Phillies ink Josh Fogg, Ty Taubenheim to minor deals

Fogg, 33, appeared in 24 games, all but 1 in relief, with the Rockies last season, going 0-2 with a 3.74 ERA (123 ERA+) and 27/20 K/BB ratio in 45 2-3 innings. The right-hander was released from Mets camp last week after suffering an injury to a muscle in his side. Taubenheim, a 27 righty, pitched for Triple-A Indianapolis (Pirates) in ’09.

Beerleaguer: Somehow, between 2002 and 2008, there was always a team willing to give Fogg 30 games to showcase his suckitude in all its splendor. He doesn't get strikeouts and he doesn't necessarily have pinpoint command. So he's not a great option for the bullpen, either. And before you get excited by that 3.74 bullpen ERA, note the .197 BABIP. At best, he's an insurance policy capable of a 5.50 ERA. Wouldn't you rather try to catch lightening in a bottle with a youngster if it came to it?

Beerleaguer holds a slight edge over Todd Zolecki in The Phield. Time to pour it on. If you haven't voted, now is the time. [Vote]

Comments

[Dan in Philly]

Finally! The missing pieces of the puzzle!!!

[PhxPhilly]

Fogg competing with Jake Woods for a spot in AAA? Exciting.

[awh, formerly, temporarily know as "rolo"]

"To the poster formerly known as RoLo

from Murphy's blog:

former Phillie Rodrigo Lopez will enter the season in the Diamondbacks rotation

Posted by: Bubba"

Bubba, it will be interesting to see who has the better season, RoLo or Moyer.

If I had to bet money, I would bet on RoLo, though I don't expect tremendous things from either of the two.
_________________________________________________________________

As an aside, I just had a thought:

We all saw Moyer get hurt pitching late in the season, but no one has asked whether the injury was something that was just sudden, or whether it was a nagging problem all year - that affected his performance - and then just popped.

I wonder.

[bay_area_phan]

I'm pretty sure that if you searched through the BL archives, you'd find a post maybe 2 or 3 years ago in which I predicted that Josh Fogg would end up on the Phillies. He's just such a quintessential Phillie acquisition.

To be sure, Josh Fogg does stink. But he's an ok guy to have at AAA for that July double-header where you need someone to make a spot start without allowing 8 runs in 3 innings. He has also fared a bit better as a reliever than a starter. I could easily see him ending up in our bullpen if either KK or Herndon doesn't work out. Taubenheim, OTOH, is just minor league roster filler.

[bay_area_phan]

Perhaps I should clarify my last post. Fogg as a 7th starter at AAA: fine. But I agree with JW entirely that, if Josh Fogg is in your bullpen, it's probably bad news. Unfortunately, however, I could easily see it happening if the present options don't work out.

[awh]

Never commented on Lidge's cortisone shot, so here goes:

YAWWWWN.

I never expected him before June anyway, at least not coming off of TWO surgeries.

[Royale]

Beerleaguer leading Zolecki, but margin is slim. Help him out!

http://thephield.wordpress.com/

[Bubba]

awh-
I'm a big Moyer fan so I will have to root for the old guy vs RoLo. But, I wish them both well. We will see who has bragging rights after the season.
Jamie's injury sure looked sudden when he came off the mound lame, but who knows what kind of lingering stuff was going on at the end of a season.

[donc]

Cant wait for the battery of Taubenheim and Gosewisch. Sounds like a law firm. Looks like an eye chart.

[NEPP]

Who has money on Lidge undergoing TJ surgery by May 1st?

[awh]

Bubba, don't get me wrong. I'd rather see Moyer do well.

I'm simply guessing (he's younger and one year further removed from TJ surgery) that RoLo will have a better year.

Who knows?

[Bay Slugga]

NEPP: The reports are saying no structural damage and no MRI is scheduled. TJ would really surprise me.

[awh]

Slugga, one question:

Who's reports? The Phillies? The Phillies medical staff?

[Dukes]

JW, you have new people coming to your blog deciding on who to vote so fix this - "Taubenheim, a 27, pitched for Triple-A Indianapolis (Pirates) in ’09."

[ST]

Amaro: "I think you guys are making too much of a cortisone shot, it's more to just get him over the hump. He doesn't have any sharp pain."

[awh]

Just a thought:

I'm worried about the Braves this year.

Pythagorean in 2009: 91-71

Phillies 2009 Pythagorean: 92-70

Dogfight coming.

[clout]

"Remember we made the WS last year when Lidge reached new heights of suckatude?"

Yes and no. Lidge reached new heights of suckitude during the season, but if we was at those heights in the playoffs the team never would've advanced beyond round 1, as I recall.

[MG]

Jason Fogg? When I think of pitching mediocrity the past decade in baseball, he is right at the top of the list. Mark Hendrickson and John Wasdin also come to mind too. Yet somehow Fogg has made nearly $8M in his career.

I am waiting for the inevitable lefty reliever move where they sign Ron Villone to a minor league deal.

