Right-hander Jason Grilli announced on his Twitter account that he's "FIRED UP about the City of Brotherly Love," possibly indicating that he's agreed to sign with the Phillies. We heard that the team was interested in signing him just yesterday.
Grilli, 34, last pitched in the big leagues in 2009. He posted a 5.32 ERA in 45 2/3 innings with the Rockies and Rangers. He struck out an impressive 9.7 K/9, but walked 5.3 BB/9. He agreed to a minor league pact with the Indians last year, but he missed the entire season with a quad injury. The fourth overall pick in the 1997 draft, Grilli has worked exclusively in relief since 2005.
Nice k/9. Not nice bb/9
FIRED UP about the City of Brotherly Love. Grilli should be FIRED UP about Lehigh Valley.
I don’t want to hear about Jason Grilli….
Grilli the Phillie?
hahaha, take him. great guy, but not much of a baseball player. He and Todd Jones caused wayyy too much stress for the Tigers!
As a Braves fan, it makes me happy to see that the Phillies are looking to guys like him to shore up their ‘pen.
I second as a Mets fan. I hope this guy plays in the majors this year somehow.
I bet you do, he would be the #4 starter on the Mets…..
Yawn, Phillies think they are untouchable but really they are crumbling.
Crumbling? Just keep telling yourself that bud, if you do it enough times even YOU might believe it.
(EDIT: just in case you didn’t notice…your team is probably 4th-best in the Division, your farm system was just ranked as one of the 5 worst in MLB, and your owner is trying desperately to sell off part of the team. The only team in the NLE that will probably be worse this season than last is the Mets. Who’s crumbling?)
Yea, they only have two Cy Young winners, two MVPs, and two trips to the World Series to go with winning the division each of the past four years.
But you’re right, they suck.
Never said they suck. Just pointing out the fact that they are looking at Grilli, who is terrible, for minor league depth shows that as an organization, they don’t have a lot going on down there. God forbid he actually plays in Philly at all this year, it has me salivating.
As far as my team goes, we have a new front office who I trust is restarting everything and building a new foundation.
As for the Phillies, have they even beat a good team in the playoffs ever? I remember them beating a Rays team that was not even close to ready or that good at all.
So in your opinion, because the Phillies are signing Jason Grilli to a minor league deal (without an invite to major league camp, at that), they are crumbling as a franchise? You’re delusional, my friend. If any franchise in baseball is “crumbling,” it’s the Mets. As much as the Phillies take slack for signing veteran players, the Mets are paying Jason Bay, Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana, Louis Castillo, Francisco Rodriguez, Jose Reyes and possibly, David Wright—not one of which who will live up to their contracts.
Then, you take a look at their ownership situation. They’re run by a couple of dimwits (the Wilpons), who think that because they were screwed over, they’re going to be able to sell a large portion of the franchise, taking some of the slack off of their shoulders, while STILL remaining as cheif operating officers. That’s laughable. No sane man will buy a portion of the Mets without making sure that he has a heavy say in the daily operations.
But hey, at least you have a great manager and one of the leauge’s best farm systems. Oh, wait…
I guess that’s the cry of the now-perennial also-ran’s…they can’t make the playoffs, but whatever team they dislike can’t beat a good team in the playoffs.
As for the minors…the Phils were just ranked 5th-best in MLB, Mets 5th-worst. Signing a veteran for depth has absolutely nothing to do with what quality players you have in the pipeline.
C’mon man, I appreciate your fan-dom, but with the Phils starting four (five, if Blanton isn’t dealt) we could have a four man pen, and it still wouldn’t matter.
Grilli is going to be long tossing in Allentown all year, with a bone possibly thrown his way come Sept 1st.
Too bad everything you said is not true…….
Yea, you’re right, Grilli will probably be released long before 9/1.
Good post.
Yeah he’s a shoe-in for the big club; virtually guaranteed it by signing a minor-league deal.
Middle relief for the Phils is probably going to be the easiest job in baseball this season. How many innings is a MR REALLY going to see with that rotation?
Anyway, the Phils already said they’re keeping at least one slot open in the pen to give some of the young talent a shot to get their feet wet, so Grilli probably won’t see the bigs minus an injury.
