Castro demoted to Double-A; Madson set to return

Departing after just 3 2-3 innings to the tune of a 12.27 ERA, 22-year-old left-hander Fabio Castro is back where he belongs, ironing out the kinks in the minor leagues.

The live-armed youngster has a bright future with the Phillies, but it will have to wait. Castro has struggled with his command since spring training, walking five in his brief stay with the big club. He also struck out five, offering a glimpse of his potential as a situational reliever.

A demotion to Double-A is the best thing that could happen to him. In Reading, the door is open for the Phils to provide him with plenty of action, perhaps as a starting pitcher. The Phillies could simply jettison a veteran starter to make room in the rotation. He’s missed a lot of time and needs to catch up. Between last season, when he saw only limited action as a Rule 5 acquisition, and the scattered action so far in 2007, Castro will benefit most from an uninterrupted stay in Double-A. His future is still very bright.

Meanwhile, the Phillies haven’t officially announced Castro’s replacement, but there’s a strong possibility it will by Ryan Madson, who’s been on the disabled list retroactive to May 4. Madson’s return and Castro’s demotion would leave the team without a left-handed reliever on the 25-man roster.

Reading Eagle links: Keeping with the Reading theme, beat writer Mike Drago features former Braves prospect and current Reading pitcher Bubba Nelson, who’s been a solid free agent addition. Also, Brian Smith caught up with Phillies GM Pat Gillick, who was on hand in Reading Wednesday night, possibly scouting left-handed reliever Mike Zagurski. When asked how he plans on addressing the bullpen, Gillick said "I’m not optimistic that that’s going to happen externally. It’s going to have to happen internally."

Comments

[gr]

i think this whole lefty reliever thing is a little overrated. it's nice to have an *effective* one, sure, but the team hasn't really used any of their lefies as LOOGYs all year, so i don't see a big change in not having one now.

[Carolina Fan]

Too bad Geary wasn't sent along to carry Castro's bags.

[GM-Carson]

I only want a lefty reliever if he's quality. Matt Smith and Fabio Castro were atrocious this season. Each still has a future with this club in my opinion, but they need to get themselves straightened out in the minors. So, we're without a lefty...oh well. Like GR said, it would be nice, but not essential.

[ae]

good call, carolina fan. we should definitely 86 our second best reliever after one bad outing.

[Willard Preacher]

Smith and Castro are obviously still works in progress. So, what exactly is Madson then? Using recent history, you could argue that he's only marginally better than either, and he's not left-handed. I like to think that if he does not come back as '05 Madson that he'll be about out of chances.

The fact that Gillick thinks that the 'pen needs to be addressed internally doesn't exactly have me doing cartwheels.

[Malcolm]

I'm with you. While we're out it, let's cut Rollins. He went 2-11 against Toronto. He's trash.

[ae]

WP, Madson this season has a 1.27 WHIP and 3.63 ERA. neither of those marks are spectacular, but they're certainly above average. not sure how that translates to "marginally better" than the 3.75 WHIP/11.25 ERA Smith and 2.45 WHIP/12.27 ERA Castro.

obviously I'm not saying that the bullpen is just peachy, but not a lot of teams have anything better than Madson for middle relief.

[don schell]

Don't give up hope in finding someone from "externally". I am sure that Gillick still has not exhausted his list of long ago players that he signed.

[Lake Fred]

I've been thinking about Cholly's totally irrational management of the bullpen. It doesn't make sense that Dubee is NOT complicent in this bad management of our bullpen.

I would think that part of every pre-game planning session, the question comes up as to who is available today. A good pitching coach would say: "Don't use pitchers X & Y because they need a day of rest. Use pitchers A, B and C because they have rested fresh arms." Maybe the goat pictures are of Dubee and he's too timid to speak up, letting Cholly do whatever he wants to with the pitching staff.

[Bedrosian's Beard]

Gillick said:

"I’m not optimistic that that’s going to happen externally. It’s going to have to happen internally."

It means that as of now, he'll have to overpay for a marginally better reliever on someone else's team. Doesn't mean he doesn't WANT to settle it externally, it's just that the market is way out of whack. Therefore, they're praying this Zagurski guy keeps pitching well, unless someone out there can be had cheaply.

[joe]

What choice does Cholly have? If he's got to proteca lead, there are two guys who can be trusted with it: Myers and Geary. Rosario is borderline, Madson was still hurt, and the rest were chumps that would get lit up like a christmas tree.

his choice got down to: use one of two pitchers, or lose the game.

Gillicks fault.

[laramie]

I don't know too much about the coaching staff at the AA level -- specifically the pitching coach -- but I'm hoping that Castro gets the attention he needs. Obviously he's an investment somebody feels strongly about. After he occupied a bullpen spot for all of last season with minimal use (a spot that maybe, just maybe, was the difference between the playoffs and oh-so-close), it's nice to see him get a chance to get some work in this year.

