Sunday: Phillies dig deep with Duckworth, Standridge

The rumored birth of the Phillies' 2031 heir to ageless shortstop and leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins is confirmed. With an hour to spare between the next feeding/changing/fungo drill, let's catch up on the latest.

Duckworth and Standridge: The Phillies continued to add minor league inventory this week with a pair of connected right-handers: Brandon Duckworth, 33, part of a tire-spinning teams of the early decade, and Jason Standridge, a former Tampa Bay first-round draft choice by then GM and current Phillies assistant GM Chuck LaMar. As with many of these minor league signings, there's nothing scientific behind these deals and no expectation of success. Randy Miller reported the Phillies watched Duckworth and Standridge, former Royals teammates, square off in a Dominican winter league game and were moved to sign them. [Link]

Duckworth's biggest contribution to baseball is that he helped the Phillies net Billy Wagner. He was able to ride the momentum of two, big strikeout seasons for a very long time, the first occurring in 2000 with Double-A Reading (a very entertaining season indeed), cementing his status as something of a prospect, the second over a full season in 2002. But since his 2004 trade to Houston, he's floated in and out of the bigs so many times it's hard to keep track. The Astros gave up on him in 2005 and he's spent the last four years languishing in Kansas City. Even there, he was unable to stick. The right-hander spent all of 2009 with Triple-A Omaha, going 3-6 with a 5.31 ERA in 20 games, all but one appearance as a starter. Clout offers his take:

"Duckworth is fine for the LV rotation. He's settled into a career as a Triple-A guy who can come up in an emergency and give you 6 or 7 mediocre 5-inning starts. He was originally an undrafted, no-stuff righty out of Cal State-Fullerton who looked like he could be a surprise when he went 8-9 in 2002 with a K/BB of 2.42. But his control and command reverted back to being terrible, a fatal flaw for a no-stuff pitcher. If his walk rate had been 1/9 instead of 4/9 and his HR rate 0.5/9 instead of 1.1/9, he might've been something. The Duck Pond was drained long ago."

Standridge, 31, turned a 1997 first-round nod by Tampa into a 12-year minor league career that includes stops in Japan and, most recently, Somerset of the independent leagues. He last appeared in four games with Kansas City in 2007. In parts of seven seasons between Tampa, Texas, Cincinnati and Kansas City, he's 3-9 with a 5.80 ERA.

Lidge goes under the knife: Nothing gets blown out of proportion more than if a pitcher is expected to be mildly behind schedule come spring training, especially when it comes to a team as seasoned as the Phillies. "Behind schedule" has been Brad Lidge's Clearwater calling card, and his third go-round feels a lot more like the first, en route to a perfect season, than the second, en route to disaster. Lidge underwent minor surgery on his knee last week after it flared up during his offseason workouts. His agent said it was "really next to nothing." If anything, it simply reinforces something we already knew: at this stage, the Phillies' closer is a fragile physical specimen at this stage of his career. Lidge pitched through a balky elbow and knee in 2009 and needed offseason surgery for both.

What can you say; at least he was proactive about it in January rather than February. Games in April count just as much as September and yada-yada-yada. But April, to the Phillies, is basically an extension of spring training. Games are sloppy, rosters flimsy. If Lidge needs to sit the first two weeks, they won't miss him. A .500 April from this traditionally late-charging club would be a spectacular success.

Arbitration: As expected, Shane Victorino, Joe Blanton, Chad Durbin and Carlos Ruiz formally filed for salary arbitration. You'll read more about where these negotiations are headed next week.

Programming note: Posting will be light for the next 18 years.

Comments

[J T. Ramsay]

Congrats, Jason!

[king myno]

Congrats, Jason. But at the same time, how selfish of you to choose reproducing over Beerleaguer. I thought clout and MG and awh would be all the children you ever needed.

[bananagrabbers]

Congrats, JW.

[Tim Malcolm]

Congratulations, Jason. Remember, sprints and long tossing first. By age 3, the power will start to show.

[MyersAtTheBat]

Congratulations Jason! don't forget to send your scouting report over to John at phuturephillies, so he can start a profile now...

[clout]

Congrats, but I would rather see a pic of the kid than Brandon Duckworth, since the kid is more likely to see big league action some day.

[clout]

Here's my scouting report on Standridge:

Standridge is one of many bad 1st round draft picks by Tampa Bay during the Chuck LaMar era and maybe Chuck is hoping he can set that one right.

Standridge was drafted out of HS in 1997, the kind of raw, toolsy, projectible talent LaMar (and the Phillies) love.

He's got a classic 4-pitch répertoire, stands 6-4, 245, throws hard and just looks like an intimidating major league pitcher.

The problem is command and control. His command ranges from terrible to hideous. His control ranges from well below average to unbelievably bad.

His K/BB ratio is only slightly better than dead even in 127 MLB IP. It's not much better in 1053 minor league IP.

He pitched 2 seasons (07-08) in Japan with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks (maybe gobaystars can give us a report) where his K/BB ratio improved slightly to about 3/2, which is still unacceptable unless you throw 100 mph.

Back in the stats again last season, he tossed 12.2 IP for New Orleans, walking 11 and striking out 9.

Amazingly, in the DWL, the latest stats show him with 21 K's and only 2 BBs in 24 IP. Obviously, that's what the Phillies saw.
It will be interesting to see if this miraculous improvement carries over to spring training.

[TNA]

Congrats JW. Although are you sure you want to reduce his contract negotiation power by limiting him to playing only for the Phillies? What if the Mets offer him a $500M/5 year contract in 2031?

