Send Down Floyd, Bring Up Mathieson
No funny titles for this post, let's get down to business. OK...the Phillies lost 7-2 last night and it wasn't that close. The Los Angeles Dodgers smacked three home runs off Gavin Floyd in the first four innings, as he gave up 7 hits and 4 walks. It was another wretched start for the 23 yr old kid, and even though the offense did not show up until the 9th inning, he deserves to be demoted to Scranton. His fastball is simply WAY too hittable, and he has been unable to consistently control his heralded curveball. He has little else to throw out there. Going with a rotation of Myers, Lidle, Madson, Brito, Floyd will simply not cut it. Something has to be done.
Sure, the rotation will be changed again in a month, when Jon Lieber is expected to be back, and maybe Randy Wolf, but the Phillies cannot continue to putter away games with Gavin Floyd on the mound. Cole Hamels is expected back VERY soon. This is by no means saying that Floyd cannot right the ship, the entire point of this is that fixing Floyd should be done IN THE MINORS, where his performance does not negatively affect the wins and losses of the team. A guy that throws up a 7+ ERA and a nearly 2 WHIP is hurting the team, period.
The Phillies should bring up Scott Mathieson to the major league ballclub. Many see him as a possible closer for the Phillies, but why? He has an electric fastball and good off-speed stuff, and has struck out a lot of guys in the minors. This year he he fanned 84 in 72.2 IP. He's also only let on one baserunner an inning, and has only walked 18. He doesn't give up too many homers either(4). He has gone fairly deep into games for a young pitcher, averaging about 6 and 2/3 innings a start. There is no reason that he cannot convert these skills to the majors, and he may as well do that now. He has little else to prove in the minors, the Phillies are hurting for starting pitchers, and he has more control and is a bit more polished at this point than Gio Gonzalez, another good young starting pitcher at AA Reading.
I see this rotation: Myers, Lidle, Hamels, Madson, Mathieson when Hamels comes back. I doubt this will happen, but it would be the best route to take until Lieber/Wolf come back. Throwing Mathieson out there would DEFINITELY be better than trotting Floyd out there every 5 days to get smacked around.
UPDATE: This was written before checking the other Phlogs out there, and apparently several others are jumping on the 'Send Floyd down' express: Philliesflow, Beerleaguer, and Philling Station(which, BTW links to me and I can say with all sincerity is the first blog I check every morning) all see a demotion, while Swing and a Miss even expects a trade.
Sure, the rotation will be changed again in a month, when Jon Lieber is expected to be back, and maybe Randy Wolf, but the Phillies cannot continue to putter away games with Gavin Floyd on the mound. Cole Hamels is expected back VERY soon. This is by no means saying that Floyd cannot right the ship, the entire point of this is that fixing Floyd should be done IN THE MINORS, where his performance does not negatively affect the wins and losses of the team. A guy that throws up a 7+ ERA and a nearly 2 WHIP is hurting the team, period.
The Phillies should bring up Scott Mathieson to the major league ballclub. Many see him as a possible closer for the Phillies, but why? He has an electric fastball and good off-speed stuff, and has struck out a lot of guys in the minors. This year he he fanned 84 in 72.2 IP. He's also only let on one baserunner an inning, and has only walked 18. He doesn't give up too many homers either(4). He has gone fairly deep into games for a young pitcher, averaging about 6 and 2/3 innings a start. There is no reason that he cannot convert these skills to the majors, and he may as well do that now. He has little else to prove in the minors, the Phillies are hurting for starting pitchers, and he has more control and is a bit more polished at this point than Gio Gonzalez, another good young starting pitcher at AA Reading.
I see this rotation: Myers, Lidle, Hamels, Madson, Mathieson when Hamels comes back. I doubt this will happen, but it would be the best route to take until Lieber/Wolf come back. Throwing Mathieson out there would DEFINITELY be better than trotting Floyd out there every 5 days to get smacked around.
UPDATE: This was written before checking the other Phlogs out there, and apparently several others are jumping on the 'Send Floyd down' express: Philliesflow, Beerleaguer, and Philling Station(which, BTW links to me and I can say with all sincerity is the first blog I check every morning) all see a demotion, while Swing and a Miss even expects a trade.
posted by Chris at 11:17 AM
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