David Herndon Injury Ruins Chances of Winning ‘Long Reliever of the Year’ Award

UPDATE: Award does not exist; never will

The Phillies continued their trend of putting the local MRI guy’s kids through college last night, scheduling reliever David Herndon for an appointment in the near future due to inflammation in his elbow.  Now if only these damn kids would learn to appreciate such an opportunity–in his day, MRI-ducations weren’t just handed to you; you had to earn that shit by being dropped off in the woods with nothing but a ziploc bag full of magnets and not going home until you had x-rays of 60 different squirrels.

And there were no where near as many squirrels back then.

But there are still some important questions to be answered about David Herndon.  Who is he?  Where is he going?  How long will he be gone?  However, only the last is worth answering, as you should really be caught up enough by now to figure the rest out on your own.  Herndon’s been assigned to the 15-day DL, putting him beside DL legends like Ryan Howard and Cliff Lee.  In the mean time, he will need to be replaced by someone capable of mopping up a complete catastrophe out of the pen.

Which young pitcher who couldn’t make the team out of Spring Training and in a sick way was sort of wishing this sort of opportunity would present itself will it be?  Some have speculated Jake Diekman, the 25-year-old lefty with 17 K’s in 11 innings at Lehigh.  Others have considered Justin De Fratus, which is stupid, because he is on the–you guessed it–DL.

Truthfully, in a weird way, the Phillies have a wealth of productive pitching options in the minor leagues right now (and offense!), in the form of young talent and grizzled old journeymen looking for a home.  With Herndon out and Kyle Kendrick taking Lee’s spot in the rotation, there is some long relief work available.  However, with Antonio Bastardo and Chad Qualls teaming up to give up a lead last night, there might be some late inning relief work available as well.

The options are nearly limitless!  It’s part of the beauty of being on a team that keeps springing leaks.  And you know what happens to a team that keeps springing leaks.

Pool party!

It’d be easy to say that the Phillies need to move quickly, what with these next few weeks being full of critical series against division rivals, but at 11-12 in the NL East, a division just waiting to be run away with, every series is a big one.  More than anything else, the Phillies need to gain some ground to stay in the picture, so a young arm showing up and from nowhere stabilizing the space between an ace and Papelbon would be welcome, as it was last year with the Stutes/Bastardo Phenomenon.

Though I would say it’s been pretty obvious this April that it isn’t last year anymore.