Speaking of kids, I wonder if there are enough posters with similarly-aged kids to start a BL-associated rec league team. It'd be hilarious to watch a bunch of grown men and women keep track and discuss the OPS+, DITHL and WHIP of their young'uns. At least it could develop the next generation of BL posters. If such a team was formed in the Philly area, I'd have to strongly consider relocating back to Philly.

[Tim]

Congrats on the baby J.

[awh]

****Congrats, JW!****

[UD Hens]

Nice job JW!

[LwrSlwrGeorge(Lurker)]

Congrats to JW and the family.

**Speaking of kids, I wonder if there are enough posters with similarly-aged kids to start a BL-associated rec league team.**

If you allow grandparent-associated children in, I submit William Chase for the position of 2B. He is improving by leaps and bounds in his ST/DC stat (Steps Taken per Diaper Change.

[kart racer]

TNA: My son was just born in November, so we got a shortstop and a center fielder for the team.

[JMARR]

Jason - congrats! Best of luck to you, the Mrs. and the little guy.

[awh]

clout and Jack, interesting discussion on Werth in the last thread.

Jack, I think clout's point about being the 2nd most valuable 2011 FA after Mauer - even more valuable than Lee - is that he plays every day.

I tend to agree with that.

Werth, as Perry points out in his article, does the two most valuable things a hitter can do: he gets on base and hits for power. He's also IMHO, at least outside of Philly, an underrated baserunner. (The only team that might not underrate him is the Dodgers, against who, if you remember, he stole three straight bases including home.)

He also has Abreu like plate discipline, which is very hard to teach.

Werth may wind up as the very best pickup of the Gillick's tenure.
____________________________________________________________________

It's funny, when you think about it, but the decision by the Dodgers to release Werth impacted not only the Phillies, who eventually won the WS, but the Dodgers, especially financially, as well.

If they don't release him, and he's manning LF for them by the end of the 2007 season, then there is no reason for them to trade for Manny and give him the 2 years deal for $45 MM. That would mean they'd have had a lot more money ($17 MM in 2009) to pay for SP.

The Domino Effect: No Werth on Phils (Jenkins in RF?), no Manny on Dodgers, better SP on the Dodgers in 2009, which might have put the Dodgers in the WS in 2009.

[awh]

Oh, and as for the Stanbridge and duckworth signings....YAWWWWWWWWWWWWN.

[TNA]

JW - I'm sure you're getting baby advice up the wazoo, but there's a Philly-based company (Baby's Choice Diaper Service) that delivers to your doorstep 80 fresh cloth diapers a week for $17. It's good economics, good for the baby's health, and generally better for the environment than disposables.

If someone offered a similar service in Atlanta, I'd be happy to chip in to deliver such diapers to Bobby Cox's doorstep, courtesy of BL.

[EastFallowfield]

It won't be 18 years. At some point he'll disappear to his room, or the basement, wherever the video games (virtual reality at that point) and you'll get your life back a bit.

[timr]

Congratulations!

As far as TNA's suggestion about a beerleaguer rec league with "a bunch of grown men and women keep(ing) track and discuss(ing) the OPS+, DITHL and WHIP of their young'uns," I think it'd be more likely to develop a whole team full of kids who hate playing baseball.

[GBrettfan]

Congratulations!

[Oliver Eaton]

Congratulations Jason! A protege to bring up right.

[MG]

Congrats!

[Scott]

Congratulations. May your child never be a Mets fan...

[awh]

JW, if your child becomes a Mets' fan......................

you can always have another kid.

[hey cholly]

Congratulations.-- may you know nothing but great things..

[Scott]

Glad we got Duckworth. I had just been thinking that we really could use a player who looks like Gary Busey...

[R.Billingsly]

Congratulations, Jason! All the best to you and your family.

[Jim]

Congrats JW - it's hard work but you've never experienced more joy in your life.

[PhilliesDude]

Congrats Jason! It would be cool to have your son grow up to be a Phillie!

[Zudok]

Cliche but true: They grow up fast so make all the days count. Congratulations!

[ozark]

Based on you lead-in, I assume you bought him a Jimmy Rollins model infielder's glove. It's never too early. Tiger started playing with his putz at 3.

[shipsass]

Well done Jason and family. Congratulations all of you.

[NEPP]

Congratulations, Jefe!

[NEPP]

Parenting Tip: Break his right arm and force him to throw lefty...it'll up his value.

That's good parenting!

[kilbillrain]

Yeaaaee. Way to go JW Jr!

[Greg V]

Congrats JW. No better way to celebrate a new life than by posting about Brandon Duckworth! Cheers to you and the family!

[Andy]

Congrats and welcome to parenthood.

For us the refrain:
"Life will never be the same,"
now applies to you.

As for Standridge and Duckworth (and this is unequivocal): meh.

[Andy]

NEPP: That is SO wrong.

It's far better to throw righty (unless your a pitcher) and switch hit.

[NEPP]

He'd have a better career longevity as a LOOGY...its tough to make it as a SS.

[awh]

NEPP, Andy is correct. That is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO wrong. The cold in Vermont must be affecting the oxygen level in your brain.

[Len39]

Congrats JW!!! It's good we have a SS and CF already. My 3 month year old will begin training to be a lefty knuckleballer.

[CY]

Congrats JW! I have a 21 day old. But she will have to settle for ball girl. Or stat keeper.

[CJ]

Congratulations! You don't need me to tell you that your life has changed. Of course, since my wife and I have three dogs and no kids, I can't really tell you how it's changed.

[donc]

Love the picture of Duckworth. He might as well put a coat over his head. Playing in KC must suck.

[MSH]

Congrats JW!

[Steve Jeltz]

Haven't been around here much lately but just wanted to say congratulations. Never too soon to start teaching him the finer points of turning the DP....