Hoyer: Hey there. Dayton? It's Jed.
Moore: Yes, this is Dayton.
Hoyer: Hey, I know we're both busy guys, so I'll get right to the point. You see what we did today?
Moore: Who is this?
Hoyer: Jed Hoyer. We beat the Mariners today - beat 'em big - and we beat 'em without Adrian Gonzalez.
Moore: Who?
Hoyer: I was just thinking - sometimes going without that one star player helps everybody else step up, you know?
Moore: Moyer?
Hoyer: I think there's something to this, that teams really come together when they can get out of the shadow of a clubhouse superstar. Which is why I wanted to talk with you about Zack.
Moore: Jamie Moyer?
Hoyer: You deal Zack and you get Gil stepping up as a leader, you get Banny stepping up as a leader, you get the other guy stepping up as a leader-
Moore: How you doing, Jamie?
Hoyer: I'm not Jamie Moyer.
Moore: I wanted to ask, you willing to dangle Polanco? Love that guy's skillset. Great leader.
Hoyer: Jamie Moyer doesn't run the Phillies.
Moore: What about Romero? I'd love to add to the bullpen and George has got everything we need.
Hoyer: George Romero isn't on the Phillies.
Hoyer: George Romero doesn't play sports.
Running on down the list:
-
Jack Wilson came out today with tightness in his hamstring. I don't know which one, but you'll remember that it was a hamstring injury that dealt a premature end to Wilson's 2009 season, so this isn't good news. It isn't necessarily horrible news - a bunch of guys are dealing with minor aches and pains, like David Aardsma - but when the Mariners drew up Jack Wilson's list of goals for spring training, "injure hamstring" wasn't anywhere to be found, so keep an eye on this. This is an unfortunate start that we can hopefully forget all about in a few days.
- Garrett Olson threw 14 strikes and 21 balls with his fastball topping out at 89 and nothing coming in lower than 80. Spring training stats generally don't mean much, since guys are working on certain things and pitchers are said to take a little longer to warm up than hitters, but when you're a candidate for a rotation slot in the Major Leagues, and you throw 25 fastballs in a game, more than eight of them should probably go for strikes. Garrett Olson's #1 goal for March: acquire talent.
- Kanekoa Texeira threw an inning, and we have PITCHfx numbers for that inning, and while I'll spare you the absolute specifics, we got ten fastballs between 89-91 and four sliders at 77-79. His fastball, predictably, featured a lot of sink, and his slider had curveball behavior. Fun with small samples: 2 grounders, 1 fly, 1 strikeout! I'm rooting hard for Texeira, although to be perfectly honest, that might just be because I like new things.
- Chad Cordero's scrawny ass showed up and threw a bunch of fastballs at 87-89, which really does show a remarkable amount of progress towards recapturing the old magic. However, it's worth noting that Chad Cordero at his peak was an extreme flyballer with FIPs around 4, so congratulations, Chad, you're on the path back towards being kind of all right.
- Luke French pitched and wasn't completely terrible
- I love the way things are written out in box scores. b-Struck out for Griffey Jr. in the 8th. Thanks, b. Griffey Jr. could have done that himself.
- a-Walked for Halman in the 6th. That's the closest Halman may ever come to drawing one himself.
-
At the end of camp
Black: So who's next here on the list...Mitch? Mitch Canham?
Other Coach: Yep.
Black: What's he done for us?
Other Coach: Hit off the bench. Caught some games.
Black: Ehhhh
Black: Can 'em!
Black: hahaha!
Other Coach: hahaha!
Black: hahaha!
Other Coach: hahaha!
Black: ah man
Other Coach: :wipes away tears:
Black: But seriously he's cut - Every day that Kyle Blanks plays left field and the game isn't televised is another day that makes me wish Kyle Blanks had his own reality show where he was under constant video surveillance for 24 hours and the feed was made available online. You could call it Blanks Check. "Where's Kyle?" "Oh there he is!" "Look at him go!" It would be almost as good as Selleck Waterfall Sandwich.