Podsednik Walks Off as Juan Pierre Watches Nervously

I did not know that this game was supposed to happen.  I thought that the Phillies were getting a rare day off this spring after obviously erroneously checking the schedule.  Luckily I turned on a television and happened upon Cliff Lee throwing baseballs to Brian Schneider.  Apparently the hitters on the Pirates also forgot to check the schedule because they managed only four base runners in Cliff’s six innings of work.

Remember when all of the Philadelphia infielders were injured?  I suppose that is sort of still happening as a natural shortstop who has never even played a full season above triple A is going to start the season as the second baseman.

It seems that injuries start innocuously enough; people say that said performer will be performing soon, or that he is just starting slowly and before you know it, people are visiting mystery men halfway across the country.  That being the case, I do not like the sound of the phrase “worried about velocity.”  Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee is worried about Antonio Bastardo’s velocity after he gave up two hits, a walk and three runs in 2/3 of an inning of work.  I think the next step is arm amputation, which, as far as I know, would make it significantly more difficult to throw a baseball.

It really looks like Scott Podsednik is beating out Juan Pierre.  Pierre is supposed to be able to steal bases, but he has been successful less often than he has been caught (2 steals, 3 times caught).  Pods is tied for the team lead in steals with five and has yet to be caught.  Scott is also leading the team in batting and actually looks to have recovered from his recent foot maladies.  Pierre on the other hand looks obsoletely cooked.  It is really difficult to derive any definitive data based on spring performance, but using that admittedly flawed instrument, Podsednik has looked vastly superior to Pierre.  Podsednik bolstered his case to make the team with a walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth today.  5-4 Phillies win.

Here’s to hoping that Bastardo is actually going through a dead arm period and that the diminutive left hander can get it back on track before the games start to count.

Tomorrow the Phillies  take on the Minnesota Twins.  I made sure to check MLB.COM to ensure that this information is correct.