Let’s Meet Our 2013 Phillies September Call-ups

**Gentle groaning, followed by the sound of many aluminum cans clanking around**

Uhhhuhhh… what?  God damn.

We uh, hmm. We at TBOH have been working furiously to confirm that it is September, and after looking around for a bit and asking increasingly irritated strangers what month it is, we have gotten the job done.

So here we are, Phillies September call-ups.  My god, there are not many of you.  Why did I think there would be more.  Six just seems like a small number.  And I knowfive of you have already seen time at the Major League level – this season, even – so I can’t say I’m twirling sparklers here.

• Cameron Rupp
• Freddy Galvis
• Mauricio Robles
• Joe Savery
• Luis Garcia
• Tyler Cloyd

Cameron Rupp, the catcher who was third in line to the throne, but thanks to a tremendous drop off (Sebastian Valle) and a handful of brain problems (Tommy Joseph), has clawed his way to the front of the line.  You will see the word “leapfrog” in any profile that has ever been written about him. Writers love that word. It’s like “fracas” after there’s a bench-clearing brawl, like there’s an unwritten rule stating all baseball writers have to use it in that particular case. Geeze, there probably is.

Rupp is of note because – like we all know, but I’m just saying for context – he is a catcher, and the Phillies could need one of those. Maybe really soon, but definitely kind of soon.  Rupp getting a look means the Phillies are interested in getting at least one catcher out of the three that used to seem like options.  Chooch isn’t going to be around forever, and that forever could start this winter, but he could also stay around and form a Jedi/Padawan relationship with the 24-year-old Rupp, if Rupp can get over how adorable Chooch sounds when he talks.

Rupp started the year at Reading, where he was average-below average, but lucky for him, some bad stuff happened at the level above, so he was promoted.  At Lehigh Valley he was about average.  His offensive numbers never reached “Hey, check out this guy” territory, in the long term, but he blasted off in May to a .296 BA/.996 OPS, and in August with a .333 BA/.874 OPS in 82 and 68 plate appearances, respectfully.

June 19, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Freddy Galvis (13) in the dugout prior to playing the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. The Nationals defeated the Phillies 6-2 in 11 innings. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

And you know no catcher will go unturned, so there is a brief delight in seeing Asche, Ruf, Galvis, Brown, Rupp, etc. out there, as if it’s the future we’ve been debating about with the young crowd.  And then there’s the realization that none of these guys are classified as world-beaters just yet and if this is the future, then hot damn, pass the hard alcohol, oh wait this is a baseball stadium, please don’t pass the hard alcohol as it will cost me a month’s rent, oh it’s already poured then I guess I’ll drink it but I can’t pay, hey all right I’ll leave just let me drink the okay fine I’m going geeze.

Galvis I always love to watch play defense.  What happened to last winter, when he was smacking the butt off the ball in Venezuela?  Well, I guess it was Venezuela Winter Leagues, and it’s just an entirely different situation than Philadelphia in the summer.  Who knows.  With Hernandez already hanging around, getting a shot in center, they’re going to run out of positions to put out-of-position guys.  Something tells me this month and others like it are tryouts to see which slick-fielding kiddo is most likely to not be packaged up and Fed Ex’d out with Cliff Lee or Chooch or whoever.

Then there’s three undesirable bullpen arms who all seem like long relievers, but somehow all were in the bullpen this year.  Which was a bullpen that was basically Jonathan Papelbon and five or six failed starters at a time.

Waiting to join them is Tyler Cloyd, who is still technicalyl a starter, but with less of an upside than Jonathan Pettibone, and a worse track record, except for that 2012 he spent choking the life out of the International League.  Cloyd will float around for a while, and maybe the right muscle will tear hard enough in somebody else that his presence becomes a commodity.

Well, here we are, September. I thought you’d never get here, and now you are.

…

What are all these cans doing in here.