We all know that one person who cannot keep anything going in their life, whether it be a relationship or a job. Perhaps he or she is a close friend of yours, someone you see often. The one thing about this person, though, is that they always land somewhere else and get more chances to prove that they belong, despite the fact that they are incapable of doing so.
For the Philadelphia fans, this person is Danys Baez.
He’s been around for a year and a half and has done nothing to excite the fan base. Many fans would love to see him pack up his bags and head west, but the man keeps walking out from centerfield and pitching in important situations even though he has continually proven to blow nearly all of his opportunities.
In the Phillies’ last game, Baez found yet another way to deliver a “perfect pitch” (sarcasm intended) to Mike Stanton in the bottom of the 10th inning, resulting in another missed opportunity for the Phillies to pull out a win.
Baez, who has a 5.40 ERA in 35 innings of work, has proven to be the weakest link in the bullpen and should not be on this roster anymore.
Maybe I’m being too hard on him, but now that the Phillies are getting prepared for the second half of the season, there’s no excuse for failing to capitalize on opportunities to win games down the stretch. They did way too many times in the first half… just ask the Phillies starters who saw their seven or eight inning, one run outings result in losses.
The bullpen has slowly improved with the emergence of Antonio Bastardo and Michael Stutes. But there’s still a glaring problem in the ‘pen. One way to minimize this is by cutting ties with Baez.
Look at it this way. The Phillies will eventually return three relievers: Brad Lidge, Jose Contreras and Ryan Madson. All of whom will play major roles down the stretch as long as everything goes as expected. That means that there will be some shuffling of players in the bullpen.
Instead of sending someone back down to Lehigh-Valley, the Phillies should eliminate Baez from the equation to make room for Madson when he is ready and continue about business.
With Baez in the picture, the Phillies aren’t gaining anything. Without him, though, the Phillies will be without a salary-eating waste of space who has lost four games for the club this season.
And not to mention that Baez has fared poorly against the Atlanta Braves (6.75 ERA), the Florida Marlins (12.46 ERA), the New York Mets (6.75 ERA) and the Washington Nationals (5.19 ERA) over the past three season. That gives him a combined 7.79 ERA against NL East opponents.
Come on Ruben Amaro Jr., get this guy out of here!
Agree 100% Kyle..
He has been a big disappointment his entire time with the Phillies..
Who wouldn’t want a crafty Pitcher like Clyde Durbin around over the very inconsistent Baes..
I also agree that when Madson & Contreras return that Baes be released and Carpenter be sent back down to Lehigh.. As far as Brad Lidge goes, my sources tell me he’s probably a September call up at the earliest and could very well not Pitch at all in 2011 so I would be very hesitant on planning on any production from Lidge..
Amaro, needs to ship Baez & Herndon to Siberia, naked. These 2 bums need to never, ever see the field again. Like I said before on here a million times, “Amaro has done a shitty, piss poor job, putting this teams BP, bench & OF together. This team has a $#!T load of bad, untradable contracts, & it is nearly impossible to make trades, to better the BP & OF. Just imagine where this team would be without the starters & the surprise, unexpected, emergence of Stutes & The Bastard. Amaro better say some prayers, that Madson, Contreras, Lidge & Victorino come back healthy & Brown can start playing alot better. Because ATL is creeping up their rear ends, & after the All Star break things are going to be very tough.
Completely agree. Amaro needs to do a better job with the bullpen and bench players. I understand his focus on the starters, but like we’ve seen before, sometimes it comes down to the last two innings when someone like Baez or Herndon needs to come in, and the chances are that they are gonna let up some runs. And when it gets into extra innings, the Phillies are in bad shape.
Let’s hope we can get some bullpen help for the second half of the season.
KP, the sad part is, Amaro handcuffed his own hands, with these asinine, overpaid contracts he signed since he took over. The Halladay & Lee (Shouldn’t have been traded in the 1st place) moves were great, but ever other move he has made has been horrible or blown up in his face. Howard- overpaid, Polanco is good, but Beltre is much better, Oswalt- known to be damaged goods, Ibanez- blows & is cooked, Blanton & Lidge- both overpaid unacceptable contracts, Baez & Romero- HAHAHA!!!, Herndon & Martinez- useless rule 5 stiffs, Gload- no power or defense so he’s a waste of a spot, Brown- overhyped & not ready might not ever be, Werth & Burrell- never adequately replaced, TOO many lefties, No power on the team, yada, yada, yada. It’sad that we’re going to probably have to wait to the offseason.
We better hope they win it this because this teams line up & BP is old & needs to be rebuilt in the offseason. Thank God for the big 3 & Stutes, Worley & the Bastard. Rebuild around them & Howard, Utley & Victorino.
They should have placed this clown and Herndon on waivers the same day they did Romero. These guys stink! Once Manuel put Herndon and Baez in the same game, you knew we were either going to lose the game or already losing. They stink. They are better off moving Valdez to the bullpen.
DD,
I agree with your points but just to add, Werth is doing NOTHING in Washington. He’s only effective when he has a legit hitter to protect him. He’s been exposed for what he really is, a serviceable outfielder. Aside from his arm, this year he’s as useless as Francisco.
you guys are way too hard on amaro, wait until the the trade deadline passes, philly loves to rip their own, but this guy has pulled off monster deals, when cashman was asked if he was going to acquire a front line starter, he responded “who do you think I am, Reuben Amaro?”
and would you rather have the likes of pee wee roseman and joe yellow teeth banner at the helm for the phils?
Phils should have hired Paulman as GM when they had the chance..
RR, I agree about Werth. I would have never have given him the money he got. But Amaro never replaced Werth or Burrell with better quality players. Look what has- He replaced Burrell with Ibanez, who was older, worse defensively, for more money, another lefty & at the downside of his career. He replaced Werth with the 5 headed garbage hydra, that is Francisco, Brown, Mayberry, Gload, Martinez. I wouldn’t want these guys on my PAL, softball team.
Other than Victorino, who in this OF is worth a damn. When your vying for another World Series, & put together a great, once in a lifetime starting staff like ours, you CANNOT have the useless slop in the OF, that we have. It is absolutely unacceptable! We could be running away with this division right now if we had anyone worth a damn.
The reason I cannot stand Amaro is he gets unwarranted glory for greatness. He’s been tagged as a great young golden boy GM. He is nothing but a silver spoon fed, arrogant a$$, who gets credit for the team Wade & Gillick built. Almost every move & decision he has made, has been pi$$ poor, & EPIC FAIL!
If they did not have these starters, they’d be cellar dwelling with the Mets & Florida. Their lineup is old, always hurt, & everyone else where found via- dumpster diving, career journeymen/ backups, or minor leaguers. I refuse to be blinded to the truth because they are in 1st. This lineup is severely flawed, & there are too many changes that need to be made, for them to to win it this year. I hope they do, but it ain’t happening.
I suggested to GM Amaro for Phils to pursue RF Jeff Francouer and or OF Matt Diaz back in last January before ML:B Free-Agency and let D Brown get a whole season down at Triple AAA to get his 500 At-Bats and learn to play Defense better , etc,etc and then bring him up in September to get some at-Bats and be arounf a winning team.. He’s nowhere near a productive everyday MLB player at this stage of his development ..
I also suggested trading for 3b/2b Michael Young bacin MArch when it was known that 2B Utley would miss substantial time and Young wanted out of Texas to play everyday.. Texas needed Pitching (Blanton/Kendrick and some prospects could have gotten the deal done.. Young could have played 2n/3b and even outfield and is a consistent Right-Hand Bat that they don’t have on this current 25 man squad…