Expect An Announcement

Expect an announcement at any moment now. On second thought, pray for one. The Gavin Floyd experiment is over.

Contrary to my complaints about missing Phillies telecasts from the West Coast due to the late starts for us old folks on the East Coast, I am grateful to have been spared Floyd’s latest disaster. I didn’t even need to go to the web to read the gory details: my in box was filled with summaries and less neutral recaps from some faithful bloggers and those who comment regularly.

Truth be told, I went to bed assuming the Phillies had lost and, for the record, I was asleep by 10:27PM EDT. Sending out a guy with the worst ERA in the league can do that to you. But forget me; how do his teammates react when they know he is taking the ball every fifth day? They can’t be too optimistic either. Of course, it would help matters if they hit with RISP, caught the ball with greater frequency, and in general made some effort on his if not their own behalves. Still, when you give up seven hits, four bases on balls and seven earned runs in four innings, you can expect to lose. Floyd’s ERA now stands at 7.29.

It’s hard to imagine that sending the kid down to AAA will help. He doesn’t need the work; he needs the pitches. His confidence won’t be helped by getting rocked by minor league batters, which is more or less what happened during his last stint at Scranton. If ever a player were in need of a change of scenery, it would be Gavin Floyd. At this stage it is hard to imagine many other teams taking a chance for him. The best bet is that he will be a throw-in as part of a trade. Some other team is going to look at him as a project. How about Baltimore and Leo Mazzone? Home town kid (he’s from Annapolis, MD) returns! If all else fails, he might benefit from going into the Witness Protection Program for a few years and emerging with an entirely new identity. While he's at it, he might want to add a few more pitches to his repertoire as well.