Phillies Missing Links of the 2000s - #29 Les Walrond

#44
Leslie Dale Walrond
Relief Pitcher

Les Walrond had already been playing professional baseball for 10 seasons, including very brief parts of two seasons with the Royals and Cubs, when the Phillies purchased his contract from the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on August 2nd.  Reliever Rudy Seanez had landed on the disabled list and the Phillies went with the lefty Walrond to fill his spot.  He got knocked around a little in four appearances and was sent back down when Seanez returned.  Walrond was then one a slew of September call-ups for the club but he'd appear in just two more games that season.

Walrond was a 13th round draft pick of the Cardinals and his 15 year odyssey saw him spend time with the Cardinals, Royals, Marlins and Cubs before his six games with the Phillies.  He pitched for two seasons in Japan and Korea in 2009 and 2010 before coming back to the Phillies organization and appearing in 33 games for the Reading Phillies and IronPigs in 2011.

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Left  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  205
Born:  November 7, 1976, Muskogee, OK
Drafted:  Drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 13th round of the 1998 amateur draft, June 2, 1998.
Major League Teams:  Royals 2003; Cubs 2006; Phillies 2008
Professional Affiliations:  St. Louis Cardinals 1998-2003; Kansas City Royals 2003-2004; Florida Marlins 2005; Chicago Cubs 2006-2008; Phillies 2008; Yokohama Bay Stars (Japan) 2009; Doosan Bears (Korea) 2010; Phillies 2011; Lancaster Barnstormers (Independent) 2011-2012; Toronto Blue Jays 2012

Phillies Career

6 games, 10 1/3 innings, 1-1, 6.10 ERA, 13 hits, 9 walks, 12 strikeouts
Acquired:  May 3, 2008 - Signed as a minor league free agent formerly with the Chicago Cubs organization.
Debut:  August 5, 2008 - Relieved Clay Condrey in the 7th inning of a game against the Marlins.  Faced 5 batters, recording a strikeout and then allowing a walk, a wild pitch, another walk and a single to Alfredo Amezaga before he was pulled in favor of Ryan Madson.
Final Game:  September 28, 2008 - Was the winning pitcher the day after the Phillies had clinched the division, relieving Kyle Kendrick in the 5th and pitching 2 scoreless innings.
Departed:  November 4, 2008 - Selected off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays.

2 Walrond Baseball Card in My Collection
2008 Multi-Ad Lehigh Valley IronPigs #24
2011 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #27

Complete Chachi Checklist
2008 Chachi #44
2009 Chachi Transactions #3

2001 Donruss Class of 2001 #127

2006 Topps 52 #28

2008 Multi-Ad Lehigh Valley IronPigs #24

2008 Chachi #44

2011 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #27

Other Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  2001 Donruss Class of 2001 #127
First Topps Base Card:  N/A
Last Mainstream Card:  2006 Topps 52 #28
Other Notable Cards:  2002 Ultra #272, 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man #599, 2006 Upper Deck #1042

Sources:  Baseball Reference and The Trading Card Database

Phillies Missing Links of the 2000s
1 Kirk Bullinger
2 Chris Pritchett
3 Bryan Ward
4 Mark Holzemer
5 Turner Ward
6 P.J. Forbes
7 Matt Walbeck
8 Kelly Stinnett
9 Valerio de los Santos
10 Josh Hancock
11 Brian Powell
12 Paul Abbott
13 Todd Jones
14 A.J. Hinch
15 Ramon Martinez
16 Matt Kata
17 Aquilino Lopez
18 Adam Bernero
19 Jose Hernandez
20 Randall Simon
21 Anderson Garcia
22 Russell Branyan
23 John Ennis
24 Kane Davis
25 Pete LaForest
26 T.J. Bohn
27 R.J. Swindle
28 Mike Cervenak
29 Les Walrond

This is a continuing series looking at those players who spent time with the Phillies but possess no baseball card proof of their time in Philadelphia.  In some cases, the First and Last Mainstream cards listed above have been subjectively chosen if multiple cards were released in that year.

2008 Multi-Ad Lehigh Valley IronPigs #24 Les Walrond

Pirates 6, Phillies 3
Game 84 - Thursday Night, July 6th in Philadelphia
Record - 28-56, 5th place, 21 1/2 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  A three-run eighth inning from the Pirates doomed the Phillies in this 6-3 loss.

What It Means:  Joaquin Benoit was the bullpen culprit in this game, allowing the three eighth inning runs on four hits.

What Happened:  The Phillies had one runner in scoring position the entire game, as Chad Kuhl limited them to three runs (two earned) on six hits. Pirates left fielder Jose Osuna had three outfield assists, throwing out Odubel Herrera once and Aaron Altherr twice at second.  All three times the runners were trying to stretch singles into doubles.

Featured Card:  I know I'm totally reaching here, but the 2017 Phillies are a tough team to write about on a daily basis.  My sympathies to those writers who do this professionally.  The official Twitter account of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs pointed out that this was the 9th anniversary of Les Walrond striking out 17 batters in a game against Louisville.  Walrond appeared with the Phillies in six games in 2008 and had a 6.10 ERA in 10 1/3 innings.

2008 Chachi #44 Les Walrond

Nationals 10, Phillies 2
Game 55 - Tuesday Night, May 31st in Washington

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies were blown out for the first time this season, losing to the Nationals, 10-2.

What It Means:  Some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you.  The Phils fell to 34-21 and they have a 2 1/2 game lead over the Marlins as I'm writing this.

What Went Wrong:  Cliff Lee (4-5) didn't have it tonight.  Lee allowed six runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.  Doing the most damage was Nationals second baseman Danny Espinosa who hit a three-run home run off Lee in the third and added a solo home run off Lee in sixth.

What Went Right:  Domonic Brown (1) and John Mayberry, Jr. (3) hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning.

Featured Card:  If you were listening to the radio broadcast tonight, Phillies announcers Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen started to get punchy after the Nationals threw up a three-spot in the seventh to put the game pretty much out of reach.  Franzke reported that at least the Double-A Reading Phillies had won their game, with the newly re-acquired Les Walrond recording a hold.  Walrond, who most recently pitched with the Lancaster Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League, was brought back into the organization over the weekend.

Walrond appeared in six games with the Phillies in 2008, the year the team won its last World Championship.  In fact, Walrond was the winning pitcher in the team's 162nd and final regular season game that year.  About the only amusing part of tonight's game was listening to Franzke and L.A. try to recollect Walrond's tenure with the team and discussing the starting line-up in Game 162 from 2008.

This is Walrond's 2008 Chachi card, which has got to be his only Phillies card in existence.  (Even though it's a home-made, virtual card, named in honor of my dog.)

Transaction:  The Phillies recalled lefty reliever Mike Zagurski to take Vance Worley's spot on the roster.  Worley was optioned back to Lehigh Valley yesterday.