Whoever designed his twitter page should be fired.
hu
Apparently you people haven’t seen Grilli pitch. He was a former #1 pick, a big/strong dude that throws strikes, not an easy task for some relievers…
He was good for the Rockies a couple years ago, that’s all I know. And he doesn’t take any BS when he’s on the bump
He’s a former #4 pick, 1st rounder but “#1 pick” usually denotes a Strasburg, Harper, or Longoria.
well played
Apparently you don’t realize that it’s no longer 2007. Guy hasn’t consistently thrown strikes in several years.
Have you guys checked out his website/blog? Classic.
Phillies are stocking up on 1997 1st round draft picks. First Matt Anderson and now Jason Grilli. I’m sure both are destined to start the season with the AAA Ironpigs and be available as a short term band-aid if someone on the big club gets hurt. Every team has guys like that in AAA. Besides, how many guys do the Phillies need in their bullpen when they have 4 guys who will likely throw 7, 8 or 9 innings every time out? Cholly has already been toying with the idea of carrying one less pitcher this year. This team can win 95 games with Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Oswalt, Blanton, Madson, Lidge, Larry, Moe and Curly.
LOL, Larry, Moe, and Curly, also known as Romero, Contreras, and especially Baez.
I’m calling he’s gonna be the Phils ace this year!! Who’s with me??
Jason “Propane” Grilli- put him into the game and watch your team’s chances go down in flames.
Grill ’em up Grilli.
Dude sucks, seriously.
I actually hope he does do well. He went to my highschool and I always believed he was going to be better than he is.
I graduated a year after him from the same high school. I’ll agree that it was always believed he’d be better than he has been.
haha seriously? From b’ville?
Yup. I’m Class of ’95. C.W. Baker High School.
thats pretty awesome.. what teachers did you have?
Well, since I can’t remember their names for the life of me, I had to dig out my old school records file folder. 12th Grade, homeroom 212, Phys Ed with Ross/Schrader/Sanfalipo, Study Hall with Dober, Course 4R with Armstrong, Study Hall with Mahon, PIG with Bergan, Arch. Drawing with Mizer, College Prep with Bader, Physics with Murphy, Study Hall with Iodice, Sci Fic & Fant with Kennedy, Study Hall with Bassett, Economics with Burtless, & Pre-Engineering with Mizer. I can picture some of these people, but without my yearbook (in storage), I couldn’t tell you whether some were male or female.
haha wow, small world. I graduated in 2008, and almost all of those teachers are still there.. have you seen the school lately?
I hope to God, for everybody’s sake, that Burtless is gone – I will forever remember his monotonous voice & my complete inability to take anything from his Economics class. I currently live in Liverpool, and some of my family still live in B’ville, so I’m not far away, by any means. I haven’t been inside the high school since I left, but I do remember driving down around the Baker/Durgee/Elden grounds when they were putting on a few additions to the high school. Since graduating, I have only been inside Durgee (once), and Van Buren (once) when my neice & nephew were both in school there. Growing up, I went to Elden, and lived in “Indian Springs Manor”. Pizza Man didn’t have a pub, he only had a pizza place (& I didn’t like the pizza back then either). I remember the B’ville Diner when it really was just a trailer. I remember when Kinney’s & Riverside weren’t across the street, but Gould’s Pumps was. I remember when the library wasn’t across from the Post Office, but was up across (just about) from Mohegan Manor. That town has changed, but in many ways it’s stayed exactly the same. In 15 years, I imagine you’ll be saying the same thing…
whats really funny is I remember all of that too. When I was really little, I remember the library right by Andrew’s furniture, the huge Goulds pump warehouse, the old sawmill, Dave’s market, the old wooden playground from Elden (I went there too), and an awesome tri county mall. Sadly, times have changed.
I “helped build” the Elden playground – and I still have my “I helped build the Elden Playground” T-shirt to prove it, LOL. I was my chosen class representative for the project, which meant a copy of the blue print was pinned up to a wall in one of the classrooms & it had a piece of tracing paper over it. During a period of time during school, all the class reps would spend time tracing the blue print onto the tracing paper, and that was basically our contribution. That playground was awesome (if I do say so myself), and I was very disappointed when they had to take it down. I was told that the contents of the Time Capsule that we buried under it were at the district office, but I never looked into any further. I don’t recall what I/my class put in it, but I’d love to relive that memory some time as well.