Phils have flirted with the idea of adding him the past 3 years a couple of times including getting real close in '07 at the end of spring training when the Yanks released him.

[rolo's ghost in AZ]

clout, since you have both versions in your post, is it spelled "suckatude" or "suckitude"? :)

[donc]

Wouldnt it be new depths of suckatude? A word which I intend to start using btw.

[clout]

awh: Of course, no one knows. But past performance does factor in. And RoLo has had one season of 100+ ERA+ since 2004, while Moyer has had two plus one near miss (98). Assuming age doesn't catch up to him this year, I like Moyer's chances better than RoLo's.

[ST]

awh, you do realize that you can have two teams from one division make the playoffs. it's not against the rules

[Lake Fred]

When the Flyers won their two Stanley Cups, their coach, Fred Shero was called "Freddie, the Fog". Now we have a new Fogg! I'm with Jason, not impressed.

Do your civic duty, vote for BL on the Phield. As they say in Louisiana, "Vote early and often."

[MG]

Hope this doesn't mean they give a retread like Fogg the last spot in the pen over Herndon.

Probably are looking for Fogg to be what Rolo was last year (staring pitching depth at AAA) but Fogg hasn't really started since '08 and his numbers were horrendous with Cin:

14 GS, 2-7, 8.23 ERA, 1.652 WHIP

Rolo was a question mark because of his health but he still has posted strong results as starter relatively recently. Fogg hasn't been a credible MLB starter since '07.

Then again, the starting rotation at Lehigh Valley is going to be:

Starting Pitching: Carpenter, Bump, Savery, Vogelsong, Mazone, Duckworth

Not any help there except for maybe Carpenter. Amaro likely just wants to add another starter with MLB experience because you don't want to see the likes of Savery or Vogelsong starting a game this year for the Phils.

[Bedrosian's Beard]

No reason to be too impressed, it's a minor league deal for a reason.

[Bubba]

Do your civic duty, vote for BL on the Phield. As they say in Louisiana, "Vote early and often."

Lake Fred- Philadelphia and New Jersey can hang in there with Kingfisher country on political reputation.

JW - only BeerLeaguer could feature Fogg, Taubenheim and a discussion of suckititude vs. suckatitude in one short afternoon.
Vote Beerleaguer.

[Bad News]

Joe Blanton, the team's projected No. 3 starter, had to cut short a throwing session on Wednesday, CSNPhilly.com has learned, because of an oblique problem.

"He may have tweaked it," general manger Ruben Amaro, Jr. said. "We'll check him out tomorrow [Thursday]."

Asked if there was a chance if Blanton could open the season on the disabled list, Amaro said, "We'll know more tomorrow."

[doubleh]

Jim Salisbury with more good news in the tweet column to the left: Blanton is hurt. Oblique something, they think. Might explain the minor league outing the other day.
http://www.csnphilly.com/03/31/10/More-Bad-News-for-Phils-Blanton-Hurting/landing.html?blockID=207704&feedID=704

[MG]

Didn't Blanton get pasted earlier this week in his start and give up like 10 runs over 5 IP?

[doubleh]

MG: Yep, 11 runs, but 10 ER. Maybe this has something to do with it? He can be bad at times, but he isn't generally THAT awful.

[ST]

yes in the minors

[Lake Fred]

Bubba, I grew up in South Jersey and cast my first votes there. Now I vote in Louisiana. Recently I heard some national commentator talking about corruption in politics and he named two states....New Jersey and Louisiana as the gold standard when it came to corruption in politics. Gee, I jumped from the frying pan of political corruption to the boiling crawfish pot of political corruption, ha ha!

Excuse me, I need to go vote for BL, again.

[bay_area_phan]

ST: I think the NL East teams may be at a disadvantage in the WC race because the whole division should be a lot tougher this year. Atlanta is obviously very tough. The Mets added Jason Bay & should be considerably better just by virtue of being healthy. The Marlins will get a full season from Coghlan, should get a much better season from Maybin, and it's distinctly possible that one or more of their young starters could step forward to give them a worthy complement to Josh Johnson. The Nats already had a good offense & they bolstered their pitching with Marquis, Capps, & Wang. There won't be a lot of "gimmes" among our 72 intra-division games this year. Plus, the inter-league part of the schedule doesn't do the Phillies any favors either, with series against both the RedSox & Yankees.

Meanwhile, a WC contender from the NL West or Central will get to beat up on the likes of the Pirates, Astros, Reds, Padres, and D-backs. This isn't to say that the WC can't possibly come out of the East but, if the overall division is as strong as it looks to be, it would make the road to the wildcard more difficult for NL East teams.

[mike cunningham]

RE: Blanton... I'm taking full blame for this one... was talking Phils with my Dad the other night... and discussing how stacked the team is, that they can afford to lose a guy like Joe Blanton and it wouldn't hurt that much... (stacked does not mean depth, meaning they are so good that they can survive an injury to someone like a... joe blanton... )

This is totally my fault.

