March 21, 2006
Don't Fear the Reaper
Chris Roberson survived a cut yesterday. He's one of three players competing for the 25th place on the Phillies roster.
The Phillies had just reassigned eight players to their minor-league camp.
That left Roberson and infielder Chris Coste, who are competing for the team's final bench job with Tomas Perez, on the far side of the clubhouse at Bright House Networks Field, surrounded mostly by empty lockers.
"It was like the reaper coming around a second ago," Roberson said.
But he survived. He hopes to survive the last cut, too.
His 2006 age is 27. The last two years he's hit very well in the minor leagues. At this point, Roberson is better off as a part-time player in the majors than an everyday player in AAA. He's at the peak of his skills, so the Phillies should get the most out of him they can. He's coming up too late to ever be a major star. And I'm sure Chris would rather ride the bench in the show than the bus in AAA.
Correction: I changed it to "part time player in the majors," which was my original intention.
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Did you mean to say, "part time player in the majors?"
David, I think that <b> after "Correction" should be a </b>.
He really is a late bloomer. He didn't start in professional baseball until he was 22. As a Phillies fan I really dont know what to make of him.
re: Roberson, Coste, Perez, Bell, Lieberthal
At this point, with David Bell's back problems, the Phils will likely keep Roberson & Coste, and put David Bell on the injured list for 15 days to start the season. They should either cut Tomas Perez or give him the option to report to AAA Scranton-WilkesBarre or wherever the AAA team is playing this year.
Perez for all his years on the big club continues to be a lousy pinchitter with a poor walk rate, a bad fielder and in general a poor use of a roster spot.
With Gonzalez & Nunez in camp, the Phils need outfielders and pinchitters, not infielders. Also, Lieberthal is done. I'd go with three catchers and pinch hit more frequently for Lieby and then replace him with Fasano or Coste or both in the same game.
Coste can also play 1st and 3rd and spell Ryan Howard against lefties if needed.
Finally, these guys bring a bit of hunger from the farm with them. You have to like that. Tomas Perez always played as if he didn't care if he won or lost. He has no heart. He's just not a Dykstra/Hollins/Daulton kind of winning ballplayer the way Chase Utley and Aaron Rowand and Ryan Howard are winning attitude ballplayers.
We need winners to get over the 88 win hump.
Call it win shares or whatever, but a winning attitude is what is needed to win one or two extra games each and every month over six months of a very very long season which would drain most people dry.
--arthur john kyriazis
--Philly
