Toronto Blue Jays acquire Philadelphia Phillies’ David Herndon from waivers - MLB Update
Philadelphia Phillies unload their roster as they prepare for the upcoming season. They have sent their relief pitcher David Herndon to Toronto Blue Jays as the latter claim him from the waivers.
Phillies intend to make up for their lack-lustre 2012 regular season by streamlining issues in their pitching department. They want to make sure that their bullpen does not desert them in the upcoming seasons as it did this year.
The team is getting rid of those relief pitchers that they think are not in accord with their plans. By putting Herndon on waivers, they made their intentions clear that they are desperate to introduce changes which can help them improve.
The Phillies stayed at the bottom half of the National League East Division table for the most part of the regular season. Before they rebounded late in the season, they were the worst performer in their Division.
One of the major reasons of their thumping first half of the season failures was the dismal shows at the mound of relief pitchers.
Very often, they were defeated mainly because relief pitchers blew their lead and allowed the oppositions to take the games away from them.
Although their offence was also below par, bullpen did the bulk of the damage.
Understandably, they will prepare in the offseason keeping in view the loop-holes in the bullpen.
The Phillies can take heart from the fact that the Minor League relievers that they introduced late in the season gave some hope for the future.
With the experience of a couple of seasons, they can turn out to be regular members of the team.
Apart from the bullpen, the Phillies will be fixing issues with regard to their rotation.
Although they have the likes of Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels, some of their hurlers that are aging can prove to be their weak-link next year. For example, Roy Halladay appeared to be on the decline during the season.
For this, they will be looking for replacements and ascertaining that their back-up pitchers are equally reliable.
It will be interesting to see as to what kinds of roster changes they bring about until Spring Training.
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