Thursday, March 27, 2014

2013 Phillies Team Issue 2 #40 Michael Stutes

Tigers 1, Phillies 0
Spring Training Game 28 - Wednesday Afternoon, March 26th in Clearwater
Record - 9-16-3

One Sentence Summary:  Cliff Lee and Justin Verlander faced off in their final spring starts, with Verlander and the Tigers coming out ahead in a 1-0 win.

What Happened:  Lee allowed the lone Tigers run in his five innings of work while striking out seven.  The Phillies managed just two singles off Verlander and three relievers.

Featured Card:  I was going to post Lee's Heritage card again, just to see if anyone would notice.  Instead, I decided to post what will most likely be Michael Stutes' last official Phillies card - see below.

Camp Head Count:  Still holding at 37, but the final pieces are starting to fall into place.  Veteran outfielder and former All-Star Bobby Abreu was informed yesterday he wouldn't make the team's opening day roster.  While his official opt-out date is Sunday, chances are he might be gone before then, rather than accept an assignment with the Triple-A IronPigs.

Reliever Stutes was also officially released, after being designated for assignment earlier in the week.  In parts of three seasons, Stutes appeared in 79 games for the Phillies, going 9-3 with a 4.01 ERA.  His best season by far was his rookie year of 2011, when he appeared in 57 games and put together a 3.63 ERA while striking out 58 in 62 innings.

2 comments:

Jim from Downingtown said...

Jim,

Do you remember during Stutes' rookie season, when every time you turned around, there was another story about how Stutes' "inverted W" delivery was going to lead to premature arm trouble?

The stories were always accompanied by a photo of Stutes with both arms spread out like wings, with his elbows bent.

Jim said...

I definitely remember that.

I guess he's still not completely healthy at this point? It seems strange that they wouldn't at least keep him around as AAA depth.