Phillies pitching at a glance

• The Phillies are resourceful enough to patch together a replacement pitcher until Randy Wolf returns from the DL. Amaury Telemaco, who’s a good soldier for accepting assignment after assignment to Triple-A Scranton, returns to take Robinson Tejeda’s spot as a long-inning reliever. Telly could even provide a spot start if needed.
• Tejeda will start Friday’s game in Oakland. He’s been a nice surprise so far, building on the high-strikeout season he had last year in Reading, in addition to a good spring training in which he saw plenty of action. Interestingly, it was Pedro Liriano who earned the spot in the pen, beating out both Telemaco and Tejeda, yet he hasn’t resurfaced with the Phils since his demotion early in the season.
• With the exception of Jim Thome and Vicente Padilla, the Phils have been largely injury-free, and Wolf’s elbow problems come just as he was beginning to string together some good, consistent starts. His elbow issues started June of last year, and he wasn’t the same pitcher the rest of the season, finishing the year of the DL.
• Gavin Floyd’s struggles appear to be more than shot confidence at the hands of Charlie Manuel, who used him twice in the bullpen to horrid results. He’s 2-7 with an ERA over 7.00 in Scranton. My fear is the Phils have a pitcher on their hands that has all the tools but no guts. The good news is he's still 22-years-old, about the same age as a college graduate.
• Terry Adams has been absolutely rocked since accepting his assignment to Scranton. Sometimes it’s better to read the writing on the wall and just retire.

Comments

[Tom Goodman]

I agree that Floyd's problems are far worse than a question of confidence and mishandling. His mechanics looked terrible to me when he was still with the Phils. It will take a lot to work those out. He just seemed to hesitate in his delivery and then throw with him arm alone rather than pushing off with his lower body. His control was never impressive during his call-up last year or stint this season. My recollection is he hit a fairly large number of batters, too. He just never seemed to be comfortable on the mound and the results showed. Was his win against the Cards this season here or in St. Louis?

[J. Weitzel]

It was a 4:00 game in St. Louis if I remember correctly, with Pratt catching.

[Tom Goodman]

I don't have any hard evidence for what I am about to say, but I have a sneaking suspicion some pitchers on the Phils' staff perform better when Pratt is behind the plate. I don't necessarily say this because of Jason's reply above (a 4:00 start is probably more significant), but Pratt seems to stay on top of the pitchers more than Lieberthal does, forcing them to focus, hit spots, bear down, etc..