I can't believe that we'd call up Zagurski so early on in his development, even considering Gillick's remarks. Do we really want this promising young arm languishing on the bench for 7 or 8 straight games, repeatedly? We've all seen Manuel's and Dubee's reactions to unfamiliar relievers.

[CollegePhan]

I don't mean to change the subject, but has anybody noticed Justin Germano lately. In 3 starts with the Padres, he's given up only 2 runs over 19 innings for an ERA of 0.47, pitching at least 6 innings in each outing.

I guess he's just not worth Gillick's time, and good riddance to bad rubbish. Who the hell needs a sinkerballer in Citizen's Bank Park. He probably would have been the second-coming of Joe Roa.

Great move Pat!

[J. Weitzel]

Tom Filer is the coach in Reading. I really don't know too much other than that or what happens behind the scenes, but it seems he's done a pretty good job (Segovia, Mathieson).

[Mr J]

Sorry to ask, but LOOGY?

[phanatics brother]

Hey
did anyone notice Milt Thompson at first base the last couple games?
Whats the scoop? I havent heard anything about Lopes?

[bay_area_phan]

LOOGY = lefty one out guy

[clout]

Joe: Your post is on the money. The bullpen is crap, some of us have been saying that since last October. They had to move the ace back there to shore it up and it still has holes. If Manuel used Condrey & Geary & Rosario in key spots (where they would certainly fail) the same people griping about him now would be all over him. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[slappy]

Lopes has been out for personal reasons. Yesterday the broadcasters said he should be back sometime this week.

[clout]

laramie: Even worse, what if they use him and he gets crushed, which is quite likely for an inexperienced pitcher. Ruining his confidence is equally damaging.

[RSB]

The good news is, they've consistently been getting innings out of the starters. A little blip like Saturday night doesn't mean much when your starters are pretty much averaging seven innings. We haven't seen much of Alfonseca recently, and that usually is a sign that things are going well. Manuel is pushing these guys as long as they can possibly go, and for the most part that strategy has worked out okay, i.e. hasn't led to mid-inning meltdowns due to pitchers become over-extended. Even Eaton seems to be with the program now. Hopefully Garcia will be motivated enough to climb aboard, too, but he'll have to start pitching more aggressively to hitters in order to get into that elusive seventh inning.

I'd like the Phillies to keep Coste around when Howard comes off the DL, but then again, they don't seem to really need an extra catcher or first baseman right now. I think his only chance of contributing this year is if either Ruiz or Barajas gets hurt. Nevertheless, you cannot tell me his pinch-hitting abilities are not far greater than those of Werth (who probably plays even less than Bourn), and that even this much usefulness far outweighs the need for the 'services' of Condrey or Yoel Hernandez.

[Malcolm]

From the wire: Dave Stieb has been contacted as a potential middle reliever for the Phils.

Stieb is 176-137 career with a 3.44 ERA. He was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 1978 draft.

[SirAlden]

I hope that Werth is released and Coste stays when Howard comes off the DH, but I doubt that it will happen.

I agree with Clout's "dammed if you do, damned if you don't" analysis of Manuel's use of the bullpen. How can you give guys with marginal control (who should be developing in the minors) innings to stay sharp when the starters just had 10 out 12 quality starts? I was actually happy after Moyers's melt down on Saturday that the back end of the pen could get some innings.

We need 4 relievers. 3 relievers and one lefty out man. Here is hoping Madson and Gordon can be two of the 4.

My question remains. Who should we have signed in the off-season who wanted to pitch in the CIT? Hard to find pitchers that do.

I am very sad about the loss of Germano we tried to pass him through waviers because he was out of options (which is a reason he was traded by Cincy) does anyone here think that they would have known to not sign Eaton and give Germano the 5th starter spot? Does anyone think we should have kept Germano who was out of options on the 25 man roster this year and every year going out into the future? Because that is what you have to do with pitchers who are out of options.

That is the Germano question, not we should have kept him, how could we have kept him?

Easy to have a crystal ball, his minor league stats show that he was only used as a starter, his 2006 .273 batting average against. The Padres signed him originally and traded him to the Reds, so I am sure they had their eyes out for him.

I do not know if anyone remembers but we stole Shane Victorino from the Dodgers in a RULE 5 draft, he was not hitting well and we passed him through waivers before he had that special year in AAA where he learned to hit. Thank god the Dodgers let him through.

[tph]

Lefty RJ Swindle continues to lead the Atlantic League in Appearances (9) and is holding lefty hitters to a .188 avg. (3 for 16, with 7Ks). All batters are hitting only .222 against and he has 9Ks and 3BBs in 9.1 IP. His 83mph cutter and 53mph curve are keeping batters way off balance. His overall ERA is a 1.93. But when contacted, the Phillies said they had no openings available for this 23 year old lefty.