City of Pain

I keep hearing the Phillies say that they are looking for pitching. All their phone calls and inquires are ‘pitching intensive’ as Ruben Amaro Jr puts it. It’s obviously no secret that they are still looking for an additional starter, although I’m a little unsure the exact plan behind that. The way I previously understood the rotation was that we were going with Hamels, Myers, Kendrick, Moyer, and unfortunately Eaton. Sure injuries happen and I certainly don’t believe Moyer goes through another season without missing a start, but if the Phillies are truly looking to add another starter like Bartolo Colon or Randy Wolf, where are they supposed to fit in? Amaro said they have inquired about both pitchers, so that means that either could potentially be on the roster. So if the Phillies are willing to give either one of them a shot, what happens if this new addition has an above average spring training? Do they:

1. Keep this new starter in the rotation as the #5 platooning with Eaton until one of them outperforms the other?
2. Send Eaton to the bullpen making $8 million/year?
3. Assume that one of our starters gets hurt at some point in the season and keep this new guy….somewhere?
4. Plan Adam Eaton’s murder after his first spring training day game loss? Wrap him in raw bacon, power wash him in goat blood, and throw him in a nearby alligator-infested pond outside of Clearwater, while his teammates laugh at his screams as each limb is violently torn off? I am not opposed to this idea. Seriously.

I guess they really have no one ready in AA or AAA that is capable of coming up to the big leagues and maintaining and ERA lower than Adam Eaton’s major league low. Are Carlos Carrasco, JA Happ, or Josh Outman completely incapable of pitching at a major league level? Was Kyle Kendrick any more suited to pitch when he came up last year? Obviously I am no major league scout, but I’ve got to think your best minor league pitcher has to be better than Adam Eaton at this point. I know age and the chance of ruining a younger player’s confidence early on is a risk, but then again this is the same team that left Ryan Howard in the minors until he was 26.

The idea that I’m probably failing to get at here is what the value placed on an additional pitcher picked up in free agency, as opposed to bringing up someone from the minors for free, is. If you are going to bring up Carrasco at the end of next year for limited action (which they will), why not take the chance and bring him up now, save the money you would have spent on a Randy Wolf, and pay Rowand or address the third base dilemma? You cannot convince me that Eaton > Carrasco. Furthermore, you cannot be obligated to start Eaton because you ended up paying him a lot of money. It’s a loss, it was a bad move, move on. He can help in the bullpen (even though we have plenty of righties already) and could conceivably start some games should one of the regulars gets hurt. But that’s it….the same people who believe Eaton may have a better year than last need to look no further than his putrid ERA and his omission from the post-season roster. I only wish the Phillies organization would put belief in one of our minor leaguers to step in instead.

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