The Good And The Bad Of The Minors

Hey, you ever hear of R.J. Swindle? Nope, me neither, ’til Baseball Prospectus wrote about him today. He’s a pitcher with the Reading Phillies. The 24-year-old has bounced from the Red Sox to the Yankees to the Phillies; last year in 44 innings of single-A ball, he had an ERA of 2.25. This year, with Reading, Swindle is 1-0 with a 0.54 ERA in 16 1/3 innings of work.

His fastball tops out in the low 80s — for those of you who are confused, that is sloooooow, even slower than Jamie Moyer — and his curveball drops all the way to 52 miles per hour. Swindle’s career minor league stats are 157 2/3 innings pitched with a 1.48 ERA, 175 strikeouts, 18 walks and 3 homers. (Read that again. A 175 to 18 strikeout to walk ratio!) Those are lights-out numbers, simply sick stuff, and if the Phillies release this dude and he becomes a major leaguer there should be rioting.

(The Good Phight has more thoughts on Swindle — including the idea that, well, he’ll probably never see the majors in a Phillies uniform. I don’t care if the guy throws a 60 mph fastball, if he has 9.72 strikeouts per walk… wow.)

Meanwhile, the Phillies are releasing guys like crazy down at AAA Lehigh Valley, and why not? The IronPigs are a staggering 4-27 so far this season. Hey, why not call up Swindle (and my boy Josh Out Man) and see if they can handle the AAA hitters? What’s the worst that could happen, the team could miss the playoffs? I think they’re already mathematically eliminated.

Seriously? It’s pretty hard to go 4-27 in baseball. An opposing team’s pitcher has an off day, the opposing team commits 5 errors, the other team forgets to show up or a plane crashes onto the field and you get a forfeit win or something. I salute you, Lehigh Valley IronPigs, for starting the franchise with a nice dose of Phillies futility.

The Great Rock & Roll Swindle [Baseball Prospectus via Walkoff Walk]
LV sterilizes pigsty [Beerleaguer]
One to root for: R.J. Swingle [The Good Phight]