Somebody Finally Invites Chad Durbin to Spring Training

The sporadic, one-sided blasts of romance between the Phillies and Chad Durbin came to a screeching halt the other day when he signed with the Cleveland Indians.  The proven solid righty was usually nothing but competent for us and will be missed.  However, the real issue is that I will never be able to figure out if my suspicions of him having been in a college playwriting course I took will never be confirmed or denied.I wound up getting kicked out of the class for refusing to change my setting from “the inside of a volcano,” which the professor correctly deemed “impossible” and “asinine.”  The endless frustration and sleepless nights of an unsolved mystery will continue haunting me for the rest of time.

On a lighter note, while the Phillies are confident enough to fill out the rest of the bullpen spots with whoever shines in Clearwater, the move seems to have sent the Indians bullpen into a state of scattered itching.  Apparently there are already eight relievers in their pen who toss with their right hand?  Durbin’s a concrete addition to any relief corps, but in this case, even he could be deemed superfluous (as this very long blog post will tell you).  And not just because I wanted to use that word.

Chad will get $800,000 with a million in incentives from the Tribe.  Its better than he would have gotten from the Phillies, which according to Ruben Amaro’s nonchalant departure from any interest in him, is “nothing.”  If the Phillies are cool assuming that “long relief” will not be one of their pressure points in 2011 (it won’t be) and are fine with Kyle Kendrick filling that role if it indeed becomes an issue (they can’t be), then watching Chad go was inevitable.  I don’t know if you guys noticed, but they, along with the rest of the country, are putting a lot of stock in this rotation.  A talented reliever like Chad being sent away is a casualty of their confidence.

Now, to answer your question.  The play was called “The Magma of Truth,” and the main character’s name was Barry Firebrand.