The Phillies signed pitcher Oscar Villarreal to a minor league deal, tweets Ed Price of AOL FanHouse. Villarreal, 28, signed with the Royals before last season but eventually developed the need for Tommy John surgery. He threw for teams on Friday, with the Phillies, Red Sox, Rockies, and Diamondbacks in attendance.
Villarreal's upside is limited, as he's prone to the longball and has a 1.75 career K/BB.
He’s better than Vogelsong
Minor league filler. He’ll give them some depth in AAA like they had last year when they signed Mike Koplove and Gary Majewski. Its not a bad signing for that purpose.
we could use an experienced lefty-bullpen arm and i think the bullpen will be significantly better than last years. as it stands now, romero is the only lefty with experience and he hasnt pitched but a couple games in the last year and a half. ron mahay, will ohman still available, could be signed for cheap and probably provide some decent relief…like the scott eyre pickup previously
Antonio Bastardo will be the other LHP in the BP…dude had a great winter.
Exactly. Gotta give the young guy a chance at some point. He’s got good enough stuff to be a LH reliever. Pretty even splits too…not just a LOOGY.
yea, with the signings of contreras and baez, it would seem likely that the phils will go with a cheap, in-house option for the lefty-arm. i have no problem at all starting the season with bastardo in the ‘pen, but im thinkin if romero isnt healthy/not on the roster, i would like to have a lefty with some experience out there as well. that way bastardo isnt the ONLY option for the phils to go to in those tougher ‘situational lefty’ roles.
Am I thinking of Villarreal………….. I spent 10 minutes contemplating Wil Ledezma.
still need more than this guy for the pen
Dude. The key words are “minor league deal”…it’s a depth move and nothing else.