Philadelphia Phillies Trying To Catch Lightning In a Bottle With Tiny Signings

For what it’s worth, the Philadelphia Phillies made their fair share of noise this off-season. Even when lurking in the shadows, the Phillies would eventually come out on top, signing free agent left handed starter and prize of the 2011 off-season, Cliff Lee. Soon after the five year, $125 million deal became official, realizing that the Phillies had very little resources remaining was not exactly rocket science.

Now, Phillies’ General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was going to have to get creative. According to reports out of Boston, he tried to send incumbent starter, Joe Blanton, to the Boston Red Sox. With Blanton heading to Spring Training in Clearwater, Florida, that obviously never happened, and the Phillies’ payroll remained bloated to it’s extreme limit.

So with little payroll and a few areas that needed some work, Amaro had to operate like a thief in the night. The biggest remaining hole on the major league roster was in the bullpen. After declining former left handed reliever JC Romero’s $4.5 million club option, the team was in need of some left handed help. As it turns out, the new left handed reliever for the Phillies is the same as the old. After a deal with free agent Dennys Reyes took a turn for the worse, the Phillies and Romero agreed to terms on a one year, $1.35 million deal.

With the bullpen addressed, the biggest area of concern for the Phillies, outside of right field, was the system’s organizational depth. After trading away tons of young talent for the likes of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt, the minor league affiliates were looking a little barren. Since top prospects aren’t readily available, Amaro turned his attention to players with high-reward potential.

Over the course of the off-season, before and after the Phillies signed Lee, the area of greatest concern to fans was the situation in right field. After an unimpressive debut in 2010, people wondered whether or not top prospect Domonic Brown was ready to take the reigns from his right field successor, Jayson Werth. The general consensus was that he was not ready.

It was at this point that Amaro revealed that the team was interested in platooning Brown in right field, and that they would seek a right handed hitter to pair with the young lefty. While interim right handed bat Ben Francisco provided good numbers against left handed pitching, the Phillies explored some options to provide competition for the job, showing interest in names like Matt Diaz, Jermaine Dye and Gary Matthews Jr.

However, with little money to spend, the Phillies invited a former promising young prospect to Spring Training—switch-hitting outfielder, Delwyn Young. After a few impressive seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization, Young hooked on with the Pittsburgh Pirates and took on a more regular role. Needless to say, he was disappointing.

Over the course of his career, Young has been a better hitter from the right side of the plate. Though it isn’t likely that he’ll unseat the likes of Francisco, he should be an interesting name to watch in Spring Training, as he posted strong numbers against left handed pitching in 2010. He’ll battle for a spot on the Phillies’ bench, and should Francisco win the starting right field job, has a good chance of beating out John Mayberry Jr. for the final spot.

The Phillies also invited a pair of former high first round draft picks to camp this spring, hoping that they’ll be able to catch lightning in a bottle, the first of which is right handed reliever, Jason Grilli.

Grilli, who was drafted with the fourth overall pick of the 1997 draft by the San Francisco Giants, has been rather disappointing over the course of his career. To date, he has compiled a record of 18-18, with an ERA of 4.74. He’s been no better against right or left handed hitters in his career, so the most he’ll do for the Phillies in 2011 is provide some depth for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

Interestingly enough, the Phillies also invited another player from the 1997 draft to camp—the top pick by the Detroit Tigers, right handed pitcher, Matt Anderson.

Anderson, 34, will be an interesting name to watch over the course of the spring. The former top prospect made his major league debut with the Tigers in 1998, logging 44 innings and posting a record of 5-1, with an ERA of 3.47. Sadly enough, injuries derailed the promising right hander’s career.

The Phillies are taking a flier on Anderson because of his potential, even as he enters his mid-30’s. When he was drafted in 1997, Anderson averaged 100mph on his fastball, and while the Phillies aren’t expecting that much velocity out of him, they’d like to see what he can do against major league hitters. He hasn’t faced MLB competition since he was with the Chicago White Sox’s AAA club in 2008.

There is a lot of potential heading in the Phillies’ spring camps, both major and minor league, in this form. Though Grilli and Anderson are likely to join the organization in some form, it’ll most likely be as depth in the event of an injury. However, should either man show a glimpse of the potential that made them top five selections in 1997, Amaro could cement his legend even further in the city of Philadelphia.

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