Carlos Zambrano hit and pitched the Marlins into a first place tie with the Nationals in the NL East. Zambrano hit a 431-foot home run, the longest by a pitcher in four years according to the ESPN Home Run Tracker, and struck out seven in 7 2/3 innings. Here are today's other pitcher-related links.
- The Red Sox may need to take a breather from the Daniel Bard experiment as a starter after his performance today, explains John Tomase of the Boston Herald. According to Baseball Reference, Bard became the first starting pitcher since 1918 to walk six and hit two batters in two or less innings of work.
- Roy Halladay's time on the disabled list could affect his $20MM vesting option for 2014 and make him a free agent one year earlier than expected, according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.
- Jorge De La Rosa was pulled from his latest rehab assignment because of a small fluid build-up in his surgically repaired left elbow, says Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. The Rockies also placed right-hander Juan Nicasio on the DL with a strained left knee.
- The Orioles have added Steve Johnson to their 40-man roster after the right-hander sought to opt out of his contract, writes Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com.
Is this good for the phillies?
I mean i guess it depends on how he performs..if he pitches worthy og 20 mil then i guess its not good, but if he keep pitching even close to he did this year it might be one of those…”aww, sorry but it didn’t workout” type of things
Gives flexibility with regards to signing Cole.
I think they’d still work something out with Doc even if the option doesn’t vest… just not at $20 million. He wants to finish his career here.
isn’t that what [almost] every player says/makes it seem?
Not that I’m doubting you, but just saying.
I think he’s truly sincere though. I understand it’s a lot of BS with most players but given the kind of money he sacrificed to come here and the support he’s gotten, I believe him.
Yeah, it’s hard to doubt Halladay’s sincerity about that after all the money he gave up to stay there.
true. plus, at this point of his career, i doubt he’d wanna be doing a bunch of jumping around with different teams after he’s only been with 2 teams his whole career. It would be interesting if Toronto is contending big around that time (as i think they will) if they would make a push. They certainly are in better shape than they were when he left (which, if i remember right, was pretty much the main reason he wanted out in the first place).
Did he do that because of his love of Philadelphia, though, or because of the chance he felt they gave him to win?
The Phils have been doing pretty well considering their two best hitters are out, but it’s a team with a lot of questions moving forward. If two years down the road they aren’t looking like strong contenders, does he stay anyway (and do they even want him to)?
It could make him a great rade target for other teams looking for an ace for a year and looking to recoup draft picks as well…
Good for Halladay. He’s underpaid compared to other aces in baseball these days.
I wonder what he could’ve gotten on the free agent market. Could he have been the first $200 million pitcher? (unlikely… but possible).
it would have been close I think..
Doubtful since he would have been 33. But it wouldn’t have been out of the question for a 7/150 deal.
Huh? How is it good for him? He’ll be 37. I don’t exactly think GM’s will be offering 5 year deals here. If the option doesn’t vest, he will be looking at 2-3 year deals in the vicinity of 14-16 per. Not exactly ideal for Roy.
Even less ideal for the Phillies. How does losing a year of control over their best pitcher benefit them?
Pretty sure that is untrue. The option is guaranteed at the 415 IP or some other stipulations, but if it’s not guaranteed, I’m pretty sure it can be still picked up. I could be wrong but I think it turns to a club option at that point.
I read in the Inquirer this week that there is no team or player option if the vesting option does not kick in.
Here is his contractual option breakdown from Cot’s page:
2014 option guaranteed with all of the following:225 IP in 2013,415 IP in 2012-13, andHalladay is not on disabled list at end of 2013 season
Not familiar with Bard’s situation… but couldn’t they just option him when Dice-K comes back and let him pitch through his struggles at AAA?
He needs to learn how to manage his way through a game. I thought he threw a decent ballgame against us… one thing that stood out to me was horrible pitch selection though.
Yeah, they can, and personally I think that’s probably what they should do at this point. Even if they give up on him as a starter he’s likely going to need some time to get back into the swing of things as a reliever (and to get his command back, going to the ‘pen isn’t going to magically straighten that out), so I’d send him down to keep working on starting.
Bard over thinks when he pitches. As a result his body doesn’t do what is mind tells it to do, because he has it confused with so much thought.
Bard can’t throw a bloomin’ strike for a month in a start and it is getting worse and worse. Matsuzaka has been doing decent in his rehab starts.. Time to cease and desist this trial SP with Bard, unless he agrees to go to Pawtucket on his own time and works on it, cause it is a 100% abysmal failure all the way around.. 5+mph loss in velocity with his FB, loss of his control in every pitch he HAD control in?
He wants to be a SP.. Go try it out in winterball, or like mentioned.. At AAA.. This travesty has gone on long enough.. Cook can do better than this.
If it’s a guarantee that Docs option won’t best, Phillies might be best suited to trade him. A 1/20 mil Halladay would be EXTREMELY valued. Plus, you’d get picks and the Phils could sign Cole. I love Roy, but that might be the best thing for the Phils at this point.
2 hugely underachieving teams