A Clearwater. He was also 12-3 with a 3.19 ERA for both teams combined. He is not scheduled to pitch in either the Arizona Fall League or the Florida Instructional League either.
Hallelujah!
Pedro Martinez will make his 2009 debut with the Phillies on Wednesday. To make room for him in the rotation, Jamie Moyer was informed that he will be put in the bull pen. Chad Durbin was also re-activated and Rodrigo Lopez was sent to AAA Lehigh in his place. A roster move to accommodate Martinez will be announced prior to Wednesday's game.
Moyer has been terrible all year and the Phillies will try his hand in the pen. He will most likely take the lefty long reliever role as Chan Ho Park will be the righty. It's unknown on how effective he will be but Charlie Manuel feels he will still be a key player for the Phillies.
"Based on our reports on how Pedro has pitched in his rehab starts, we felt it was time to move him into our rotation," Manuel said. "Jamie was a total professional and team player when we let him know of the decision to move him to the bullpen. He has been, and will continue to be, a very important part of this team."
Howard belts 200th: article
Ryan Howard became the fastest player in MLB history to hit 200 home runs last night as he took Chris Volstad deep in the sixth to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead in which they won. It was his 658th career game, 48 fewer than Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner (706 games).
"That's pretty cool," said Howard, who was able to retrieve the historic ball. "It'll hit me later on. I'll kind of come down a bit later. It'll be something I can look back on and just kind of cherish a little bit."Taylor called up to AAA: article
"It was the right time," said Steve Noworyt, Philadelphia's director of minor league operations, in regards to the Taylor promotion. "If you look at the numbers he put up last year at Clearwater and then he came here and never looked back. Let's let it go now and see what happens."
If you look at what he's done over the last two years, he deserves it. He's never really slumped and right now there is no rush. He'll be a step away. If he does well, great. If he has to be a repeater next year, so be it. But it will be a nice chance to see what he can do for a month and a half."
Ibanez to play today: article
Phillies Nation:
Comcast Sportsnet reports that Raul Ibanez went 1-for-3 (doubled) in a rehab start with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Ibanez drove in two runs and walked twice. Ibanez plans on playing tomorrow against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
"The Phillies saw me this past Tuesday in a simulated game and I felt very good with my fastball and all my pitches," Martinez said Thursday.
Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. denied reports a deal was done, but confirmed the team's interest in the three-time AL Cy Young Award winner.
"He has not been signed," Amaro said before the NL East-leading Phillies played Cincinnati on Thursday night. "We've seen him pitch. He's not in town."
Wish I could find a Philly site that has this but I couldn't so here is the news from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
The Philadelphia Phillies activated lefty reliever Scott Eyre from the 15-day disabled list on Sunday... To accommodate the move, Philadelphia optioned fellow southpaw Sergio Escalona to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
I just got home from playing softball and I quickly checked the Phillies headlines and I saw a couple of noteworthy things:
Dugan Agrees Financially:
Kelly Dugan, the Phillies first pick in the draft (#75) agreed financially to sign with the Phillies. An amount hasn't been determined yet but that's good news as they locked him up right away.
Ozuna Suspended 50 Games:
The Phillies got their second player suspended for 50 games this year. Pablo Ozuna was caught with an "elevated testosterone/epitesterone ratio," according to a statement from Major League Baseball. He was the starting 2nd baseman for AAA Lehigh. He's batting .294 with no home runs and 15 RBIs in 187 at-bats this season for the IronPigs.
A couple weeks after Raul Ibanez wins NL Player of the Week, Ryan Howard split the honors with Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres. Howard hit 4 homers last week including his monstrous grand slam. He also totaled 10 RBI's and a slugging percentage of 1.000. This was Howard's 4th career honor and first of the season.
I'll start this off with saying that Andrew Carpenter, the 24-year old called up to make his first career start last night versus the Nationals, wound up getting the win. He originally wouldn't have recorded the win because he didn't go 5 innings but the MLB said because the game was ended in the top of the 6th, Carpenter pitched enough to earn the win. He went 4 1/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 8 hits and striking out 4. Clay Condrey picked up the save.
In other news, the Phillies sent Carpenter to the minors, calling up Sergio Escalona from AA Reading. He had a 2.08 ERA with 10 saves in 17 1/3 innings. He pitched today, going 1 inning and giving a hit and striking out 1. Ryan Howard flipped him the ball after the inning, giving Escalona a souvenir.
With the call ups/downs of the pitches, Miguel Cairo became the odd man out. He got optioned to AAA Lehigh for assignment, which will lead to the Phillies either trading or releasing him, if he isn't signed by another team first.