[Tim from Williamsport]

Looks like Kendrick should be going into the rotation after all

[NEPP]

Blanton too...WTF?

Dropping like flies all of a sudden. Guess we definitely get to keep Herndon now and KK just might end up starting too. That's kinda scary. A back 2 of KK and Moyer isn't that impressive. Good thing we still have Halladay, Hamels and Lee!!!

[timr]

So much for a worry-free spring.

[Willard Preacher]

Ugh. Lidge, Romero, (inevitably Moyer at some point soon), now Kentucky Joe?

No wonder Amaro signed Silent-but-deadly Fogg.

I'm with MG, a Villone signing is inevitable and will be just as underwhelming. Sucktitude (sucktatude?) personified.

[Willard Preacher]

Is Fogg more likely to succeed in the bigs in 2010 than a Mathieson?

[RodeoJones]

I didn't know Blanton had abs.

[kilbillrain]

OMG ...Its the SI curse! Roy goes on the front cover and the Phils immediately start to drop like flies.

I knew it the second they picked us to win the WS that this season was DOOOOOOMMMMMEDD

[PHIinBK]

Where's Pedro?

[thephaithful]

Josh Fogg is "the Dragon Slayer".

Back in 2007 when they were on their miracle run, his last 3 decisions to finish the year were Ws over Brandon Webb, Chris Young, and Derek Lowe - and then went on to beat Webb again in the NLCS.

But yeah other than that, his suckitude is very established.

[NEPP]

Pedro SHOULD be on a plane to Philly...if for nothing else than his awesome press conferences.

[GBrettfan]

Pedro did have the best press conferences, you're right, NEPP! I think his entertainment value was the biggest reason I was disappointed not to sign him. There's still time....Maybe he could at least be signed as a color commentator? :)

I actually am happy to know Blanton's bad outing might possibly be attributable to an injury. But other than that, not good news. And Lidge, of course, remains a huge ?

[GBrettfan]

Never mind my Blanton comment. Just saw that he didn't feel anything wrong 'til during his BP today.

[awh]

Rotation to start the season:

Halladay
Hamels
Happ
Moyer
Kendrick

BP to start the season:

Madson - CL
Baez
Durbin
Contreras
Herndon
Bastardo
??????

[awh]

GBrett, if Lidge is out until June it's not that big of a deal, despite what others here may think.

Why?

Lidge on May 31, 2009:

.309 .393 .577 .970 (against)

0 - 2, 23.1 IP, 30 H, 20 ER, 13 BB, 1.843 WHIP, 26 K, 2 BS

Phillies on 5/31/2009:

28 - 20, up 1/2 game

Could a replacement player possibly be worse than Lidge was last season through May 31?

[Greg V.]

All I know is that when I inherited my fantasy keeper team, Josh Fogg was among my first cuts. I wouldn't put that guy in my rotation if I ran out of arms.

[awh]

SIhas their preseason predictions posted:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/baseball/mlb/03/29/expert.picks/index.html?eref=sihp

[John]

Interesting that some SI douche picked the Reds to win the central.

[Lake Fred]

So KK ends up as the 5th starter due to Blanton's obliques problems. Durn Geezer moves up to no. 4. Using AWH's ERA figures from yesterday, the Geezer's target numbers just got harder for him. He'll have to put extra grease in his wheelchair's axles.

[NEPP]

So is Moyer an average 4th starter, clout?

[awh]

LF, they're really not my ERA figures, they are courtesy of a 2006 article by Jeff Sackman at Hardball Times.

It's an interesting read, obviously, because the bar seems to set so low for #4 and #5 starters.

[Jack]

Clout must be thrilled by this news about Blanton. His two favorite Phillies, Kendrick and Moyer, now both get to start. I'd be disappointed with anything less than 3 pitchers (Halladay, Moyer, Kendrick) in the Top 5 in the Cy Young voting.

[awh]

Wow, verducci has an article up on si.com.

How things have changed from a few years ago.

A quote from the article:

" but not before the Dodgers -- a team stopped short of the World Series twice in a row only because of the mighty Phillies "

"the mighty Phillies".

Did you EVER expect to see a national sportwriter committing that phrase to print?

Link:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/tom_verducci/03/30/verducci.forward/index.html?eref=sihp

[Willard Preacher]

"His two favorite Phillies, Kendrick and Moyer..."

With all due respect, and I'll leave it to the man himself to confirm, I'm almost 100% certain that clout's favorite Phillie is Tuffy Gosewich.

[Meyer]

Are you sure you want KK and Roy back to back with the similar spunk on the ball et al?

[NEPP]

Our rotation kinda sucks outside of Halladay and Hamels now.

Throw in a very questionable bullpen and it could be a rough April.

[Meyer]

Who won?

[John]

BL pulled it out! As well as the Fightin's... Congrats to both, gonna be a real tough choice for the final!