March 1, 2012; Clearwater, FL, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis (53) during photo day at Bright House Networks Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

Yesterday the Phillies gave Dontrelle Willis his walking papers. I’m not sure if he got the red tag in his locker, à la Major League, but he won’t be pitching in a Phillies uniform this season. His brief tenure with the team lasted only 93 days, as the veteran lefty couldn’t make it past the first round of cuts.

Willis was brought in to fill the oh-so-important role of “second lefty reliever” that comes into play more and more in the increasingly popular cat and mouse game between managers. Whether or not the statistics back up this favored lefty-lefty matchup is a matter for my statistically-inclined colleagues to determine. What it does provide is a lot of second chances for once-great left-handed pitchers, like Dontrelle.

Shortly after signing with the club, there was more speculation about Willis’s prowess at the plate than on the mound. The man is a .244 hitter with 9 home runs in his career; not bad for a former Cy Young runner up. Maybe he could have been another left-handed option off the bench when he wasn’t pitching. I doubt Charlie ever really considered the option seriously, but now we’ll never know.

One man who will be sad to see Willis go is his childhood friend Jimmy Rollins. In an interview with Scott Palmer of Phillies.com, Rollins had to dawn dark sunglasses–no doubt to hide the tears gushing from his eyes.  Then again, it could have just been the Florida sun. Rollins gave a very diplomatic response to the D-Train’s release, praising the fact that he will have ample time to find a spot with another club before the season begins.

Maybe another team will give Willis a shot at relieving, just as the Phillies did. However, the odds are against him succeeding in the role. The man has a career WHIP of 1.433 and can be flat out wild to put it nicely. He was effectively wild in his early days with the Marlins, but his lack of control just isn’t suited for spot duty out of the pen. Much like the D-Train I take to work every morning, the only thing you can rely on is his inconsistency.

You can follow Ethan’s Phillies thoughts on Twitter @Yearinbaseball and on Facebook.

Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

Dontrelle Willis pitched like horse-bleep on Wednesday. That’s not my terminology for it, he said it himself.

The D-Train, trying to win a spot as the team’s LOOGY (left-handed specialist) out of the bullpen, was tagged for four runs on three hits and two walks, retiring just two of the seven Astro batters he faced, and failed to make it through a full inning of work.

And keep in mind, these are ASTRO hitters we’re talking about. Most of them MINOR LEAGUE Astro hitters.

But have no fear, everyone. After the game, Willis explained that he has a sore bicep, and that is the reason why Houston’s AAA squad was lighting him up like a Christmas tree. After the game, Dontrelle said “I’m throwing nothing up there, and you can’t go out there like that. That does nobody any good, but at the same time I always want to compete.”

Adding intrigue to the mix is that Willis told pitching coach Rich Dubee and the Phils medical staff that he had recovered from the soreness in his bicep that flared up the day before and that he was ready to go. It wasn’t until after he was done throwing 33 pitches of slop up to the plate that he relented and informed everyone that he was still hurting.

It’s an interesting PR move, immediately blaming a bad performance on an injury that you were hiding from the team.

I have no doubt that Willis was hurting and that it negatively affected his performance. Still, he picked an interesting way to handle it, especially when you consider how one Mr. Chase Utley has talked about his injury situations in the past when he has underperformed.

REPORTER – “Hey Chase, you’re mired in a pretty bad three week slump. Are you OK physically?”

UTLEY – “Who are you?”

REPORTER – “I cover the team for “Affiliated Under-funded Newspaper.” I’m here every day. You told me to get out of your locker last week, remember?”

UTLEY – “Well, I’ve never seen you before.”

REPORTER – “Anyway, getting back to the question, are you hurt?”

UTLEY – “I’m fine.”

REPORTER – “So there’s nothing physically that’s negatively affecting your performance?”

UTLEY – “I’m fine. Now I must destroy you.”

Fast-forward two months later and Utley has surgery on a torn labrum. That’s just his way, and there’s no doubt that Chase is a different breed. Not everyone can be expected to act like him. We all know that Utley is part cyborg, a baseball terminator, whose only objective is to provide the media with as little information as possible while consuming as many protein bars and energy shakes as the human body can withstand.

Still, it’s an interesting contrast. Utley would never, EVER admit that any kind of physical ailment was the cause of negative play. Utley either says “let’s go get ‘em tomorrow” or he goes on the disabled list for a couple weeks. But he doesn’t use injury as an excuse after a bad performance, which is probably why the Philadelphia faithful has cut him more slack than any professional athlete in the city’s history.

Like I said before, I’m sure Willis is hurting. But he ticked a lot of people off by telling the medical staff that he was ready, willing and able to pitch, only to then tell everyone after the game that he was still hurting after getting rocked by a bunch of ham-and-eggers.

It sounds like excuse-making.

If this all sounds a bit hard on the D-Train, it certainly is not meant to be. Dontrelle messed up a bit, and will learn from it. He’s fighting for a spot on this team and, so far at least, things have not gone well. But by all accounts he’s a good kid (I love calling professional athletes “kids” by the way), his heart is in the right place, and he’s a competitor.

My recommendation is for Willis to amble on up to Chase at some point this week for pointers on PR. Because after all, when you think of public relations, you think of Chase Utley.

You can follow John’s Phillies thoughts on Twitter @FelskeFiles and on Facebook.  He can also be emailed at jstolnis@gmail.com.

Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

Someone better get Roy Oswalt’s agent on the phone!  Vance Worley has obviously begun to regress at the inception of his 2012 campaign.  I know that people will say things like “he was working on a new pitch,” or “hey asshole, these games don’t count,” but they count to me.  Me and my paralyzing fear that everything will not go the Phillies’ way.

I would feel a lot better if the Phillies could beat Houston.  This extends far beyond meaningless games to games that occur in the regular season.  For some inexplicable reason, the Houston Astros give the Phllies a really tough time.   (more…)